CHAPTER I

Our Heritage as Presbyterians

INTRODUCTION

THE ROOTS OF PRESBYTERIANISM are in the Bible. The name comes from the Greek word presbuteros, translated elder. It points back in the Old Testament to the elders selected by the tribes as their leaders (I Kings 8:1-3; Judges 8:14-16; Deut 27:1; Ezra 10:8; etc.) In the New Testament church it is used to describe the overseers of a local congregation (Acts 14:23; 20:17; Titus 1:5). Both in the name and in the spirit of Presbyterianism, the Bible plays a central and significant role.

Our purpose in this chapter will be to present briefly the organization of the Presbyterian Church and to indicate a few of the highlights in its history.

A. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

A Presbyterian church is a church governed by elders elected by the congregation and organically related to other churches. It differs from the Roman Catholic Church which is under the authority of its pope and its hierarchy of church officials. In the Roman church, authority comes from the top downward to the people. Presbyterian Church organization differs also from that of the Methodist and Episcopal churches, where authority centers in the Conference and Council made up of clergymen from these respective faiths. It also comes from the top downward to the people. Presbyterian Church organization differs from the congregational form of church government (such as is represented by the Baptist churches) in that no Presbyterian congregation is a law unto itself. Each Presbyterian Church is organically related to the Presbytery in which it is located. Authority in congregational churches resides in the congregation alone. Authority in Presbyterianism resides in the duly elected representatives of the congregation in the appointed church courts, which will now be discussed.

1. THE SESSION

The lowest church court is the Session. The Session consists of the pastor or pastors (teaching elders) and the ruling elders elected by the congregation. All pastors and associate pastors must be elected by the congregation and not by the Session. Supply pastors and temporary pastors may be elected by the Session. Local congregations determine for themselves the number of members who shall be elected to the Session. In the United Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. and in the Presbyterian Church, U.S., congregations may elect one body (unicameral) to serve the functions of both elders and deacons. Both men and women are eligible for all offices in the church.

2. THE PRESBYTERY

The next church court is the Presbytery. It consists of the ministers who serve within its bounds (or under its jurisdiction) and all the churches within a specified district. In Presbytery meetings, which must be held at least twice a year, each church is represented by its minister or ministers, together with one ruling elder for each 500 communicants or fraction thereof. The ruling elders are elected from their number by the local session.

The Presbytery exercises oversight over its ministers and churches, allows calls to be extended, examines incoming ministers, installs them, dissolves pastoral relationships, dismisses ministers and does what is necessary to promoting the work of the church within its bounds. The duties of each court are set forth in the Book of Church Order of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.

3. THE SYNOD

The Synod is made up of three or more Presbyteries. The ministers and the churches of these Presbyteries are under the oversight and jurisdiction of the Synod.

Many of the Synods are representative bodies from Presbyteries. Presbyteries may send commissioners in a fixed ratio to the number of commissioners (ministers and elders) sent to the General Assembly, usually two or four times that number, but always a multiple of two. The Synod reviews minutes of the Presbyteries, leads Christian education, promotes Higher Education and Homes for the elderly and for children.

4. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The General Assembly, composed of one minister and one elder for each 5,000 communicants or fraction thereof in each Presbytery, is the highest court and the final court of appeal in the church. It meets once a year. It receives overtures from the lower courts, makes decisions, and sends certain matters to Presbyteries for advice and consent before taking a final action the next year. On some important matters three-fourths of the Presbyteries (two-thirds in the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A.) must approve before final action is taken.

5. DEACONS AND TRUSTEES

Two questions frequently asked about Presbyterian Church organization should be answered. One concerns the function of deacons and trustees in the Presbyterian Church. Deacons are officers in local congregations, elected by the people, who perform the functions similar to those suggested in Acts 6. They encourage stewardship of possessions, dispense the benevolent giving, provide for the current expenses of the church, maintain the church property, and serve the needy in the church and community. They may serve on special committees elected or appointed by church courts, but are themselves under the jurisdiction of the local Session. Trustees are elected for specific purposes designated by a local congregation or a larger church court. Their primary function is to hold in trust the properties committed to their care by the body under which they serve. Variations include a Finance committee of the Session and combined Session and Board of Deacons. The trustees are more active concerning church property and generally have more authority. Persons who are members of that branch of the Presbyterian Church should consult with their pastor or officers about the functions of these respective offices.

