This Day in Presbyterian History:  

What’s in a Name?

Solomon wrote once that “a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches.”  (Proverbs 22:1a ESV)  And while this text speaks of one’s personal name, it could also have an application to the name of a denomination.  What’s in a name, after all?  That question was the issue in February, 1939 when the Presbyterian Church of America had to be renamed, just two and one half years after taking it up in 1936.

The Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. had taken the young denomination to court over the issue of its chosen name.  That whole scene will be dealt with in a future historical devotional on April 28.  When the PCUSA won the court case, the General Assembly of the PCofA decided not to contest the lower court decision.   Calling a special meeting in the month of February, the question was simple.  What do we call ourselves now?

Many names were suggested by the teaching and ruling elders.  Some of them were: Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Presbyterian and Reformed Church  of America, North America Presbyterian Church, Presbyterian Church of Christ, Protestant Presbyterian Church of America, Seceding Presbyterian Church  of America, and this contributor’s favorite, Free Presbyterian Church of the World!  Oh yes, one other name was also suggested.  It was the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

In the end, on this day, February 9, 1939, the name of Orthodox Presbyterian Church won over “Evangelical Presbyterian Church” by a close margin, but a winning margin. Certainly, each of the above suggested names meant something to the proponents of them, or they wouldn’t have been suggested in the first place.  The choosing of the winning name spoke volumes about the orthodox or straight, right, and true convictions which led the men and women out of the apostate Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in the first place.  Biblical orthodoxy would be the hallmark of the continuing church, as it had been back in 1936.

The managing editor of the Presbyterian Guardian, Thomas R. Birch, said that year of 1939 in his editorial,

“You whose privilege it is to bear that name (e.g. Orthodox Presbyterian Church), bear it proudly, gladly, holding its banner high.  It is a true and a great name, a name to exult in and a name to make you humble.  It tells the world exactly what you are and where you stand in the present death-struggle between the forces of faith and the battalions of unbelief.  It proclaims to the world that here is a Presbyterian church that takes its confession of faith seriously.  At the very outset it is a name with a meaning.”

Words to Live By: Biblical orthodoxy is a sham in some Presbyterian denominations and churches.  Let it not be in the specific church with which you are associated as a member or a minister.  Stand for the truth of the gospel, believing Martin Luther’s words to be true, “Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also; The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever.”

Through the Scriptures: Leviticus 1 – 4

Through the Standards: Divine providence toward angels

WLC 19 — “What is God’s providence toward the angels?
A. God by his providence permitted some of the angels, willfully and irrecoverably, to fall into sin and damnation, limiting and ordering that, and all their sins, to his own glory; and established the rest in holiness and happiness; employing them all, at his pleasure, in the administrations of his power, mercy, and justice.”

This Day in Presbyterian History:  

 The Christian patriot

We don’t know much about him other than broad general facts, but the Rev. Moses Allen deserves to have a record of remembrance written up in the annals of the history of our great nation and the Presbyterian church.  He was born in Northampton, Massachusetts on September 14, 1748.  Nothing is known about his family or early life.  We are told that he was educated at the College of New Jersey (which later became Princeton University), graduating in 1772.  He was then licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Brunswick on February 1, 1774 and later ordained to the gospel ministry on March 10, 1774.  The celebrated New Side minister William Tennent took part in that ordination, which took place in Savannah, Georgia.

A group of fifty-two Congregationalists from New England had settled in South Carolina, landing at Seawee Bay seventy-five years earlier in the history of the southern colony.  They soon planted an independent church at Wappetaw.  While the church was Congregationalist in spirit, it was in reality a Presbyterian church in doctrine.  In fact, more Presbyterian ministers were  pastors there than Congregationalist pastors.  To this congregation, young twenty-six year old Moses Allen was installed as its pastor.

