March 2012

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March 11 : The Two National Presbyterian Churches

11 March, 2012 in March 2012 by archivist | No comments

This Day in Presbyterian History:  

A Supreme Court Justice Plants a Church

When forty thousand Christians on December 4, 1973 started a new Presbyterian Church, they were understandably excited beyond measure for the fruition of plans to begin a Bible-believing, Gospel-preaching church true to the Scriptures, the Reformed Faith, and the Great Commission.  Though they essentially had left the Southern Presbyterian church (PCUS), they had a vision of impacting the whole nation.  So they named their denomination the National Presbyterian Church.  They immediately however encountered a road block to the choice of that name.  There already was a congregation by that name, the National Presbyterian Church, located in Washington, D.C., and this local church had a national mission to all the states and even beyond, primarily as an endorsing authority for military chaplains. So in the second year of its existence, the new denomination changed its name to the Presbyterian Church in America.

National Presbyterian Church [the congregation] had its beginnings in two PCUSA congregations located in the nation’s capitol. The First Presbyterian Church, which began in the last decade of the seventeen hundreds in our nation’s capitol, was the home of countless presidents.  Chief executives like Jackson, Polk, Pierce, Buchanan, Cleveland made this their Washington home church.

The other congregation which joined to make National Presbyterian what it is today was Covenant Presbyterian Church.  It was begun when eleven ruling elders of  New York Avenue Presbyterian Church met in the home of Supreme Court Justice William Strong on March 11, 1883 to plant another Presbyterian church in the capitol.  Its first service was in 1889 and it was dedicated in 1901.  Early attenders were President Harrison and Alexander Graham Bell.  It became the home church of President Dwight David Eisenhower, when he was elected to this high position.

Both churches united and were designated as the National Presbyterian Church as an action of the Presbyterian Church USA in 1946.   Thus, they did not wish any confusion as to what would be considered the National Presbyterian Church.

In hindsight, the decision to change the denominational name rather than contest the matter, while gracious, was also providential. For so the churches, sessions, and elders who came out of the PCUS church in 1973 were then enabled to choose what their real calling  was to be, namely, the Presbyterian Church in America.

Words to Live By: God doesn’t ever make any mistakes.  If an action in your life, or the life of your church, at first seems a puzzle, just wait for God’s providence to make it clear.

Through the Scriptures: Joshua 1 – 3

Through the Standards: Why the Redeemer is Both Jesus and Christ, according to the Confession

WCF 8:3
“The Lord Jesus, in His human nature thus united to the divine, was sanctified, and anointed with the Holy Spirit, above measure, having in Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell; to the end that, being holy, harmless, undefiled, and full of grace and truth, He might be thoroughly furnished to execute the office of a Mediator and Surety.  Which office He took not unto Himself, but was thereunto called by His Father, who put all power and judgment into His hand, and gave Him commandment to execute the same.”

Remembering Our Fathers and Brothers, passed into glory on this day, March 11, in
1983 – the Rev. John Knox Bowling.
2005 – the Rev. Richard Summers.

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March 10 : George McNish

10 March, 2012 in March 2012 by davidtmyers | No comments

One of the Seven Original Presbyterians

We don’t know much about the early years of George McNish.  He attended the University of Glasgow.  The fact that he was able to get in free, indicated that he was a Scotchman, but beyond that, we don’t know anything else about his background in the mother country.

What we do know is that the father of American Presbyterianism, the Rev. Francis McKemie, went back to the British Isles for needed spiritual reinforcements to take advantages of the open door for effective service in the American colonies.  George McNish was one of the ones he found, who was willing to travel to America.  Helping him in that was the Presbytery of London, who promised two years support for their labors.  The year was 1705.

