A Little Known Truth
by Rev. David T. Myers

Only a short period of time after the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America had passed that political resolution in 1861 about support for the Union and  President Abraham Lincoln, the southern commissioners returned to their  homes and churches.  It wasn’t long in coming, but on June 16, 1861, Dr. Jacob Henry Smith stood up in his presbytery, which was the Orange Presbytery, and proposed that steps be taken to begin a new Assembly.  By December 4, 1861, that new assembly was known as the Presbyterian Church of the Confederate States of America.

Jacob Smith, with such a common name as “Smith,” was an uncommon man.  Born in Lexington, Virginia in 1820 of Scotch descent on his mother’s side, and German descent on his father’s side, he joined the membership of the Presbyterian Church of Lexington.  He studied at Washington College in his home town, and later, believing that God had called him into the ministry, completed his studies at Union Theological Seminary.

Entering the pastorate at Pittsylvania Courthouse in Virginia in 1846, he labored there for four years before becoming a headmaster at an academy in Halifax County.  The Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, Virginia from 1854 – 1859 next enjoyed his preaching.  Many souls entered the kingdom of grace under his ministry.

His  last congregation was the Presbyterian Church at Greensboro, North Carolina, where he labored for 40 years until his death in 1897.  Despite the civil war which raged for the first five years of his pastorate, the Word of God was not bound in any way.  Ten members went into the pastorate, including three from his own home.  It was said that he was a home in the pulpit and a model of a great preacher of the Word.

Words to Live By: Dr. Smith might have been recognized in church history  for his wise counsel to begin what later on became the Presbyterian Church of the United States.  But there was more to this fearless pastor of the Lord.  He was remember best as an expositor of the Word.  And having said that, there really is nothing else to be said, except for you reader to pray much that the challenges of each week in your pastor’s life might not hinder him from preparing adequately for the proclamation of the Bible.  That is his most important calling in life.

The Death of a Giant

Upon hearing of the sudden death of James Montgomery Boice on June 15, 2000, another pastor prayed in his pastoral prayer the following week in his congregation  that he wished the Lord had called him home instead.  That stark comment illustrates the appreciation which his fellow pastors and Reformed people everywhere had for the man and ministry.

Dr. James Boice was first and foremost a pastor-teacher.  For 32 years, he had fed the people of God at the historic Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  When countless churches were moving out of the inner city for the suburbs, Dr. Boice and his congregation stayed right where they were to be a witness to downtown Philadelphia.  Far from the congregation dwindling, it grew from 350 people in regular attendance to more than 1200 persons in three services.  Under his spiritual leadership, and the local Session of Elders, the light of the gospel was extended beyond the congregation,  to international students, women with crisis pregnancies, homosexual and HIV positive clients, and the homeless.

His ministry also went beyond the four walls of the church.  For a decade, he served as Chairman of the International Council of Biblical Inerrancy.  He founded the Alliance of Confession Evangelicals in 1994, calling for a new Reformation among American churches, its pastors and people.

America did not solely have his gifts of teaching either.  More than thirty countries of the world had his teaching ministry delivered to them.  Yet for many of us, it was his forty books on both Bible books as well as biblical themes which brought the gifts of this man to us.  We who were pastors had the privilege of using his biblical commentaries as core books for pulpit series.  We knew that there would not be doctrines or practices which would be contrary to either our biblical faith or for that matter, our creedal summaries of doctrine.  We could quote from his many pages with complete confidence.    Lay people could read for their devotions or Christian sabbath reading his books for their edification.  That reading would supplement what their pastors said to them from the pulpit.  It was thus a memorable  ministry to the people of God in this generation.

Words to Live By:  Even though we finite beings on earth have thoughts on when a person’s ministry may be over on that earth, God in His sovereignty is the real source of wisdom on the length of a  person’s ministry.  And God did exhibit that wisdom in taking James M. Boice home to Himself at the time He did.  We still have the benefit of his books which continue to be printed by publishing houses for the church.  Get your hands on any of these books, and your hearts and minds will be richly blessed.

Happy Anniversary! [after a fashion];
. . . and A Most Basic Right.

