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March 21 : Rev. Samuel Wilson & Catechesis

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

This Day in Presbyterian History:  

Home Religion was an Important Part of Colonial Presbyterianism

With tens of thousands of Scot – Irish  Presbyterians coming to  Cumberland County of Pennsylvania, various Presbyterian churches were organized in the seventeen hundreds in central Pennsylvania.  One such congregation was Big Spring Presbyterian Church in  Newville, just west of Carlisle.

After several pastors filling the pulpit, a call was extended to the Rev. Samuel Wilson on March 21, 1787.  After passing his ordination exams by the Presbytery of  Donegal, Rev. Wilson was installed as pastor on June 20, 1787.  It was said that his pastorate was one of activity and prosperity for the congregation.  He would stay there for thirteen years until 1799.

Evidently, the gift of administration was possessed by Rev. Wilson.  He composed long lists, listing the ages of all members and adherents. Dividing them into districts, Samuel Wilson assigned a ruling elder over each district.  These elders, among other duties, had the ministry of visiting each family and adherent on an annual basis.  These were  no social times.  Pastor Wilson had given to each elder, and those family members underneath their oversight, various questions of understanding, complete with catechisms to memorize from the Westminster Standards.  We have two samples of questions upon which the annual visits would ask and expect answers.

In Ruling Elder John Carson’s district, the first book of the Bible was the focus.  His questions were: 1. Who was the penman of Genesis?  When was it written?  What length of time does its history contain?; 2. What are the principal doctrines and events?;  3. What do you understand by creation, and is it a work peculiar to God only?; 4. What seems to be the order of creation and what is the work of each day?;  5. What are those called who do not acknowledge divine revelation?  What objections do they offer against Moses and how are their writing confuted?; 6. What rational arguments can be offered in favor of Moses, that his mission was from God and his writings were of divine inspiration?; 7. What Scriptural prophecies have been fulfilled, and what at present is fulfilling or yet to be fulfilled?   After these questions were to be discussed by each family, there was to be an examination upon the ninth chapter of the Confession of Faith!  Elder Carlson had 24 families in his district.

Elder William Lindsay had seven questions given by Pastor Wilson to his flock of members.  They were: 1.  What are the different kinds of faith in Scripture?; 2. What are the marks of true faith?; 3. Where does saving faith lie in assent or consent?; 4. What reason would you assign why no actions are acceptable to God, but such as flow from faith?; 5. Will it then follow, that wicked and unregenerate persons may as well transgress the law, as endeavor the observance of it?  6. Must we turn from sin in order to come to Christ by faith?  7. Seeing faith is the act of a believing soul, in what sense is it said to be the gift of God?  After these questions were asked and answered, Chapter 8 of the Confession of Faith was discussed.

Biblical Christianity was to be practiced not only within the four walls of the Church, but also inside the houses which made up the homes of Presbyterian families.  And spiritual elders were to be the spiritual overseers of each family.

Words to Live By: Pray for the elders of your church, that they might shepherd aright the church of God, which He has purchased with His own blood.  How comfortable would you be if similar type questions were asked of your family in an elder’s visitation?  Do you feel that such Scriptural exams would be profitable to your family?  The local church specifically?  What might you do to suggest such an approach to the people of God?

Through the Scriptures: Judges 9 – 12

Through the Standards: Christ’s Humiliation in his Death

WLC 49 — “How did Christ humble himself in his death?
A. Christ humbled himself in his death, in that having been betrayed by Judas, forsaken by his disciples, scorned and rejected by the world, condemned by Pilate, and tormented by his persecutors; having also conflicted with the terrors of death, and the powers of darkness, felt and borne the weight of God’s wrath, he laid down his life an offering for sin, enduring the painful, shameful, and cursed death of the cross.”

