September 7: Vanguard Presbytery

7 September, 2013 in September 2013 by archivist | No comments

Vanguard Presbyterian was organized this day, September 7, 1972. As John Edward Richards wrote, “There were ministers and churches who could not wait for the formation of the new church. Under the Presbyterian system they needed a Presbyterian home.” Richards presented the following report in Contact, the official publication of Presbyterian Churchmen United:

VANGUARD PRESBYTERY

A significant event in the Presbyterian family occurred in Savannah, Georgia on September 7, 1972. A group of ministers and independent Presbyterian churches met and formed Vanguard Presbytery.

Early in August the Reverend Todd Allen, pastor of the Eastern Heights Presbyterian Church of Savannah, contacted the Administrator of the Steering Committee for a Continuing Presbyterian Church and requested advice and counsel with reference to his plan for calling a meeting of the representatives of independent Presbyterian churches and their pastors for the purpose of forming a presbytery that would be faithful to the Word of God and the Reformed Faith. The Steering Committee is ever ready to assist Presbyterian churches in uniting for this worthy purpose. The Administrator was glad to be of what service he could, but the credit for the accomplishment of the Vanguard Presbytery must go to the Reverend Todd Allen and others closely associated with him.

The meeting on September 7 was on a high spiritual plane, beginning with a devotional lesson from Philippians 1:1-6. The Communion service which followed was according to the Word of God and the presiding minister reminded the worshipers that the Sacrament commemorated the substitutionary atonement of our Lord for our sins.

In a most orderly fashion a temporary moderator and clerk were elected and four standing committees were “The Constitution and Service for Constituting the Presbytery”, “Naming and Chartering”, “Presbytery Organization and Schedules” and “Committee of Thanks.” The entire group united in intercession to God for His blessing upon these committees.

The feature of the afternoon meeting was an address by Attorney Owen H. Page. Mr. Page was the attorney for the Eastern Heights and Hull Memorial Churches when these churches went independent in 1966. The case went to the United States Supreme Court and was decided in favor of the local churches’ ownership of their respective properties. The case was decided on neutral principles, that is, without reference to church doctrine or government. Mr. Page stated that the vast majority of church property decisions recently rendered in various states had used the Savannah churches as the precedent effecting their decisions. (Incidentally, state laws vary greatly on the matter of church property and any local congregation wishing to assure the ownership of their church property should consult local attorneys to work out the proper legal instruments.)

The standing committees worked during the afternoon and completed their reports.

The people of the Eastern Heights Presbyterian Church graciously entertained the entire group at supper.

The concluding session of the presbytery was held at 7:00 p.m. All committee reports were unanimously adopted. Rev. Todd Allen was elected Moderator and Ruling Elder Chester Hall of the First Presbyterian Church, Louisville, Kentucky was elected temporary clerk and treasurer. The Presbytery was named “VANGUARD PRESBYTERY, a provisional presbytery for Southern Presbyterian and Reformed churches uniting.” The presbytery accepted an invitation for their November 14 meeting from the Tabb Street Independent Presbyterian Church, Petersburg, Virginia.

The meeting in Savannah was joyously Christian and was without criticism or derogatory remarks concerning any other religious group. The presbytery voted to accept the invitation of the Steering Committee for a Continuing Presbyterian Church for its moderator to become a member of that Steering Committee.

Words to live by: The organizing meeting of the Vanguard Presbytery began with a message on the text of Philippians 1:1-6. The central truth of that message is that “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
In everything that He does, God unerringly accomplishes His purpose. And here, in this text, the apostle Paul drives home the point that as the Lord has raised you up from death to a living faith in the risen Savior, so He will continue to work in you, bringing you at last to Himself in glory. God’s work is sure, and there is no condemnation for those who in Christ Jesus.

 

 

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September 6: Formation of the Bible Presbyterian Synod

6 September, 2013 in September 2013 by archivist | No comments

The first General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church Meets

They said that the Presbyterian Church of America which began in 1936 had been ”a false start.”  Issues regarding  the exact details associated with Christ’s second coming as well as the total abstention from alcoholic beverages formed a divisive wedge between once united brothers in Christ.   The place of independent agencies in the new church versus denomination agencies added another issue to the contention of “a false start” in the Presbyterian Church of America.  Some would even argue that the death of J. Gresham Machen was a blow to the original testimony.  But whatever it was, in 1937, a small group of ministers and ruling elders had gathered in another place from the General Assembly then meeting to set up the rules for association for a new church.


