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Archive for the ‘Catholicity’ Category

Shields: Study the unity of the Church!

Posted in Catholicity, Communion of the Saints, Connectionalism & Conciliarism, Covenanters, The Visible Church, Vox Patrum on December 23, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“Therefore all the true Members [of the Church] should study Unity; This Truth of the Oneness of the Catholick Visible Church, being the Ground of all the Union and Communion in the Ordinances thereof. Cant. 6.9. My Dove, my Undefiled is but One, She is the only One of Her Mother. If the Church be One, Divisions and divided Communions in her must either inferr that this one Church is many, made up of Heterogeneous parts, or that the Church divided from is not apart of that one Church, and hath broken off from that which compacts the Body together.”

Alexander Shields (1661-1700)

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Whole doctrine catholicity | “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners” (Song 6:10)?

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Ignoring discipline tantamount to unchurching

Posted in Audio Resources, Catholicity, Church of Scotland, Church Order & Discipline, Separatism & Schism, The Visible Church on November 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »

MacPherson explains the radically catholic ecclesiology of our Scottish Presbyterian forbears. Listen to an audio recording of the chapter where he treats this subject here.

Whole doctrine catholicity | “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners” (Song 6:10)?

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Presbyterians or peacemakers?

Posted in Audio Resources, Catholicity, Church of Scotland, Connectionalism & Conciliarism, Free Church of Scotland, Separatism & Schism, The Visible Church, tagged , , , on September 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

A false dichotomy, if one is to take James Durham seriously:

“Never, never did men run to quench fire in a city, lest all should be destroyed, with more diligence than men ought to bestir themselves to quench this [sin of schism] in the church; never did mariners use more speed to stop a leak in a ship, lest all should be drowned, than ministers especially, and all Christian men should haste to stop this beginning of the breaking in of these waters of strife, lest thereby the whole church be overwhelmed. And if the many evils which follow thereupon, the many commands whereby union is pressed, yea, the many entreaties and obtestations whereby the Holy Ghost does so frequently urge this upon all, as a thing most acceptable to him and profitable to us; if, I say, these and many other such considerations have not weight to convince of the necessity of this duty to prevent or heal a breach [emphasis mine], we cannot tell what can prevail with men that profess reverence to the great and dreadful name of God, conscience of duty, and respect to the edification of the church and to their own peace at the appearance of the Lord in the great day, wherein the peace-makers shall be blessed, for they shall be called the children of God?”

Read more about the Scottish doctrine of visible church union and the sin of schism in MacPherson’s classic below. And an audio recording of that particular chapter can be accessed here.

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Rutherford on Christ & Christian unity

Posted in Catholicity, Communion of the Saints, Samuel Rutherford, The Visible Church on September 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“Christ is a drawing and an uniting Spirit; then all that are in Christ should be united. Certainly the divisions now in Britain cannot be of God. The wolf and the good Shepherd are contrary in this; the good Shepherd loves to have the flock gathered in one, and to save them, that they may find pasture, and the flock may be saved: the wolf scatters the flock; or if the wolf would have the flock gathered together, it is that they may be destroyed. Then it would be considered, if a bloody intention of war between two protestant kingdoms, for carnal ends, and upon forced and groundless jealousies, be from an uniting Spirit, and not rather from him, who was a murderer from the beginning.”

For a good, one-chapter introduction to the historic Scottish Presbyterian views of visible Church union or ‘catholicity,’ have a listen to “Church Unity & the Sin of Schism,” by John Macpherson, in his Doctrine of the Church in Scottish Theology.

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Whole doctrine catholicity | “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners” (Song 6:10)?

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Micro-presbyterians & church planting

Posted in Catholicity, Connectionalism & Conciliarism, Missiology, Parish in American Context, Parish Theory & Practice, Thomas Chalmers, WPE Editor, tagged , , , , on July 20, 2024| 1 Comment »

Micro-presbyterians study hard to get things right. We dot our i’s and cross our t’s. And yet for all our learning, we can miss some pretty big things—in fact, some pretty big presbyterian things. Church-planting would definitely be one of them.

I speak from experience. For nearly the entirety of my 29-year Reformed career, I’ve been a ‘micro-presbyterian.’ I skipped the 1689 thing, past the (relatively) big-tent Reformed bodies, going straight into the Presbyterian Reformed Church, a very small psalm-singing body formed in 1965. I rather distaste the term ‘micro-presbyterian,’ especially with its connotations of over-scrupulosity and cantankerousness; and, the term may be a little dated. But in any case, God put me here, and I love my denomination. (And getting a gorgeous wife and elder’s daughter out of deal didn’t hurt either!).

I also think it has come a long way over the years. I feel that we have matured simultaneously, from a kind of cage-stage to something more balanced, stable, and seasoned. It has also helped, quite frankly, that we decided to join NAPARC some years back. Sure, it made us a pariah with many who might otherwise have sought us out. But often, those very types would never be happy in any case until they were safe in the embrace of an ecclesiastical micromanager or worshipping every Lord’s day in their own living-room.

I know we all have learned the hard way from many mistakes, missteps, and quite frankly, sins. “In many things, we offend all.” While we cannot deny the light that the Lord has graciously shown us, but embrace and follow on in it; while we cannot but press forward to the higher and better attainments of the First and Second Reformations and maintain them with diligence and zeal, we must also humbly acknowledge where we have mixed holy with unholy fire, and where we have in fact justified means by ends. Sometimes in our earnestness for truth we have cut corners; sometimes we’ve cut far more than just corners. But two wrongs do not make a right. And we may never “do evil that good may come.”

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Kinism & the City of God

Posted in Articles, Catholicity, Christendom, Culture, Medieval Church, The Church in America, WPE Editor on July 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[I thought I’d blogify a short FB post.]

