Why I am a Presbyterian?

I had a visitor at our mission work recently ask why I would identify myself and the mission work as Presbyterian. He was referring to the recent action of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) to affirm homosexual “marriage.”[1]  Presbyterians from the same denomination have been in the news recently for a article where a Presbyterian minister stated that he didn’t believe in God and still was proud to a minister in the PCUSA.[2] And again a PCUSA congregation in New Orleans recently hosted a rally to support and celebrate a Planned Parenthood abortion facility in that city[3].  Clearly the word “Presbyterian” has bad connotations for Christians that take the Bible as God’s word seriously and normatively. Why in the world would I who had just preached a Biblically based sermon identify myself with such a denomination? Why would I attempt to start a church that aims to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and use such a moniker that communicates the opposite to many people?

Not All Presbyterians are Alike:

As a matter of education there are many denominations that identify themselves as Presbyterian . There exist in the USA the PCUSA, the PCA, the EPC, the ARP, the OPC, the BPC, the KAPC, the RPCNA, just to name a few. We Presbyterians affectionately call ourselves the “split ‘Ps.’” The PCUSA is the largest but it is in serious decline because of the very positions against the teachings of the Bible and its own historic confession that it has taken.  So, while I am Presbyterian I am not a minister in the PCUSA though I grew up in it.[4] Many of the smaller Presbyterian denominations are more Biblically consistent and conservative trying to maintain the Biblical confessional standards that have characterized Presbyterians throughout the world and history. I am a minister in and do church planting for the OPC (Orthodox Presbyterian Church). So if I left the more progressive and liberal Presbyterian church why should I want to be a Presbyterian?

The Bible Teaches the Kind of Church Government Called “Presbyterian”:

The word Presbyterian comes from the Greek language used in the writing of the New Testament that refers to elder, presbyteros. If one reads the Bible carefully he will see that that the Jewish nation-church was ruled or governed by the elders by God’s appointment (Ex 3:16; 24:1). The New Testament church carried over this practice and a plurality of elders was elected in each new congregation (Acts 14:23). The apostles even saw themselves as elders though with a particular function as the authoritative witnesses of Jesus Christ, apostles, (I Pet. 5:1). Throughout the book of Acts we see the importance of elders in the churches. At its most basic level the word Presbyterian refers to the rule by elders.

Not only are the local churches ruled by a plurality of elders but the churches are connected. There is in Presbyterian government a connection of the all the churches to one another. This works to guarantee accountability of believers to the greater church, first to their own elders (Heb 13:17), and then to the broader church. Thus, in Acts 15 when there arose a theological dispute about how to handle the Jewish laws and the inclusion of the Gentile believers the elders of the all the churches gathered together to discuss, solve, and then communicate the decision of the whole church. I like to explain that the civil government structure of the United States borrowed from the Presbyterian Church. [5]  Think of local, state, and federal government and courts. That system of “graduated” or ascending levels of accountability is the outworking of Presbyterian church government. This is not just a man created system but a study of the book of Acts and Paul’s Pastoral Epistles in the scriptures reveal that the Presbyterian or “Elder” system of church government is taught and exampled in the Bible.[6]

Presbyterian Theology is Rooted in the Reformation:

The reformation of the Roman Catholic Church that swept across the organized church in Western Christendom had its identifiable beginnings in the 14^th century with John Wycliffe. Wycliffe’s concerns about worldly prelates, the primacy of scripture, and the nature of the Eucharist/Lord’s Supper became the main points of dispute. These concerns were echoed by John Huss in the 15^th century and the mighty Martin Luther in the 16^th century. It was John Knox who as a student of the exiled Frenchman, John Calvin, took the reformation doctrines to Scotland and became the father of Presbyterianism. Presbyterianism then spread throughout the world in various Presbyterian denominations utilizing the reformed confession and catechisms of the Westminster Standards written in England (1643-49) as an accurate summary of the teachings of the Bible.