6. PRESBYTERIANISM AS A NEW TESTAMENT FORM OF CHURCH ORGANIZATION

Another question frequently asked is whether Presbyterians follow the form of church government in the New Testament, where the word bishop as well as the word elder is used to describe church officers. The truth of the matter is that the word translated bishop was first used as a synonym for the word translated elder (See, for instance, Acts 20:28 and compare the words here with those in Acts 20:17 and Titus 1:5). The function of such officers was that of overseeing the life and work of the church in a given community. Because of the limited number of ministers available during the first three centuries, an apostle or minister was called upon to serve a group of churches. Timothy and John served the churches of the Ephesian area. As time went on, this pattern was continued and the senior minister of an area was the overseer of the churches in that area. In this way the title of bishop was transferred from local elders to the senior minister of the churches in a given area. This practice led to the Episcopal form of church government, with its bishops and lower clergy. It may therefore be maintained that while Presbyterians may not dogmatically claim that no other form of church government is suggested in the New Testament, theirs reflects most accurately the form of church government established in the early church.

B. SOME HIGHLIGHTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

The following pages are highly condensed, and should be read slowly and thoughtfully. A few of the more important dates are suggested below and a chart showing relationships of American Presbyterian churches is given at the end of this chapter. Both should be consulted frequently to provide a framework for understanding the brief summary that is given.

1. KEY DATES AND EVENTS

In addition to these dates affecting the two larger branches of Presbyterianism in America, the student should consult the chart given at the end of this chapter. [Not given in the online version.] It will show the formation of other branches of the Presbyterian family, including the Reformed Presbyterian Church, the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, and the United Presbyterian Church. The United Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. united in 1958 to form the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. With this skeletal outline in mind, let us turn to discuss some of the highlights of the history of the church as it is related to our Presbyterian heritage.

2. THE EARLY CHURCH

The first general Councils of the Church were held in Jerusalem. They are described in Acts 11 and Acts 15. The Roman Church now claims that Peter was made the head of the Church by Christ Himself (interpreting the neuter petra in Matt 16:18 to refer not to the conviction expressed but to Peter himself). It is claimed that Peter took this position as the first bishop of Rome in A.D. 42. This is not supported by Peter’s denial, by the fact that James rather than Peter was the person of authority in the Jerusalem church (Acts 15:1-29) about A.D. 48-50, by Paul’s boldness in withstanding him to his face in Antioch (Gal 2:11) or by the absence of a greeting to Peter in Paul’s letter to the Romans about A.D. 57. This theory actually was used as propaganda to support the claims of the bishop of Rome for supremacy over the bishop of Constantinople several centuries later and has remained ever since.

The exact form of local church government established by Paul and the other disciples did not persist during the days when the books of the New Testament were being collected and recognized as inspired writings during the second, third and fourth centuries. This was the period of the great church fathers and the historic church Councils. Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage who suffered martyrdom in 258 A.D., went so far as to say; “The bishop is in the church, and the church is in the bishop, and if anyone is not with the bishop, he is not in the church.” As some bishops came to have more power, they established five centers in Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. With the rivalry already mentioned between bishops, there was a division into the Eastern church, which became the Greek Orthodox church, and the Western church, which became the Roman Catholic Church under the bishop of Rome. By 590 A.D., this bishop claimed and secured virtual control of the Western church.

This control was made complete under Hildebrand, Pope Gregory VII, in 1073. Hildebrand claimed to be head of the whole church. He claimed the right to crown and uncrown kings. Pope Boniface in 1302 asserted not only that the spiritual power belonged to the church, but that the temporal power should be wielded for the church. Along with the struggle for temporal power there was deterioration in Christian doctrine and practice. The worship of Christ through angels and the Virgin Mary, the practice of praying people out of a purgatory (which was believed in as a place of purging after death), the emphasis upon five more sacraments than Christ instituted, and the general corruption of the clergy marked the church life of the middle ages.

3. THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

After several reforming groups under such men as Wycliffe and Huss had done their work, the Reformation broke out in Germany. Inspired by his rediscovery of the truth of God as he read the scriptures, Martin Luther, a Roman Catholic priest, nailed ninety-five theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg, Germany on October 31, 1517. This challenge to debate was occasioned in part by the offers of an agent of the Roman church named Tetzel who was selling indulgences (promises of immunity from future punishment in return for contributions toward the construction of St. Peter’s church in Rome) in Germany. For nearly thirty stormy years, aided by Melancthon, Luther led the Reformation in Germany. Luther stood squarely on the authority of God revealed in the Bible as opposed to the pretensions of authority by the pope.

John Calvin, the father of modern Presbyterianism, was also trained in the priesthood, law, Latin, logic and philosophy. (The work of Zwingli, who as a contemporary of Calvin did much for the Reformed Churches, is not discussed for lack of space.) Calvin was converted to Protestantism in 1533 and published the first edition of his Institutes of the Christian Religion at the age of 26 in 1536. Under the pressing invitation of William Farel, John Calvin settled in Geneva in 1536 and began his reforms. After being driven out in 1538, he returned in 1540 and established Presbyterianism in thought and practice in Geneva. Geneva thus became the center for Reformed theology and church government for the continent and the British Isles. The key to Calvin’s thought is his effort to interpret the scriptures as the authentic revelation of a sovereign God. He went back through Augustine to Paul and the Bible for both his theology and his form of Government. Modern Presbyterianism is therefore a rebirth of the New Testament church. It emphasizes theology, worship, education, thrift, ethical practice and representative government. Presbyterianism spread rapidly from Geneva to France and to Holland and other parts of the continent.

4. PERSECUTION AND THE FLIGHT TO AMERICA

During the period when Protestants were being so severely persecuted in England and Scotland by Bloody Mary, John Knox, who had formerly been a galley slave in a French ship as a result of persecution, fled to Geneva and learned Calvinism first hand. He returned to Scotland in 1559 to organize the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Amid his labors and tears he prayed, “0 God, give me Scotland or I die!” His prayer was partially answered when he organized the first General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland. The Roman Catholic monarchs of England and Scotland persecuted Presbyterians and other Protestants in Scotland, Ireland and England until many of those who survived came to America. A similar persecution, more ruthless and devastating, was carried on by the Romanists in France. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day in 1572, in which nearly 100,000 Protestants were killed in various parts of France (simply because they were Protestants) sent many of the surviving French Huguenots (who were Presbyterians) to our shores. In a real sense it may be said that Presbyterianism came to America to escape the ruthless persecutions of Roman Catholic rulers, encouraged by the Roman church to which they gave their allegiance.

5. THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY

One historic landmark in Presbyterianism in England was the Westminster Assembly which met at the call of a Puritan Parliament on July 1, 1643, and continued in active session, for five years, six months, and twenty-two days. The six Presbyterian commissioners from Scotland, while denied an official vote, exercised a strong influence on the work of this Assembly. It started out to revise the doctrines, the worship and the living of the Church of England. It ended with the historic documents we know as the Directory for the Public Worship of God, the Confession of Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, and the Psalter. The Confession of Faith and the Catechisms, with minor modifications, serve as the doctrinal guide for Presbyterians in America to the present day. Ministers and officers are required to subscribe to these before ordination to their respective offices. Members are required only to recognize their need of the Savior, to commit their lives to Him, and to support the life and work of the church. While they are taught the Scriptures and the Christian faith in many ways, they are not required to subscribe to a specific set of beliefs in order to become members of the Presbyterian Church.

6. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF PRESBYTERIANISM IN AMERICA

Presbyterians in America were first organized in 1705 or 1706 by Francis Makemie into the Presbytery of Philadelphia. There were seven ministers and “certain elders” present at this meeting. Presbyterianism grew among the colonists until in 1741 there was a division into the Old Side and the New Side in what had become the Synod of Philadelphia. The younger ministers, led by Gilbert Tennent, became flaming evangelists. This did not suit some of the older heads among Presbyterians, so the New Side evangelistic Presbyterians organized themselves into the Synod of New York. After the growth of the church in all of the colonies, these two sides were reunited in 1758. Having contributed to the spirit of freedom which lay behind the American Revolution, the Presbyterians met and organized “The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America” in May, 1789, just three weeks after George Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States. At the time there were approximately 177 ministers, 431 churches, and 20,000 members in the Presbyterian Church in America. This does not include some of the smaller bodies to be mentioned later.