My daughter, Geneva, and I were discussing this recent chatter (bilge) of kinism among confessional Presbyterian types. She rather perceptively observed that there is a total confusion of race and culture here.

It is claimed that as the swarms of immigrants who pour through our porous border, “our people” are threatened. So does “our people” include Gavin Newsom and Joe Biden? I’m the first to bewail the dreadful non-enforcement of the U.S. border. But I share much more culture with many blacks and Latinos and find them more my people than many a white liberal. What is this supposed pristine white culture that is in jeopardy? And let’s not forget that the Vandals and Visigoths who toppled the Roman Empire became the genesis of Medieval Christendom. The “City of God” is my people.

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Ryle on church-partisanship

Posted in Catholicity, Connectionalism & Conciliarism, Separatism & Schism on April 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The following is taken from J. C. Ryle’s exposition of John 3:22-36.

“On one account, this passage deserves the special attention of all devout readers of the Bible. It contains the last testimony of John the Baptist concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. That faithful man of God was the same at the end of his ministry that he was at the beginning. the same in his views of self–the same in his views of Christ. Happy is that church whose ministers are as steady, bold, and constant to one thing, as John the Baptist!

“We have, firstly, in these verses, a humbling example of the petty jealousies and party-spirit which may exist among professors of religion. We are told, that the disciples of John the Baptist were offended, because the ministry of Jesus began to attract more attention than that of their master. ‘They came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with you beyond Jordan, to whom you barest witness, behold the same baptizes, and all men come to him.’

“The spirit exhibited in this complaint, is unhappily too common in the Churches of Christ. The succession of these complainers has never failed. There are never lacking religions professors who care far more for the increase of their own party, than for the increase of true Christianity; and who cannot rejoice in the spread of religion, if it spreads anywhere except within their own denomination. There is a generation which can see no good being done, except in the ranks of its own congregations; and which seems ready to shut men out of heaven, if they will not enter therein under their banner.

“The true Christian must watch and pray against the spirit here manifested by John’s disciples. It is very insidious, very contagious, and very injurious to the cause of religion. Nothing so defiles Christianity and gives the enemies of truth such occasion to blaspheme, as jealousy and party-spirit among Christians. Wherever there is real grace, we should be ready and willing to acknowledge it, even though it may be outside our own pale. We should strive to say with the apostle, ‘If Christ be preached, I rejoice, yes! and will rejoice’ (Phil. 1:18.). If good is done, we ought to be thankful, though it even may not be done in what we think the best way. If souls are saved, we ought to be glad, whatever be the means that God may think fit to employ.”

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“Alexander Shields, the Revolution Settlement, and Unity of the Visible Church”

Posted in Catholicity, Church of Scotland, Connectionalism & Conciliarism, Ecclesiology, Establishments, The Visible Church on August 30, 2023| Leave a Comment »

A tremendous, two-part treatment that anyone identifying with historic Presbyterian should read by my friend, Matthew Vogan.

4.-alexander-shields-article1-6Download
ALEXANDER SHIELDS articleDownload

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Whole doctrine catholicity | “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners” (Song 6:10)?

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Postscript to “Micro-presbyterians”

Posted in Catholicity, Missiology, Parish in American Context, WPE Editor on July 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »

I’ve noticed on my dashboard a couple of older posts getting a more hits after my latest one, “Micro-presbyterians and church-planting.” Perhaps a brief clarification is in order just in case any should view these as somehow contradictory of the spirit and practice I have just advocated. It certainly would be a “fly in the ointment” if others should actually be confused by them.

In each of these posts, I’ve added clarifying language (here and here) that I could have easily included at the time, had I thought it necessary. In any case, my conscience is perfectly clear that I have never to my knowledge participated in any outreach or church-planting effort remotely out of step with my recent article, and I would be happy to offer pastoral references outside the PRC should any wish to confirm.

In all likelihood, this is nothing. So disregard if this does not apply—but feel free to share if it does.

God bless!

–The management (such as it is)

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“Of the Removal of Church-Members”

Posted in Catholicity, Christian Conduct, Church Order & Discipline, Communion of the Saints, Ecclesiology, New England Puritanism on June 19, 2023| 2 Comments »

Though I am Presbyterian, I have for years deeply appreciated the great majority of what the New England fathers set forth here in their Cambridge Platform (1649) concerning why, how, and when church members may lawfully leave their local congregation to join another. Would to God we “eat this scroll,” internalizing its biblical principles. And so may we more and more in this individualistic and non-committal age live out the articles of our ancient creed, “I believe an holy catholic church” and “the communion of saints!”

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CHAPTER XIII.

Of church members, their removal from one church to another, and of recommendation and dismission.

1. CHURCH members may not remove or depart from the church, and so one from another as they please, nor without just and weighty cause, but ought to live and dwell together; forasmuch as they are commanded, not to forsake the assembling of themselves together. Such departure tends to the dissolution and ruin of the body, as the pulling of stones and pieces of timber from the building, and of members from the natural body, tend to the destruction of the whole.

Heb. x. 25.

2. It is therefore the duty of church members, in such times and places where counsel may be had, to consult with the church whereof they are members about their removal, that accordingly they having their approbation, may be encouraged, or otherwise desist. They who are joined with consent, should not depart without consent, except forced thereunto.

Prov.xi. 16.

3. If a member’s departure be manifestly unsafe and sinful, the church may not consent thereunto; for in so doing, they should not act in faith, and should partake with him in his sin. If the case be doubtful, and the person not to be persuaded, it seemeth best to leave the matter unto God, and not forcibly to detain him.

Rom. xiv. 23. 1 Tim. v. 22. Acts, xxi. 14.

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