“Unfortunately I cannot write very adequately just now. As you are well aware, these are strenuous days.” 

— J. Gresham Machen in a May 20, 1936 letter, 21 days before the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the USA upheld the Presbytery’s 1935 verdict of his suspension from the gospel ministry 

“If church discipline is a mark of a true church, and if it is an extension of God’s loving discipline of His children, why is it not practiced in more churches? Why is it so lightly esteemed? The answer to such questions is often found in the way that church discipline is (mis)practiced. Just like parents should take care to faithfully and biblically apply discipline to their children, leaders in the church must use their authority with consistency and love. The Old Testament is full of warnings about the dangers of favoritism (such as Jacob with Joseph and his brothers), and the failure to apply discipline (such as Eli and his sons). …
Church leaders must always remember that the authority they possess with respect to discipline does not come from themselves, but it is Christ’s shepherding authority. It is Christ’s church (Eph. 1:22–23; Col. 1:18), and He is the one building her up to be spotless (Eph. 5:27). Leaders must therefore make every effort to avoid acting in a domineering or tyrannical manner simply to resolve problems quickly (1 Peter 5:3), or showing partiality in disciplining some while ignoring others (James 2:1). …
Church discipline that is practiced in love is a powerful way to confront a sinner with his sin and to show that the church loves him, will not give up on him, and desires to see him restored to full fellowship. In a very real sense, discipline can be the gospel acted out before our eyes. We must acknowledge our sin, repent, and ask for forgiveness, which is freely and fully granted. … discipline is necessary to maintain the purity of the church and its witness before a watching world. …
Finally and most importantly, church discipline is done for the glory of God. Christians are living displays of God’s glory, and we display His glory all the more as we strive to reflect His loving and holy character (Eph. 3:10). What better way to show that a holy God is a loving God than through discipline? As we seek to restore those who stumble, in a spirit of loving humility, we put on display honorable conduct that will point to the One who is the source of all restoration in the universe (1 Peter 2:12).” 

— “Church Discipline,” Tabletalk, August 2013, Vol. 37, No. 8, Fred Greco, senior pastor of Christ Church in Katy, Texas; also a PCA Standing Judicial Commission Officer — one of four de facto gatekeepers who routinely decide which cases arising from all the presbyteries are “administratively in order” — and who concurred to dismiss, out of hand, literally every single formal opportunity (total six Complaints over three years) that Benyola set before the Court to answer and repair serious scandal in their denomination. 

“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. …
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. …
So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” 

— Matthew 23:2, 23, 28 

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. …
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” 

— James 1:22, 4:8 

“Therefore, whenever it becomes necessary to abandon either religion or the peace of society, any princes whatsoever that do not put religion before peace, by the most heinous crime knowingly and deliberately make themselves guilty of mocking church discipline, not to say of letting divisive heretics get off scot-free. Theodore Beza on I Timothy 2:2, Annotationes majores in Nouum Jesu Christi Testamentum (1594), 444.” 

— As quoted in Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici, Appendix I, Additional Translations, p. 320

“Ezekiel 39:21
In this extended address to Gog (chapters 38-39) Ezekiel described the movements of nations and the activities of world powers. While it appears that the kings of the earth run things, in 39:21 the reader discovers that there is a Power behind all powers. The fact that the Sovereign God is always in control is a crucial perspective for all leaders to embrace. …
Jeremiah 36:1-32
Jehoiakim didn’t want to hear bad news, so he burned the scroll that contained the news. He himself refused to learn the truth and change his ways, but the foolishness of the act also led to the destruction of his nation. Jehoiakim chose to ‘protect’ himself from information that was vital to his success as a leader. Some of the most important organizational – and personal – changes are made only when leaders are willing to process bad news. …
Ezekiel 7:27
… ‘I will deal with them according to their conduct, and by their own standards I will judge them.’ For these people, that meant mourning, despair and trembling! If God were to deal with every leader by the standards that leader uses to deal with others, how would you fare? …
Joel 1:1-3:21
Where are the leaders when you need them? Joel refers to elders, priests, drunkards, farmers and the young in this short book. But throughout all the turmoil and devastation he describes, the prophet never once mentions leaders or kings as even possible sources of help. A leader who is an irrelevant presence is worse than no leader at all. …
Jeremiah 44:29-30
The Jewish exiles in Egypt refused to stop worshiping idols. Their idolatry led to Pharaoh’s defeat. Two seemingly isolated events – the Jews’ idolatry and Egypt’s defeat – are intricately connected. The systems thinker is constantly asking how parts of the organization are affecting each other. Like a virus in a human body, an ‘insignificant’ problem in a remote part of the system cannot be ignored.” 