In the very next year, seven Presbyterian clergymen, with one of them being George McNish, organized the first American Presbytery, the Presbytery of Philadelphia.  At the time, McNish was not representing any church, but that was to change.  In that same year of 1706, he became the pastor of Wicomico Presbyterian Church, Salisbury, Maryland.  Four  years later, the new Presbytery of Philadelphia in 1710 honored him by electing him as Moderator.  It was in relation to the spiritual gift of administration that he was known by in that early Presbyterian Church.  He would serve again as Moderator in 1716.

In 1711, he became the pastor of the Jamaica Presbyterian Church. Long Island, New York.  Descriptions of McNish use words as “forceful” and ” possessing Scottish energy and resourcefulness” regarding his pastorate on the island.   Evidently, the Anglican church desired some land on which to build a church.  He accused them of being “Episcopal pirates in Jamaica.”   McNish would pastor the church there until his death on March 10, 1722 and be known as the father of New York Presbyterianism.

Also on this date: Dr. J. Gresham Machen preached for the last time in the chapel at Princeton Theological Seminary. His sermon, on the texts of Phil. 4:7 and I Tim. 6:12, was titled “Fight the Good Fight of Faith.”

Words to Live By:Go, make disciples, and teach are the commands of the Great Commission in Matthew 28. George McNish took those commands literally in coming to our shores so long ago.  We need to honor the memory of this early missionary.

Through the Scriptures: Deuteronomy 32 – 34

Through the Standards: The Redeemer of God’s Elect is God and Man in One Person, According to the Catechisms:

WLC 37 — “How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
A. Christ the Son of God became man, by taking to himself a true body, and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary, of her substance, and born of her, yet without sin.”

WLC 38 — “Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be God?
A.  It was requisite that the Mediator should be God, that he might sustain and keep the human nature from sinking under the infinite wrath of God, and the power of death, give worth and efficacy to  his sufferings, obedience, and intercession; and to satisfy God’s justice, procure his favor, purchase a peculiar people, give his Spirit to them, conquer all their enemies, and bring them to everlasting salvation.”

WLC 39 — “Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be man?
A. It was requisite that the Mediator should be man, that he might advance our nature, perform obedience to the law, suffer and make intercession for us in our nature, have a fellow-feeling of our infirmities; that we might receive the adoption of sons, and have comfort and access with boldness unto the throne of grace.”

WLC 40 — “Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be God and man in one person?
A. It was requisite that the Mediator, who was to reconcile God and man, should himself be both God and man, and this in one person, that the proper works of each nature might be accepted of God for us, and relied on by us as the works of the whole person.”

WSC 22 — “How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
A. Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body, and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin.”

Remembering Our Fathers and Brothers:
On this day in 1999, the Rev. Vincent Crossett passed away.

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March 9 : Charles Grandison Finney

9 March, 2012 in March 2012 by davidtmyers | 1 comment

This Day in Presbyterian History:   

Let’s Take a Quiz

Who am I? I have been called the father of American revivalism . . . the forerunner of everyone from Dwight L. Moody to Billy Graham . . . and still, living in the Vineyard movement to the Church growth movement . . . a darling of both the religious right and the Christian left, or both to the late Jerry Falwell and Jim Wallis . . . envisioned in the church as an agent of change to both individuals and the social gospel? Have you identified me yet? If you chose Charles Grandison Finney, you have passed the test. Finney lives on in all these men and movements today.

Charles G. Finney was a Presbyterian minister whose dates are 1792 to 1875.   A product of the New England states, he taught in his early life and later became an attorney in New York state.  One day, he decided to find God in the woods behind his law practice. He came back to his office claiming to have a baptism of the Holy Spirit which he could barely describe, so wondrous was it.  Giving up his law practice, he refused to attend Princeton Seminary, or for that matter, any seminary, and still was ordained into the Presbyterian church.  He began to conduct revivals then and there. What transpired was what has become known in American church history as the second great awakening.  Only this awakening was diametrically different from the first great awakening.

