“And I sent messengers to them, saying, ‘I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?’ And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner. … Then I sent to him, saying, ‘No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.’ For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, ‘Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.’ But now, O God, strengthen my hands. …
And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.” 

— Nehemiah 6:3-4, 8-9, 16 

“Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.” 

— “The behaviour of Dr. [Nicholas] Ridley and Master [Hugh] Latimer, at the time of their death, which was the sixteenth of October, 1555.”, Chapter 16: Persecutions in England Under the Reign of Queen Mary, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs 

“For the same wind that seeks to blow out a fire may also cause its spread.” 

— High King Gil-galad

“Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” 

— Hebrews 11:36-38

“‘Nothing,’ says Olsausen, ‘is more dangerous than the erroneous opinion that an evil act can stand alone, or that a man can commit one sin and then stop. All evil is concatenated, and every sin increases the power of the indwelling corruption in a fearful progression, until, sooner than the sinner dreams of, his head swims, and he is plunged into the abyss.’” 

— A Commentary on Romans, Charles Hodge, p. 232

“But isn’t it amazing how quickly anger can escalate to rage and people begin to think and act irrationally?
Unfortunately, anger isn’t just something that manifests itself on roadways; it manifests itself also in the church and among God’s people. Going back to Adam and Eve’s sons Cain and Abel, we read about the sad and horrific murder of Abel by his brother Cain. God looked with favor on Abel’s sacrifice but not on Cain’s, which resulted in Cain’s irrational and devastating action. The first recorded murder in Scripture, brother against brother, stands as a reminder of what man is capable of when anger festers. …
Jesus, in teaching His disciples in Matthew 5, wanted to expound on the law and taught not only that murder makes one liable to judgment but that being angry with your brother does so as well (Matt. 5:22)—not to mention the danger of hell-fire if you call your brother a ‘fool.’ This teaching is then connected with our worship of God. In Matthew 5:23–24, Jesus says, ‘So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift’ (Matt. 5:24). …
Our hearts are far from the Lord when we say one thing to give the appearance of righteousness but never intend to follow through. You might say, ‘I love the Lord,’ but then you gossip, harbor ill will, or slander a member of the church—never truly being interested in loving God or loving your neighbor as yourself. If so, repent and confess that sin before you worship again.” 

— “Anger with Our Brothers,” Tabletalk, June 2022, Vol. 46, No. 6, Kevin Struyk, associate pastor of Saint Andrew’s Chapel

“You broke the cardinal rule of our profession. You allowed business to become personal.” 

— Koval, Chairman of the Tal Shiar, “Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges” 

The Book of Church Order of the Presbyterian Church in America 

Part I: Form of Government

Chapter 8: The Elder
8-1. This office is one of dignity and usefulness. The man who fills it has in Scripture different titles expressive of his various duties. As he has the oversight of the flock of Christ, he is termed bishop or pastor. As it is his duty to be spiritually fruitful, dignified, and prudent, an example to the flock, and to govern well in the house and Kingdom of Christ, he is termed presbyter or elder.
8-2. He that fills this office should possess a competency of human learning and be blameless in life, sound in the faith and apt to teach. He should exhibit a sobriety and holiness of life becoming the Gospel. He should rule his own house well and should have a good report of them that are outside the Church. 

“Give me [William Tennent] a leave to propose this query to Mr. Thompson and his associates, whether it was because that such as were convinced of sin had generally a less esteem for his ministry, and of some of the rest of his party, that he and some, at least, of them have so fiercely opposed the blessed operations of the Holy Ghost in alarming and convincing a secure world of sin, righteousness, and judgment? If so, is it not selfish and sordid with a witness, and a blow at the root of all piety? For my own part I must say, that I humbly conceive that to be the secret story of their opposition, the bottom of the mystery, the true spring of their malignant contending against vital godliness. The false and ungenerous methods, as well as long continuance of their opposition to the work of God, under so much advantage of light and evidence in favour of it, together with their dangerous errors before mentioned, free me from the just imputation or rash judging in thinking as I have expressed. …
Mr. Thompson specifies the things of which he and his friends complained in the advocates of the revival. 1. Their bold and uncharitable condemnation of their brethren as graceless. 2. Their unwearied industry to possess the people with prejudices against their pastors. 3. Their irregular intrusions into other men’s charges. 4. Their teaching that every true Christian is sure of his own conversion, and that no adult can be converted without undergoing legal, ungracious, preparatory convictions.” 

— The Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church in The United States of America, Part II, Charles Hodge, D.D., pp. 160-161, 221-222 

“For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. …
For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
… all things should be done decently and in order.” 

