March 2012

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March 6 : Pearl Buck [1892-1973]

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

This Day in Presbyterian History:  

How Many of You Know . . .

Mention the name of Pearl Buck and countless Americans will immediately think of the award-winning book “The Good Earth.”  And indeed Pearl Buck did write that famous work and many other novels which earned her both a Pulitzer prize as well as a Nobel prize for literature.  But how many Americans, and even church folks, know that she was instrumental in bringing about the original Presbyterian Church of America in 1936?  And yet she was.

Born of missionary parents in China associated with the Southern Presbyterian church in West Virginia, Pearl Buck returned with her husband to China as missionaries under the Board of Foreign Missions of the northern Presbyterian Church.

In 1932, the book “Rethinking Missions” was published. It stated that its aim was to do exactly what the title suggested, namely, to change the purpose of sending foreign missionaries to the world.  Its aim was to seek the truth from the religions to which it went, rather than to present the truth of historic Christianity.  There should be a common search for truth as a result of missionary ministry, was the consensus of this book.  Pearl Buck agreed one hundred per cent with the results of this book.  She believed that every American Christian should read it.

To her, Jesus ceased to be the divine son of God, virgin born, and conceived by the Holy Spirit.  There was no original sin in her belief structure.  All these truths of historic Christianity made the gospel to be a superstition, a magical religion, and should be done away with by the church, and subsequent mission boards.

Obviously, with beliefs like this, Pearl Buck became the focus of men like J. Gresham Machen, who published a 110 page book on the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.  That treatment was freely presented to the congregations of the Northern Presbyterian Church.  The result was that Pearl Buck was forced to resign from the China mission, though the Presbyterian Board accepted that resignation with regret.

Eventually, the situation of the China Mission was a powerful basis for forming the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions in 1933. True Bible-believing Presbyterians needed to have one board which would only send missionaries to foreign lands who believed that Jesus was the only way, truth, and life to God.  Pearl Buck did not believe this biblical truth.

Pearl Buck passed into eternity on March 6, 1973.

For further study:
“Pearl Buck’s Comments upon the death of J. Gresham Machen.”

Words to Live By: The New Testament author,  Jude, writes about those who “creep in unnoticed” into the church, who “deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”  As long as the church is on earth, there will be a need for Christians to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered unto the saints.” (ESV  – James 3, 4)

Through the Scriptures: Deuteronomy 20 – 22

Through the Standards: Proof Texts of the Covenant of Grace

Genesis 3:15
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (ESV);

Ezekiel 36:26, 27
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.  And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”  (ESV)

John 1:29
“Behold, the Lamb of God. who takes away the sin of the world.” (ESV)

Image sources:
1. The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, Wednesday, 12 June 1935. Clipping from page 78 of Scrapbook No. 1 in the Henry G. Welbon Manuscript Collection.
2. Front cover of Modernism and The Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. – Arguement of J. Gresham Machen in Support of an Overture Introduced in the Presbytery of New Brunswick at Its Meeting on January 24, 1933, and Made the Order of the Day for the Meeting on April 11, 1933. Philadelphia: Press of Allen, Lane & Scott, 1933. Pb, 110 p.
All scans prepared by the staff of the PCA Historical Center.

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March 5 : Robert Lewis Dabney [1820-1898]

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

This Day in Presbyterian History: 

A Pillar of Strength in the House of our God

By the age of fifteen years of age, the young man had studied Latin, Greek, algebra and geometry.  This enabled him to get ready for the sophomore class at Hampden-Sidney College.  While there, a spiritual revival brought him to Christ, and at age 17, he joined the Providence Presbyterian Church in Louisa County, Virginia.

Born March 5, 1820, Robert Lewis Dabney was a man of many sides.  We could write about his political side in this historical devotional, and see him as a loyal citizen of the Confederacy.  Even after the War Between the States, he would write a book defending the South’s position.

We could write about his military side.  He was a chaplain at the beginning of the war to the eighteenth Virginia which fought at Manassas in 1861. Many soldiers would come to Christ through his preaching the gospel.  And of course, he was the chief of staff for a year with General Stonewall Jackson.