— Handbook to Leadership: Leadership in the Image of God, Kenneth Boa, Sid Buzzell and Bill Perkins, pp. 570, 588, 629, 635, 642

“Organizations often act in surprising and even seemingly strange ways. Distant events and decisions made by people in other companies – or countries – can have a powerful influence on our operation. Jonah made decisions that nearly cost the lives of people he did not personally know. Jonah 1:1-17 provides a powerful illustration of systems at work …
The Jonah story illustrates the need to think in terms of systems. The root causes of destructive problems may be impossible to pinpoint, or opportunities for expansion may be overlooked, if one fails to think in systems terms. Systems thinking opens our eyes to the fact that decisions we don’t make will influence people we may never see.
Jonah refused to carry God’s message to Nineveh. He ran in the opposite direction. His decision to disobey God threatened the lives of these unsuspecting sailors. It’s no news flash that leaders’ decisions affect stakeholders. But a decision … is rarely isolated … Systems thinking reveals that seemingly isolated decisions reverberate to affect … people within the environment … If leaders fail to think in systems terms they will not – they cannot – make wise decisions. …
In Nehemiah 2:1-9 we read about Nehemiah’s unique ability to solve complex problems. … Nehemiah used systems thinking to analyze complex problems. He was so successful in his work that, when people saw it, they realized this work had been done with God’s help (Nehemiah 6:16).
Nehemiah’s ability to solve complex problems grew out of his manner of seeing the problems – as a systems thinker. …
Two elements of systems thinking made a difference for Nehemiah. He saw ‘the subtle interconnectedness that gives living systems their unique character,’ and he saw the ‘‘structures’ that underlie complex situations’ …” 

— ibid., pp. 416, 418-419 

“In the battle between the General Assembly’s pronouncement and the Auburn Affirmation, between Christianity and Modernism, the Modernist contention has in the main won the victory, and now dominates the machinery of the Presbyterian church.
There are many indications of that fact, but one indication is so unmistakable that it might almost suffice if it stood alone. It is found in the composition of the ‘Permanent Judicial Commission,’ which was entirely reconstituted in 1931 with largely increased powers, and is now practically the supreme doctrinal as well as disciplinary authority in the church. In the composition of such a court, we may discover, if anywhere, what the true temper of the church is. Who, then, are members of this all-important court?
The commission consists of fifteen members, chosen by the General Assembly, eight being ministers and seven being elders. Whatever may be said about the elders, it is perfectly easy to tell where the ministers stand in the great issue of the day. …
Yet not a single one of the twenty-five hundred or three thousand ministers, and apparently only one of the seven thousand or so elders, who signed the Princeton Petition has been given a place on the Permanent Judicial Commission.
Could there possibly be a clearer example of a partisan court? Half of the available ministerial positions have been granted to signers of a radical Modernist document that attacks the message of the church at its very root, and not a single ministerial position has been given to the far greater number who signed the mildest possible petitions looking to the defense of God’s Word. At most the commission seems to include only one man (an elder) who by signing one of these two petitions has given public indication of zeal for the historic witness of the church.
The ecclesiastical machinery seems to have done its work well. There may, indeed, be gentlemen on the commission, in addition to the one signer of the Princeton Petition, who are opposed to the Auburn Affirmation and in favor of maintaining the church’s historic message, but if there are such they seem to have given as yet no very clear public indication of their stand. …
It is evident that any consistent Christian man will count it a disgrace to be acquitted on any doctrinal issue by such a court, and an honor to be condemned. But the composition of the court shows that the corporate life of the Presbyterian church is corrupt at the very core, and that until the sin of the church is honestly faced and removed, all the great swelling words about the church’s work and all the bustle of its organizational activities can avail but little in the sight of God.” 

