The Orthodox Presbyterian Church, therefore, holds to what it believes to be the "purest" form of Christianity. It is not Baptist, or Methodist, or Lutheran, or yet Episcopalian. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church differs from these denominations in that it believes what is known as the "Reformed Faith. To give a brief but faithful characterization of the Reformed Faith is both difficult and necessary.
But a fair conception of what the Orthodox Presbyterian Church stands for may be had by observing its governing principle and a few of its distinctive doctrines. The principle which governs the Reformed Faith is the Sovereignty of God. That is to say, all things find their source in God, all things are ordained by God, and all things are ordained for God's own pleasure and glory.
That is precisely what the Scriptures mean when they say, "of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things: to whom be glory forever" Romans The doctrines which are commonly used to set forth the distinctiveness of the Reformed Faith are known as "the five points of Calvinism.
The first of the "five points" is the Total Depravity of Man. This teaching means that every man, unless born again, is "utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil. The second point is Unconditional Election, the belief that "by the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestined unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death.
The third point is the Definite Atonement. This is supported by, among others, the following passages. I lay down my life for the sheep"; John , "But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me. The fourth point, which teaches that a person believes and is saved only because God the Holy Spirit has made him willing and able, is Efficacious Grace.
I Peter , " And finally, there is the doctrine of the Eternal Security of believers, which simply means "once a Christian, always a Christian. These doctrines, to repeat, are distinctive of the creeds of Presbyterian churches. To them, all who take ordination vows in those churches must subscribe. And with all these doctrines the Orthodox Presbyterian Church most sincerely agrees. The question, then, and a most logical one indeed, arises in the minds of many: "Why is a new church necessary?
Certainly, we see that they couldn't belong to a Methodist or Lutheran Church, but why can't they belong to any Presbyterian church?
And it has been asked since that time. The General Assembly had suspended a man from the gospel ministry for daring to organize a Bible conference whose speakers were not allowed to be appointed by the Church. It had ordered another minister's pastoral relation with his congregation to be severed because he would not ask his people to support the Boards of the Church without regard for their teachings.
And it had suspended still others from preaching in the denomination because they, through a board independent of the Church, had sought to send out missionaries to preach the gospel of salvation through faith in Christ's atonement. Such actions were, as the Rev. Clarence E. Macartney tragically silent since then said in the Syracuse N. Post-Standard for June 3, , "unthinkable. Macartney drew attention to the suspension of the Rev.
Gresham Machen as an example. The reason for the suspension was not that Dr. Machen was an unbeliever, for the very opposite was true. Machen had steadfastly upheld the gospel.
His voice had become the outstanding voice of his generation throughout the world in defense of orthodox Christianity. What Dr. Macartney found "unthinkable," therefore, was that "a man known throughout the Christian world as a defender of the Christian faith has been suspended from the Christian ministry. But an historical fact! But it was not an unpredictable phenomenon.
No building collapses without some previous internal decay. Thus the process of internal disintegration can be traced as far back as the year ! We shall profitably trace the process of events within the church from that time, and see the gradual but steady decline of that church's witness to the gospel. Furthermore, we shall see that those momentous events at Syracuse were but the logical outworking of that defection from the faith.
They were the climax of the church's departure from the Truth. Presbyterianism in the United States may be traced back as far as the early Puritans, but it received no real impetus until about when Scotch-Irish immigrants began arriving from Ulster. The spread of Presbyterianism was not rapid, though it was steady.
The first presbytery to be set up, the Presbytery of Philadelphia, had its first meeting in Growth continued. New presbyteries came into being, and they were organized into the Synod of Philadelphia in In there was a withdrawal to form the Synod of New York.
The synods continued to expand until in they met and constituted, with new synods and presbyteries, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the USA. In the year a plan of union was adopted whereby the General Assembly and the General Association of the State of Connecticut Congregational should work together, rather than in conflict.
