The Lesson of Two Schisms by the Rev Jim Tuckett of the Westminster Fellowship

 

 

 

The history of Presbyterians in America offers all Christian church members a case study in how to deal with apostasy.

The Lesson of Two Schisms

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” I John 4:1

“To remain divided is sinful! Did not our Lord pray, that they may be one, even as we are one”? (John 17:22). A chorus of ecumenical voices keep harping the unity tune. What they are saying is, “Christians of all doctrinal shades and beliefs must come together in one visible organization, regardless… Unite, unite!”  Such teaching is false, reckless and dangerous. Truth alone must determine our alignments. Truth comes before unity.  Unity without truth is hazardous. Our Lord’s prayer in John 17 must be read in its full context. Look at verse 17: “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.” Only those sanctified through the Word can be one in Christ. To teach otherwise is to betray the Gospel.  Charles H. Spurgeon

“In December, 2000, the 128 year-old Montgomery Ward & Co. department store chain said it would close its stores. The company lost touch with American shoppers. . .  In December, 2000 the 103 year-old Oldsmobile division of General Motors Corp. said that it, too, would close it stores.  Olds lost touch with American car buyers . . .” KC Star, August 20, 2001


Membership in the mainline denominations, like the Presbyterian Church (USA) continues to decline.
“In recent years, the annual statistical report has included a mix of positive and negative indicators, but the report for 2000 is almost entirely negative. ‘There’s not much good news in there,” ‘acknowledged Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, former stated clerk of the General Assembly. (Presbyterian News Service, April 30, 2001)

  

This same “logic” is being used by Mainline denominational leadership to explain membership trends.

“Recently, I calculated a simple straight-line projection of membership trends.  At the rate of membership decline over the last dozen years, we would cease to have any members by the year 2039.“  Jack Marcum, Research Services, PC(USA)
Could it be that the mainline denominations, like the Presbyterian Church, USA have lost touch with the spiritual needs of the American Christian?

More than eight decades ago, Henry Van Dyke, a distinguished Presbyterian and Professor of English Literature at Princeton University said, ‘”One reason why our churches have suffered . . . is because our Presbyterian people have failed (to) . . . preserve and cherish the heritage of the past, and draw courage and inspiration for the present from (the past).” Frederick J. Heuser, Jr, raised the question, ” Do Presbyterians Really Learn Anything From Their History?”
Let’s ponder two of the lowest points in the history the American Presbyterian Church.  “To assume that contemporary challenges and problems are unique to our times is really to divorce our generation from its connection to others who have gone before.  To assume that our times are uniquely different from anything that has come before represents an immaturity and self-centeredness at best and a cultural arrogance at worst.”  Frederick J. Heuser, Jr.

 

 

I.  The Schism of 1837

At the time of the American Revolution, the Presbyterian Church was committed to federal Calvinism which had its fullest creedal expression in the Westminster Confession of Faith.  This theology envisioned the human condition in terms of two covenants.  In the first, God made a covenant with Adam who stood as a representative for all humanity.  By this covenant, Adam’s sin was imputed to his posterity.  Since the Fall, all humanity finds itself in a state of total depravity, utterly incapable of doing God’s will.  We experience salvation through the covenant of grace made between God the Father and Christ.  Christ paid the price for the sin of the elect.  Only by Christ’s death on the cross are the elect redeemed.  In the years to come, this would become known as Old School Theology.
Around the turn of the eighteenth century, some New England clergy sought to modify this theology to make it accommodate the rugged individualism of the new nation.  They called their “improvements” The New Divinity.  In time, the New School Theology, as it came to be called, moved from “modifying” to “improving” to suggesting that unregenerate sinners had the power to effect their own salvation.  By the 1820s, Charles G. Finney, a lawyer turned evangelist, was unabashedly preaching Arminianism (humanity is basically good and can earn salvation through good works) in Presbyterian Churches.     By 1837, the General Assembly had a clear choice to make: Preserve the faith, or preserve the institution.  The General Assembly chose to preserve the faith, and expelled those who were polluting it.

 

 

II The Schism of 1934

Industrialization, urbanization, and immigration combined to encourage the secularization of American society as the nineteenth century drew to a close.  Despite growing church rolls, religion was having a smaller and smaller impact on the lives of average citizens.  Sundays were becoming days for picnics, ball games, and golf at the new country clubs. There was increasing apathy towards worship.
A “new” theology sought to accommodate Americans’ new life style.  This modern approach to religion emphasized the immanence of God, the goodness of humanity, and justification through moral living.  The Modernists, as they came to be known, taught that the Bible contained the word of God.  (This is the concept I have termed the loose-leaf Bible.  It allows the individual to pick and choose which parts s/he feels are God’s word.)
Presbyterians, especially at my alma mater, Princeton Seminary, responded with a ringing endorsement of the Bible as the infallible rule of faith and practice.  A. A. Hodge and B. B. Warfield wrote: “the Scriptures not only contain, but ARE THE WORD OF GOD, and hence that all their elements and all their affirmations are absolutely errorless and binding the faith and obedience of men.”
In 1910 and again in 1916, the General Assembly sought to clarify the basic tenets for which our church stood.  What the 1910 GA called these tenets were the “Essential and Necessary Articles.”  Each of the first four began with the formula, “It is an essential doctrine of the Word of God and our standards that…”

In their original order, the five articles were:

1. “that the Holy Spirit did so inspire, guide and move the writers of Holy Scripture as to keep them from error.”    