— J. Gresham Machen, “The Truth about the Presbyterian Church,” Christianity Today, November 1931, December 1931, January 1932 

“Who We Are
The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) was formed in 1973 to be a denomination that is ‘Faithful to the Scriptures, True to the Reformed Faith, and Obedient to the Great Commission.’
The PCA is an evangelical denomination in that we proclaim the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. The word ‘evangelical’ comes from the Greek word meaning ‘good news.’ We desire all people to trust in the saving work of Jesus and enjoy eternal life in him.
The PCA is a reformed denomination in that we believe in the biblical truth proclaimed during the Protestant Reformation. The Word of God, rather than tradition, is the only guide for the Church. God alone saves through his immeasurable mercy and according to his sovereign plan. We believe the system of doctrine taught in the Bible is summarized well in the Westminster Confession of Faith with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. …
Where We Are Going
We desire to unite PCA congregations who hold common theological convictions but have diverse ministry practices, in order to expand the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ to multiple generations of people of ‘every tribe and language and people and nation’ (Revelation 5:9).
We long to join in cooperative ministry with other parts of the universal church to pursue God’s global mission. We hope to engage the culture with Reformed thinking and leadership, along with deeds of love, mercy, and justice to show the transformational power of the gospel.” 

— pcanet.org/about-the-pca 

“Many great branches of the church are completely dominated by the non-Christian forces; our own Presbyterian Church in America is in the gravest danger of going on the same path.” 

— J. Gresham Machen, “The Mission of the Church,” 1926 

“But possibly the leaders may come to see, on sober second thought, that even from their point of view the end is being attained at too great a cost, that in running roughshod over the principles of liberty in the church they are really harming their own cause, that theological pacifism will hardly prosper in the long run if it is stained with crime.” 

— J. Gresham Machen, “The Attack upon Princeton Seminary: A Plea for Fair Play,” 1927 

“But in general, the false position in which they stand has militated against their highest usefulness. Equivocation, the double use of traditional terminology, subscription to solemn creedal statements in a sense different from the sense originally intended in those statements—these things give a man a poor platform upon which to stand, no matter what it is that he proposes, upon that platform, to do.” 

— J. Gresham Machen, “The Responsibility of the Church in Our New Age,” 1933 

“Jeremiah 7:21-24
As a nation, Israel was rapidly declining because it was working without God’s blessing. It had learned the right behaviors (single loop) but had failed to address the motives and the values that drive and sustain right behaviors (second loop). Learning has to address the soul as well as the hands.
Ezekiel 11:5
As God listed the wicked activities of Israel’s leaders and pronounced His judgment on them, He made a key statement: ‘I know what is going on through your mind.’ Developing effective leadership does not only involve learning new behavior or setting new standards. Learning that builds strong organizations must also address the values and viewpoints that drive behaviors.
Daniel 4:17, 36-37
Any leader who doesn’t learn from failure won’t lead effectively for very long. But merely learning correct behavior isn’t enough. Values and mental models drive behavior and must be part of the learning process. Nebuchadnezzar demonstrated that he had learned to deal with both his proud behavior and his distorted values.” 

— Handbook to Leadership: Leadership in the Image of God, Kenneth Boa, Sid Buzzell and Bill Perkins, p. 604

“HAGGAI
LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE
Any leadership effort that cooperates with God’s moral law brings greater satisfaction and fulfillment to the leader than efforts that violate it.
LEADERSHIP SUMMARY
Leadership and People
Haggai used godly exhortation to reverse his people’s inverted priorities. God’s temple still lay in ruins, yet the people were constructing homes and businesses. Directing his words to the civil and religious leaders, Haggai pointed out that, by removing God as their first priority, the people had deprived themselves of God’s blessings.” 

— ibid., pp. 814-815

“Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of contempt.
Our soul has had more than enough
of the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud.” 

— Psalm 123:3-4 

“Who rises up for me against the wicked?
Who stands up for me against evildoers?
If the LORD had not been my help,
my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. …
Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
those who frame injustice by statute?
They band together against the life of the righteous
and condemn the innocent to death.
But the LORD has become my stronghold,
and my God the rock of my refuge.
He will bring back on them their iniquity
and wipe them out for their wickedness;
the LORD our God will wipe them out.” 

— Psalm 94:16-17, 20-23 

“Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint;
preserve my life from dread of the enemy.
Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked,
from the throng of evildoers,
who whet their tongues like swords,
who aim bitter words like arrows,
shooting from ambush at the blameless,
shooting at him suddenly and without fear.
They hold fast to their evil purpose;
they talk of laying snares secretly,
thinking, ‘Who can see them?’
They search out injustice,
saying, ‘We have accomplished a diligent search.’
For the inward mind and heart of a man are deep.
But God shoots his arrow at them;
they are wounded suddenly.
They are brought to ruin, with their own tongues turned against them;
all who see them will wag their heads.
Then all mankind fears;
they tell what God has brought about
and ponder what he has done.
Let the righteous one rejoice in the LORD
and take refuge in him!
Let all the upright in heart exult!” 