In examining Finney’s theology and subsequent preaching, listen to the words of Michael Horton. He summed up Charles Finney’s theology and subsequent preaching, as believing that God is not sovereign, that man is not a sinner by nature, that the atonement is not a true payment for sin, that justification by imputation is insulting to reason and morality, that the new birth is simply the effect of successful techniques, and that revival is a natural result of clever campaigns.  He consistently held all these positions in both his campaigns and his books. In short, whatever it was that Charles Finney accomplished, his efforts were rooted in an aberrant theology known as Arminianism. And while any real spiritual results were fleeting, his methods persist to this day.

How different was this from the first great awakening which was rooted in Calvinistic theology?  What you would find in the first great awakening was the teaching that God was sovereign in salvation, that every human being was sinful by nature, that Jesus Christ took on human flesh to stand in our place, bearing our sin and achieving a righteousness for us which is ours by faith, that this new life in Christ is a work of the Holy Spirit, and that revival is brought about by that same Holy Spirit Who is not dependent upon human means for the accomplishment of His work.

It was in 1831 that Charles Finney began a six month revival in the Presbyterian Church of Rochester, New York.  He would preach close to a hundred sermons, complete with all the emotional excesses of a man-centered gospel, ending it on March 9, 1831.  It was these meetings which were the zenith of his evangelistic career.  He went on to other churches and revival, but would come back to Rochester two more times.

Words to Live By: There are two approaches to the gospel which distinguish between the First and Second Great Awakenings. So the question is a simple one : Which do you side with — a God-centered awakening or a man-centered awakening? It was this same question which American Presbyterians had to answer in the early nineteenth century.  Old School Presbyterians answered clearly in the theology of the First Great Awakening.

Through  the Scriptures:  Deuteronomy 29 – 31

Through the Standards: The Redeemer is God and Man in One Person

WCF 8:7 — “To all those for whom Christ has purchased redemption, he does certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same; making intercession for them, and revealing unto them, in and by the word, the mysteries of salvation; effectively persuading them by his Spirit to believe and obey, and governing their hearts by his word and Spirit; overcoming all their enemies by his almighty power and wisdom, in such manner, and ways, as are most consonant to his wonderful and unsearchable dispensation.”

Remembering Our Fathers and Brothers:
On this day in 2003, Rev. Rodney Stortz entered his eternal reward. Rev. Stortz is best remembered as the organizing pastor of the Twin Oaks Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri. Born in 1950 and raised in Allentown, PA, he was educated at Covenant College and prepared for the ministry at Covenant Seminary. He was licensed by Midwest Presbytery in 1976 and ordained by the Pittsburgh Presbytery of the RPCES in 1977, being installed as the associate pastor of the historic First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh. In 1979 he answered a call to serve Westminster church in Muncie, Indiana, and then was called to The Covenant Presbyterian Church in St. Louis. Rev. Stortz preached from that pulpit from 1983-90, before becoming the organizing pastor of the Twin Oaks Presbyterian Church.

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March 8 : Gilbert Tennent [1703-1765]

8 March, 2012 in March 2012 by davidtmyers | 1 comment

This Day in Presbyterian History:  

The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry

On March 8, 1740, the Rev. Gilbert Tennent preached a message on “The Danger of a unconverted Ministry” at Nottingham, Pennsylvania.  In it, the Presbyterian leader of what became known as the New Side Presbyterians, railed against those ministers who, in his estimation, were without Christ and without God.  This, according to Tennent, was their condition because they refused to countenance the evangelistic preaching of George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and other graduates of the Log College to the colonies during the first Great Awakening.  Tennent spared no words further, in denouncing those in the pew who were content to sit under their ministry.  Listen to his words:

“We are informed that our dear Redeemer was moved with compassion (when He saw the people.)  And what was the cause of this compassionate commotion in the heart of Christ?  It was because he saw much people as sheep having no Shepherd.  Why had the people then no teachers?  Oh yes!  They had heaps of Pharisee-teachers, that came out, no doubt after they had been at the feet of Gamaliel.  But not withstanding the great crowds of these orthodox, letter-learned and regular Pharisees, our Lord laments the unhappy case of that great number of people, who, in the days of his flesh, had no better guides.