The flood gates had now been opened to liberal theology. Thirty-six years later, in , the General Assembly abrogated this union. Undoubtedly it was thought that the Church was now sound, and there was nothing to fear. But the damage had been done and its results were far-reaching. Among other things, Auburn N. Theological Seminary had been founded to teach the New School Theology; Albert Barnes, a proponent of it, had been called to the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, and a group of the adherents of this liberal belief had united to found Union Theological Seminary of New York.
With the Assembly's enthusiastic reception of the Liberals another step in the downward trend had been taken. However, about 20 years later two events took place which heartened conservatives in the Church. First of all, in an attempt was made to liberalize the Confession of Faith. The General Assembly even went so far as to appoint a committee on the subject. But when the Assembly finally sent the proposed changes down to the presbyteries for concurrence they were rejected.
The conservatives were led by the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary, and as was to be expected they opposed the changes because they represented departures from the Bible. A hollow victory for the conservatives, indeed. Among other things, he denied the infallibility and sufficiency of the Scriptures.
He had been acquitted by his presbytery; but upon an appeal to the General Assembly of he was finally convicted and suspended from the ministry. On similar charges Professor Smith of Lane Seminary in Cincinnati was convicted by his presbytery and the Assembly sustained the conviction. However, these actions, commendable though they were, now are seen to have been merely a meteor-like flash of orthodoxy across a darkening Liberal sky. A brief decade later another point in the descent was reached.
A movement was on foot to unite the Church with a smaller Presbyterian body, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. This was "descent" because although the latter was Presbyterian in government, it was not Reformed in doctrine, whereas the Presbyterian Church in the USA was supposed to be Reformed.
Around the turn of the century there had been a great increase in membership due to a revival, and ministers having both the educational and doctrinal qualifications required by the Presbyterian Church in the USA were at a premium. In fact, there were not enough.
Those, therefore, who were soon to form the Cumberland Church urged that the requirements for ministers be lowered. When the General Assembly refused to change the ministerial requirements the dissenting group left the Church body and, setting up their own standards, formed the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Though the reason for this group's lack of insistence on the doctrinal soundness of their ministers had been apparent from the first, the evidence was incontrovertible when they adopted their doctrinal standards in They used the Westminster Confession of Faith with, they said, the fatalism left out.
In other words they were an Arminian, not a Reformed church. Accordingly, in , in order to prepare the way for union with that body, the Presbyterian Church in the USA revised its doctrinal standards so as to satisfy the Arminian church.
To the original Westminster Confession of Faith they added two chapters and a "Declaratory Statement," and altered three chapters.
It is well, perhaps, to make a brief examination now of these revisions. They are very important, for by them the Church made it possible for Arminians to be ministers, elders, and deacons in good standing in the Church.
In other words, the Church was no longer uncompromisingly Reformed. These are serious charges, but they are verified in the first place by the willingness of the Cumberland Church to unite after the revisions were made. The union was consummated in , but let us examine the revisions ourselves. We shall just note a few of the details briefly. The section deals with the total depravity of man. The original form says that though the works of unregenerate men may be "of good use both to themselves and others" they are nevertheless "sinful and cannot please God, or make a man meet to receive grace from God.
And yet their neglect of them is more sinful, and displeasing unto God. Then, too, the revised form fails to do justice to the omission of these works. It says merely that that is "sinful and displeasing unto God," whereas the original form more accurately said they are "more sinful, and displeasing unto God.
It can be seen how this new form was more acceptable to the Cumberland Church than the old. That is, what it says is all right; it simply does not say enough. This omission is significant in view of the clearer statements in the rest of the Confession. The omissions are obviously purposeful; they are to create ambiguity, thus permitting either a Calvinistic or an Arminian interpretation.
The purpose of all these revisions of must always be kept in mind, viz. There is not one statement in it which could not receive the most wholehearted support of the most ardent Methodist or Lutheran.