— Psalm 64 

“I will present to you a strange paradox but an assured truth—this world’s problems can never be solved by those who make this world the object of their desires. This world cannot ultimately be bettered if you think that this world is all. To move the world, you must have a place to stand.” 

— J. Gresham Machen, “The Responsibility of the Church in Our New Age,” 1933 

“For you are my lamp, O LORD,
and my God lightens my darkness. …
For does not my house stand so with God?
For he has made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and secure.
For will he not cause to prosper
all my help and my desire?
But worthless men are all like thorns that are thrown away,
for they cannot be taken with the hand;
but the man who touches them
arms himself with iron and the shaft of a spear,
and they are utterly consumed with fire.” 

— II Samuel 22:29, 23:5-7 

“But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity;
redeem me, and be gracious to me.
My foot stands on level ground;
in the great assembly I will bless the LORD.” 

— Psalm 26:11-12, referring to the Zionic citizen’s incontestable “standing” in the Lord 

“Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.” 

— Habakkuk 3:17-19, referring to the Zionic citizen’s incontestable “standing” in the Lord

“‘He will not suffer thy foot to be moved.’ Psalm 121:3
If the LORD will not suffer it, neither men nor devils can do it. How greatly would they rejoice if they could give us a disgraceful fall, drive us from our position, and bury us out of memory! They could do this to their heart’s content were it not for one hindrance, and only one: the LORD will not suffer it; and if He does not suffer it, we shall not suffer it. … What with … subtle enemies, no child of God would stand fast for an hour were it not for the faithful love which will not suffer his foot to be moved.” 

— The Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith, Charles Spurgeon, November 10 reading

“‘I have set the LORD always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.’ Psalm 16:8
… hence we are not moved by fear, nor force, nor fraud, nor fickleness. When God stands at a man’s right hand, that man is himself sure to stand. Come on, then, ye foemen of the truth! Rush against me like a furious tempest, if ye will. God upholds me. God abides with me. Whom shall I fear?” 

— ibid., December 2 reading 

09/27/2022: The Office of the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly reports to the Complainant the recommendation for the Decision on Complaint, SJC 2022-09, that “The Officers recommend the SJC adopt the ruling below: … The SJC finds that the above-named Complaint is Administratively Out of Order, and cannot be put in order, because Mr. Benyola is no longer a member of the PCA and thus lacks standing. (ROC 14, 95, 97, 99).” The first of the pages referenced in support of the Officers’ decision directly references Benyola’s resignation of membership from St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Inc., effectively recognizing and upholding that orderly resignation. Latter page numbers refer to the St. Paul’s Session’s “excommunication.” 

(Recommendation of the SJC Officers to the Standing Judicial Commission for Decision on Case No. 2022-09, the (first) Complaint of Peter Benyola versus the Central Florida Presbytery) 

Alleged violations (errors and/or delinquencies) by the Standing Judicial Commission 

Primary standards: Genesis 18:25, 44:16, Leviticus 19:15, II Chronicles 7:14, 30:18-20, Psalms 11:3, 76:11, 116:18-19, Proverbs 3:27, 24:11-12, 31:8-9, 28:9,13, Ecclesiastes 8:11, Jeremiah 21:12, Lamentations 3:34-36, 5:14, Ezekiel 9:4, Zechariah 8:16, Malachi 2:7-14, Matthew 3:8, 5:22, 18:16-17, Luke 17:3-4, 19:14,27, Acts 20:27-28, I Corinthians 5:6-8, II Corinthians 5:6-8, 6:3-8, Galatians 6:2, James 1:22-25, 3:1,17-18 

Secondary standards: WCF 1.10; 30.1; 31.1-3; WLC Q.99.6-8, 111-114, 130, 143-145, 151; WSC Q.14, 76-78; BCO Preface I, II.1-7; 1-1,-5; 3-2,-3,-5,-6; 11-2,-4; 13-7; 14-6,a,b,c,g,k; 14-7; 25-11 (cf. SJC 93-3, M22GA, 1994, pp. 110-123); 38-4; 40-4; 43-1,-3 (cf. SJC 2019-13, M48GA, 2021, pp. 796-800); RAO 15-5.b; 17-1.4; OMSJC 2.1; 16.1 

09/28/2022: Benyola emails the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, copying the SJC Officers, asking for clarification on the conspicuous ambiguity found in the references to page numbers in the Record of the Case. Benyola also asks for the Stated Clerk to simply communicate that on the basis of Benyola not being a member of the PCA due to his resignation, that the SJC will annul the erroneous actions of the Court of original jurisdiction (cf. BCO 43-10). The Stated Clerk responds the same day acknowledging receipt, but the Office of the Stated Clerk and the SJC never provide clarification of their statements. 

