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December 9: James Henley Thornwell

9 December, 2012 in December 2012 by archivist | No comments

This Day in Presbyterian History:

A Gracious God Gave Gifts 

The examination of the young candidate in the Presbytery north of the Mason-Dixon line was proceeding in church history. The questioner asked him to identify James Thornwell and his place in Presbyterian history.  The young man professed ignorance as to his identity, much less as to any place he had in our history.  This led the questioner to state that he doubted if the candidate could be ordained in any of our Southern presbyteries.

We have already looked at the life and ministry of James Thornwell on August 1.  That historical devotional looked at his life from his confession of Christ and committment to the Presbyterian faith until his demise at the beginning of the War Between the States.  For this devotional, we wish to see how the gracious God developed his life and ministry for the Lord.

Born on December 9, 1812 in South Carolina to a father who managed a Southern plantation in the area, just eight years later his father passed away. This brought a period of poverty to his mother and other members of the family. However, Martha Thornwell was no quitter and by a determined will and toilsome work, she kept the family from starving.

Around eleven years of age, James entered a country school taught by Peter McIntyre.  Obviously, with a name like that, he was Scottish in heritage.  It became obvious that there was a willing heart and mind in young James Thornwell. He became a real bookworm, reading volumes from the libraries of friends and neighbors, besides being faithful to do the assigned lessons each day. Noticing the mental gifts of the young man, a Mr. W. Robbins took the boy into his own home for three years of study.  Others of substantial means enabled him to attend the course of study at South Carolina College.

What occurred there was no less than amazing.  In spite of a weak constitution, the young man, now eighteen years of age in 1830, studied 14 hours per day.  He continued on in his reading taking up any and every book he could lay his hands on, even memorizing large portions of the Bible and other literature. Later in life, it was said that you could begin at any portion of a book, and he would finish it word for word.

He became the best debater at the College, a gift which would stand him in good grounds later on in his life and ministry.  But what was more important than all of these high points, was his profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  While he never could pinpoint when that happened, he knew that it did, and began to plan for the gospel ministry.

Words to live by:  There was really no excuse for the young candidate in not knowing who James Henley Thornwell  was.  He was a spiritual giant in the Southern Presbyterian church. Like Timothy of biblical days, no one could despise his youth, for he took the opportunities God had given  him to become the great defender of Christian truth in the South.  None should ever cite their poor background as a reason for not excelling in the church or world.  God can and has made great servants out of those who are impoverished by this old world. Believe that, and go and make a mark for Christ and Him crucified.

Through the Scriptures:  Philippians 1 – 4

Through the Standards:  Forms of church censures

WCF 30:4
For the better attaining of these ends, the officers of the church are to proceed by admonition, suspension from the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper for a season; and by excommunication from the Church, according to the nature of the crime, and demerit of the person.”

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December 7: Concluding the First General Assembly

7 December, 2012 in December 2012 by archivist | No comments

This Day in Presbyterian History:

New Church Sends Communication to All Christian Churches

It was at the close of the First General Assembly of what was originally named the National Presbyterian Church (a year later, renamed the Presbyterian Church in America) that a message was sent to all churches of Jesus Christ throughout the world from this new denomination.  Adopted and then sent on December 7, 1973, the elders of this new Presbyterian Church wished everyone to know of their principles and convictions which occasioned this new Church.

Chief among them was the sole basis of the Bible being the Word of God written by inspired authors and carrying the authority of the divine Author.  They desired that all branches of the visible church would recognize their conviction that “the Bible is the very Word of God, so inspired in the whole and in all its parts, as in the original autographs, the inerrant Word of God.”  Further, it is the only infallible and all-sufficient rule of faith and practice.”  (Message to all Churches, p. 1)

They also declared that they believed the system of doctrine found in God’s Word to be the system known as the Reformed Faith, as set forth in the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms. They wanted everyone to know that this Reformed Faith is an authentic and valid expression of Biblical Christianity.

A third conviction was expressed to renew and reaffirm their understanding of the nature and mission of the Church. To them, Christ is King and the only Law-giver, having established the Church as a spiritual reality.  It is composed of all the elect from all ages, manifested visibly upon the earth.

The chief end of man’s existence—our very reason for living—is to glorify God. That truth, reflected in the first answer of the Westminster Shorter Catechism aim, also implies that we give top priority to the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ which speaks to going into all the world, preaching the gospel, and disciplining all nations, bringing them into the church.

Last, they sought a return to the historic Presbyterian view of Church government from the Session of the local church to the Assembly of all the local church representatives.

With a closing invitation to ecclesiastical fellowship with all who maintain their principles of faith and order, the address came to a close.