2. “that our Lord Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary.”    

3. “that Christ offered up Himself a sacrifice to satisfy Divine justice and to reconcile us to God.” 

4. “…standards concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, that on the third day He rose again from the dead with the same body with which He suffered, with which also He ascended into heaven, and there sitteth at the right hand of His Father, making intercession.”    

5. (in its entirety) “It is an essential doctrine of the Word of God as the supreme standard of our faith that our Lord Jesus showed His power and love by working mighty miracles.  This working was not contrary to nature, but superior to it.”

By the middle of the 1920s, the Modernists had gained control of the Board of Foreign Missions.  Their philosophy was spelled out in a publication called Re-thinking Missions:  A Laymen’s Inquiry after One Hundred Years, funded by John D. Rockefeller.   The theological section of the publication argued that the uniqueness of Christianity did not lay in doctrine but in its selection of truths that were essentially available in all religions.
This radical departure from traditional Presbyterian beliefs was given added weight when novelist, and Presbyterian missionary, Peal S. Buck said, “I think this is the only book I have ever read that seems to me literally true in its every observation and right in its every conclusion.”
The traditionalists responded by establishing the Independent Board of Presbyterian Foreign Missions.
By 1934, the General Assembly had a clear choice to make:  Preserve the faith or preserve the institution.  The General Assembly chose to preserve the institution and drove out the faithful.
Bradley Longfield in his book, The Presbyterian Controversy, writes:  “the current identity crisis of the Presbyterian Church has its roots in the conflicts of the 1920s when the church opted for institutional above doctrinal unity.”  In 1934, the General Assembly chose universalism and a theology of accommodation rather than the traditional, fundamental beliefs of nearly 300 years of Presbyterianism.

“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” Jesus Christ, Matt. 16:26

In 1837, the Presbyterian Church stood strong for its beliefs, and 33 years later the opposing factions were once again re-united under the Westminster Standards.
In 1934, the Presbyterian Church tried to appease those who would accommodate the world by compromising its faith. By 1967, 33 years later, the Modernists completed the coup by changing the vows of ordination:
No longer would clergy vow that the Westminster Confession expressed the “system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures.” (“Reformed” no longer meant “Calvinist”; now it means continuing revelation. Presbyterian beliefs can and do change to accommodate anyone and any circumstance.  We are inclusive.)
No longer would clergy vow that the Bible was “the infallible rule of faith and practice.”  Presbyterians are still committed to The Book, only now the book is “loose-leaf.”       
One of the questions candidates for ordination are required to answer is:

Do you sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith as expressed in the confessions of our church as authentic and reliable expositions of which Scripture leads us to believe and do, and will you be instructed and led by those confessions as you lead the people of God? G-14.0207 The Book of Order

What are the essential tenets of the Reformed faith?  According to the 1997 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), there aren’t any.          
Dr. William Lewis, visiting professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, has provided us with a succinct definition of Reformed theology which is perfectly consistent with Reformed thinking since the Synod of Dordt, in 1619 and the Westminster Confession of 1648.  It is also consistent with what became known in the nineteenth century as The Princeton Theology, with Charles Hodge and BB Warfield as advocates.  Spurgeon, Barnhouse, Palmer and many, many more have preached these truths boldly.  R. C.  Sproul even went so far as to tell his radio listeners, “Calvinism is just another name for Christianity!”

Reformed theology:  Holds five truths as essential to understanding Christianity:

1.  The total depravity of humanity.

2.   Unconditional Divine election.

3.   Christ’s atonement is limited to the elect.

4.   Divine grace is irresistible.

5.   Perseverance of the elect to the end.

Since deciding to replace the Westminster Standards in 1965, the mainline Presbyterian denomination has lost members every year.
Another member leaves every 11 minutes; 5 members leave every hour; 122 members leave every day; 854 members leave every week; 3,417 members leave every month;  over 2,000,000 members have left.
Mr. Heuser posed the question:  Do Presbyterians really learn anything from their history?
I suggest that the Presbyterian institution has lost touch with the Presbyterian Church.  If we do not learn to reject the theology of accommodation with its “loose-leaf” Bible, then Mr. Marcum may very well prove to be a prophet: by 2039 the PCUSA will cease to be.
There is a Target where our local Wards used to be.  They are selling Hondas where they used to sell Oldsmobiles.  There is a Pentecostal congregation worshiping in the building that once was home to a Presbyterian congregation I served.

Isn’t it time we started equipping the saints with the essential tenets of our Reformed faith?

 

Almighty God, shed down upon us heavenly wisdom and grace; enlighten us with true knowledge of Thy Word; inspire us with a pure zeal for Thy glory; and so order all our activity through Thy Holy Spirit that unity and peace may prevail among us; that Thy truth and righteousness may flow forth from us; and that by our endeavors, all Thy saints may be established and comforted, Thy Gospel everywhere purely preached and truly followed, Thy Kingdom extended and strengthened, and the whole body of Thy people grow up into Him who Head over all things, Jesus Christ.  In His name we pray.  Amen