Presbyterian Church USA Ditched Hymn Because It Sings Biblical Truth

[Cincinnatus]

More censorship, this time by a "Christian" denomination, the Presbyterian Church USA, against what is truly a very beautiful hymn.

In 2001, Christian songwriters Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend teamed up to produce some inspirational Christian music.  Their first joint effort produced the song In Christ Alone.  Townsend penned the lyrics which convey the powerful truth of the Cross and Getty wrote the Irish melody that helped carry the message.

In Christ Alone rapidly became a popular song throughout Christian circles and began appearing in hymnals to be sung by congregations everywhere.  As you listen to Keith Getty and his wife Kristyn perform the hymn, listen carefully to the words and the truth they convey.

[Video of Kristyn performing the hymn here]

So what did the authorities over at  the Presbyterian Church USA object to? It's found in the second verse:

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.

I emphasized the lines that the committee could not tolerate. They contacted Getty and Townsend and asked them to change the line about God’s wrath to ‘the love of God was magnified. The committee just could not deal with the fact that a loving God could also be a wrathful God.  Fortunately, Getty and Townsend refused to change the lyrics as they felt the message of the song would be weakened.  They wanted the song to tell the whole Gospel which included the wrath of God poured out on Christ for all of our sins.

Mary Louise Bringle, Chair of the Committee on Congregational Songs said the committee asked for the lyrics change because they didn’t want people to think that the song was implying that Christ’s death on the cross was an atoning sacrifice that was necessary to satisfy God’s anger over sin.  When the songwriters refused, the committee felt they had no choice but to delete the hymn from their hymnal.

I don't mean to offend any members of the Presbyterian Church USA but they, along with large segments of the Methodist Church and the Episcopalians have essentially abandoned the Gospel of Christ and adopted neopaganism as their religion. I am sorry to say that but it's true just as that line from the song is true.

Carmen Fowler LaBerge, who serves on the Presbyterian Lay Committee, said that they sing their theology and the elimination of this hymn makes a statement about the theology of the denomination.  I should say it does.  As more worldly liberalism creeps into their midst, the harder it is for them to accept biblical truth.   After all in 2006 they ordained their first woman minister and in 2011 they changed their ordination standards to allow homosexuals to be ordained.  It’s only a matter time until they’ll approve of homosexual marriages and who knows what else as the Presbyterian Church USA becomes more liberal and worldly, day by day.

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http://godfatherpolitics.com/11965/presbyterian-church-usa-ditched-hymn-because-it-sings-biblical-truth/#OsrxAJ4WJWfvm2lK.01

[mountaineer]

I don't mean to offend any members of the Presbyterian Church USA but they, along with large segments of the Methodist Church and the Episcopalians have essentially abandoned the Gospel of Christ and adopted neopaganism as their religion. I am sorry to say that but it's true just as that line from the song is true.

Mr. M and I are elders in our PCUSA church - and I wholeheartedly agree. Our little congregation may be a "remnant," though, and we frequently sing Getty hymns. But the denomination is sinking fast.

[happyg]

So much for the Presbyterian Church. I can only imagine the soft sermons. My dad was a loving dad, but I feared his wrath when I disobeyed. It's too bad wrath is too strong a word for their little minds.

[famousdayandyear]

Presbyterians are generally pretty vanilla--much like the church at Laodicea. 

Paraphrase from Christ to the Seven Churches:  "You are neither hot nor cold.  I will vomit you out of my mouth"

[Oceander]

Mary Louise Bringle, Chair of the Committee on Congregational Songs said the committee asked for the lyrics change because they didn’t want people to think that the song was implying that Christ’s death on the cross was an atoning sacrifice that was necessary to satisfy God’s anger over sin.

Huh?  So what was Christ's death on the Cross, then?  A lark?  A joke?  A walk in the park?  If it wasn't an atoning sacrifice, then it makes no sense whatsoever.

[jmyrlefuller]

There is something that does not sit quite right with me about that particular line.

It implies that God is taking out His wrath on His son, effectively putting the blood on His hands, when the crucifixion was, to put it bluntly, man's doing. The resurrection conquered that. It was not until the resurrection that the wrath of God was totally "satisfied." Man could go to the point of killing, but God could take all of it away by bringing Jesus back to life, and there is no greater putdown than that-- rendering one's best attack totally useless.

That notwithstanding, the replacement proposed by these Presbyterians blatantly screams "feel-good Jesus," which is far worse. I sing the original now and then at my local church and have never had a problem with it.

[Oceander]

There is something that does not sit quite right with me about that particular line.

It implies that God is taking out His wrath on His son, effectively putting the blood on His hands, when the crucifixion was, to put it bluntly, man's doing. The resurrection conquered that. It was not until the resurrection that the wrath of God was totally "satisfied." Man could go to the point of killing, but God could take all of it away by bringing Jesus back to life, and there is no greater putdown than that-- rendering one's best attack totally useless.

That notwithstanding, the replacement proposed by these Presbyterians blatantly screams "feel-good Jesus," which is far worse. I sing the original now and then at my local church and have never had a problem with it.

True, but why is it that, prior to the Crucifixion, atonement for sin always required a blood sacrifice?  For whatever reason, the expiation of sin - the pacification of God's wrath at the breach of His law - requires atonement by blood sacrifice.  Christ's sacrifice was the final, and ultimate, blood sacrifice for the expiation of sin.