Though indeed God loves "the world" and gave His Son "that whosoever believeth in him might have everlasting life," yet it would seem that if the doctrine of election were to be brought in anywhere it would be in connection with a chapter dealing with God's love and missions, for the proof of God's love is that He "hath chosen us Also the reason the great missionary Paul was told to remain longer in Corinth to preach on his second missionary journey was that God had "much people in this city" Acts As to the redemptive work of Christ, the standard Arminian position is taken in this chapter.
It says that Christ merely "provided" a way of life and salvation for all. The manner in which that salvation is to be applied to the individual is left entirely open. In fact, the plain implication is that redemption is to be applied by man's free choice. The Westminster Confession says that Christ's elect people are "by him In examining the "Declaratory Statement" we find the same weakness and tendency.
The "Statement" is made as a "formally expressed It is obvious, therefore, that these revisions provided for the entrance, in good standing, of an Arminian ministry, thereby driving home the wedge of naturalism within the Church. Calvinism alone goes the whole way in declaring a supernatural Christianity. For the Calvinist, and according to the Westminster Confession, salvation is all of God.
For the Arminian, and according to these revisions of the Confession of Faith, salvation is part of God and part of man. God, he says, provided it; man must apply it. Man is, then, in the last analysis, sovereign. By these revisions of its creed the Church has thus effected a compromise with naturalism. We shall see what fruit the grafted tree bears, and that without changing the creed further the "compromise" has become "adoption.
The effect of these changes was then allowed to work itself out in the life of the church until by the spirit of compromise had so permeated the denomination that a "plan of organic union" with other Protestant bodies, presented at that time by the Rev. This may not at first be shocking to some, but when the basis of this proposed union is seen its appalling character will be plain. Having compromised in on certain distinctively Reformed doctrines, the movement now had grown to the point where the Church would compromise on the "generally Christian" doctrines.
The creedal basis of the proposed union had become so inclusive that any liberal, even the so-called "high priest of Modernism," Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, could subscribe to it readily. This creedal basis was the "desire to share, as a common heritage, the faith of the Christian Church, which has from time to time found expression in great historical statements"; and a common "belief in God our Father; in Jesus Christ His only Son our Savior; in the Holy Spirit, our Guide and Comforter; in the Holy Catholic Church, through which God's eternal purpose of salvation is to be proclaimed and the kingdom of God is to be realized on earth; in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as containing God's revealed will; and the life eternal.
What could be a more loose statement of truth than this? Many people who are not Christians mistakenly think God is their Father. The Modernist will say that Jesus was the most divine of all men and thus can be called the "only Son," and he will call Christ his Savior because He taught him to save himself. The Liberal can interpret the phrase "the kingdom of God is to be realized on earth" so as to warrant the preaching of a purely moralistic religion.
Almost any Modernist will say the former. None will say the latter. Compare: views about same-sex marriage by political ideology views about same-sex marriage by religious denomination.
Compare: views about environmental protection by political ideology views about environmental protection by religious denomination. Compare: views about human evolution by political ideology views about human evolution by religious denomination. About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world.
It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Newsletters Donate My Account.
Research Topics. Visit this table to see approximate margins of error for a group of a given size. For full question wording, see the survey questionnaire. Sample sizes and margins of error vary from subgroup to subgroup, from year to year and from state to state. You can see the sample size for the estimates in this chart on rollover or in the last column of the table. And visit this table to see approximate margins of error for a group of a given size. Fifty-two percent of PCUSA clergy identify as liberal, 16 percent as moderate, and only 32 percent as conservative.
PCUSA has been in a long-term decline since its membership high of after the mergers. Despite its theological and political teachings, PCUSA acknowledges the lack of consensus among its churches on issues of same-sex marriage and transgender issues.
At the corporate level, the Presbyterian Church USA engages in political advocacy on a wide variety of issues. PCUSA also formally supports gun control. The Presbyterian Church USA is governed in the traditional Presbyterian manner, with congregations known as Sessions electing leaders to run church programs and operations and to represent the congregation to the Presbytery, a union of congregations in a geographic area.
0コメント