Doug just addressed this issue here. I will just add, according to what Dr. Sproul said on the floor of GA, which won him much applause, that the premise of the whole vote, along with the stacked committee, was that PCA ministers who dared to defy the curent groupthink were all already “up on charges”–except for the bothersome detail that no charges were filed in a proper court. Allowing them any voice in the process that was to evaluate them was tantamount to “putting the accused on the jury.” Thus, by Sproul’s own admission, the vote changed nothing. We were already tried, convicted, and sentenced–by a court of the invisible church, I suppose.

By turning this vote into a referendum on justification by faith alone, the leaders got their verdict (and indeed, the only appropriate one). But at what price? Repeatedly we were told that unless the Assembly voted we would be issuing an unclear sound on the fundamentals of the Gospel. I couldn’t help but think about what the town clerk said to the Ephesian mob, “If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another.” Exactly so. Do we not have presbyteries? Is it really true, as this General Assembly just voted, that the vast majority of them are all incompetent on the issue of the Gospel itself? If so, I would submit the situation is more dire than any study committee can ever hope to fix.

So what happens now? As far as I can tell, we find out through our presbyteries that, in fact, the vote of GA was inappropriate and inaccurate. They have voted to condemn the guiltless. This is easy to do in grand convocations, carefully planned, with very little time for debate. It will be an entirely different matter in Presbyteries where men have to prove the case by actual legal requirements, in situations where the accused are allowed to be heard.