“Is a blind man fit to be a guide in a very dangerous way?  Is a dead man fit to bring others to life?  Is a leper fit to be a good physician?  Isn’t an unconverted minister like a man who would teach others to swim, before he had learned it himself, and so is drowned in the act, and dies like a fool?”

There was no doubt in anyone’s ears that his application was to the Presbyterians ministers of his day who rejected the evangelistic preaching of himself and others.  He urged their members to reject their preaching and go to other churches where the message of life was heard clearly.

Charles Hodge later would say that this was the harshest sermon preached from any pulpit during its day.  It, and other cases, were to cause the first big schism in American Presbyterianism, known as the New Side Old Side Split.  It would last from 1741 to 1758. Eventually Gilbert Tennent realized that his words were intemperate and confessed all of that to the united church.  In fact, he was one of the forces which led to the reunion of both sides in 1758.  The Presbyterian Church was one once again.

Words to Live By:  Jesus said in John 7:24 “Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.” (NIV)  There is a place of right judgments, but beware of judging by what seems to be the case.  It might not be, and much harm can be done by words.

Through the Scriptures: Deuteronomy 26 – 28

Through the Standards: The Only Redeemer of God’s Elect according to the Catechisms 

WLC 36 — “Who is the Mediator of the covenant of grace?
A. The only Mediator of the covenant of grace is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, on one substance and equal with the Father, in the fulness of time became man, and so was and continues to be God and man, in two entire distinct natures, and one person, for ever.”

WSC 21 — “Who is the Redeemer of God’s elect?
A. The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man and so was, and continues to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, for ever.”

Remembering Our Fathers and Brothers :
The following PCA pastors passed into glory on this day in—
1993 – Robert Richard Davis (South Florida Presbytery, PCA). Born in 1933, he graduated from Union Theological Seminary in 1961 and was ordained in the Methodist Church. Eventually he transferred first into the PCUSA and then was pastor of the Hazelwood Presbyterian Church in the years leading up to the formation of the PCA. From 1972-1987, he was pastor of the Old Cutler Presbyterian Church, Miami, FL and he led that church into the PCA in 1980. Rev. Davis is also noted as the author of a particularly helpful first-person account, My Journey Into Alzheimer’s Disease :

Robert Davis was a pastor of one of Miami’s largest churches, an outstanding preacher, a dynamic man, with a growing ministry.
But subtle changes began to take place within his brilliant mind—bizarre symptoms and behaviors patterns—and his phenomenal memory began to fade. After months of testing, the doctor broke the news—Alzheimer’s, permanent and irreversible. “I wish I could tell you it’s cancer,” his doctor said.
This book offers unusual inspiration, written by a man who remains a ministering servant to the end—using his last lucid thoughts to share with us his walk of faith into Alzheimer’s Disease.

1994 – Egon A. Middelmann (Missouri Presbytery, PCA). Born 16 March 1942, Rev. Middelmann was ordained a minister in the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod and served as pastor of the Grace & Peace church in St. Louis. He was also largely responsible for the founding of the Old Orchard Presbyterian Church in Webster Groves, MO. The Rev. Ron Lutjens, pastor of the latter church, wrote this memorial upon the death of Rev. Middelmann:

“. . . Much of our life as a congregation still reflects the influence of Egon’s teaching and Grace & Peace’s example of living out the gospel in a 20th century setting: reaching out to marginalized people with the comfort and acceptance of Jesus Christ, weekly communion, the extension of Lord’s Day worship into regular church meals, the primacy of individual pastoral care in the life of the church, an appreciation of both the traditional and the contemporary in public worship, an acceptance of diversity of lifestyle among the membership, an enjoyment of the arts as a celebration of life, and most of all, an emphasis on living openly and honestly before one another.out of a conviction that because of the tremendous freedom Christ won for us at the cross, we do not have to pretend to be better people than we really are. It was under the preaching and teaching of Egon that many who came through Grace & Peace learned that even while we must be proclaiming Christ as the absolute answer to those around us caught up in a destructive moral and philosophical relativism, still, the holiness of God demands that the church learn to criticize itself even as it criticizes the world, since nothing but God’s Word is infallible. How reassuring for many of us was Egon’s insistence that the justification of sinners won for us at Calvary takes the fear and anxiety out of this self-criticism that the gospel calls us to.”