— I Corinthians 11:18-19, 14:33, 40 

“I am not ignorant of those magic expressions, ‘the parochial system, order, division, schism, unity, controversy,’ and the like. … False doctrine and heresy are even worse than schism. If people separate themselves from teaching which is positively false and unscriptural, they ought to be praised rather than reproved. In such cases separation is a virtue and not a sin. … Unity which is obtained by the sacrifice of truth is worth nothing. It is not the unity which pleases God.” 

— “The Fallibility of Ministers,” Knots Untied, 1885, pp. 375-376 

“I want no new flag. I am not recommending my brethren to hoist new colours for the sake of unity. I am not an advocate of peace at any price. … Let those who please twit us with only holding half the truth. We may answer boldly that we are the men who hold the whole truth, and that the views we object to are additions to the faith.” 

— J.C. Ryle’s address to a gathering of evangelical clergy in Southport in 1878, published in Shall We Go? Being Thoughts about Church Congresses, and Our Duty with Regard to Them, from the Standpoint of an Evangelical Churchman 

“I do not sit with men of falsehood,
nor do I consort with hypocrites.
I hate the assembly of evildoers,
and I will not sit with the wicked.” 

— Psalm 26:4-5

“When their judges are thrown over the cliff,
then they shall hear my words, for they are pleasant. …
Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me
and from the snares of evildoers!
Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
while I pass by safely.” 

— Psalm 141:6, 9-10 

“The LORD’s curse is on the house of the wicked,
but he blesses the dwelling of the righteous.” 

— Proverbs 3:33 

“Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity. Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.” 

— Ecclesiastes 8:10-13 

“And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he pervert by flatteries; but the people that know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” 

— Daniel 11:32 

“I have heard that a bull against me has gone through the whole earth before it came to me, because being a daughter of darkness it feared the light of my face. …
But the cause seeks a worthier martyr. I with my sins merit other things. But whoever wrote this bull, he is Antichrist. I protest before God, our Lord Jesus, his sacred angels, and the whole world that with my whole heart I dissent from the damnation of this bull, that I curse and execrate it as sacrilege and blasphemy of Christ, God’s Son and our Lord. This be my recantation, Oh bull, thou daughter of bulls. …
Having given my testimony I proceed to take up the bull. Peter said that you should give a reason for the faith that is in you, but this bull condemns me from its own word without any proof from Scripture, whereas I back up all my assertions from the Bible. I ask thee, ignorant Antichrist, dost thou think that with thy naked words thou canst prevail against the armor of Scripture? Hast thou learned this from Cologne and Louvain? If this is all it takes, just to say, ‘I dissent, I deny,’ what fool, what ass, what mole, what log could not condemn? Does not thy meretricious brow blush that with thine inane smoke thou withstandest the lightning of the divine Word? Why do we not believe the Turks? Why do we not admit the Jews? Why do we not honor the heretic if damning is all that it takes? But Luther, who is used to bellum, is not afraid of bullam. I can distinguish between inane paper and the omnipotent Word of God. …
Oh meticulous ignorance! I wish to be instructed, not respectively, but absolutely and certainly. I demand that they show absolutely, not respectively, distinctly and not confusedly, certainly and not probably, clearly and not obscurely, point by point and not in a lump, just what is heretical. Let them show where I am a heretic, or dry up their spittle. … So then, you impious and insensate papists, write soberly if you want to write. Whether this bull is by Eck or by the pope, it is the sum of all impiety, blasphemy, ignorance, impudence, hypocrisy, lying — in a word, it is Satan and his Antichrist. …
You were baptized into the name of Christ, and can you suffer these Tartar voices of Antichrist? Where are you, bishops? Where, doctors? Where are you who confess Christ? Woe to all who live in these times. The wrath of God is coming upon the papists, the enemies of the cross of Christ, that all men should resist them. You then … I tell you to your faces: ‘If this bull has come out in your name, then I will use the power which has been given me in baptism whereby I became a son of God and co-heir with Christ, established upon the rock against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. I call upon you to renounce your diabolical blasphemy and audacious impiety, and, if you will not, we shall all hold your seat as possessed and oppressed by Satan, the damned seat of Antichrist; in the name of Jesus Christ, whom you persecute.’ But my zeal carries me away. …
If anyone despises my fraternal warning, I am free from his blood in the last judgment. It is better that I should die a thousand times than that I should retract one syllable of the condemned articles. And as they excommunicated me for the sacrilege of heresy, so I excommunicate them in the name of the sacred truth of God. Christ will judge whose excommunication will stand. Amen.” 