Remembering Our Fathers and Brothers:
The Rev. Norman B. McLeod entered his eternal rest on this day in 2003. Born in 1918 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Little is known from the PCA Yearbook as to his education, but he was ordained in 1974 and ministered out of bounds, with the permission of the James River Presbytery, at the Bethel Chapel Mission in Hopewell, Virginia.

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March 19 : William Jennings Bryan

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

This Day in Presbyterian History:  

He Kept the Faith

Mention the name of William Jennings Bryan, and most students of history will first think of the Scopes Trial and Clarence Darrow.  And our historical figure featured on this day was involved in that trial about whether evolution could be taught in a Tennessee school.   But this blog is about historic Presbyterianism in America.  And the truth is that William Jennings Bryan was a  member and ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.

Born in Salem, Illinois on March 19, 1860 to Christian parents, William at first attending Methodist  and Baptist churches.   Eventually, he went to a Cumberland Presbyterian Church in the area.  It was at age 14 when he attended a revival and gave his heart to Jesus.  He stated that this was the most important event of his life. Later, he would transfer his membership to the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.

Trained as an attorney, he married Mary Elizabeth Baird in 1884. She was also an attorney, and for a while, they practiced the law profession.  Various political issues brought him to the forefront.  He would run for president in 1896, 1900, and 1908 on the Democratic platform.  Twice, he served in Congress from Nebraska.  He even served at Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson, but resigned when American headed for World War I.

There are a number of political “firsts” which originated by Bryan.  At a time when political people stayed at home when running for president, he instituted the first national speaking tour.  He was the “first” to campaign in a car.  But none of these innovative ways to “do” politics won him any national  elections.

There came a time when, in looking at his efforts in the political realm, he realized that his true calling of life was in the spiritual sphere.  As a Presbyterian ruling elder, he began to see the increasing higher criticism of the Bible in Presbyterian churches.  He saw a watering down of the historic Christian faith in the missions arm of the Presbyterian church.  He saw  Darwinism, or evolution, which he characterized one as a “string of guesses” about the origin of the world, and mankind, take hold in Presbyterian colleges.  Campaigning to become the moderator of the General Assembly in 1923, and thinking that he could turn around this downward departure from the faith,  he was defeated even for that post of influence.

Two years later, he was cast as the great defender of fundamentalism at the Scopes Trial against the high school teacher who wished to teach evolution in his class.  While he technically won, even though it was reversed later, he died five days afterwards in his home.

Buried in Arlington National Cemetery, his gravestone reads, “He kept the faith.”

Words to Live By: We need to beware that a passion for politics or any other sphere of life on this earth does not divert us from our passion for biblical Christianity, first and foremost.  Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.”

Caveat Emptor (“Let the buyer beware”) : If you’ve ever watched the movie “Inherit the Wind”—the Hollywood version of the Scopes Trial—remember that not everything is as it seems. An interesting exercise is to get a copy of the trial transcript, easily obtainable through interlibrary loan, and  compare that content with the movie. It is remarkable how far Hollywood strayed from the accurate account of what actually happened during the trial.

Through the Scriptures:  Judges 1 – 4

Through the Standards:  Christ’s Humiliation in his Conception and Birth

WLC 47  — “How did Christ humble himself in his conception and birth?
A. Christ humbled himself in his conception and birth, in that, being from all eternity the Son of God, in the bosom of the Father, he was pleased in the fulness of time to become the son of man, made of a woman of low estate, and to be born of her; with divers circumstances of more than ordinary abasement.”

