On December 4 in a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, a new denomination was born. Determined, as its moderator expressed it, to be “thoroughly Calvinistic” in doctrine and “intensely Presbyterian” in its form of government, its first General Assembly, composed of 382 commissioners, decided to take the name “National Presbyterian Church.” Although the new body, officially representing 250 churches at the time of organization, has arisen out of secessions from the Southern Presbyterians it included delegates who had come from churches located from Maryland to California, and even one elder representing the Laurelhurst church of Seattle, ‘Washington (who indicated interest in membership); and, as the name suggests, this rapidly growing body hopes to spread across the nation.
Faith – The secessions from the old denominational connections and the formation of the new organization resulted from the growing conviction on the part of many church members and congregations that the liberal movement in the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. had proceeded to the point where they could no longer in good conscience permit themselves to be represented by it.
The new General Assembly, seeking to correct such abuses, insisted that ministers, ruling elders and deacons be asked, “Do you believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the inerrant Word of God, the only infallible and inerrant rule of faith and practice?” In an official statement of its convictions the body said: “We believe the Church is a spiritual organism. It is our duty to set forth what God has given us in His Word and not to devise our own message or legislate our own laws.”
Commissioners approved the Westminster Confession of 1648 as the authoritative guide to their interpretation of Scripture.
Order – The Book of Church Order, based on the Presbyterian Book of Church Order of 1933, as the new organization began work on it, reflected their effort to prevent the kind of abuse of denominational authority they had experienced. Under the adopted rules, “A particular church may withdraw from any court of this body at any time for reasons which seem to it sufficient. “The relationship (between congregation and denomination) is voluntary, based only upon mutual love and confidence, and is in no sense to be maintained by the exercise of any kind of force or coercion whatsoever.” In view of the common complaints that in the old denomination money was used for causes of which members did not approve, the new organization moved toward financial decentralization. In it, although as a legal corporation the denomination is required to have a treasurer, each of four major Church committees (Administration, Christian Education and Publications, Mission to the United States, Mission to the World) will also have its own treasurer, and the corporation treasurer will simply receive funds and disburse them to the respective committees.
Since the new constitution is silent on the question of length of term for church offices, local congregations arc left free to decide this for themselves. Synods are to be eliminated from the structure of the church at least until the denomination is large enough to need them. For the present, membership of the Assembly will be determined in the same manner as membership of presbyteries, including all ministers and churches, with one elder representing each congregation and additional ruling elders allowed for every 500 members, or fraction thereof above 350 members. Some debate took place regarding the question of the continuation of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, and it was decided to appoint a special committee to study this matter and to report later.
Reports indicate that the three-day meeting showed a unity of conviction among the delegates, reflected in the remarkably smooth and orderly procedure of this first General Assembly. One report stated that the doctor in charge of emergencies treated one finger swollen from typing, one wood splinter, and a bite of a kind of guinea pig belonging to the host minister’s son which had strayed in from the adjoining Christian school. One would wish that more church assemblies could report so little injury and damage.
Other items of interest include a provision that a course of instruction in Presbyterian doctrine and polity be given to all new members in each congregation, and that all church employees and ministers be covered by hospitalization insurance.
Leadership – The Stated Clerk of the new denomination is Dr. Morton H. Smith, professor of systematic theology at the Reformed Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, who earned his doctorate under Prof. C. C. Berkouwer at the Free University of Amsterdam.
The Moderator of the Assembly was Mr. W. Jack Williamson, an attorney and a ruling elder from Greenville, Alabama. In his extended address Mr. Williamson expressed the common determination to be loyal to the Scriptures, a church “renewed according to the Word of God.” He went on to say: “We shall attempt to recover Christianity in its original purity and to remove from it the beliefs and practices that have become attached to it in our day and generation without foundation in the Word of God.” Referring to the secessions he said: “Separation from foes is not easy; but separation from fellow Christian friends is traumatic. It was only after much prayer and with great sorrow and mourning that we concluded that to practice the principle of purity in the visible church, we had to pay the price of separation.” “The true Church of Jesus Christ,” he continued, “belongs to those who by the grace of God are faithful to the Scriptures. . . The higher critical theories of Scripture and the neo-orthodox view of Scripture have become the dominant and official position of the PCUS today. To them, the Bible is not the Word of God written—it merely contains the Word of God. To them, it is not absolute, objective truth. For them, truth is subjective to the discovery of the mind of man.” Mr. Williamson urged members of the new body to “put way our former mentality of being suspicious of our fellow churchmen; and … trust and believe our brothers until and unless they prove otherwise.” He expressed a desire for unity of fellowship with other churches on the basis of a unity of faith. Expressing “continued love and concern” for the churches whose fellowship they “only with deepest regret” have felt compelled to leave, he said to members who remain in the old fellowship: “We now extend to you our hands of love and good will and our open invitation and plea to join us soon. May God hasten that day.”
