THE ORIGIN OF DENOMINATIONS
Lesson Twelve
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
(1541)
I. IT'S BEGINNING:
In Lesson Eight, we noted the work of Ulrich Swingli, Swiss
Reformer, and his successor John Calvin. Calvin wrote his
"Institutes of the Christian Religion" in 1536, while in the city
of Geneva. Enjoying free rein while in Switzerland, Calvin
developed his religious system (known as Calvinism), which
contained five basic points:
(1) Total Hereditary Depravity. Calvin taught that, as a
result of Adam's sin, all of Adam's descendants are born
totally depraved. Thus, infants are born in sin and
therefore condemned, unable to do anything toward being
saved.
(2) Unconditional Predestination. Calvin taught that before
the creation, God ordained some to eternal life and others
to eternal damnation and that there was nothing that could
be done on the part of man for salvation.
(3) Limited Atonement. Since only the pre-elected ones could
be saved, according to Calvin, then Jesus died only for
the elect, not for all mankind.
(4) Irresistibility of Grace. Calvin taught that if one had
been chosen to be saved (before the world began), then God
would act upon the sinner in due time and the sinner could
not resist God's grace. Included in his teaching on this
point, he believed in a direct operation of the Holy
Spirit upon man for salvation.
(5) Perseverance of the Saints. Calvin taught that those who
had been elected, having been saved by the grace of God,
could not so sin so as to be lost in eternity. Thus, once
a child of God, one could not fall away and be lost.
Although Calvin did not establish the Presbyterian Church, it
was his work and teachings that resulted in its beginning. It was
through the leadership of John Knox that the doctrines of Calvin
were brought to Scotland. The Presbyterian Church was the result
of Knox's efforts. Knox wrote for it the first articles of faith.
The "Westminister Assembly," which met in Westminister, England,
from 1643 to 1649, wrote the "Westminister Confession of Faith,"
and the "Larger and Shorter Catechisms," which have remained as
the creed of Presbyterianism.
From the foundation laid by the teachings of John Calvin there
have come various Presbyterians Groups, such as, the "Huguenots"
of France, the "Puritans" of England, the "Covenanters" of
Scotland and the "Dutch Reformed Church" of Holland.
"Francis Makemie, who is called the 'Father of American
Presbyterianism,' organized the Rehoboth Church in Maryland in
1684." (Churches of Today, Tomlinson, page 43.)
II. SOME OF THE MAJOR DOCTRINES OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH:
1. Accepts the five basic doctrines of John Calvin.
2. That God has predestinated and foreordained some men and angels
out of His free grace and love without any foresight of faith
or work in man or perseverance in either of them, and others
are foreordained to everlasting death and the number of either
is so certain and definite that it cannot be increased or
diminished." (Westminister Confession of Faith, art. 3, 4, 5;
Chap. 3; Art. 2, Chapter 10.) (Churches of Today, Tomlinson,
page 44.)
3. That "elect infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved
by Christ through the Spirit, so also are all other elect
persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the
ministry of the Word." (Westminister Confession of Faith, Art.
3, Chapter 10.) (Churches of Today, Tomlinson, page 44.)
4. Teaches justification by faith alone.
5. Teaches that immersion is not necessary. Baptism may be by
sprinkling or pouring.
6. The Lord's Super is partaken of four to six times a year.
7. The Westminister Confession of faith is accepted as their
creed.
8. The Ten Commandments are binding upon man today. (Article 13,
1903 Assembly.)
9. Accepts women officers and women preachers.
10. That the Holy Spirit acts directly upon the heart of man to
persuade him to obey the gospel. "We believe in the Holy
Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who moves everywhere upon
the hearts of men to restrain them from evil and to incite them
to good, and whom the Father is ever willing to give unto all
who ask Him....and to persuade and enable them to obey the call
of the Gospel." (General Assembly in Los Angeles, CA., 1903.)
11. Church government: "The government is very significant because
we were named for the kind of government, in fact it is almost
a doctrine. We are ruled by elders at every level organized
into courts that are legislative and administrative. On the
local level in each church there is a session. On the next
level is the presbytery, which is made up of a number of
congregations or sessions in a given ares. Then there is the
synod that is made up of presbyteries and finally the General
Assembly.
"There are two kinds of elders, ruling and teaching. The
ruling elders are representatives of the people and teaching
elder is the pastor." (Rev. P. A. Washer, One Way, A Layman's
Guide to Denominations, Lilla Ross, Beaumont Enterprise, 1977,)
NOTE:
(1) Some Presbyterians no longer believe that only a
predestined group will be saved and all other lost. This
change in the creed came about in 1938. Some now hold
that all men can be saved.
(2) Some also reject the teaching that infants will be damned
because of original sin.
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