While there are other reformed Protestant denominations across the world (Lutheran, German Reformed, Dutch Reformed) the Presbyterian church is the Scots-English expression of the grand doctrines of grace that are focused on the primacy of the Bible, the grace of God in Jesus Christ, and the glory of God in the salvation of sinners.[7] Often summarized by the five solas; The Scriptures Alone, Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Christ Alone, and God’s Glory Alone, these doctrines of God’s free grace are what powered the Protestant movement and gave birth to renewed freedom and dignity of all people. Biblical and historical Presbyterian doctrine is an important inheritance from the reformation that we need to hear again today.

Presbyterians Have an Evangelistic Mission Orientation:

Presbyterian missions in America initially was organized as in effort around 1800 in western Pennsylvania and territories west that would become Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. Not only were the early settlements a focus of the gospel mission endeavors but the native Indian tribes were also evangelized. In 1802 the Presbyterian Church USA established the first Protestant denominational mission organization, The Standing Committee of Missions, that focused on home missions in the USA developing new local churches in settlements. Presbyterians supported the American Board of Foreign Missions and finally established their own denominational Board of Foreign Missions on the model of the Western Foreign Missionary Society that was begun by the Synod of Pittsburgh in the PCUSA. That society fielded twenty one missionaries to Native American Indians and thirty nine missionaries to Liberia and India.

This missions emphasis was the outgrowth of the reformed theology of the Presbyterians contrary to many modern opinions. The idea that people are made right with God by the means of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone as taught in the scriptures alone to the glory of God alone compelled missionaries to go to the world at large. This theological commitment was expressed in John Calvin’s early missionary endeavors to take the reformation doctrines to other parts of the world from Geneva, Switzerland that all kinds of people would benefit from the doctrines of grace.

It was this missions emphasis that led to the formation of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) when liberal theology that neutered the focus of the gospel of saving faith in Jesus Christ to a social gospel began to affect Presbyterian missions in the PCUSA. J Gresham Machen and others founded the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions to maintain the gospel of free grace in Jesus Christ as the focus of missions. So in 1936 the OPC was founded on the commitment to the gospel in Jesus Christ as reflected in the robust reformed theological heritage of the Reformation. The OPC has continued to keep the focus on missions, both home and foreign, as an important part of the identity of the church.

As you can see there are many good reasons to be a Presbyterian. One has to be discerning because many Presbyterians have departed from the scriptures and the reformation theology that is taught in them. I am not so much proud to be a Presbyterian as I am grateful to God for the heritage and faithfulness of Biblical Presbyterians he has maintained and used over the years. Christ is still building his church. Reformation doctrine and the fruit of it, missions, are good and important reasons to be a member of a Biblical Presbyterian church. God has used this part of Christ’s church to grow many in the faith and to share the faith in Jesus Christ for God’s glory.

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[1] I refuse to surrender the term marriage to the modern practice of joining together people of various sexual preferences in civil interpersonal unions. Marriage has definite Biblical, historic, and commonly understood definition in human relations as an institution; Genesis 2:18-25, “the institution whereby men and women are joined in a special kind of social and legal dependence for the purpose of founding and maintaining a family.”  Webster’s 7^th Collegiate Dictionary, 1971.

[2] See http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/03/17/im-a-presbyterian-minister-who-doesnt-believe-in-god-2/

[3] See http://www.lifenews.com/2015/04/09/presbyterian-church-hosts-rally-to-support-new-planned-parenthood-abortion-business/

[4] Actually I was a child in the UPUSA (United Presbyterian Church in the north) which joined with the PCUS (the southern Presbyterian Church) in the 1980s and became once again an unified national Presbyterian denomination known as the PC(USA). 

[5] The first presbytery was organized in Philadelphia in 1706 and the Westminster Standards were adopted as the Presbyterian Church’s doctrinal standards in 1729. (see: http://www.history.pcusa.org/history-online/presbyterian-history/timeline-presbyterian-history)

[6] See I Timothy 4:14 where the apostle Paul reminds Timothy of his ordination into the ministry by the presbytery (ESV) or elders. From this text and Acts 15 the meeting of the elders from the churches settled theological issues and ordained ministers (pastor-teachers/evangelists). This is the biblical way of governing churches.