And now, beginning September 6, 1938, and continuing two more days, thirty-nine teaching elders and eleven ruling elders met at the new tabernacle building of the Collingswood Bible Presbyterian Church, in Collingswood, New Jersey.  The name of this new church had been taken from the name of the congregation pastored by the Rev. David K. Myers, a home missionary of the Presbyterian Church of America in Lemmon, South Dakota.  That constituted  the first Bible Presbyterian Church in the nation.  The other churches were represented by seven presbyteries: New Jersey, Great Plains, Philadelphia, Great Lakes, Chicago Bible, Iowa, and California.  In its beginning days, it would have a glorious testimony to the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Some of its original ministers were individuals who had and would have a testimony in present and future years.  They were: Francis A Schaeffer [in the above photo, he is the first man on the left, in the front row], H. McAllister Griffiths, Carl McIntire, Harold S Laird, Oliver Buswell, Allan MacRae, Charles Dana Chrisman, A. Franklyn Faucette, J. A. Toms, and others.  J. A. Toms was elected moderator, and H. McAllister Griffiths was elected the Stated Clerk.  Those who had suffered censure in various degrees by the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. were absolved of all such censure.

Two of the original resolutions passed by this new church were the exact two which were issues in the Presbyterian Church of America.  The church was decidedly placed in the premillennial camp by adding parenthesis to the Confessions Standards.  Further, the call for holiness and specifically a call for total abstinence from alcoholic beverages was passed by the new church.

Even though they were classified as independent agencies, both the Independent Board for Foreign Missions and Faith Theological Seminary were endorsed by the new denomination.   

Words to live by:  There is always joy over the birth of something new, especially a church body.  But to have individuals who had stood the test of orthodoxy in an increasing liberal church find out that they cannot agree with one another on other issues is disheartening. The issue of the doctrine of the last things was not premillennialism per se.  It was dispensational premillennialism.  The issue of holiness of life and total abstinence from alcohol was an issue in the days of prohibition, but to this writer it was not a reason to separate from brothers in the Lord.  Westminster Seminary put out a directive right around this time which enjoined its students from alcohol, citing a witness to the world and that of offending brothers in Christ.  But there is encouragement even in small blessings, for just a few years ago, modern Bible Presbyterians approved a motion in granting observer status to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. There are blessings to brothers who dwell together in liberty.

Coverage of the First General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church was provided on the pages of The Christian Beacon, in its September 15, 1938 issue. To view the entirety of that issue as a PDF scan, click here.

Photo source: The Christian Beacon, 3.32 (15 September 1938).

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September 5: C. Darby Fulton

5 September, 2013 in September 2013 by archivist | No comments

A Christian Statesman

fultonCDarby03

Charles Darby Fulton was like many other conservative Presbyterians who chose to stay with the mother church rather than leave to join the newly formed denomination as it took a stand against modernism and apostasy. Their reasons for staying may have been varied, but conservatives like Fulton in many respects stayed for the tougher fight, for their numbers were even fewer after the exodus.

There is however something unique about the Rev. C. Darby Fulton that makes you want to know more about the man. He was widely typified as a Christian statesman. One way in which he demonstrated that quality of character was in the fact that, while he did not choose to come into the Presbyterian Church in America at its formation in 1973, he nonetheless was quite willing to bring a message during the PCA’s first General Assembly. Some conservatives who chose not to come into the PCA ignored or even opposed the new denomination. Darby Fulton was different, and that difference is part of what marks him out as a true Christian statesman. It’s part of what makes you want to know more about the true character of the man.

Charles Darby Fulton was born on September 5, 1892, in Kobe, Japan. His parents, the Rev. Samuel Peter Fulton [1865-1938] and Rachel Hoge Peck Fulton, were missionaries sent out by the Southern Presbyterian Church.

Darby Fulton was educated at the Presbyterian College of South Carolina, graduating there with the B.A. degree in 1911, and then earning an M.A. from the University of South Carolina in 1914 [note his thesis topic, in the blbiiography below] before turning his attention to preparation for the ministry at Columbia Theological Seminary. Graduating from Columbia in 1915, he lastly attended Princeton Theological Seminary, and there earned the STB degree n 1916. 

Rev. Fulton was ordained on June 25, 1915 by the Presbytery of Enoree [PCUS]. During the time that he was attending Princeton, he transferred his ministerial credentials to the PCUSA, and supported himself by serving the Glassboro and Bunker Hill churches, 1916-1917. Then upon graduation from Princeton, he was received back into Enoree Presbytery and the PCUS as he answered a call to missions work. It was at about this time that Rev. Fulton married Nannie Paul Ravenel, of Spartanburg, South Carolina, in October of 1917.