— Martin Luther, Against the Execrable Bull of Antichrist, reply to Exsurge Domine, Papal Bull of Pope Leo X, December 1520, as quoted in Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, Roland H. Bainton, pp. 153-155 

“In the Papal Bull condemning Luther, Leo X called Luther ‘a wild boar,’ trampling underfoot the gospel and threatening the church. Pure irony. LUther was condemned by the church for preaching the gospel.
… R.C. admired Luther, intrigued by this mixture of fear and courage in him. He longed to see the same in himself.
… R. C. loved Luther, ‘the wild boar,’ and he especially appreciated that Worms did not bring him down. As R. C. notes, ‘The wild boar was loose and nothing would stop him.’” 

— R. C. Sproul: A Life, Stephen J. Nichols, pp. 211-213 

“But to the wicked God says:
‘What right have you to recite my statutes
or take my covenant on your lips?
For you hate discipline,
and you cast my words behind you.
If you see a thief, you are pleased with him,
and you keep company with adulterers.
‘You give your mouth free rein for evil,
and your tongue frames deceit.
You sit and speak against your brother;
you slander your own mother’s son.
These things you have done, and I have been silent;
you thought that I was one like yourself.
But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.
‘Mark this, then, you who forget God,
lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
to one who orders his way rightly
I will show the salvation of God!” 

— Psalm 50:16-23 

“There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were an error proceeding from the ruler: folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place. …
He who digs a pit will fall into it,
and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall.
He who quarries stones is hurt by them,
and he who splits logs is endangered by them.
If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge,
he must use more strength,
but wisdom helps one to succeed.” 

— Ecclesiastes 10:5-6, 8-10 

“Behold, the Lord GOD helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.” 

— Isaiah 50:9 

“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” 

— John 3:19-21 

“Error, indeed, is never set forth in its naked deformity, lest, being thus exposed, it should at once be detected. But it is craftily decked out in an attractive dress, so as, by its outward form, to make it appear to the inexperienced (ridiculous as the expression may seem) more true than the truth itself. … Lest, therefore, through my neglect, some should be carried off, even as sheep are by wolves, while they perceive not the true character of these men,—because they outwardly are covered with sheep’s clothing (against whom the Lord has enjoined us to be on our guard), and because their language resembles ours, while their sentiments are very different,—I have deemed it my duty …” 

— Against Heresies, Book I, Preface, Irenæus 

“Theatricality and deception are powerful agents — to the uninitiated.” 

— Ra’s al-Ghul 

“Why then do they try to deceive simple-minded people in the Church? There is the real ground of my quarrel with them. As for their difficulties with the Christian faith, I have profound sympathy for them, but not with their contemptuous treatment of the conscientious men who believe that a creed solemnly subscribed to is more than a scrap of paper.” 

— J. G. Machen letter to his mother concerning the Presbyterian Church in 1917, as quoted in J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, Ned B. Stonehouse, pp. 248-249 

“Rather, holding to the historic Westminster Standards, he saw himself as a Reformed and Presbyterian Christian … Machen recognized the inherent rejection of biblical truth by the Auburn affirmation compelling him to oppose it, not as a Fundamentalist but as a Calvinist, a Reformed theologian who held to the Westminster Standards that upheld the very teachings of Jesus and the Scriptures. …
The early faculty at Westminster Theological Seminary were scholarly, conservative, biblical, and confessional, in the tradition of Old Princeton. … Seeking to fulfill Machen’s vision for Westminster, the seminary has trained thousands of ministers and missionaries to be specialists in the Bible who proclaim the whole counsel of God for Christ and His global church. Westminster’s alumni have served in numerous ecclesiastical settings, including the … PCA … and many other independent and mainline denominations. In fact, the late R.C. Sproul on various occasions observed that nearly every key Reformed thinker that had impacted America in his lifetime had a direct connection with Westminster.” 

— The Legacy of Christianity and Liberalism: Essays by the Faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary; “J. Gresham Machen, Fundamentalism, and Westminster Seminary,” Rev. Dr. Peter A. Lillback, president and professor of historical theology and church history

06/03/2022: Benyola files a third formal Complaint against the St. Paul’s Session’s ruling error of “suspending” him, because Benyola, now residing 500 miles away, already resigned his St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church membership, according to his rights under ecclesiastical law and civil law. 