In 1801 there was a cooperative union between the Presbyterian and Congregational churches which permitted ministers of the two churches to exchange pulpits and pastorates. While this resulted in the rapid growth of Presbyterianism, it also resulted in an action of the Assembly of 1837 (in which the Old School had the majority as the New School had in 1836) which declared the union null and void, cut off the four western synods of the Presbyterian church and caused a split into the Old School and the New School Presbyterian churches.

7. THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN BRANCHES OF PRESBYTERIANISM

Although the Methodists and Baptists had split over the question of slavery in 1845, the Presbyterians remained intact until the New School Presbyterian Assembly passed some drastic resolutions condemning slavery and led to the organization of “The United Synod of the Presbyterian Church.” As if three groups were not enough there came another split in the Old School. In 1861 the Old School Assembly met in Philadelphia and passed, by a vote of 156 to 66, the Gardiner- Springs resolution, which reads as follows:

“That this General Assembly, in the spirit of Christian patriotism which the Scriptures enjoin and which has always characterized this church, do hereby acknowledge and declare our obligation to promote and perpetuate, so far as in us lies, the integrity of these United States, and to strengthen, uphold and encourage the Federal government in the exercise of all its functions under our noble Constitution; and to this Constitution, in all its provisions, requirements, and principles, we profess our unabated loyalty.”

The War Between the States was on at the time and very few of the delegates from the eight states which had seceded were present. Had the Presbyterians in these states subscribed to such an ill-timed resolution at the time, they would have been forced to leave their homes and forsake their communities. History has proved the value of the union of states. It is perhaps unfortunate that it has not seen the healing of the wound which led to the organization of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, (which was first called the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America), at Augusta, Georgia, on December 4, 1861. The United Synod of the Presbyterian Church united with this church in 1865, and the Old School and New School in the North reunited in 1870. This left only two of the four groups separated. The work of the Executive Committees and Boards at home and abroad, the growth of the larger branches of Presbyterianism in numbers, stewardship and in influence is an occasion for thanksgiving. According to recent statistics, the Presbyterian Church in the United States numbered approximately 950,000 and the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America numbered approximately 3,750,000.

8. OTHER PRESBYTERIAN BODIES IN THE UNITED STATES

There are also several other distinctly Presbyterian bodies in the United States. Among these are the Associate Reformed Presbyterians in the South with a membership of approximately 30,000, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which has approximately 80,000 members, the Colored Cumberland Presbyterian Church with about 30,000 members, the Reformed Presbyterian Church with approximately 6,000 members, the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America with about 1.500 members, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (from which the Bible Presbyterian Church split off) with about 15,000 members. Since the union of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. and the United Presbyterian Church in 1958, there are only two large Presbyterian bodies in the United States, their combined total numbering approximately 4,350,000.

Therefore, when asked who Presbyterians are, we may reply that they are a branch of the Church universal whose roots are in the Old Testament, whose form or organization is set forth in the New Testament Church, whose freedom to think and to live according to the scriptures was reclaimed under John Calvin and John Knox and many others who died for their Protestant faith. There are several Presbyterian bodies in America. The three largest have a friendly relationship with each other.

Fuller details, of course, should be given about the history of Presbyterians. A part of this curriculum in the Dallas plan is a course in church history based on Dr. Walter Lingle’s book, “Presbyterians, Their History and Beliefs.” The purpose of this brief summary has been to provide perspective for the study of Presbyterian beliefs, which are based on the Bible and have come to us mainly through Augustine, Calvin, and the Westminster divines.

We have a glorious heritage written in the blood of saints and martyrs. Let no one be ashamed to say he is a Presbyterian. But let every Presbyterian be ashamed to blemish a heritage won at such great cost to those who have made Presbyterianism something glorious in the history of the Christian church.