Departing for the PCUS operated Japan Mission, the Fultons served there from 1918 until 1925. Thereafter Rev. Fulton served as Field Secretary, 1925-32, and then as Executive Secretary, 1932-61, for the PCUS Board of Foreign Missions.

Dr. Fulton served as a professor at his alma mater, Columbia Theological Seminary, from 1962 to 1965, and on September 1, 1965, was entered on the rolls of Presbytery as honorably retired. During his lifetime, he had received a number of honors, including having served as the Moderator of General Assembly [PCUS] in 1948. The Presbyterian College of South Carolina awarded him the Doctor of Divinity degree in 1924 and he received the LL.D. degree from King College in 1952.  Following his retirement, the Rev. Dr. C. Darby Fulton lived another twelve years, and he died on May 27, 1977, at the age of 84, while residing in Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to his death, he had established a fund to assist the Kobe Theological Seminary in Japan.

Partial Bibliography:
1914 – Financial Condition and Its Relation to Character. M.A. thesis at the University of South Carolina.
1938 – Star in the East
1946 – Now is the Time
1949 – Report on China.
1959 – Lectures: Series of three lectures delivered before the Synod of Virginia at Massanetta Springs, June 29-30, 1959.
1959 – Missions: Our philosophy, our program, contemporary problems (1959)
1966 – “Baptism in Reformation Perspective,” in One Race, One Gospel, One Task: World Congress on Evangelism (1966)
1973 – “The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ,” in Addresses delivered during the First General Assembly of the National Presbyterian Church. Montgomery, AL: The Office of Administration, 1973. pp. 32-34.
Undated – “The Gospel is Relevant. Weaverville, NC: The Presbyterian Journal, n.d. Tract, 12 p.

Words to Live By:
For this section today, we would like to provide here the text of Rev. Fulton’s address on the occasion of the First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America:

The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ, by C. Darby Fulton [Text: Philippians 3:7-14]

Every life has a key word. With some it is money; with others, pleasure; with still others, fame. With Alexander the Great it was conquest; with Napoleon, France; with Edison, science; with Paul, it was Christ.

Paul interpreted every phase of his life in its relation to Christ. When he rejoiced, it was in Christ; he gloried in Christ; he conquered in Christ; he was strong in Christ; and he took pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions and distresses for Christ’s sake. For him, to live was Christ. Read the rest of this entry »

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September 4: School Is In Session

4 September, 2013 in September 2013 by archivist | No comments

Dr. J. Gresham Machen’s address on “The Necessity of the Christian School,” is permanently posted here. but it remains so timely, I’ve posted the whole of it here today.

The Necessity of the Christian School
machen03by Dr. J. Gresham Machen, Professor of New Testament in Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pa.. This is a reprint of a lecture given by Dr. Machen at the Educational Convention held in Chicago under the auspices of the National Union of Christian Schools, August, 1933.

Two Reasons for the Christian School

The Christian school is to be favored for two reasons. In the first place, it is important for American liberty; in the second place, it is important for the propagation of the Christian religion. These two reasons are not equally important; indeed, the latter includes the former as it includes every other legitimate human interest. But I want to speak of these two reasons in turn.

In the first place, then, the Christian school is important for the maintenance of American liberty.
We are witnessing in our day a world-wide attack upon the fundamental principles of civil and religious freedom. In some countries, such as Italy, the attack has been blatant and unashamed; Mussolini despises democracy and does not mind saying so. A similar despotism now prevails in Germany; and in Russia freedom is being crushed out by what is perhaps the most complete and systematic tyranny that the world has every seen.

But exactly the same tendency that is manifested in extreme form in those countries, is also being manifested, more slowly but none the less surely, in America. It has been given an enormous impetus first by the war and now by the economic depression; but aside form these external stimuli it has its roots in a fundamental deterioration of the American people. Gradually the people has come to value principle less and creature comfort more; increasingly it has come to prefer prosperity to freedom; and even in the field of prosperity it cannot be said that the effect is satisfactory.

The result of this decadence in the American people is seen in the rapid growth of a centralized bureaucracy which is the thing against which the Constitution of the United States was most clearly intended to guard.