To everyone’s surprise, his fast courtship of a young fifteen year old girl, and subsequent marriage of her, took place at this congregation.  Her name was Elizabeth Odingsell, who is described as a “ward” of a Revolutionary general from Georgia. Then just three years later, he went to Midway Church in Georgia.  It was there that he joined the Georgia Brigade of Patriots, to fight on the side of George Washington in that battle of independence from England.

» The old Midway Church, which was built in 1778. Rev. Allen would thus have been the pastor who oversaw the construction of old Midway, and he would have been able to preach there some number of times before his decease. »

It wasn’t safe to be a Presbyterian, and for that matter a Presbyterian pastor during the time of the Revolution.  Churches were subject to being burned down.  Congregations were subject to dispersal.  And the Midway Church was one such church and congregation which was to suffer from British occupation of the colony.  Allen, by this time, had left the pulpit to be a chaplain in the Georgia Brigade.  Captured by the British, he was placed in the hold of a prison ship in the Charleston harbor.  Just five years into his marriage with his young bride, he attempt to escape from captivity, by jumping overboard and swimming to the shore along with two French prisoners-of-war.  Twenty yards from the shore, he was afflicted with a cramp, and drowned, on this day of February 8, 1779.  His young bride was twenty years of age when he died.

It was said by way of testimony that he was faithful in exhortation and in  field service with the troops of Georgia.  Certainly, he faithfully ministered the Word of God in the two congregations which he served in South Carolina and Georgia.

Words to Live By:  This Presbyterian pastor is little known in Reformed circles today, but well-known to the annals of heaven.  He took the Word of grace to civilians and soldiers alike, uncaring about his safety, for he was in the hands of God.  We can go in life and calling with the same assurance that he possessed, knowing that our times are in His hands.

Through the Scriptures: Exodus 38 – 40

Through the Standards: The relation of providence to moral evil

WCF 5:4
“The almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in His providence, that it extendeth itself even to the first fall, and all other sins of angels and men; and that not by a bare permission, but such as has joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering, and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to His own holy ends; yet so, as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God, who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.”

Image source : Montevideo-Maybank: Some Memoirs of a Southern Christian Household in the Olden Time; or, The Family Life of the Rev. Charles Colcock Jones, D.D., of Liberty County, Ga., by R.Q. Mallard. Richmond, VA: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1898. Image appears in the plate facing page 51. Scanned by the staff of the PCA Historical Center.

This Day in Presbyterian History: 

An Outline of the Bible

Turning again to the Shorter Catechism, and specifically, question and answer number 3, the Catechism asks “What do the Scriptures principally teach?”  And the answer provided by the Westminster divines is “The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.”

The two questions and answers before this, which we considered on January 13 and January 29, were introductory in scope. For example, the foundation of all religion is summed up in the first question and answer regarding the chief end of man, being, namely, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  The second introductory question and answer tells us in addition, that the source of all religion are the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

Now, with these two introductory answers presented to us,  the catechism we study today constitutes the outline summary of the entire Shorter and Larger Catechism.  What we are to believe concerning God, or faith, doctrine, or theology, will be summed up in questions and answers 4 – 38 of the Shorter Catechism, and questions and answers 6 – 90 of the Larger Catechism.  What duty God requires of man, or duty, life, or practical theology, will be summed up in questions and answers 39 – 107 of the Shorter Catechism, and questions and answers 91 – 196 of the Larger Catechism. Here are what the Scriptures principally teach.

We focus in on the word “principally” first.  What is meant by this word is that there are other truths in Scripture for us to believe and receive, but the most important, or principle thing is, what we are to believe concerning God and what duty that faith calls us to in this life.  Doctrine and duty sums up the Biblical record.