((third) Complaint of Peter Benyola versus the Session of St. Paul’s PCA)

06/05/2022: After Sunday morning worship, and just minutes after preaching a sermon entitled “An Appeal to Church Unity” — the text was I Corinthians 1:10-11, concerning reports of division in the church — TE Justin Borger publicly promulgates a phantasmic “excommunication” to his congregation of hundreds of parishioners. Benyola immediately starts receiving phone calls from friends asking about the situation and why the pastor did not explain what Benyola actually did to warrant “excommunication.” The pastor reportedly didn’t divulge the underlying issue at all. The pastor did not convey this “censure” to Benyola prior to his announcement in a public forum. It seems rather ironic for a Presbyterian teaching elder to pontificate on “reports of division in the church,” and right on the heels of such a sermon to then publicly traduce a whistleblower because he levied such orderly reports with Presbytery protesting division caused by its wonted policies. 

(St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church Morning Worship Service, June 5, 2022) 

Alleged violations (errors and/or delinquencies) by the St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church Senior Pastor, Moderator of the Session, President of the Corporation, et al. 

Primary standards: Genesis 18:25, 44:16, Exodus 20:7,16, Leviticus 19:15, Deuteronomy 10:16, II Chronicles 7:14, Psalms 6:7-10, 7:12-16, 10:2,7,15-18, 11:1-3, 12:1-2, 15:1-4, 19:7-14, 24:3-6, 26:4-5, 34:11-22, 37:27-33, 40:4, 41:4-7, 50:14-23, 52:1-4, 53:4, 55:2-3,20-21, 56:5-7, 57:4, 58:1-5, 64:1-6, 65:1, 71:10-11, 74:4-5, 76:11, 86:14, 94:16,20, 101:5-8, 106:3, 109:1-5, 116:18-19, 140:1-5,9-11, Proverbs 1:29-31, 3:27, 10:23, 11:1, 12:19, 15:8, 18:5,13,17, 20:23, 22:22, 24:11-12,23-25,28-29, 26:17, 28:9,13, Ecclesiastes 3:16, 5:1-9, 7:7, 8:1-5,11, 9:17, 10:5,8-10, Isaiah 66:5, Jeremiah 11:18-20, 15:15-21, 20:10-13, 21:12, 36:27-32, Lamentations 3:34-36, 5:14, Ezekiel 33:1-9, 34:1-10, Amos 5:7,10,14-15,23-24, Zechariah 1:2-6, 8:16, Malachi 1:6-14, 2:7, Matthew 3:8, 5:10-12,22-25, 18:16-17, 22:21, 23:1-5,13-25,28, Luke 19:14,27, 21:12-13, Acts 20:27-30, Romans 1:32, 2:1-3,17-21,23-24, 13:1-6, I Corinthians 1:10-11, 5:6-8, 13:6, II Corinthians 6:3-8, 11:26, 12:20, Ephesians 4:31, 5:6-12, 6:9, I Timothy 3:2,15, Titus 1:5-7, James 1:19-25, 3:1,17-18, I Peter 2:1,12-17, 5:1-4, Revelation 2:9, 3:9 

Secondary standards: WCF 1.10; 15.6; 20.1-4; 22.1-6; 23.3,4; 30.3; 31.1-3; WLC Q.99.6-8, 111-114, 130, 143-145, 151, 171, 173-175; WSC Q.14, 76-78; BCO Preface II.1,4; 8-1,-2,-3; 10-3; 11-2,-4; 13-9.e,f; 14-7; 21-5.7; 25-11 (cf. SJC 93-3, M22GA, 1994, pp. 110-123); 31-2; 32-2,-6.b,-17; 33-3; 34-3; 35-3; 38-4 

Tertiary standards: RONR (12th ed.) 61:22; 63:7-9, 13, 35; Bylaws of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Inc., Incorporation, Exhibit C-1 

Civil laws: The 2022 Florida Statutes, Title XXXVI, Chapters 617.0601(5); 617.0607(1); 617.1601(1,3,4,5); 617.1602(1,2)

06/07/2022: Allowing a couple days to pass and waiting for TE Justin Borger, Senior Pastor and Moderator of the St. Paul’s Session, to serve some sort of notice of the Session’s ruling, Benyola must be the one to initiate communication. He reaches out to the pastor and clerk, asking if it is true that there has been a public announcement which mentions him by name, and for the details. 