The Attack Upon Liberty

In the presence of this apparent collapse of free democracy, any descendant of the liberty-loving races of mankind may well stand dismayed; and to those liberty-loving races no doubt most of my hearers tonight belong. I am of the Anglo-Saxon race; many of you belong to a race whose part in the history of human freedom is if anything still more glorious; and as we all contemplate the struggle of our fathers in the winning of that freedom which their descendants seem now to be so willing to give up, we are impressed anew with the fact that it is far easier to destroy than to create. It took many centuries of struggle — much blood and many tears — to establish the fundamental principles of our civil and religious liberty; but one made generation is sufficient to throw them all away.

It is true, the attack upon liberty is nothing new. Always there have been tyrants in the world; almost always tyranny has begun by being superficially beneficent, and always it has ended by being both superficially and radically cruel.
But while tyranny itself is nothing new, the technique of tyranny has been enormously improved in our day; the tyranny of the scientific expert is the most crushing tyranny of all. That tyranny is being exercised most effectively in the field of education. A monopolistic system of education controlled by the State is far more efficient in crushing our liberty than the cruder weapons of fire and sword. Against this monopoly of education by the State the Christian school brings a salutary protest; it contends for the right of parents to bring up their children in accordance with the dictates of their conscience and not in the manner prescribed by the State.

That right has been attacked in America in recent years in the most blatant possible ways. In Oregon, a law was actually passed some years ago requiring all children to attend the public schools — thus taking the children from the control of their parents and placing them under the despotic control of whatever superintendent of education might happen to be in office in the district in which they resided. In Nebraska, a law was passed forbidding the study of languages other than English, even in private schools, until the child was too old to learn them well. That was really a law making literary education a crime. In New York, one of the abominable Lusk Laws placed even private tutors under state supervision and control. Read the rest of this entry »

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September 3: Rev. F. R. Beattie

3 September, 2013 in September 2013 by archivist | No comments

beattiefrancisrobertOne of the Last Great Southern Presbyterians was a Canadian!

Francis Robert Beattie was born near Guelph, Ontario, Canada on 31 March 1848.  His father was Robert Beattie and his mother, Janette McKinley Beattie.  Francis attended the University of Toronto, graduating there with the BA degree in 1875 and the MA in 1876.  He next attended Knox College in Toronto, in 1878.   That same year he was licensed and ordained, on 11 November 1878 by Peterboro Presbytery (Presbyterian Church of Canada), being then installed as the pastor of the Balto and Cold Springs churches in Canada.  He served this group from 1878 to 1882.  During this pastorate, he married Jean G. Galbraith of Toronto in 1879.  She later died in 1897.  Rev. Beattie resigned his first pulpit to become the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Brantford, Canada.  Rev. Beattie also remarried, though that date of the marriage is not provided in the record.  His second wife was Lillie R. Satterwhite, and she survived her husband, passing into glory on 20 August 1940).

Rev. Beattie only served the Brantford church from 1882-1883, apparently leaving that pulpit to take up doctoral work.  He attended Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois and successfully completed his dissertation in 1884.  There is no mention in the record as to how he was employed during the period from 1885 through 1887, but in 1888 he transferred his credentials to the Presbyterian Church in US, taking a post as professor of Apologetics at the Columbia Theological Seminary.  He held this position from 1888 until 1893.  In 1893, he became one of the founding professors, along with T.D. Witherspoon and others, at the newly formed Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary (KY), serving as Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics from 1893 until his death in 1906.  During these final years of his life he also worked as an associate editor of The Christian Observer.  He died in Louisville, Kentucky on  September 3, 1906 and is buried in Louisville’s Cave Hill Cemetery, in Section D, Lot 26, along with his wife and one Thomas Satterwhite Beattie.  Thomas may have been a son born to that marriage, though this is unclear at this time.  Thomas died on May 27, 1904.

Honors afforded Rev. Beattie during his lifetime include the Doctor of Divinity degree, awarded by the Presbyterian College of South Carolina in 1887 and the LL.D. degree, awarded by Central University of Kentucky.  Dr. Beattie served on the PCUS Assembly’s Editing Committee for the 250th Anniversary of the Westminster Assembly and wrote the introduction to the volume produced in celebration of that occasion.

A Bibliography for the Rev. Francis R. Beattie—
1885
An examination of the utilitarian theory of morals (Brantford : J. & J. Sutherland, 1885), 222pp.

1887
The methods of theism, an essay (Brantford, Ont. : Watt & Shenston, 1887), 138pp.; 23cm.

1888
The higher criticism, or, Modern critical theories as to the origin and contents of the literature and religion found in the Holy Scriptures, being a paper read before the Brantford Ministerial Alliance (Toronto : W. Briggs, 1888), 56pp.