We could spend time by thinking about the pastoral side of Dr. Dabney.  He was the pastor of Tinkling Spring Church after graduating from Union Theological Seminary down south. The congregation grew under his ministry both spiritually and numerically.

But the better use of this space would be found in thinking about the mentoring side of Dr. Dabney. Whether it was teaching at Hampden-Sydney, Union Theological Seminary, the University of Texas, or Austin Theological Seminary, hundreds of students, many of whom would go on to serve the Lord Jesus, received the truths of theology and church history from his lips.  He was the chief proponent of that system of Reformed Theology which the Southern church had ever known. Calvinism was ever his belief and practice by his words and  actions.

Words to Live By:  It is a blessed privilege to equip the saints for the work of service unto the edifying of the body of Christ.  That Scriptural word “equip” speaks of preparing others for service.  It also means in the sense of restoring, or mending a broken bone back into its proper place.  How we need to pray for those who are spiritual teachers in the church of Christ.  Theirs is a special ministry as they instruct others to carry on the work of service.

Through the Scriptures: Deuteronomy 17 – 19

Through the Standards: The Covenant of Grace in both Testaments

WLC 33 — “Was the covenant of grace always administered after one and the same manner?
A.  The covenant of grace was not always administer after the same manner, but the administration of it under the Old Testament were different from those under the New.”

WLC 34 — “How was the covenant of grace administered under the Old Testament?
A.  The covenant of grace was administered under the Old Testament, by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the passover, and other types and ordinances, which did all fore-signify Christ then to come, and were for that time sufficient to build up the elect in faith in the promised messiah, by whom they then had full remission of sin, and eternal salvation.”

WLC 35 — “How is the covenant of grace administered under the New Testament?
A.  Under the New Testament, w hen Christ the substance was exhibited, the same covenant of grace was and still is to be administered in the preaching of the word, and the administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper; in which grace and salvation are held forth in more fullness, evidence, and efficacy, to all nations.”

Remembering Our Fathers and Brothers:
On this day, 5 March 1994, the Rev. Russell George Flaxman passed away. Born in 1920 to Jessie and Annie Flaxman, he was raised in the Toronto, Canada area and attended Toronto Bible College, 1945-48. Rev. Flaxman was ordained in 1949 by the Association of Gospel Churches and pastored several churches in Virginia before transferring his ministerial credentials into the PCA on 1 March 1974. He served as Stated Clerk of the James River Presbytery from 1989-1990.

Image source: Photographic plate facing page 87 in The Memorial Volume of the Westminster Assembly. Richmond, VA: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1897.

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March 4 : R. Heber McIlwaine [1906-1998]

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

American on the Outside, but Japanese on the Inside

Born Reginald Heber McIlwaine on July 7, 1906 of Southern Presbyterian missionary parents in Kobe, Japan. Heber, as he was known to family and friends, was a natural for missionary service.  Coming to a knowledge of Christ as Lord and Savior in his younger years, he learned about Japan and the language of Japan early.  In fact, so accustomed was he to this foreign land that one said of him that he may have been an American on the outside, but he was a Japanese on the inside.  Graduating from Westminster Theological Seminary in the early years of that historic theological school, he first became an assistant to the Rev. Clarence Macartney at  First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh.  But the missionary call was too strong in his  nature to remain there more than two years.

He was appointed by the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions to serve in Japan, and did so from 1934 – 1936.  Joining the new Presbyterian Church of America in 1936, and was sent next to Harbin, Manchoukuo.  Choosing to remain with the PCofA in 1937, he became one of the first foreign missionaries appointed by their Committee on Foreign Missions.  In 1938, he was sent to Japan, but the rising war clouds forced him to return back to the States, where he served as a pastor and Army chaplain.  From 1947 to 1950, he ministered to Japanese aborigines in a mountainous area of Taiwan.  Finally, in 1951, he returned “home” to serve full-time as a missionary in Japan, and did so until his retirement in 1976.