06/08/2022: The Senior Pastor emails to Benyola a letter bearing the date 06/07 communicating the formal ruling of the Session of “excommunication,” finally confirming its public, nudiustertian unlawful ukase. Benyola asks the pastor to clarify if any effort was made to inform Benyola of this ruling and pending announcement prior to its promulgation. The pastor confesses that no effort of the plenary “further inquiry” was attempted after the 05/05 “suspension of sacraments” letter, and the Session voted for Benyola’s “excommunication” on 05/17. The Session made no attempt at communication whatsoever to Benyola between 05/05 and 05/17, and again no communication attempt from the Session to Benyola from 05/17 to 06/05, when the pastor publicly announces this “excommunication,” violating the mandatory process of ecclesiastical censure (BCO 33-2,-3).
Benyola filed another Complaint versus the Session’s unlawful suspension, and two days later, the Session with swift and facile velocity proceeds directly to “excommunication” without any notice. Benyola learns about the “excommunication” from his friends before the pastor responsible for it. Saint Paul instructed the church, “Let all things be done decently and in order.” Though discipline is not specifically what Apostle Paul had in view in that discourse of I Corinthians 14, he no doubt would contend that decency and orderliness obviously encompasses such weighty matters as clergy actually obeying the Scriptures as well as their own governing documents before they presume to dispute people’s faith professions in public to their uninformed congregations. What would the St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church Session’s eponymous patron saint have to say about their shenanigans? 

Alleged violations (errors and/or delinquencies) by the St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church Senior Pastor, Moderator of the Session, President of the Corporation, et al. 

Primary standards: Genesis 18:25, 44:16, Exodus 20:7,16, Leviticus 19:15, Deuteronomy 10:16, II Chronicles 7:14, Psalms 6:7-10, 7:12-16, 10:2,7,15-18, 11:1-3, 12:1-2, 15:1-4, 19:7-14, 24:3-6, 26:4-5, 34:11-22, 37:27-33, 40:4, 41:4-7, 50:14-23, 52:1-4, 53:4, 55:2-3,20-21, 56:5-7, 57:4, 58:1-5, 64:1-6, 65:1, 71:10-11, 74:4-5, 76:11, 78:72, 86:14, 94:16,20, 101:5-8, 106:3, 109:1-5, 116:18-19, 140:1-5,9-11, Proverbs 1:29-31, 3:27, 10:23, 11:1, 12:19, 15:8, 18:5,13,17, 20:23, 22:22, 24:11-12,23-25,28-29, 26:17, 28:9,13, Ecclesiastes 3:16, 5:1-9, 7:7, 8:1-5,11, 9:17, 10:5,8-10, Isaiah 66:5, Jeremiah 11:18-20, 15:15-21, 20:10-13, 21:12, 36:27-32, Lamentations 3:34-36, 5:14, Ezekiel 33:1-9, 34:1-10, Amos 5:7,10,14-15,23-24, Zechariah 8:16, Malachi 2:7-14, Matthew 3:8, 5:10-12,22-25, 18:16-17, 22:21, 23:1-5,13-25,28, Luke 19:14,27, 21:12-13, Acts 20:27-30, Romans 1:32, 2:1-3,17-21,23-24, 13:1-6, I Corinthians 1:10-11, 5:6-8, 13:6, II Corinthians 6:3-8, 11:26, 12:20, Ephesians 4:31, 5:6-12, I Timothy 3:2,15, Titus 1:5-7, James 1:22-25, 3:1,17-18, I Peter 2:1,12-17, 5:1-4, Revelation 2:9, 3:9 

Secondary standards: WCF 1.10; 15.6; 20.1-4; 22.1-6; 23.3,4; 30.3; 31.1-3; WLC Q.99.6-8, 111-114, 130, 143-145, 151, 171, 173-175; WSC Q.14, 76-78; BCO Preface II.1,4; 8-1,-2,-3; 10-3; 11-2,-4; 13-9.e,f; 14-7; 21-5.7; 25-11 (cf. SJC 93-3, M22GA, 1994, pp. 110-123); 31-2; 32-2,-6.b,-17; 33-3; 34-3; 35-3; 38-4; 43-1,-2,-3 (cf. SJC 2019-13, M48GA, 2021, pp. 796-800) 

Tertiary standards: RONR (12th ed.) 61:22; 63:7-9, 13, 35; Bylaws of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Inc., Incorporation, Exhibit C-1 

Civil laws: The 2022 Florida Statutes, Title XXXVI, Chapters 617.0601(5); 617.0607(1); 617.1601(1,3,4,5); 617.1602(1,2) 

06/17/2022: Benyola files a fourth formal Complaint against the St. Paul’s Session’s ruling error of false “excommunication,” because Benyola, now residing 500 miles away, already resigned his St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church membership, pursuant to his rights under Church law and civil law. 

((fourth) Complaint of Peter Benyola versus the Session of St. Paul’s PCA)