Linscott, T.S., E.C.B. Hallam, Francis R. Beattie and R.W. Woodsworth, The path of wealth, or, Light from my forge : a discussion of God’s money laws, the relation between giving and getting, cash and Christianity

(Brantford, Ont. : St. John, N.B. : Bradley, Garretson, 1888), 431pp.; illus.; ports.;

1890
“Christian Apologetics, The Presbyterian Quarterly, 4.3 (July 1890) 337-369.

1893
“General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, The Presbyterian Quarterly, 7.4 (October 1893) 607-611.

“The Toronto Council of the Alliance of the Reformed Churches Holding the Presbyterian System, The Presbyterian Quarterly, 7.1 (January 1893) 108-120.

1894
Radical criticism. An exposition and examination of the radical critical theory concerning the literature and religious system of the Old Testament Scriptures (New York, F.H. Revell, 1894), 323pp.; 21cm.  With an introduction by W. W. Moore.

1895
“Primeval Man, The Presbyterian Quarterly, 9.3 (July 1895) 351-371.

The second advent of Christ (Louisville, Ky. : Converse & Co., 1895), 30pp.; 20cm.

1896
The Presbyterian Standards : An Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (Richmond, Va. : Presbyterian Committee of Publication,1896), 431pp.; 22cm.

Otts, J.M.P. and Francis R. Beattie, Christ and the Cherubim, or, The Ark of the Covenant a type of Christ our Saviour (Richmond, Va. : Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1896), 63pp.; 19cm.

1897
“Introduction,” to Memorial Volume of the Westminster Assembly, 1647-1897 (Richmond, VA : The Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1897), pp. vii-xxxviii.

Excerpt from Rev. Beattie’s introduction to the above volume, pp. xxvi-xxvii:
In Geneva, in Holland, and in Scotland, the Reformation was perhaps made more thorough than in any other land, and it was from these centers that certain influences were brought to bear upon the Reform movement in England for many years prior to the Westminster Assembly. As is well known, there was in Elizabeth’s day a strong party in England who wished for a more complete reform in religion than the Episcopacy of that time represented. This party, in her day, and afterwards, in the time of James I and Charles I, was in constant communication with the thorough-going Reformers in Scotland and on the continent. This indicates the connection of the Westminster Assembly in England with the true Reform life of Scotland and the continent. This is also clearly shown from the ordinance of Parliament calling the Assembly, wherein it is stated that the Assembly shall seek to bring the church in England into “nearer agreement with the Church of Scotland and the other Reformed Churches abroad.” Thus it came to pass that this memorable Assembly, whose splendid story is so grandly told in the addresses which make up this volume, gathered up into itself the varied yet kindred streams that flowed from the pure springs which rose among the hills of Scotland, the mountains of Switzerland, and the plains of Holland; and then, in turn, this Assembly, with its venerable symbols, has, in the providence of God, ever since been the unfailing reservoir from which has flowed numberless pure and life-giving streams into lands far and near, to make glad the city of God even to the ends of the earth. That we have one stream from that reservoir still pure, ever purified, flowing through our beloved Zion, should evoke our grateful praise and provoke our earnest zeal to open up other channels, that this stream may refresh the waste places of the earth.

1899
“Genesis of the Westminster Assembly, The Presbyterian Quarterly, 13.2 (April 1899) 189-205.

“Some Salient Features of Presbyterian Doctrine, The Presbyterian Quarterly, 13.4 (October 1899) 653-684.

1901
Calvinism and Modern Thought (Philadelphia : Westminster, 1901), 48pp.; 18cm.

“The Inauguration of Dr. Briggs, The Presbyterian Quarterly, 5.2 (April 1891) 270-283.

1902
“The Egyptian Book of the Dead, The Presbyterian Quarterly, 16.1 (July 1902) 30-44.

1903
Apologetics; or, The rational vindication of Christianity (Richmond, Va. : The Presbyterian committee of publication, 1903), v.; 24cm.

Apologetics, or, The rational vindication of Christianity, in three volumes. Volume I. Fundamental apologetics (Richmond, Va. : Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1903), 605pp.; 24cm.

1904
“The Place and Use of the Bible in the Public Schools of the United States, The Presbyterian Quarterly, 17.4 (April 1904) 512-537.

1888-1914
Beattie, Francis R., John McNaugher and William H. Black, Report of a special committee on the Bible in the public schools of the United States of America (Philadelphia : The Alliance, 1888-1914), 16pp.; 23cm.  One copy located at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

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