Before I begin, I must preface this blog by affirming that I still believe most of what this Church believes. Second, when I attended this Church from December of 2006 to April of 2009 I was treated well. This is not a personal vendetta. I had a great relationship with Pastor McCurley. He was very kind to me and long suffering with my personal character faults. This Church also helped me significantly when I was injured and lost my way of life in South Carolina. Again, this is not a personal issue. The people at this Church are godly Christian people and the spiritual climate of the Church is fantastic. It is not pietistic in the least and there is a good sense of Christian love that I found at this Church which was completely absent from the Churches I had previously attended. THIS ISSUE IS 100% PHILOSOPHICAL/THEOLOGICAL.

This is the letter that I wrote to the Presbytery of the Free Church of Scotland (cont.) explaining my difficulties with some fundamental Western ideas. I addressed this email to the Elders at my Church in Greenville, Sc,  the Pastor of a Free Church Preaching Station Sean Humby, which was in Michigan at the time, Warren Gardner the Pastor of the Free Church in Georgia, Tom Juodaitis of the T Foundation, Tim Phillips who is the Pastor of the AP Church here in Louisville, Robert Letham, Dr. Dilday, Vincent Cheung, and Brian Schwertley:

“5/30/2011

Subject: My decision to separate

Gentlemen,

Having spent the last couple years in an almost exiled state here in Louisville, Ky I have had ample time and resources to study some of the most foundational doctrines of Christianity. In light of the last few years, including my year in seminary, I am persuaded that some of the traditional Western Doctrines of God are unscriptural and incompatible with the Christian religion. I have written papers in summary that I will attach to this email as I am now putting my
websites in private mode. [You can read these here–DS] …I do not consider them professional works, but they meet the needs of an informal correspondence. I have sacrificed any evidence of a social life for the last couple years to make sure I have not misrepresented or misunderstood a single issue that I am rejecting as non-Christian. The concerns that I have touch upon the doctrines of Divine Simplicity, and its effects upon Revelation and Triadology. I am persuaded that the Church was deceived by Origen’s, Augustine’s and Dionysius the Areopagite’s Neo-Platonic leanings concerning the Doctrine of God.  This has led me to espouse the views of Dr. Gordon Clark and to develop the principles that he laid down in his works concerning God, Revelation and Triadology as a way to explain the Triadology that was originally worked out in the council of Nicaea and the Cappadocians.  I will be the first to admit that Clark made some mistakes but the fundamental structure that he presents, is in my study, the only position that sustains a Christian Doctrine of God and Revelation.   I have upon this conviction decided to separate from all Churches that I am aware of at this point until these issues are corrected or I am persuaded otherwise. I believe that I have an obligation before God to seek unity and fellowship with other Christians while not compromising truth. It is based on this desire that I request that you acknowledge these issues and correspond with me in pursuit of the truth. What I am saying is that the Westminster Confession of Faith’s doctrines of Simplicity, the Filioque, and its view of Epistemology and Metaphysics are not Christian and that I cannot come into communion or sustain a communion with those who hold to these doctrines unless I am convinced otherwise. I am not trying to draw attention to myself. I am not trying to start trouble and I am not a Schismatic. I want fellowship with other Christians but not at the expense of truth.

2 John 1:10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into [your] house, neither bid him God speed: 11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

1 Tim 1:3 As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine

2 Tim 1:13 Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

Cordially,
Drake Shelton”

Surprisingly, Robert Letham was the only one that actually acknowledged what I said and replied that he would get back to me. He said he had some business to attend for the month following but he would get back to me. He never did. He was one reason why I was so convinced of my position. In his book on Eastern Orthodoxy he mentions the crippling weaknesses of the Doctrine of God in Western Scholasticism for the same reasons I cited. I got absolute silence from the Free Church Presbytery. I am planning on contacting some of the minsters in Scotland to see if they will give me at least a single paragraph of a response. In the past year my previous Pastor will have nothing to do with me.

In summary, I believe the Free Church of Scotland (cont.) to be schismatic from the Nicene Creed as are all Western Churches who follow Augustine’s De Trinitate. Make no mistake dear reader, Absolute Divine Simplicity and the Filioque clause are products of Neoplatonism that came to the Reformers from Medieval Roman Scholasticism. There is not a drop of scripture to prove them from either a direct statment or a necessary inference.  Read Richard Muller’s Post-Reformation Reformed  Dogmatics Volume 3 if you do not believe me. Turretin in Vol 1 of his Institutes bases the whole thing off the Plotinian dialectic of opposition where movement towards unity is movement toward the Good and movement toward distinction is movement toward imperfection. Be a Berean. Study for yourself whether what your Church Standards are telling you is true.