Words to live by:  Even though the name was changed from National Presbyterian Church to Presbyterian Church in America in the next year after the publication of this Address, the principles and convictions have remained the same in this now forty year old church.  If you are not in a Bible-believing, Gospel-preaching Presbyterian and Reformed church, prayerfully consider the testimony and witness of the Presbyterian Church in America.

To read the entire “Message to All Churches of Jesus Christ throughout the World,” click here.

Through the Scriptures:  Ephesians 1 – 3

Through the Standards:  The necessity of church officers

WCF 30:2
“To these officers the keys of the kingdom of heaven are committed; by virtue thereof, they have power, respectively, to retain, and remit sins; to shut that kingdom against the impenitent, both by the Word, and censures; and to open it unto penitent sinners, by the ministry of the Gospel; and by absolution from censures, as occasion shall require.”

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December 5: First General Assembly, Day 2

5 December, 2012 in December 2012 by archivist | No comments

This Day in Presbyterian History:

The First General Assembly of the National Presbyterian Church (i.e., the PCA

As the newly formed denomination met that December in 1973, there was much to do and little time in which to accomplish it. The opening of the General Assembly had begun on the previous day, December 4th, at 7:30 PM with a time of worship and an opening address delivered by ruling elder W. Jack Williamson. That address was titled “To God Be the Glory”.

The first full day of work for the Assembly began the next day, on December 5th. Committees for the various church agencies began meeting at 8:30 AM and following lunch, another time of worship was set aside. The Rev. C. Darby Fulton preached from Philippians 3:7-14, on “The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ”.

The rest of that afternoon was spent in discussion and adoption of constitutional documents [the Westminster Standards and the Book of Church Order]. After dinner, the Assembly met yet again for worship, with the service under the direction of the Rev. Kennedy Smartt, then pastor of the Presbyterian church in Hopewell, Virginia. The Rev. Tim Fortner, of Hazelhurst, Missouri, led in prayer. The Rev. Sidney Anderson of Swannanoa, North Carolina, read the Scripture, and Dr. O. Palmer Robertson, professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, preached a sermon entitled “The National Presbyterian Church and the Faith Once Delivered,” taking Jude 3 as his text.

After the time of worship and before recessing for the evening, the Assembly continued its work on constitutional documents by adopting the first ten chapters of the Book of Church Order. The Assembly then recessed with prayer by the Rev. Todd Allen, pastor of the Eastern Heights Presbyterian church of Savannah, Georgia.

Words to live by: That second day of business was full and busy for the Assembly, but note how not just once but twice they met for times of worship during the day. I am reminded of Martin Luther’s statement, “I have so much to do today that I must spend the first three hours in prayer.” There is more truth in that statement than most of us are willing to admit, and certainly more than most of us are willing to live up to. But that first General Assembly of the PCA recognized their priorities and their need to completely and utterly rely upon the Lord in all their deliberations.

If you haven’t been living according to this pattern, then I urge you, test the Lord—try Him and see—put Him first each morning with a time of prayer and devotional Scripture reading. It doesn’t have to be long, perhaps just five or ten minutes if you can’t spare a half-hour. But I have every confidence that you will begin to see a marked improvement, first in your relationship with the Lord, and then in your relationships with family, friends, and  work.

Through the Scriptures:  Acts 23 – 25

Through the Standards:  Proof Texts of the Lord’s Supper

1 Corinthians 11:23 – 30
“For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took break, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said ‘This is my body which is for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.’  In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’  For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.  Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.  Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.”

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December 4: Organization of the National Presbyterian Church

4 December, 2012 in December 2012 by archivist | No comments

This Day in Presbyterian History:

They Had No Manual, but a New Presbyterian Church was Born

Gathering in Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, were teaching and ruling elders ready to begin a new Presbyterian denomination.  Their date of gathering, or organization, was December 4, 1973, as date consciously chosen with an eye to the past. They began this new Reformed church on the same day and month as the organization date for the mother church that they were leaving, the Presbyterian Church, U.S., commonly known in those years as the Southern Presbyterian Church. That denomination had begun on December 4, 1861 as the Presbyterian Church of the Confederate States of America. Later, that name was changed to the Presbyterian Church in the United States, after the War between the States.

In choosing to organize the new denomination on that anniversary date, the new denomination was making a statement, laying claim as the faithful continuing church, the remnant leaving behind the unfaithful or disobedient. In fact, the Continuing Presbyterian Church was the name that they first gathered under in the years and months leading up to their official organization. That they did not desire to continue as yet another regional church was evidenced by the name they chose for the new denomination, the National Presbyterian Church (though a year later, that name was changed to the Presbyterian Church in America).

