Since the Belhar Confession is up for approval as a fourth confession in the Christian Reformed Church at the denominational Synod in Ancaster, Ontario, I thought it was fitting to put our ear to several voices objecting to the adoption of the Belhar as a confessional document. Stay tuned through out this week for more resources related to the Belhar.
The
Belhar Confession: Yea or Nay? By Kevin DeYoung.
Written in May 2009 prior to the Reformed Church in America’s
adoption of the Belhar Confession. While affirming the theme that God’s people
should not be divided by race or ethnicity, DeYoung probes the problematic
language of the Belhar:
“…there are a few lines that cannot be supported by Scripture. Here’s just one example: We believe that God, in a world full of injustice and enmity, is in a special way the God of the destitute, the poor and the wronged. To be sure, the Bible is full of examples of God’s heart for the poor and the oppressed. But it goes too far to say he is in a special way a God to them. The covenant promise—I will be your God and you will be my people (language Belhar echoes here)—is for those who put their faith in God, not simply those who are poor or oppressed. In fact, Abraham, the man of faith and the model for all covenantal blessing (Gal. 3:5-9), was especially rich (Gen. 13:5-6). Is God less of God to him than to the poor man who rejects Christ? Was God a God to Job, Zacchaeus, Mary and Martha in a less special way because they were well-to-do? There are plenty of verses to support the contention that God cares for the poor and oppressed, but are there any verses to suggest that he is their covenantal God apart from faith? Or any verses to suggest that God looks on the believing poor with more favor than the believing non-poor? God does not show partiality to the poor, nor does he defer to the great (Lev. 19:15).”
DeYoung also points to the plurality of applications that
have been seen to emerge out of the Belhar as a confusion-creating problem.
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