The visible church catholic possesses a duration commensurate with time. It is a perpetual society. It has existed, without intermission, from the period of its formation to the present hour, and shall continue to exist, without interruption, to the end of time. Different dispensations, indeed, there have been, but, under them all, the same church; nor was there ever an instant when its being was suspended. . . . The floods of error and persecution can never reach the church’s Head: and while the head is above water the body is safe.
The decree of God is founded in wisdom, Eph. 3:9-11, though we do not always understand it. It was formed in the depths of eternity, and is therefore eternal in the strictest sense of the word, Eph. 3:11. Moreover, it is effectual, so that everything that is included in it certainly comes to pass, Isa. 46:10. The plan of God is also unchangeable, because He is faithful and true, Job 28:13, 14; Isa. 46:10; Luke 22:22.
Louis Berkhof, Summary of Christian Doctrine, VIII. 1. a.
The uniformity of the laws of nature is a constant revelation of the immutability of God. They are now what they were at the beginning of time, and they are the same in every part of the universe. No less stable are the laws which regulate the operations of the reason and conscience. The whole government of God, as the God of nature and as moral governor, rests on the immutability of his counsels.
The reason, therefore, why any event occurs, or, that it passes from the category of the possible into that of the actual, is that God has so decreed. The decrees of God, therefore, are not many, but one purpose. They are not successively formed as the emergency arises, but are all parts of one all-comprehending plan. This view of the subject is rendered necessary by the nature of an infinitely perfect Being. It is inconsistent with the idea of absolute perfection, that the purposes of God are successive, or that He ever purposes what He did not originally intend; or that one part of his plan is independent of other parts. It is one scheme, and therefore one purpose.
The final cause of all God’s purposes is his own glory. This is frequently declared to be the end of all things. “Thou art worthy,” say the heavenly worshippers, “O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Rev. iv. 11.) All things are said to be not only of God and through Him, but for Him. He is the beginning and the end. The heavens declare his glory; that is the purpose for which they were made. God frequently announces his determination to make his glory known. “As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.” (Num. xiv. 21.) This is said to be the end of all the dispensations of his providence, whether beneficent or punitive.
In 1929, the church thoroughly revised Testimony chapter 29, “Of Civil Government,” and chapter 30, “Of the Right of Dissent from a Constitution of Civil Government.”[Footnote 1 see below]
William J. Edgar, History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America 1871-1920, 56.
1 The NRA lecturer J. M. Coleman spoke for many years on college campuses, promoting a Christian Amendment to the Constitution. The objection he repeatedly encountered was that such an amendment would lead to “a union of church and state.” If someone had quoted to him the 1806 Testimony, he stated, he would have had to say, “Yes, but we don’t believe that now.” Like the Westminster Confession of Faith, it taught, “It is the duty of the Christian magistrate to take order, that open blasphemy and idolatry, licentiousness and immorality, be suppressed, and that the Church of Christ be supported throughout the commonwealth; and for the better discharge of those important duties, it is lawful for him to call synods, in order to consult with them; to be present at them, not interfering with their proceedings (unless they become manifestly seditious and dangerous to the peace), but supporting the independency of the Church. . . .” (Testimony 29.8). Coleman, therefore, in 1922 proposed a revision of that chapter and of the following one (Christian Nation, May 9, 1928, p. 5). The revised chapters of 1928 altered fundamentally the teaching of the 1806 Testimony that civil rulers should support the true religion and suppress false ones. The new chapters also did something else. They discarded the English philosopher John Locke’s “state of nature” and “social contract” theory of government that McLeod and the 1871 Covenant used in favor of an “organic” view of the nature of civil government. Although this second change is clearly evident when one compares the 1806 chapters 29 and 30 with the 1928 ones, it seems not to have been discussed in Synod in 1928. It did come upon in a 1941 Synod discussion about renewing the Covenant of 1871. John Coleman, the political science professor at Geneva, noted that the 1871 Covenant’s words, “we shall not incorporate in any way with our government,” was written under the idea that government is a social contract. . . .” Using “organic” political theory language, John Coleman observed, “We may not withdraw from our citizenship by a mere declaration” (Covenanter Witness, June 18, 1941, p. 472). In other words, the 1928 Testimony chapters 29 and 30 undercut the Covenant of 1871 commitment “not to incorporate.” After years of debate about th enature of loyalty oaths to the Constitution, chapters 29 and 30 were again revised in a wordy and convoluted fashion and incorporated into the 1980 Testimony without change. A full analysis of these chapters crucial to Covenanter history will have to wait for an intended history of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, 1920-1980.
William J. Edgar, History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America 1871-1920, 209-210.
Having “no law higher than the constitution,” and this wholly ignoring the law of God, the demands of liberalism have prevailed so that we are fast losing all Christian morality, the Christian Sabbath, Christian marriage, Christian education, and belief in Jesus as the “king of kings and the governor among the nations.” Here is our danger, but there are signs of promise in the political horizon. In providence, and as a direct result of gospel power, moral questions are pressed to the front, and the value of Christian character in our rulers is being emphasized in the present political campaign; and though Christians are only half-hearted and allow expediency and partisan bias too much influence, yet the madness of the wicked whom God will destroy, forces them to go forward. A fresh baptism of the Spirit is the crying need, that his regenerating grace may break the bonds of the arch-deceiver, and that Christians may be revived by a pentecostal refreshing and power. With his presence will come back to our Samson all the wealth of his locks, the sight of his eyes, the glory of his strength, the opportunity to grasp the pillars of the dragon’s temple, and the power with one effort to cast them down forever without injury to himself. Let prayer be unceasing, and with united supplication let us seek the Spirit to go forth with the gospel, and then soon our land and the world shall be enfranchised with the liberty of Christ.
The question is often asked, “Do rulers in a nation need any other qualification for filling positions of honor and trust than their mental ability and fitness?” . . . Civil government had its birth and origin in God. He is the creator of nations as well of individuals. He is the source of all power and authority; Jesus Christ has been appointed by him as the King of kings and Lord of lords; and the Bible is the foundation of all law, civil and ecclesiastical, and it is the standard by which the conduct of men is to be governed. When we admit these facts, as every Christian must, we see that other qualifications than that of mental ability are necessary in the aspirant for office. “He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of the Lord [2 Sam. 23:3].”