Remembering our Fathers and Brothers :
Called to their eternal reward on this day, March 19, in
1988 – Rev. Leonard Sherman Pitcher. Born in 1905 and an early graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary (1934), Rev. Pitcher was ordained by the West Jersey Presbytery of the PCUSA and installed as pastor of the Wildwood, New Jersey church, where he served from 1935-1937. From 1937-1944, he was pastor of Calvary Bible and Faith Bible churches in Seattle, Washington, and taught at the National Bible Institute (later Shelton College) from 1945-1956. Following two other pastorates, he then taught at Covenant College from the time it moved to Lookout Mountain in 1964 until 1971. His final fields of service were as a hospital chaplain and as minister of visitation at the Reformed Presbyterian church, Lookout Mountain, TN, 1973-1986.
2007 – Rev. Dustin Salter. Born in Alaska in 1969, Dustin prepared for the ministry at the Oviedo, Florida campus of Reformed Theological Seminary, graduating there in 1998. He was licensed that same year by the North Texas Presbytery (PCA) and ordained by the same Presbytery in May, 1999 and installed as a Reformed University Fellowship minister on the campus of Texas Christian University. He faithfully served that campus until 2006, at which time he was called to serve as the RUF minister at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina.
For more on Rev. Salter’s life and ministry, click here.
To read and/or listen to Dustin’s last sermon, preached just three days before his tragic accident, on the subject of God’s providence, click here.

Image source: Frontispiece portrait from The First Battle: A Story of the Campaign of 1896, by William Jennings Bryan. Chicago: W.B. Conkey Company, 1896.

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March 18 : The First Presbytery (1706)

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

This Day in Presbyterian History: 

The Stated Clerk was the Culprit

The Presbyterian clergymen had been identified as either ministers and waiting to be called to place of ministry.  Through informal talks, it was agreed by these seven ministers to gather for a presbytery meeting, the first to be held in the colonies of America. They did gather in the month of March, 1706 in Philadelphia.  We know that it happened before the 28th of that month.  But the exact date of this first presbytery is unknown to us because the stated clerk lost all but two paragraphs of the meeting.  The stated clerk, unknown in name, was the culprit.  Judging however from the date of  later meetings  in the following years, we can estimate that this meeting was held on March 18, 1706, with the Rev. Francis Makemie as the first moderator.

A review of the historic seven names of this original Presbytery might be profitable.  Even before you read the rest of this paragraph, close your eyes and see if you can name any of the seven clergy?  They were: Francis Makemie, John Hampton, George MacNish, Samuel Davis, John Wilson, Jedediah  Andrews, and Nathaniel Taylor.  Their backgrounds show a wide divergence of  traditions.  Makemie was Scot-Irish with strong ties to those mother countries of Presbyterian pilgrims.  Samuel Davis came from Ireland and pastored a church in Lewes, Delaware.  Three of the ministers were from New England.  Jedediah Andrews was a graduate of Harvard.  John Wilson was pastor at New Castle.  Nathaniel Taylor was also from New England.  The other two, George McNish and John Hampton, had just come over from England in answer to the call of Makemie.  Of the original seven, only three were pastors and the rest were missionaries.

» Statue in Accomack County, Virginia marking the grave of Frances Makemie, unveiled in 1908. »

Now Samuel Davis had sent an excuse to this first meeting. It evidently had something to do with travel time to get to Presbytery.   However the excuse was not sustained by the brethren.  They were not going to allow for any variance with what they considered to be both a privilege as well as a duty in attendance at Presbytery.

The purpose of the Presbytery was described later as a meeting of ministers for consultation as to the most proper measures for advancing religion and propagating Christianity in the colonies.  A second purpose was listed as furthering and promoting the true interests of religion and godliness.  The last reason was for the improvement of the ministerial abilities of teaching elders, which improvement was to be tested by prescribing text to be preached upon by two ministers at every Presbytery meeting.  That performance was subject to the criticism, positive and negative, of the rest of the elders.

Hebrews 1:1, 2 was the assigned text for the 1707 presbytery, to be preached  by Francis Makemie and John Wilson.

Philadelphia was the chosen site because it was central to the scattered bodies of Presbyterians which were meeting in churches in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Long Island, and  New England.  Perfect religious freedom was enjoyed in this eastern city of Pennsylvania.