[7][7] See http://www.monergism.com/search?keywords=doctrines+of+grace&format=All

Creation Ordinances

I was preparing my sermon on the fourth commandment this week. I was re-reading the book, The Market Day of the Soul by James T Dennison, Jr. where he shows the development of the Puritan doctrine of the Sabbath as a creation ordinance. The concept of a creation ordinance got me thinking about the news today of the action of the PCUSA affirming so called “homosexual marriage.” I refer to this as “so called” because by definition the term “homosexual marriage” is nonsense by definition. Marriage is a creation ordinance instituted by God as the mutual and intimate covenant relationship between a man and a woman and it has been acknowledged as a cultural universal for the history of humanity. Clearly the promoters of homosexual unions as “marriage” are on the wrong side of history, but I digress.

An acquaintance of mine wrote on his blog about the present state of the PCUSA. This action does not make them apostate. That sad fact occurred when that branch of Presbyterian Churches embraced “liberalism” and denied the scriptures as the infallible rule of faith and practice. J. Gresham Machen understood this in the 1920s and wrote the book, Christianity and Liberalism, in which he affirms that Liberalism is not another form of Christianity but entirely different, so different as to belong to a distinct category. The actions of the present General Assembly have their roots in this sad history of denying the scriptures. I am saddened by this expected result in the church of my youth. I was a member of the then UPUSA in Ohio. I remember as a teen when my family left with other families to start a new as a congregation of the newly formed PCA in the early 1970s that homosexuality was already an issue in Eastminster Presbytery of the UPUSA. The issue then and now is not homosexuality per se; it is the authority of God’s word. While I am not surprised, I am still saddened and even weep before God for the Church of Jesus Christ.

But my thoughts are not solely focused on the news of the PCUSA but really about creation ordinances. It absolutely astounds me that modern man has the very audacity to attempt to over throw the creation ordinances of God. To be sure, no lightening is immediately striking the arrogant rebels. They think God either doesn’t exist or doesn’t care. I think otherwise (Romans 2:3-7). Indeed God must sit in the heavens as ruler and king and laugh at our puny efforts to overturn His order (Psalm 2). A school boy learns that one can fight against God’s natural law of gravity only so long but in the end it will overtake you. We are creatures of this creation. God’s order, whether natural law or spiritual law, wins in the end. It is the reality we must deal with. We are not God. We bought the lie of Satan that we can be but that doesn’t make it any more true.

So my heart grieves for those who set up their own laws to replace the laws of God. This is nothing but self-destructive behavior. The reality and futility of sin will be made manifest but how many lives will be eternally ruined because of the present purveyors of such monstrous thinking and teaching? How many families will be torn apart by this irrational stupidity? In fact, I believe is it the goal of Satan and those that follow his perverse thinking that people should tear apart their most cherished relationships, kill their unborn offspring, and destroy themselves physically and spiritually by outright rebellion against God. What is the end? I marvel that many don’t see it. The end is the enslavement of all under sin and evil. Without spiritual discipline and the truth of God all we have is slavery and death. It seems ironic that this should be most manifest in America, “the land of the free and home of the brave.” America that has become the land of political correctness and government tyranny by regulation. America, the place where anything is tolerated so long as it isn’t the truth and true freedom.

But back to creation ordinances. They are the fabric of life in this age. They will not disappear whatever human beings may do. Only one man has kept them. That man is the man Jesus Christ, the Son of God come in the flesh. Only by faith in his righteousness and self-sacrifice is there life for the souls of men, women, and children. If we want to be true patriots we need to do two things. We must call men and women to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus. We must defend and practice the creation ordinances of God. If we wish to remain free we must preserve the sanctity of marriage and the family, we must defend the necessity and legitimacy of labor, and we must observe and rest in the hope of the Sabbath (Genesis 2:1-3; Heb 4:4ff).