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March 7 : David Brainerd’s Diary

7 March, 2012 in March 2012 by davidtmyers | No comments

This Day in Presbyterian History:

Glory, Glory, Glory to the Blessed God

Our minds and hearts are drawn once again to one of the diary entries of David Brainerd, that man of God who, as a Presbyterian home missionary,  ministered to the native Americans in the mid-eighteenth century in our land.  Listen to his words penned on March 7, 1743:

“This morning when I arose, I found my heart go after God in longing desires of conformity to him, and in secret prayer found myself sweetly quickened and drawn out in praises to God for all he had done to and for me, and for my inward trials and distresses of late.  My heart ascribed glory, glory, glory to the blessed God and bid welcome to all inward distress again, if God saw meet to exercise me with it.  Time appeared but an inch long, and eternity at hand; and I thought I could in patience and cheerfulness bear anything for the cause of God, for I saw that a moment would bring me to a world of peace and blessedness.  My soul by the strength of the Lord, rose far above this lower world, and all the vain amusements and frightful disappointments of it.”

It is clear from reading this brief diary entree that Brainerd saw clearly that both delights and distresses came equally from God’s hand.   Regardless of which came his way, he was prepared to say, “Glory, glory, glory to the blessed God” for it.  And while this is hard to do, to praise God for dark providences, as one called it, yet it is biblical, to say the least.  “In everything give thanks,” the apostle Paul commanded in 1 Thessalonians 5:17.  It is primarily possible when, like David Brainerd, we find ourselves drawn irresistibly to God in adoration and obedience.  Thus we know that, being close to Him, He will give only that which is necessary for our souls to live closely to Him.

Words to Live By:  It is only by daily walking with God, as David Brainerd did during his short life, that we will be able to accept all what the Father has sent our way.  Question? Are you daily walking moment by moment with the Triune God?

Though the Scriptures:  Deuteronomy 23 – 25

Through the Standards: The Only Redeemer of God’s Elect, according to the Confession

WCF 8:1
“It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, to be the Mediator between God and man, the Prophet, Priest, and King, the Head and Savior of His Church, the Heir of all things, and Judge of the world: unto whom He did from all eternity give a people, to be His seed, and to be by Him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.”

WCF 8:2
“The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance and equal with the Father, did, when the fulness of time was come, take upon Him man’s nature, with all the essential properties, and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin; being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, of her substance.  So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion.  Which person is very God, and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God and man.”

Remembering Our Fathers and Brothers :
The following PCA pastors entered their eternal rest on this day in—
1990 – William Donald McColley. Born in Tacoma, Washington in 1936, Rev. McColley graduated from Covenant Theological Seminary in 1961 and was ordained in the RPCES, ministering for four years with InterVarsity before becoming the organizing pastor of the Glenmore Presbyterian church in Calgary, Alberta. Honors included serving as vice Moderator of the RPCES Synod meeting in 1972. His longest pastorate was with the Bellewood church in Bellevue, WA, 1980-87 and at the time of his decease, he had been the pastor of the Covenant Evangelical Presbyterian church of Calgary, 1987-90.
1998 – Clyde Capehart Cobb. Born in 1941 and educated at Fuller Theological Seminary, he was both an educator and a pastor. Rev. Cobb was serving as the organizing pastor of the Grace Fellowship church in Kingston, Tennessee up until the time of his death.

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