In the PCA, officer candidates are examined on their knowledge of and conformity to the Bible, the doctrinal standards of the PCA (Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechisms, Westminster Confession of Faith), and the Book of Church Order.
Just curious...
In the PCA, officer candidates are examined on conformity to the Bible, the WS, and the BCO. Are there doctrines to which officers must conform that are not contained in the WS or the BCO? If so, where are these doctrines declared? Is there an additional Statement of Faith aside from the WS? Or does each PCA church have the right to test for conformity to doctrines of their own choosing? For example, can one PCA church demand conformity to amillenialism while others do not?
The Constitution of the PCA Consists of the Westminster Standards and the Book of Church Order. There is also a Directory of Worship that is not officially required but it is part of the BCO.
Candidates are examined for every proposition or statement they disagree with in the Westminster Standards and must be granted an exception, usually by majority vote of their Presbytery.
A few exceptions have been ruled on judicially in the denomination such as the "Bowen" case where it was determined that no presbytery could grant exceptions for the limited atonement or paedobaptism.
The examination also includes an extensive moral character type examination, too.
There may be quite a variance in allowable exceptions, but from what I see, exceptions are few and far between in most Presbyteries.
As to millennial eschatology, the Westminster Confession would allow an historical premillennial, postmillennial, and amillennial view so any Presbytery would take that, but not a modern dispensational premillennial one.
But, a local church could find a person not a good "fit" and not call the person- say the candidate was historical premill and took a sabbath recreation exception and was granted that by presbytery but the church was used to amill/postmill and wanted to be hold full application of the Confession on the Sabbath.