The organization of Presbyterians thus gave them an early advantage over other religious traditions in the colonies.  They were ready to press on the inhabitants of this new land the value of holding true to the Scriptures, the Reformed faith, and the Great Commission.

Words to Live By: In faith and life, let everything be done decently and in order.  Especially is this a good rule for the planting of a church. What you do in the beginning days will be central in building the church in succeeding days.  So start the church well, according to Biblical principles and practices, and that rule will continue in later years, receiving the blessing of the Lord.

Through the Scriptures: Joshua 22 – 24

Through the Standards: The Humiliation of Christ according to the Catechisms

WLC 46 — “What was the estate of Christ’s humiliation?
A. The estate of Christ’s humiliation was that low condition, wherein he for our sakes, emptying himself of his glory, took upon him the form of a servant, in his conception and birth, life, death, and after his death, until his resurrection.”

WSC 27 — “Wherein did Christ’s humiliation consist?
A. Christ’s humiliation consisted in his being born, and t hat in  a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross; in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.”

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March 17 : Machen’s Profession of Faith

17 March, 2012 in March 2012 by archivist | 1 comment

This Day in Presbyterian History:

A Stirring Confession of Faith

On Sunday evening, March 17, 1935, Dr. J. Gresham Machen filled the pulpit of the  First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  This time period was in the framework of being under indictment for refusing to cease and desist from the support of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Mission, as the Mandate from the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA, had stated  in 1934.  His ordination was thus at stake.  His standing in that denomination was at stake. Listen to his profession of faith given on that evening.

“My profession of faith is simply that I know nothing of the Christ proclaimed, through the Auburn Affirmation.  I know nothing of a Christ who is presented to us in a human book containing errors, but know only a Christ presented in a divine book, the Bible which is true from beginning to end.  I know nothing of a Christ who possibly was and possibly was not born of a virgin, but know only a Christ who was truly conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary.  I know nothing of a Christ who possibly did and possibly did not work miracles, but know only a Christ who said to the winds and the waves, with the sovereign voice of the Maker and Ruler of all nature, ‘Peace be still.’  I know nothing of a Christ who possible  did and possibly did not come out of the tomb on the first Easter morning, but know only a Christ who triumphed over sin and the grave and is living now in His glorified body until He shall come again and I shall see Him with my very eyes.  I know nothing of a Christ who possibly did and possibly did not die as my substitute on the cross, but know only a Christ who took upon Himself the just punishment of my sins and died there in my stead to make it right with the holy God.”

Despite what the ecclesiastical machinery of the Presbyterian Church would do, Dr. Machen’s conviction was settled.  He ended it all by stating that he would “rather be condemned for an honest adherence to the Bible and to my solemn ordination pledge than enjoy the highest ecclesiastical honors and emoluments as the reward of dishonesty.”

Words to Live By: Can you echo the words of J. Gresham Machen today?  Today the attacks continue upon both the written and living Word.  Let us affirm this confession today, until God takes us home.

For further study:
To read the full message delivered by Dr. J. Gresham Machen that Sunday evening, March 17, 1935, click here.

Through the Scriptures:Joshua 19 – 21

Through the Standards:  The Humiliation of Christ, according to the Confession

WCF 8:4a – 4i
“This office the Lord Jesus did most willingly undertake; which that He might discharge, He was made under the law, and did perfectly fulfill it; endured the most grievous torments immediately in His soul, and most painful sufferings in His body; was crucified, and died, was buried, and remained under the power of death, yet saw no corruption . . . .”

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March 14 : Birthday of Geerhardus Vos

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

This Day in Presbyterian History:  Birth of Geerhardus Vos.

