Christ has appointed in His Word a particular form of government for the visible church. It is government by elders (Greek: presbyters) and is therefore called presbyterian. Each congregation should be ruled by a session of ordained elders, elected by the membership of the congregation. Acts 15:22; Acts 14:23; Acts 13:1-4; Eph. 5:23; Col. 1:18; 2 Cor. 8:19; 1 Tim. 3:1-7. (See Testimony, chap. 31, par. 3; and Directory for Church Government, chap. 3, sect. I and II, and chap. 4.)

RPCNA Testimony, Chapter 25, Paragraph 7

In writing both to Titus and Timothy the apostle speaks of ordination of bishops and of deacons, but says not a word of the ordination of presbyters; for the fact is that the word bishops includes presbyters also.

Jerome’s Letter CXLVI to Evangelus quoted in Paradigms in Polity: Classic Readings in Reformed and Presbyterian Church Government, 59.

The soil in which our growth in Christ normally occurs is worship, especially corporate worship by the gathered people of God, whether that happens in a tiny house church in Nepal, a cathedral in Italy, a megachurch in Korea, or a neighborhood congregation in Nebraska.

Kelly M. Kapic, Christian Life, 27.

Let me bring you in on a secret: The way most people become Trinitarian — and this is true from the earliest apostles and disciples to Christians in Sri Lanka today, for women and men, young and old, rich and poor, educated and illiterate — is that we experience the life-giving power of the Spirit who unites us to the crucified and risen Savior as we learn to rest in the deep love of the Father. People become Trinitarian because they experience the Trinity. No matter how nervous that may make Presbyterians like me, it’s still true. It is both a gift and a calling by God.

Kelly M. Kapic, Christian Life, 26.

A faithful theology of Christian life must create space for practices that are normative for everyone as well as space for particular, contextual differences within the body of Christ. We must not make what is historically contingent normative, nor should we ignore what is enduring and essential for all settings. God is consistent in his character and his call on our lives in a way that transcends our particularities without belittling them.

Kelly M. Kapic, Christian Life, 23.

The civil government, on the one hand, can do more than just restrain irreligion and protect the work of Christ and His Church. She can carry out Her own part in that work by making Her own profession of faith in Christ and pledging Her loyalty to Him. She can demonstrate His standards of character and conduct in her magistrates and laws. She can contribute to the extension of the special work of His Kingdom through the exercise of Her official or diplomatic influence. On the other hand, true faith, as taught by the Church is a very important factor in the establishment of that kind of sound political economy which is most honoring to Christ and most conducive to the progress of His Kingdom and the welfare of her citizens. She teaches magistrates that they are “vice-regents” of Christ with real authority from Him and directly responsible to Christ as well as to men, for putting down all selfish temptations to dominate or tolerate, legislate, administrate, or judge in any way that will run counter to His revealed law.

Roy Blackwood, The King and His Kingdom, 39.

Q. How do parents and masters sacrilegiously defraud their families? — A. In withholding from them their due privilege of time to worship God, and of family-worship, and of proper instruction in the things of God, Jer. 10:25.

John Brown of Haddington, Questions and Answers on the Shorter Catechism, 264.

There is such a thing as being a Presbyterian without being a Christian, as it is possible to be a Christian without being a Presbyterian. Depend upon it, it is best to be both. Make the atonement of Christ the refuge of your souls; hold fast by every truth of God’s Word, small and great; lend no encouragement to opposing errors; take no pains to conceal your attachment to Presbyterian principles; and strive to do honor to the system with which you claim connection, by your love to Christ, by an upright and consistent life, and by earnest endeavors on your part to deserve the character which distinguished the saints of God in other and better days — “a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”

The Apostolic Church: Which Is It? by Thomas Witherow in Paradigms in Polity: Classic Readings in Reformed and Presbyterian Church Government, 52.

If we wish to have Presbyterianism the religion of the Church universal, we must let the world know that we cherish a warm and devoted attachment to its principles.

The Apostolic Church: Which Is It? by Thomas Witherow in Paradigms in Polity: Classic Readings in Reformed and Presbyterian Church Government, 50.

Personal attachment to a minister is a tie too weak to bind a people to the Church; for death or a removal may snap it asunder any day. The bonds of custom, kindred, and early association, though in some instances powerful enough, are not too strong to be broken, as experience often shows. It remains that we teach our congregations that our principles, forming, as they do, a portion of the Word of God, should be to all God’s people, precious as gold. We should instruct them periodically as to what Presbyterianism is. Let each minister do this as mildly as he pleases, but let it be done faithfully and firmly. Let him not be turned from his purpose by the murmurs of the disaffected parties within, or the clamors of enemies without, remembering that the patient cries most loudly when the physician probes the sore. Let him leave no man in doubt that he himself believes the principles of which he is the public representative, and that they are very dear to his heart. Let him take no steps tending to spread the popular error that our distinctive principles are trifles. While careful not to oppose other Christians who aim to advance the glory of God in their own way, he should neither aid nor encourage persons who systematically repudiate what we regard as great and important truths. And let him not fear to be called a bigot, for what is a bigot but the bad name which the world gives a man who ventures to have principles, and is firm enough to show through life a consistent attachment to them? In a word, the aim of all of us should be to make every man who is Presbyterian by name a Presbyterian by conviction.

The Apostolic Church: Which Is It? by Thomas Witherow in Paradigms in Polity: Classic Readings in Reformed and Presbyterian Church Government, 49.