After friends had thought he would remain a bachelor the rest of his life, R. Heber McIlwaine surprised everyone and married Eugenia Cochran on March 4, 1947.  It was said of her that she was almost as “Japanese” as he was.  At any rate, they would serve together for twenty-five years in Japan.

Most of their service was at their home in Fukushima, north of Tokyo, Japan.  For those who judge success by numbers, their ministry was not successful.  The average number of worshipers was under twenty.  But many of those converts from paganism to Christianity moved elsewhere for employment or service, taking their Christian commitment with them.  The Reformed Church of Japan was, in the words of John Galbraith, “greatly enriched by” their ministry.

Both were to be translated to heaven in the latter years of the twentieth century.  Certainly it can be said that their works continue to follow them in the faith and life of Japanese Christianity.

The R. Heber McIlwaine Manuscript Collection is preserved at the PCA Historical Center.
See also these related collections at the Historical Center:
• James A. & Pauline S. McAlpine Manuscript Collection
• William A. McIlwaine Manuscript Collection
• John M.L. Young Manuscript Collection
• Japan Missions Library

Words to Live By:  Faithfulness to the gospel is the only rule of success in the kingdom of God.  It is the world which measures success by numbers, by growth, and by economics.  When that formula is brought into the church, not only does God withhold His blessings, but many faithful men and women are marginalized from the service of the Lord Jesus.  Let kingdom work be measured by kingdom standards, that is, those of the Bible.

Through the Scriptures: Deuteronomy 13 – 16

Through the Standards: The covenant of grace: Its administration in both testaments in the Confession

WCF 7:4-6
“This covenant of grace is frequently set forth in Scripture by the name of a testament, in reference to the death of Jesus Christ the Testator, and to the everlasting inheritance, with all things belonging to it, therein bequeathed.  This covenant was differently administered in the time of the law, and in the time of the gospel: under the law it was administered by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the Jews, all foresignifying Christ to come; which were, for that time, sufficient and efficacious, through the operation of the Spirit, to instruct and build up the elect in faith in the promised Messiah, by whom they had full remission of sins, and eternal salvation, and is called the old Testament.  Under the gospel, when Christ, the substance, was exhibited, the ordinances in which this covenant is dispensed are the preaching of the  Word, and the administration of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper: which, though fewer in number, and administered with more simplicity, and less outward glory, yet, in them, it is held forth in more fullness, evidence, and spiritual efficacy, to all nations, both Jews and Gentiles; and is called the new Testament.  There are not therefore two covenants of grace, differing in substance, but one and the same, under various dispensations.”

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March 3: Every Member a Worker

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

This Day in Presbyterian History: 

A Manual for Members

What should we expect ourselves and our fellow members to be doing for the Lord through our respective congregations?  Various answers might be forthcoming, but it is interesting what a famous congregation in the Bible Presbyterian Church specified were its members responsibilities to the Lord.

In a leaflet written on March 3, 1946, a pamphlet was published of the Collingswood, New Jersey, Bible Presbyterian Church.  After listing its pastoral staff, including the Rev. Carl McIntire, and recording  the names of the Session of Elders, Trustees, and Deacons, as well as specifying all the ministry opportunities of the church in home and abroad,  there was a section stating the purposes of its members.  It read:

 “Every member a worker” is the idea for our church.  The church is falling short of its goal unless every member attends its services regularly and engages in at least one specific service or ministry.  Here is our program for every individual member:

  1. Read the Bible daily
  2. Pray every day
  3. Give thanks at every meal
  4. Have regular family worship
  5. By example and speech moment by moment, honor the Lord Jesus Christ
  6. Attend church services on the Lord’s Day regularly
  7. Attend the mid-week service
  8. Contribute your tithe regularly and proportionately to the work of the church
  9. Take an active part in at least one of the organizations or projects mentioned in this pamphlet, and
  10.  Invite at least one person a month to attend the services of the Church — someone who is unsaved or unchurched.

Now, in conclusion, some of our readers, and even some of the ministers, might have objections to this list, but as you read them again, there are very few items which are not taught or inferred in the Bible as necessary traits of the disciples of the Lord Jesus.  Nevertheless, however we might think of it,  this is one congregation’s attempts over eighty years ago which sought to help its members by being faithful members of the local congregation to which they were committed.

