History of the PCA Flashcards
What are some distinctives of the PCA?
1
- God alone is Lord of the conscience and has left it free from any doctrines or commandments of
men which are in any respect contrary to the Word of God, or which in regard to matters of faith and
worship, are not governed by the Word of God. Therefore, the rights of private judgment in all
matters that respect religion are universal and inalienable. No religious constitution should be
supported by the civil power further than may be necessary for protection and security equal and
common to all.
What are some distinctives of the PCA?
2
- In perfect consistency with the above principle, every Christian Church, or union or association of
particular churches, is entitled to declare the terms of admission into its communion and the
qualification of its ministers and members, as well as the whole system of its internal government
which Christ has appointed. In the exercise of this right it may, notwithstanding, err in making the
terms of communion either too lax or too narrow; yet even in this case, it does not infringe upon the
liberty or the rights of others, but only makes an improper use of its own.
What are some distinctives of the PCA?
3
- Our blessed Savior, for the edification of the visible Church, which is his body, has appointed
officers not only to preach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments, but also to exercise discipline
for the preservation both of truth and duty. It is incumbent upon these officers and upon the whole
church in whose name they act, to censure or cast out the erroneous and scandalous, observing in all
cases the rules contained in the Word of God.
What are some distinctives of the PCA?
4
- Godliness is founded on truth. A test of truth is its power to promote holiness according to our
savior’s rule, by their fruits you shall know them (Matthew 7.20) No opinion can be more pernicious
or more absurd than that which brings truth and falsehood upon the same level.
What are some distinctives of the PCA?
5
- While, under the conviction of the above principle, it is necessary to make every effective
provision that all who are admitted as teachers be sound in the faith, there are truths and forms with
respect to which men of good character and principles may differ. In all these it is the duty both of
private Christians and societies toexercise mutual forbearance toward each other
What are some distinctives of the PCA?
6
- Though the character, qualifications and authority of church officers are laid down in the Holy
Scriptures, as well as the proper method of officer investiture, the power to elect persons to the
exercise of authority in any particular society resides in that society.
What are some distinctives of the PCA?
7
- All church power whether exercised by the body in general, or by representation, is only
ministerial and declarative since the Holy Scriptures are the only rule of faith and practice. No
church judiciary may make laws to bind the conscience. All church courts may err, through human
frailty, yet it rests upon them to uphold the laws of Scripture though this obligation be lodged with
fallible men.
What are some distinctives of the PCA?
8
- Since ecclesiastical discipline must be purely moral or spiritual in its object, and not attended with
any civil effects, it can derive no force whatever, but from its own justice, the approbation of an
impartial public, and the countenance and blessing of the great Head of the Church.
Discuss the controversy between modernism and fundamentalism
Riding on a high tide of German higher criticism, liberalism infected the American church in the late 19th
century. The issue would come to the fore in the Presbyterian Church USA in 1923, when 150 ministers
signed an affirmation denying the necessity of subscription to the five fundamentals for ordination to the
gospel ministry in the PCUSA. (The modernists responded in 1924 by signing the Auburn Affirmation which urged tolerance and
affirmed alternative explanations of Christian doctrines. The debate continued into the General Assembly
of 1926 when the assembly actually nullified the five essentials and brought the denomination into
conformity with the Auburn Affirmation. Thus dealing a tragic blow to orthodoxy.
J Gresham Machen
While many other institutions had fallen under liberalism, Old Princeton
remained the bastion of Calvinist orthodoxy and intellectual defense of the Christian faith. When restructuring of her board was ordered by the General Assembly, an action which would surely change her
character, many of her orthodox faculty, under the leadership of NT scholar J. Gresham Machen, left to
form Westminster Theological Seminary in 1929. When Machen and his followers objected to their
tithes towards missions going to non-Christian pluralistic missions work, and established the Independent
Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, they were defrocked by the PCUSA. They went on to found the
Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 1936. Soon finding that they had been bound only by a common
enemy, Machen and his fellow Old School Calvinists, and the dispentionalists, parted ways. Thus, under
the leadership of Carl McIntire, the Bible Presbyterian Church was formed out of the dispensational
group.