Turning again to the members of the new church, the speaker urged that men might see in them “the three effects of nearness to Jesus—humility, happiness, find holiness . . . . History teaches us that in prior church divisions, those who come out tend to become hard, they tend to become absolutists even in the lesser points of doctrine . . . . True humility is the answer to this problem.”
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Faith – The secessions from the old denominational connections and the formation of the new organization resulted from the growing conviction on the part of many church members and congregations that the liberal movement in the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. had proceeded to the point where they could no longer in good conscience permit themselves to be represented by it.
The new General Assembly, seeking to correct such abuses, insisted that ministers, ruling elders and deacons be asked, “Do you believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the inerrant Word of God, the only infallible and inerrant rule of faith and practice?” In an official statement of its convictions the body said: “We believe the Church is a spiritual organism. It is our duty to set forth what God has given us in His Word and not to devise our own message or legislate our own laws.”
Commissioners approved the Westminster Confession of 1648 as the authoritative guide to their interpretation of Scripture.
Order – The Book of Church Order, based on the Presbyterian Book of Church Order of 1933, as the new organization began work on it, reflected their effort to prevent the kind of abuse of denominational authority they had experienced. Under the adopted rules, “A particular church may withdraw from any court of this body at any time for reasons which seem to it sufficient. “The relationship (between congregation and denomination) is voluntary, based only upon mutual love and confidence, and is in no sense to be maintained by the exercise of any kind of force or coercion whatsoever.” In view of the common complaints that in the old denomination money was used for causes of which members did not approve, the new organization moved toward financial decentralization. In it, although as a legal corporation the denomination is required to have a treasurer, each of four major Church committees (Administration, Christian Education and Publications, Mission to the United States, Mission to the World) will also have its own treasurer, and the corporation treasurer will simply receive funds and disburse them to the respective committees.
Since the new constitution is silent on the question of length of term for church offices, local congregations arc left free to decide this for themselves. Synods are to be eliminated from the structure of the church at least until the denomination is large enough to need them. For the present, membership of the Assembly will be determined in the same manner as membership of presbyteries, including all ministers and churches, with one elder representing each congregation and additional ruling elders allowed for every 500 members, or fraction thereof above 350 members. Some debate took place regarding the question of the continuation of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, and it was decided to appoint a special committee to study this matter and to report later.
Reports indicate that the three-day meeting showed a unity of conviction among the delegates, reflected in the remarkably smooth and orderly procedure of this first General Assembly. One report stated that the doctor in charge of emergencies treated one finger swollen from typing, one wood splinter, and a bite of a kind of guinea pig belonging to the host minister’s son which had strayed in from the adjoining Christian school. One would wish that more church assemblies could report so little injury and damage.
Other items of interest include a provision that a course of instruction in Presbyterian doctrine and polity be given to all new members in each congregation, and that all church employees and ministers be covered by hospitalization insurance.
Leadership – The Stated Clerk of the new denomination is Dr. Morton H. Smith, professor of systematic theology at the Reformed Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, who earned his doctorate under Prof. C. C. Berkouwer at the Free University of Amsterdam.
The Moderator of the Assembly was Mr. W. Jack Williamson, an attorney and a ruling elder from Greenville, Alabama. In his extended address Mr. Williamson expressed the common determination to be loyal to the Scriptures, a church “renewed according to the Word of God.” He went on to say: “We shall attempt to recover Christianity in its original purity and to remove from it the beliefs and practices that have become attached to it in our day and generation without foundation in the Word of God.” Referring to the secessions he said: “Separation from foes is not easy; but separation from fellow Christian friends is traumatic. It was only after much prayer and with great sorrow and mourning that we concluded that to practice the principle of purity in the visible church, we had to pay the price of separation.” “The true Church of Jesus Christ,” he continued, “belongs to those who by the grace of God are faithful to the Scriptures. . . The higher critical theories of Scripture and the neo-orthodox view of Scripture have become the dominant and official position of the PCUS today. To them, the Bible is not the Word of God written—it merely contains the Word of God. To them, it is not absolute, objective truth. For them, truth is subjective to the discovery of the mind of man.” Mr. Williamson urged members of the new body to “put way our former mentality of being suspicious of our fellow churchmen; and … trust and believe our brothers until and unless they prove otherwise.” He expressed a desire for unity of fellowship with other churches on the basis of a unity of faith. Expressing “continued love and concern” for the churches whose fellowship they “only with deepest regret” have felt compelled to leave, he said to members who remain in the old fellowship: “We now extend to you our hands of love and good will and our open invitation and plea to join us soon. May God hasten that day.”
Turning again to the members of the new church, the speaker urged that men might see in them “the three effects of nearness to Jesus—humility, happiness, find holiness . . . . History teaches us that in prior church divisions, those who come out tend to become hard, they tend to become absolutists even in the lesser points of doctrine . . . . True humility is the answer to this problem.”
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