The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARPC) in this country began with a merger which took place on this day, June 13, 1782, between the Reformed Presbyterians and the Associate Church, two groups which derived directly from secessions from the Church of Scotland. Both groups entering this union were small and it was not until 1804 that the newly formed denomination had sufficient strength to constitute itself as a General Synod. Admittedly it’s a more complicated history than this short account would imply. As the ARPC grew, there were eventually four Synods and one General Synod. But today the ARPC officially looks back to the 1803 formation of the Church’s Synod of the South, since the other Synods eventually merged into the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.

But to make a point with today’s blog, let’s look more closely at the Associate Presbyterian side of that 1782 union. The Scottish Reformation dates to 1560. Then in 1733 came the First Secession, which came about when the 1732 General Assembly approved a highly controversial Act which inferred with a congregation’s right to call its own pastor. This First Secession was led by Ebenezer Erskine, and the departing group named themselves the Associate Presbytery. By 1745, the Presbytery had grown to the extent that it could now be constituted as a Synod. But no sooner had blessing come than division again brought humbling. The Associate Synod was split in 1747 over the Burgess oath. The sticking point was a clause in this oath which some took to mean they approved of the established or state-supported Church, the Church of Scotland. Those opposed to the Burgess oath were called Anti-Burghers and these took the name of the General Associate Synod, or in the American colonies, the Associate Church.

As one Scottish historian has observed, 

If the Scottish parliament had accepted the 1st and 2nd Books of Discipline at the time of the Reformation in 1560, the troubles which beset the Presbyterian church in Scotland in the ensuing centuries would never have happened. These were almost all caused by patronage – the right of a patron to appoint the minister in each parish. The Books of Discipline had lain down that the minister was to be chosen by the parishioners and that no minister was to be intruded against their will.
Unfortunately, the Parliament of the day was made up of men with vested interests – the landowners in those parishes and so while, initially, the Crown had assumed the right of patronage, landowners soon acquired that right. For a while, after the execution of Charles 1 in 1649 and throughout Cromwell’s Commonwealth, congregations were allowed to choose their ministers, but, after Charles 11 was restored, an act of 1662 re-instated patronage.
It also required all ministers who had been appointed since 1649 to acquire a patron. A quarter of the clergy refused to do so and so were deprived of their livings and it was these men who formed the backbone of the Covenanters, out of which movement, the Reformed Presbyterian Church emerged.

[http://scotsarchivesearch.co.uk/short-history-secession-churches-scotland/]

And so we want to stress the importance of that right of a congregation to call its own pastor. Presbytery has the right to keep an ill-suited man from the field, but the right of the congregation to call its own pastor can be considered the more foundational right. And basic rights can often become ignored rights, and once ignored, can sometimes be lost or surrendered when we forget just how important they actually are. Let’s take a look at how this fundamental right has been inshrined in the Constitutions of Presbyterian denominations over the last four and one-half centuries:

First Book of Discipline, Church of Scotland (1560)

Fourth Head—Concerning Ministers and their Lawful Election
It appertains to the people, and to every several congregation, to elect their minister. And in case that they are found negligent therein the space of forty days, the best reformed kirk—to wit, the church of the superintendent with his council—may present unto them a man whom they judge apt to feed the flock of Christ Jesus, who must be examined as well in life and manners, as in doctrine and knowledge.

 

Second Book of Discipline, Church of Scotland (1578)

Chapter 3—How the Persons that bear Ecclesiastical Functions are to be Admitted to Their Office
5. In the order of election, it is to be eschewed that any person be intruded in any of the offices of the kirk contrary to the will of the congregation to whom they are appointed, or without the voice of the eldership. None ought to be intruded or entered in the places already planted, or in any room that vakes not [is not vacant], for any worldly respect; and that which is called the benefice ought to be nothing else than the stipend of the ministers that are lawfully called and elected.

Then crossing the ocean, notice how consistently the American Presbyterian Churches have reiterated this core right of the congregation, each denomination taking up the very same wording in paragraph six of a document called the Preliminary Principles:

Preliminary Principles, Paragraph 6.
VI. That though the character, qualifications, and authority of church officers, are laid down in the Holy Scriptures, as well as the proper method of their investiture and institution; yet the election of the persons to the exercise of this authority, in any particular society, is in that society.

