Time to Move for a New Church
The evidence was already in, in fact, it was well in. All of the efforts of the conservatives in the Southern Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Church U.S.) had failed to stop the tide of liberalism in that once great church. So after the last General Assembly in 1971, something had to be done.
Gathering together in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 15, 1971, a group of conservative Presbyterians met to discuss the situation. Realizing that some key elders were not present, they met two weeks later on July 30th at the Airport Hilton in Atlanta, Georgia. This was a meeting which was filled with talk to the heavenly Father as well as to those of like precious faith. They met all together and then in small groups.
By the morning of the next day, some statements were presented to the group. They were as follows: “A plan for the continuation of a Presbyterian Church loyal to Scripture and the Reformed faith: 1. To create a climate of opinion favorable to the continuation of conservative presbyteries and churches loyal to Scripture and the Reformed Faith, by promoting as strong an image as possible of such loyalty through actions taken by synods, presbyteries, and congregations. 2. To identify presbyteries and congregations willing to take such a stand. And 3. To accept the inevitability of division in the PCUS and to move now toward a continuing body of congregations and presbyteries loyal to Scripture and the Westminster Standards.
This intent was breathed in prayer in, in the discussion towards it, and breathed out in prayer at the conclusion of it. Men who had been through the battle to return the PCUS to the faith of the fathers wept at the very prospect of the future. And when the vote came in favor of the three points, there were no high fives, or shouts of victory, but rather silence, as one of the men there said, a heavy silence of profound sadness. They were not merely leaving the southern church. The southern church had left them and their ordained convictions for a mess of liberal pottage, as Cain had done much earlier in his life.
A timetable was then worked out followed by the organization of a Steering Committee. The plans were set in motion for a Continuing Church, which in time was named the Presbyterian Church in America.
Words to Live By: Thank God for men and women with a firm conviction of the historic Christian faith. Praise God for Christian leaders who refused to compromise the truth of the gospel for a mixture of theological error. We need men and women like these in every age, for the Christian church to march on and be the appointed means to bring the gospel to every creature. Be a part of your local church if it is holding faithfully to the faith once delivered unto the saints.
Through the Scriptures: Isaiah 25 – 27
Through the Standards: The importance of the word “remember.”
WLC 121 — “What is the Word Remember set in the beginning of the fourth commandment?
A. The word Remember is set in the beginning of the fourth commandment, partly, because of the great benefit of remembering it, we being thereby helped in our preparation to keep it, and, in keeping it, better to keep all the rest of the commandments, and to continue a thankful remembrance of the two great benefits of creation and redemption, which contain a short abridgment of religion; and partly, because we are very ready to forget it, for that there is less light of nature for it, and yet it restrains our natural liberty in things at other times lawful; that it comes but once in seven days, and many worldly businesses come between, and too often take off our minds from thinking of it, either to prepare for it, or to sanctify it; and that Satan with his instruments labors much to blot out the glory, and even the memory of it, to bring in all irreligion and impiety.”
