Response to Jason Reed's Apostasy Story

Jason Reed recently joined Rome's communion. Because he's served as a seminary professor at Southern Evangelical Seminary, his apostasy to Rome's communion has made waves in certain circles. Mike Schulte was kind enough to post a 56 minute video that includes a recent talk given by Jason, in which he explains his move.

No summary of Reed's story will be fully fair to all its nuances, but it appears Reed never could explain why Roman Catholicism is contrary to Scripture and enjoyed Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica when introduced to it as seminary student. Thus, when he was surrounded by Roman Catholic professors, intellectual Roman Catholic peers in grad school, and Roman Catholic family, he found justifications for making a move to Rome.

In more detail (all time stamps are approximate):

Another Beckwith-like Apostasy to Rome

You may recall that some time ago, Francis Beckwith made waves by secretly rejoining the Roman communion, while continuing in his role as president of Evangelical Theological Society. Sadly, we can add to that another similar tale.

Mr. Jason Stewart was an OPC pastor. According to a letter provided by his (now former) presbytery:

Whereas the date Mr. Stewart entered into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church (January 10, 2011) evidences a studied commitment to that church’s doctrine and practices while he remained a minister of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and

Whereas, in contravention of his ordination vows (FOG XXIII.8. (1-4)), Mr. Stewart did not disclose his change of convictions to his Presbytery until March 10, 2011, thus deceiving both the Presbytery, and the congregation of Trinity, Easton, and

Whereas Mr. Stewart has refused to be dissuaded from his course,

Therefore, in accordance with Book of Discipline V.2.b (1), Presbytery erased his name from its rolls, recorded the circumstances in its minutes, and communicated this action as a form of discipline (BOD V.2) to the congregation of Trinity, Easton with exhortation and encouragement toward a godly response to these events and to Mr. Stewart.

One wonders whether his new-found comrades at the Roman blog, Called to Communion, are aware of the facts of his conversion experience. In his account, he characterizes the events as: "Our decision to leave Presbyterianism for the Catholic Church surprised many." I'll say!

We will pray for repentance and restoration of Mr. Stewart (the erasure by Presbytery is de facto deposition and excommunication). Until that time, however, he ought to consider himself outside the visible and catholic church, and under threat of eternal judgment.

The reason for posting this point publicly, of course, is to draw attention to the issue of deception alleged by his former presbytery. I don't expect that this will matter to the Called to Communion team, but it ought to matter to seekers of truth. It helps to demonstrate the principle announced by the apostle, that they went out from us, because they were not of us. It also helps to qualify the credentials that are being used to promote his "conversion story" ("OPC Pastor ...") - yes, he managed to infiltrate the presbytery - but his manner of departure shows the sort of person he was.

-TurretinFan

Excommunicating Apostates

Over at the Roman Catholic Called to Communion blog (home to a number of apostate "Reformed" folks), the topic of excommunication came up. Apparently, one of the folks there (Christopher Lake) who wants to leave his church for Rome has been receiving at least the threat of godly discipline (link to comment).

I am glad to hear that at least one church seems to be taking discipline in this area seriously, but what was sad and surprising was that in a number of other cases, the apostates are reporting that although they were threatened with discipline, nothing ever came of it.

Possibly they think that nothing ever came of it, when in fact they were informally excommunicated using an erasure mechanism. But is that kind of informal procedure really enough to warn these apostates of their spiritual danger?

My question for elders whose sheep have left the visible church to be joined with Rome: have you fulfilled your spiritual obligation toward them by duly excommunicating them and informing them of the dreadful spiritual consequences of excommunication? Or have you neglected your duties?

There's no need, of course, for there to be answers here - though I would be interested in thoughts that my Reformed brethren have to share. While apostasy is obviously the fault of the apostate, if Reformed shepherds are really doing only a halfhearted effort at applying discipline they too are to blame for not having diligently warned their flock.

I applaud Mr. Lake's session for emphasizing the seriousness of his departure from the gospel. I am sorry to see in the comment box that it appears that some "non-denominational" church has been more willing to exercise godly discipline than (according to the reports provided) various PCA churches have been.

One final question: what more can we do to help apostates understand that their move to Rome is not like getting traded from the Mets to the Yankees, it's like defecting from America to North Korea - that it's leaving the gospel of Christ for service to antichrist - that it is evidence that they were not of us else they would not have gone out from us, and consequently that they are in need of repentance and in danger of hell fire?

-TurretinFan