These denominations are:
(1.) Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (1789)
(2.) Book of Church Order of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (1936)
(3.) Book of Church Order of the Bible Presbyterian Church (1938)
(4.) Book of Church Order of the Presbyterian Church in America (1973)
[in 2008 the PCA made a small change, deleting the words “and institution”]

Note that the OPC and the BPC both come out of the PCUSA tradition where the Preliminary Principles were drawn up in 1788. Yet while the PCA comes out of the Southern Presbyterian tradition, those Preliminary Principles were seen as so important that our founding fathers included them as part of our Constitution. Curiously, the Southern Presbyterian Church had rejected the Preliminary Principles as early as 1867 and declined to include them in its Book of Church Order, viewing them as innately congregationalist in nature and as only befitting a nascent church. Time was limited but surprisingly, I did not see, in a quick scan, a similar provision in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Form of Government. If it is there, I would appreciate someone pointing it out. 

To read the full text of the Preliminary Principles, comparing the text as adopted by the above denominations, click here.

COMMENTS:

Phil Pockras writes:

The RPC was not a secession from the de novo 1690 Revolution Church, as the Secession was. The RPC was and is the lineal descendant of the original Kirk, including its Second Reformation attainments. This has been recognized by the civil courts of the UK, particularly in and through the “Ferguson Bequest Case” in the nineteenth century.

The Purity of Our Religion

“Whereas, amongst the infinite blessings of Almighty God upon this nation, none is nor can be more dear unto us than the purity of our re­ligion; … “. So begins the document which formally established the West­minster Assembly of Divines on June 12, 1643. It was concern for the “puri­ty of our religion” which lay at the foundation of our Westminster Confes­sion of Faith and Catechisms. This purity could not be maintained without protest against impurity. This same document specifies further that the Westminster Assembly was convened in protest against “… that present church-government by archbishops, their chancellors, commissars, deans … ” etc. because such a “hierarchy is evil, and justly offensive and burdensome to the kingdom, a great impediment to reformation and growth of religion . . . “. In undertaking their work the members of the Assembly were “. . . resolved … that such a government be settled in the church as may be most agreeable to God’s holy Word, and most apt to procure and preserve the peace of the church. . . “.

[excerpted from the RPCES report on “Apostasy as it relates to Ecclesiastical Separation.” (1978)]

The Man Whom God Prepares

ALEXANDER McLEOD, D.D.*

Alexander McLeod was born at Ardcrisinish, in the Isle of Mull, Scotland, June 12, 1774. His father was the Rev. Niel McLeod, who was connected with the Established Church of Scotland, and was Minister of the United Parishes of Kilfinichen and Kilvichewen. His mother was Margaret McLean, daughter of the Kev. Archibald McLean, who was the immediate predecessor of his son-in-law, Mr. McLeod, in the same charge. Both his parents were eminent for talents and piety. The great Dr. Johnson, in his tour through the “Western Islands, was a visitor at his father’s house, and, in referring to the circumstance, Johnson says,—” We were entertained by Mr. McLean,” (by mistake he used the name of the lady for that of her husband,) ” a minister that lives upon the coast, whose elegance of conversation and strength of judgment would make him conspicuous in places of greater celebrity.”

At the age of five years, Alexander McLeod lost his father; but, even at that early period, his mind seems to have been alive to religious impressions; for when the tidings of his father’s death were announced to the family, the child was upon his knees in prayer. From that time for several years the general conduct of his education devolved upon his mother, than whom perhaps no mother could have contributed more effectually to the development and right direction of his faculties. His mother, however, employed a tutor in the house, who immediately superintended his studies; and his uncommon quickness of apprehension and facility at acquiring knowledge, were indicated by the fact that he had mastered his Latin Grammar before he had completed his sixth year. He subsequently attended the parish school of Braeadale, in the Island of Skye, for three or four years, and availed himself also of the advantages furnished by other schools, with reference to particular branches, which were understood to be taught in them with unusual efficiency. He lost his mother at the age of about fifteen, when he was absent from home at school. So deeply was he affected by the tidings of her death, that, for a time, there were serious apprehensions that it would be the occasion of depriving him of his reason. As he was consecrated to the ministry in the intention of his parents, he seems, before he was six years old, to have formed a distinct purpose of carrying out their intention; and of that purpose he never lost sight, amidst all the subsequent vicissitudes which he experienced. He was always remarkable for an intrepid and adventurous spirit, and was not infrequently confined by injuries which he received in consequence of too freely indulging it.