What are we to believe about God first?  Subsequent answers in both catechisms will make known to us what God is, the persons of the Godhead, the decrees of God in creation and providence, and their execution. Most important, the decree of God and its execution in redemption, considered from eternity past, in time, and into eternity future, will be seen in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. There will be seen a progressive revelation in redemption, found both in the person and work of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

And we are to “believe” these truths, our Confessional fathers tell us. Alexander Whyte tells us that “belief is the assent of the mind to what is told us on competent and credible authority.  We are said to believe when we are convinced of a fact without our having had immediate and personal knowledge of it.  Belief and faith are precisely the same state of mind.” (Whyte, A Commentary on the Shorter Catechism, p. 7)

Second, we are told that the Scriptures teach us the duty God requires of us. Belief in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ, will never stand alone. It is faith alone which saves us, but the evidence of that saving faith will always be good works. To be without the latter is to give evidence that the former is not real in us. There is such a thing as dead orthodoxy.  Faith is not a genuine faith unless it leads to a biblical practice.

So as you read, or study the Bible in your daily readings, such as our “Through the Scriptures” sections of each day, ask yourself by self-examination, “what doctrine is God asking me to believe from this passage,” and “what duty does God want me to obey in my spiritual life today.”  Then and only then will the Word of God be profitable for you.

Words to Live By: An orthodox faith and an obedient life is the whole duty of Christians.  They must know what they believe and how to put it into practice.  To hear the Bible only and not be doers of it, is hypocrisy.  Let us be sincere before the Lord and carry out before man, especially those of the household of faith,  what we believe.

Through the Scriptures: Exodus 32 – 34

Through the Standards: Divine providence in the catechisms:

WLC 18 – “What are God’s works of providence?
A.  God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures; ordering them, and all their actions, to his own glory.”

WSC 11
A. “God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.”

A Similar Voice:
“Does It Matter What We Believe?,” by Leonard Van Horn [1920-2005]

Our title is rapidly becoming a popular question of this age within the walls of the church. Back some years ago the cry was, “No Creed but Christ!” This slogan was accepted by many and led many away from established systems of belief. As a dangerous trend in the life of the church, this departure prompted some to look for “revelations” outside of the revealed Word of God. Even this trend though can not be compared to the danger that is spreading throughout the church today, the danger of suggesting what we believe is not really important.

It is important to note that Question No. 3 of the Shorter Catechism places the matter of our belief in a prominent place. Our Lord did the same thing. In Matthew 22:37, 38 he says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy MIND.” The Bible leaves no doubt in the mind of anyone that what we believe is important.

Today in many Presbyterian churches there is a prejudice against creeds, against doctrine. This is shown in our failure to teach our Standards. It is also seen in the failure always to insist that candidates for the ministry be thoroughly conversant with the Standards. Again it is seen in the growing emphasis within the church today of obedience to the church as an institution without regard to the teaching of the Bible or of the accepted Creed.

Does it matter what we believe? It certainly does, if we are going to be a confessing body. It certainly does, if we want to continue to hear a gospel message in our church. The very heart of the gospel message is that we may receive the gift of salvation by believing (trusting) in Christ as our Saviour. Without this act of faith or belief we are lost, with it we are saved. Thus what we believe does make a difference, namely, where we shall spend eternity — heaven or hell.

It is equally true that it matters what we believe because the duty which God requires of us is based on what we believe. The widely accepted definition of belief is that “it is the assent of the mind to what is told us on competent and credible authority.” Our Standards contain the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures. Therefore any indifference to doctrine, any attempt to bypass or alter it to suit modern man, any movement to permit, as acceptable practice, less than a complete commital to our doctrinal standards should be recognized as contrary to historic Presbyterianism.

Excerpted from “Studies in the Westminster Shorter Catechism” by the Rev. Leonard T. Van Horn. Port Gibson, MS: The Shield and Sword, Vol. 1, no. 3, March 1961. Rev. Van Horn was one of the founding fathers of the PCA. His work on the ruling elder remains in print and is available from the PCA Bookstore. Copies of Rev. Van Horn’s studies on the Shorter Catechism are scarce, but we are grateful to have a set preserved at the PCA Historical Center.