(McIntosh)
Continued movement away from the conservative position resulted in the 1929 reorganization of
Princeton Seminary ( a bastion of Old School thought). This reorganization denied Machen the chair of
Apologetics and Ethics resulting in his withdrawal from the seminary and the formation of Westminster
Theological Seminary. Machen and seven other Princeton faculty started Westminster in order to
continue the historic Presbyterian orthodoxy. His fight against liberalism continued in 1933 when he
formed the conservative Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions “to promote truly Biblical
and truly Presbyterian mission work.”8
This act led to the suspension of his ordination in 1935.
The church was once again at a point of schism and on June 11, 1936, Machen and his fellow
conservatives formed the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC).9
Harry Fosdick
The Essentials were adopted and reaffirmed in 1916 and again in 1923. Yet growing opposition
was forming. In 1922, Harry Fosdick forced the issue with his sermon, Shall the Fundamentalists Win?
In this sermon he argued for the validity of liberal Christianity. It became the object of many responses
from the pens of Conservative Presbyterians. In particular, J. Gresham Machen of Princeton Theological
Seminary. He responded by publishing the book, Christianity and Liberalism in which he powerfully
argued that “liberalism, despite its traditional phraseology, was not some harmless variant of Christianity;
it was, in fact, not Christinaity. And all but a new and different religion.”7
The modernists responded in 1924 by signing the Auburn Affirmation which urged tolerance and
affirmed alternative explanations of Christian doctrines. The debate continued into the General Assembly
78
of 1926 when the assembly actually nullified the five essentials and brought the denomination into
conformity with the Auburn Affirmation. Thus dealing a tragic blow to orthodoxy
Trace the historical roots of the RPC~. From which major branch of Presbyterianism did the RPC~
come? Why is the RPCES important in PCA history? Be sure in your answer to identify and explain
the significance of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, J. Oliver Buswell,
Robert Rayburn, Frands Schaeffer, and Carl Mclntire
Conservatives in the PCUSA formed their own denomination, the Presbyterian Church of America
(1936), because of the modernists movement in the PCUSA- however, when the common cause of
battling the modernists grew less intense because of the successful formation of the new
denomination, difference began to surface. These difference were along the lines of eschatology and
the use/nonuse of alcoholic beverages. This difference split the denomination. The group favoring
pre-millenialism and complete abstinence from alcohol and tobacco formed the Bible Presbyterian
Church in 1938. The Presbyterian Church of America renamed themselves a year later to the the
Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The Bible Presbyterian Church split in 1956, once under Carl
McIntrye who was resolved to keep mission boards and seminaries out from under denominational
control. This split resulted in the Bible Presbyterian Church, Collinswood synod (McIntyre’s group)
and the Bible Presbyterian Church, Columbus synod. The Columbus synod changed their name to
the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and soon merged with the Reformed Presbyterian Church of
North America, General synod to form the Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod
(RPCES). Thus, the RPCES came out of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America,
Northern Presbyterian Church.
Trace the history of the formation of the PCA. When, where and why did the PCA begin?
The Presbyterian Church in America was formed in 1973, under the name The National Presbyterian
Church. The church was formed as a continuing biblical Presbyterian denomination, out of the
Presbyterian Church in the United States (the Southern Presbyterian Church).
Be sure in your answer to
identify and explain the significance of the Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship, Concerned
Presbyterians, t
Due to the rampant
liberalism, especially in the form of Barthianism, in that denomination, several organizations had been
formed to preserve the gospel witness in that denomination. These included the Concerned Presbyterians,
Presbyterian Churchmen United, the Presbyterian Evangelsitic Fellowship, and Reformed Theological
Seminary
The Preservers of the gospel :the Concerned Presbyterians,
Presbyterian Churchmen United, the Presbyterian Evangelsitic Fellowship, and Reformed Theological
Seminary came to a conviction PCUS not viable for the gospel formed what, when and where, and elected who as moderator m and stated clerk
When things had progressed to such a stage where a majority of these men came to a
conviction that the PCUS was no longer a viable organ of gospel witness, they organized to form the
PCA. The first General Assembly was held at Briarwood Church in Birmingham Alabama, in 1973. Col.
Jack Williamson was elected moderator and Morton Smith was elected Stated Clerk.