10/19/2022: On Wisdom Wednesday, a Message from Reformed Theological Seminary entitled “Why is it important for pastors to understand church government?”, Teaching Elder Fred Greco, a Standing Judicial Commission sitting Officer “explains how pastors should care for their congregations by knowing and applying their systems of church government.”: 

“But knowing and understanding the principles of Presbyterian government, and even the operation of them in our Book of Church Order, are very important. … Well, the pastor, even though he’s the prime teacher and preacher at a church, is also the prime leader. … you want everyone to be treated with justice and with equity. And so, we wouldn’t like it, for example, if we went to a court in the civil arena, and the judge and the jury didn’t know what they were doing, and it was obvious that we didn’t receive justice, not because we were guilty, or not because of the charges, but just because people didn’t know how to adjudicate it. The same thing is true in a church. I think it gives congregants confidence in their leadership to know that their leadership understands how a church is to be run.
Now, let me make one other point: it’s Jesus who runs the church. And so, we do this, all of this, in submission to Christ and his Word. And Christ has given us this government to help us to shepherd his people, and to be leaders that care about them.”

Why do members of the Standing Judicial Commission, the highest Court of the Presbyterian Church whose job it is to judge not only according to its “procedure” but according to what is just, make public statements and write books about how important church government is and how leaders are supposed to care about people and “treat everyone with justice and equity” — while the same ministers repeatedly concur with their peers in tossing out important, substantive judicial cases on technical grounds: even going so far as to contradict their own common-sense reasoning and opinions supporting their very own recent rulings in similar cases? What kind of “confidence” can SJC members expect congregants to have in their leaders while there exists such mind-bending disparity between their Confessional Standards, what they say and vow, and what they actually do? 

(https://rts.edu/resources/why-is-it-important-for-pastors-to-understand-church-government) 

11/28/2022: The Office of the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly reports to the Complainant the Decision on Complaint, SJC 2022-09, that “The SJC finds that the above-named Complaint is Administratively Out of Order, and cannot be put in order, because Mr. Benyola is no longer a member of any congregation of the PCA, and thus lacks standing in this case.” This time, after Benyola’s query, the text of the Record of the Case page numbers cited in support of their reasons, is removed for the Final Decision document. The SJC blatantly obfuscates the evidence and refuses to provide explanation, instead refusing to render a righteous judgment and hold a rogue Session accountable for its flagrant violations of the PCA Constitution as well as the civil laws of its state. 

(Final Decision of the Standing Judicial Commission for Case No. 2022-09, the (first) Complaint of Peter Benyola versus the Central Florida Presbytery) 

Alleged violations (errors and/or delinquencies) by the Standing Judicial Commission 

Primary standards: Genesis 18:25, 44:16, Leviticus 19:15, II Chronicles 7:14, 30:18-20, Psalms 11:3, 76:11, 78:72, 116:18-19, Proverbs 3:27, 24:11-12, 31:8-9, 28:9,13, Ecclesiastes 8:11, Jeremiah 21:12, Lamentations 3:34-36, 5:14, Ezekiel 9:4, Zechariah 1:2-6, 8:16, Malachi 2:7, Matthew 3:8, 5:22, 18:16-17, Luke 17:3-4, 19:14,27, Acts 20:27-28, I Corinthians 5:6-8, II Corinthians 5:6-8, 6:3-8, Galatians 6:2, James 1:22-25, 3:1,17-18 

Secondary standards: WCF 1.10; 30.1; 31.1-3; WLC Q.99.6-8; WSC Q.14, 76-78; BCO Preface I, II.1-7; 1-1,-5; 3-2,-3,-5,-6; 11-2,-4; 13-7; 14-6,a,b,c,g,k; 14-7; 25-11 (cf. SJC 93-3, M22GA, 1994, pp. 110-123); 38-4; 40-4; 43-1,-3 (cf. SJC 2019-13, M48GA, 2021, pp. 796-800); RAO 15-5.b; 17-1.4; OMSJC 2.1; 16.1