When the author of these historical vignettes was studying for his Doctorate of Ministry degree at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, one of the assignments was to read the first seventy-five pages of Geerhardus Vos’s book on Biblical Theology.  This should be a snap, I thought.  Only seventy-five pages of a large treatise.  It was one of my most difficult assignments ever, as Dr. Vos used complex theological words which only a theological  dictionary, my constant companion, would define. So it was slow going all the way through. In frustration I called my father, who had studied under Dr. Vos at Princeton  Seminary in 1929, hoping to receive some comfort about this assigned book. I received none from my dad.  His response was that I didn’t have to sit under Dr. Vos and interpret his “thick Dutch accent” while taking notes, so be thankful for small blessings!

Born this day, March 14, 1862, in Heerenveen, The Netherlands, Geerhardus Vos grew to become one of the finest and yet one of the last examples of the old Princeton theology. Immigrating to the United States in 1881 when his father answered a call to serve as pastor of a church in Grand Rapids, young Vos prepared for the ministry first at the Christian Reformed Seminary in Grand Rapids and then at the Princeton Theological Seminary, before taking his doctoral studies in Berlin and Strassburg.  After about five years teaching at the Seminary in Grand Rapids, he was named as the first Professor of Biblical Theology at the Princeton Theological Seminary, taking that post in 1893 and serving there until retirement at the age of 70, in 1932.

When Princeton Seminary was reorganized and modernists put in positions of authority over the Seminary, Vos was within three years of retirement. He chose to remain rather than follow Robert Dick Wilson and J. Gresham Machen as they founded Westminster Theological Seminary. Nonetheless, his convictions were with those faithful men, and upon his retirement in 1932, he left an impressive portion of his library to Westminster.

His theological works were numerous and interest in his work has only grown through the years. Sadly, few publications noted his death in August of 1949, one notable exception being the September 1949 issue of The Presbyterian Guardian (see page 164). James T. Dennison, Jr. has written a brief biography of Dr. Vos, originally published in Kerux and made available here.  Dr. Richard Gaffin has judged that Vos made his greatest contributions with his work on the kingdom teaching of Jesus [The Teaching of Jesus Concerning the Kingdom of God and the Church (1903)] and the theology of Paul [The Pauline Eschatology (1930)]. Just remember, that thick Dutch accent went down on paper (so to speak), and his writings are often challenging to read, but always worth the time.

His wife, Catherine Vos, was notable in her own right, particularly as the author of The Child’s Story Bible. She preceded him in death by some twelve years.

Words to Live By: An excerpt from “Jeremiah’s Plaint and Its Answer,” by Dr. Geerhardus Vos (1928)

“In taking the comfort of the prophetic promises to our hearts we do not, perhaps, always realize what after the tempests and tumults, in the brief seasons of clear shining which God interposed, such relief must have meant to the prophets themselves. For they had not merely to pass through the distress of the present; besides this they were not allowed to avert their eyes from the terrifying vision of the latter days. In anticipation they drank from the cup “with wine of reeling” filled by Jehovah’s hand. Nor did the prophets see only the turbulent surface, the foaming upper waves of the inrushing flood, their eyes were opened to the religious and moral terrors underneath. The prophetic agony was no less spiritual than physical; it battled with the sin of Israel and the wrath of God, and these were even more dreadful realities than hostile invasion or collapse of the state or captivity for the remnant. In a sense which made them true types of Christ the prophets bore the unfaithfulness of the people on their hearts. As Jesus had a sorrowful acquaintance with the spirit no less than the body of the cross, so they were led to explore the deeper meaning of the judgment to enter recesses of its pain undreamt of by the sinners in Israel themselves.”

Like the prophets, God calls us to weep over the sins of our times. We are not prophets—their time and place has gone—but God calls us still to take up the mind of Christ in this, to pray for His mercy upon a sinful people, to pray our Lord would rain down repentance and bring reformation.

Through the Scriptures:  Joshua 10 – 12

Through the Standards:  Christ Executes the Office of Priest

WCF 8:5
“The Lord Jesus, by His perfect obedience, and sacrifice of Himself, which He through the eternal Spirit, once offered up unto God, has fully satisfied the justice of His Father; and purchased, not  only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father has given unto Him.”

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