Words to Live By: Let us seek to fulfill our promise as members of the local church to which we are committed, to  live as becomes the followers of Christ Jesus.

Through the Scripture: Deuteronomy 10 – 12

Through the Standards: The Manifestation of the Covenant of Grace

WLC 31 —  “With whom was the covenant of grace made?
A. The covenant of grace was made with Christ as the second Adam, and in him with all the elect as his seed.”

WLC 32 — “How is the grace of God manifested in the second covenant?
A. The grace of God is manifested in the second covenant, in that he freely provides and offers to sinners a Mediator, and life and salvation by him; and requiring faith as the condition to interest them in him, promises and gives his Holy Spirit to all his elect, to work in them that faith, with all other saving graces; and to enable them unto all holy obedience, as the evidence of the truth of their faith and thankfulness to God, and as the way which he has appointed them to salvation.”

Remembering Our Fathers and Brothers:
The Rev. Donald J. MacNair died on this day, 3 March 2001. Born in 1922 and educated at Rutgers University and Faith Theological Seminary, his first pastorate was with the BPC church in Coatesville, PA. Answering a call to serve The Covenant Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, he oversaw the relocation of that church and helped to design its new building. From 1964-1982, Rev. MacNair served as the head of National Presbyterian Missions (NPM), the church planting arm of the RPCES. While it was Dr. Edmund P. Clowney who came up with the idea of the Joining & Receiving method of merger, it was Don MacNair who was widely recognized as the architect of J&R and who worked tirelessly to bring about the reception of the RPCES into the PCA in 1982. In effect, he worked himself out of a job, since the PCA already had in place a director for its Mission to North America, NPM’s counterpart. Not one to sit around, Dr. MacNair then formed Churches Vitalized, a ministry to struggling churches. Both the Donald J. MacNair manuscript collectionand the records of Churches Vitalized are preserved at the PCA Historical Center. The latter collection is awaiting processing at this time.

Also on this day, the Rev. Robert James Ostenson, one of the founding fathers of the PCA, entered his eternal reward on 3 March 2008. Born in 1922, he prepared for the ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary (BD, 1953) and was later awarded the Doctor of Divinity degree by Belhaven College in 1969. He was ordained by Mississippi Presbytery in 1953 and installed as the pastor of the Woodville and Gloster, MS churches, where he served for three years. At the time of the formation of the Presbyterian Church in America, he was serving as the pastor of Granada Presbyterian Church in Coral Gables, FL., 1965-1974. In his final pastorate, he returned to serve that church again, from 1987-1989.

And on this day, 3 March 1993, the Rev. John Galbreath Armes passed away. Born in 1918, his father was Roland K. Armes. John received his education at Hampden-Sydney College and Faith Theological Seminary before licensure and ordination by the Philadelphia Presbytery of the BPC. Rev. Armes served as a chaplain in the U.S. Navy, 1944-46 and was Assistant General Secretary of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions from 1946-51. Leaving that post, he served as a foreign missionary in Kenya from 1951-1982. He was honorably retired in 1984 by the Northeast Presbytery of the PCA.

Image sources:
1. Cover photograph of the Collingswood Bible Presbyterian Church, from A Brief History of the Bible Presbyterian Church and Its Agencies, compiled by Margaret G. Harden. [Collingswood, NJ : Christian Beacon Press, 1967]
2. Portrait photograph of the Rev. Donald J. MacNair, from the MacNair manuscript collection.
3. Portrait photograph of the Rev. John G. Armes, from The Independent Board Bulletin, 14.1 (January 1948): 8.
All digital scans by the staff of the PCA Historical Center.