Reformed men were obviously interested in reforming the church. And so ever since it was clearly discovered that the Presbyterian Church in the United States had apostatized with no hope to bring it back to its historic roots, men and women had been praying and working, and working and praying, for this historic occasion. Ruling Elder W. Jack Williamson was chosen as the first moderator, with Dr. Morton Smith elected as Stated Clerk.  Ministries then in planning and those already exercised in action, came together in rapid fashion: Mission to the World, Mission to the United States, Christian Education and Publications were organized by the delegates.  With godly and wise coordinators to lead them, the work began to raise up a church faithful to the Scriptures, true to the Reformed Faith, and obedient to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.

› Photo from the First General Assembly in 1973, with W. Jack Williamson at the podium, and Rev. Frank Barker seated, at the right.

Words to live by:  There is usually great excitement over a new birth in a family.  And so there was great excitement over the birth of a new denomination. Southern conservative Presbyterians had gone through many of the same struggles that Northern conservative Presbyterians endured just a few decades earlier. In both cases, the Church had been hijacked by the liberals. But godly men and women stood for the faith once delivered  unto the saints, and wouldn’t let historical attachments hold them captive to a decaying visible church. They voted with their feet and came out and were now separate. Praise God for their obedience to the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Through the Scriptures:  Acts 20:3 – 22

Through the Standards:  Differences between baptism and the Lord’s supper

WLC 177 — “Wherein do the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper differ?
A. The sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper differ, in that baptism is to be administered but once, with water, to be a sign and seal of our regeneration and ingrafting into Christ, and that even to infants; whereas the Lord’s supper is to be administered often, in the elements of bread and wine, to represent and exhibit Christ as spiritual nourishment to the soul, and to confirm our continuance and growth in him, and that only to such as are of years and ability to examine themselves.”

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December 3: Rev. Ethan Osborn

3 December, 2012 in December 2012 by archivist | 2 comments

This Day in Presbyterian History:

No Parallel in the Annals of the American Pulpit

So it was thought by the pulpiteers of the late nineteenth century, that is, our unique title today.  The description fit the Rev. Ethan Osborn, the pastor of the Fairfield Presbyterian Church, in Fairton, New Jersey.

Born in Litchfield, Connecticut in 1758, Ethan Osborn was born with religious parents and a religious education in a family of nine children.  When the Sabbath came in the week as the first day, he was in public worship.  Like many covenant children, it was simply to obey his parents.  But as the boy became older, the Sabbath became a most welcome day.  He began to practice secret prayer and by the time he entered college, he had received the Savior by faith alone.

College for Ethan was Dartmouth at age seventeen.  The American Revolution was at full tilt during his college years so that in the middle of it, he became a soldier at age eighteen.  It was a very hard year to do so as the Continental Army was being pushed around all over the eastern seaboard in 1776.  Ethan felt the providence of the Lord in that, becoming sick one month, he missed a battle in which his regiment was captured with the result that only four soldiers would make it through the brutal imprisonment.  He returned to the collegiate life soon after it, graduating in 1784.

With no theological school around (Princeton not beginning  until 1812), he studied for three years under experienced pastors.  Called to one church, he was led to delay it until December 3, 1789, when he was called to the Old Stone Church, as it was known then as their pastor.  For the next fifty-five years, he with warm biblical expositions and faithful shepherding the people of God, became known as “Father Osborn.”

Even though he would retire when he turned eighty-six years of age, he continued his ministry, preaching once when he was ninety-seven years of age.  He went to be with his Lord in 1858 at age ninety-nine years, eight months, and ten days.

The church today is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in America, and is the oldest Presbyterian Church of that denomination.

At right, the old former building of the continuing PCA congregation, Fairton, NJ.

Words to live by:  We might add many others to the title of this historical devotional, but for that time and place, for longevity itself, it was true of Ethan Osborn.  It was said that he was THE pastor of the Old Stone Church which had been established so early before our American Revolution.  And to think that it was able to join the Presbyterian Church in America without losing its building, as is usually the case, is providential indeed.  But more remarkable than a physical structure is the continuance in the faith of the gospel by the pastors, faithful elders, and families,  for three plus centuries of this church.  It is well to place them in a historical devotional.  The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.

Through the Scriptures: Romans 12 – 16

Through the Standards:  Similarities between baptism and the Lord’s supper

WLC 176 — “Wherein do the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper agree?
A. The sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper agree, in that the author of both is God; the spiritual part of both is Christ and his benefits; both are seals of the same covenant, are to be dispensed by ministers of the gospel, and by none other; and to be continued in the church of Christ until his second coming.”

 

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