The following is a plea for God-centered, in contradiction to man-centered evangelism. In other words, it presents a theology of evangelism. And this theology is based squarely, as every theology must be, on the infallible Word of God. Holy Scripture demands an evangelism which is of God, through God, and unto God (Rom. 11:36). Precisely that is the thrust of this volume.
In 1902, Synod sent yet another memorial to both the House and Senate, protesting the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
We . . . respectfully represent that all men, irrespective of race or color, are endowed with certain natural and inalienable rights, among which are the rights to travel in any land they may choose to visit, to make their homes in any country they may prefer, and to have their wives and children with them under the same roof.
But of these and other rights the Chinese people who come, or wish to come, to the United States, are unjustly deprived by the operation of the Federal law known as the Chinese Restriction Act. . . .
Third. The Golden Rule is applicable to nations as well as to individuals. If any European government would shut us out of their territory, we would complain bitterly. . . . Even Confucious said: “Do nothing to another that you would not be willing that he should do to you. . . .”
For these and similar reasons, we, your petitioners, do respectfully and most earnestly ask you either to repeal or make such amendments to the Chinese Exclusion Act as the law of humanity, as well as divine law, requires.
Defending basic human rights, Synod also denounced the persecution of Jews in 1903. “The Synod . . . expresses its sympathy with the persecuted Jews of Eastern Europe. As a part of the Church of Christ, we declare that the spirit of Anti-Semitism is not the Spirit of Christ.”
William J. Edgar, History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America 1871-1920, 100.
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.