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March 2: H. McAllister Griffiths

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

This Day in Presbyterian History:  

An Answer to the Charge of Being Unloving

There is a relevant editorial in the March 2, 1936 edition of The Presbyterian Guardian.  Historically minded readers will recognize this magazine as the voice of conservative leaders who were at that time still members of the Presbyterian Church, USA.  However, their remaining time there was but short, for in that year, trials and suspensions were taking place at an alarming rate for no other charge other than refusing to desist from the support of an Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions.  J. Gresham Machen was still alive and writing vigorously for the defense of the Christian faith.  Others were taking their stand for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

On the editorial page of that issue (Volume 1, Number 11), H. McAllister Griffiths writes in defense of the need to expose modernism in the church at large.  Specifically, he answers why such an exposé is not unloving.  Listen to his words, which even today are apt in addressing the errors of today, both inside and outside the church:

“Why then do we present the facts concerning modernism . . .?  Only because it is our duty.  We find no happiness in the betrayals of which we must tell.  No one in his right mind could gloat over them, or be other than sorrowful.  But — if we love the souls of men we must warn them.  We must warn a sleeping church, largely uninformed about the nature of its official boards.  And finally, if we care anything about the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the place due His Holy Word, we are under a solemn obligation to speak.

“This speaking, let it be understood, is in love. But what, exactly, is speaking in love?  Is it to speak lovingly?  Yes—in part.  But there is more to it than that.  We speak most in love when the motive that prompts us is love, and when the end desired is the supreme good of the one addressed.  The most loving words to a blind man approaching an unsuspected precipice would be ‘Stop! Stop! Stop where you are!’  What would you think of anyone who criticized the speaker of those words because he ‘didn’t have a good spirit,’ did not speak ‘lovingly,’ and who advised the blind man to go on, paying no attention to such an un-Christian fellow?

“(We see the church moving) on toward the precipice. The ground will feel solid beneath its feet until it gets to the edge. After it steps over it will be too late.  That is why we cry ‘Stop!’ now. And the cry of those who would save is the most loving cry in the world, even if unadorned with honeyed words.”

The Presbyterian stalwarts for the faith back in the 1930’s were praying and working for the elimination of unbelief in the Presbyterian church.  As we know now from history, such was not to be.  And those who were standing for the faith once delivered unto the saints were expelled from the church.

Words to Live By: The apostle Paul wrote 2000  plus years ago that all true Christians are to “take no part in the  unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”  Ephesians 5:11 (ESV)

Through the Scriptures: Deuteronomy 7 – 9

Through the Standards: The Covenant of Grace in the Catechisms

WLC 30 — “Does God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?
A. God does not leave all men to perish in the estate of sin and misery, into which they fell by the breach of the first covenant, commonly called the Covenant of Works; but of his mere love and mercy delivers his elect out of it, and brings them into an estate of salvation by the second covenant, commonly called the Covenant of Grace.”

WSC 20 — “Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?
A. God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.”

Remembering Our Fathers and Brothers:
Mr. John Doak, a ruling elder in the Fifth Reformed Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, died on 2 March 1974. He was originally an immigrant from Ireland and had been a member of the Fifth Reformed church for over fifty years.

Rev. Frank L. Fiol, career missionary to India, died on 2 March 1999. Born in 1912, he attended Wheaton College and then graduated from Westminster Seminary in 1936. Upon ordination by the Philadelphia Presbytery of the Bible Presbyterian Church, he and his wife sailed for India in October, 1936, under the auspices of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions. From 1936 to 1980, Rev. Fiol served as a missionary, pastor and educator in India. He was honorably retired from that ministry in 1981. Rev. Fiol’s papers are preserved at the PCA Historical Center.

Rev. C. Howard Oakley died on this day in 2005. Born in Haddonfield, NJ in 1917, he was educated for the ministry at Faith Theological Seminary and his first pastorate was with the Bible Presbyterian Church in Seattle, WA, 1945-57. Rev. Oakley began a radio ministry in those years and continued that work alongside subsequent pastorates in  Cherry Hill, NJ and Memphis, TN. He was honorably retired in 1994.

Note : The PCA Historical Center has a small set of materials concerning Hall McAllister Griffiths, but would appreciate hearing from anyone who might have correspondence, unpublished writings, photographs or other materials by Rev. Griffiths. His was an interesting story. Contact the archivist at your convenience. For “the rest of the story” about H. McAllister Griffiths, click here.

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