I was to Isaiah chapter 46, we're going to get there
probably closer to the end of what we're going to talk about
tonight, but I'll give you a place to start.
May want to take some notes here.
I've got a decent number of things that I want to read to
you from we're going to talk about the Presbyterian church.
And some of the other denominations that we've talked
about have sort of been this way as well, but you're talking
about 500 years of History, where a lot of stuff has
happened in Third years. And so trying to put all of this
together in a way that makes sense.
And without giving you too much is a pretty difficult task.
And so, what I think I'm going to end up doing is probably
splitting this up between three weeks, we're going to get into
some of just in talking about their history.
We're going to get into some of their Doctrine tonight and then
look at a few of the things from the Bible on why we don't agree
with it, but I think I think and I'll probably wrap up with this
when we get to the end of all of it as well.
But I think I think the Presbyterian Church started off
like a whole lot of others. They have some doctrine that
that we don't agree with as Baptist that separates us from
the Presbyterian church, but I think very early on especially
they were preaching the gospel and you still have certain sects
within the Presbyterian Church that are still preaching.
The gospel I believe but they in To continue doing that, have had
two separate from the main line Presbyterian church.
And so we'll find some of those perhaps you've heard of Ian
Paisley and some of the other guys in the same vein as he is
in, in Ireland and Scotland and some of those areas I've heard,
Ian Paisley, preached, many messages and he's very, very
solid on the gospel that he probably had some other
doctrines that I don't necessarily agree with him on.
But again I think I think Early on the Presbyterians were very
much like us in a lot of ways - a few of the doctrines that we
do disagree on which we're going to talk about and why we
disagree on them. But late 1800s, early 1900s,
mid-1900s really the Presbyterian Church as a
denomination took a hard left turn and anytime a denomination
does that doctrinal? You're going to get way off on a
lot of other things as well, and now Presbyterian Church USA.
Say, a lot of times, it's just, you know, the PC USA is very
liberal and has adopted a lot of the, you know, acceptance of
homosexuality and homosexual. Marriage is bye-bye Presbyterian
clergy and abortion. In a lot of ways in a lot of
other things that they've accepted, of course, you know,
honestly, I think, I think one of the first things that they
started getting off in was, Allowing, women preachers
ordaining, women clergy late, 1800s.
When that started and by the 1900's, they started allowing
more and more and more of that. And then by the 1950s, they
completely redid their entire catechism.
If you will, or whatever it is, they're booked that they use.
That kind of that kind of directs the denomination
completely rewrote it, because they had so many things that
were so liberal that they had they couldn't just continue on
with what they were doing. They had to rewrite.
So I do To get too far ahead of myself, but I want to give you a
quick synopsis of the presbyterianism before we get
into the nuts and bolts of the denomination.
But Presbyterian is part of the reformed tradition which is or
within the Protestant, you know, within product protestantism
that traces, the origin back to the church of Scotland.
And we're going to have to go all the way back to the five and
six hundreds to get back to this.
But really, it arose out of the Reformation, but reformed
theology, Is something that is really making a return In
America, which is basically Calvinism.
And it's starting to get starting amongst certain
denominations in certain groups to really start to make a push
again, and that's kind of what we're going to talk about
tonight. But Presbyterian churches.
Derive their name from the Presbyterian form of government.
It's the Presbytery that runs or represents the Assemblies of
Elders. And that's, that's called a
presbyterian. So Presbyterian.
Is where that comes from. But a lot of reformed churches
are organized that way. But the word Presbyterian when
you capitalize that word is often a very, very often applied
uniquely to churches that Trace their roots to the Church of
Scotland, or to English the center groups that formed during
the English Civil War, which we're going to talk about as
well. And that was all the way back in
the 1640s and 50s. And that's honestly, that's,
that's about the time that it came to the United States
because of that as well. But presbyterian theology,
typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the
authority of the scriptures and the necessity of grace through
faith in Jesus Christ. Which again, I believe that
especially early on and then those that are holding to the
fundamentals of presbyterianism are preaching the true gospel.
I think there's there's a possibility that many people
within presbyterianism are saved.
They get off on some other doctrines that that again, that
we don't agree with, but that's where our disagreement is, is
Not necessarily with their authority of scriptures they
believe in the authority of scriptures and honestly the
Presbyterian, the fundamental Presbyterian Church holds to the
King James only as their as their source of Doctrine.
So they're like us in a lot of ways - a few of these other
doctrines that we're going to talk about.
But this is according to the website of the Presbyterian
Church USA. By the way, you can find a whole
lot about a denomination by going to their website.
They They essentially they had their website, is their official
statement on all of these things.
And if you go to the Presbyterian Church, USA website
they have a list, a long list of where do we stand on these
issues and they just have one issue after another and they
have a statement about each one of them.
And a lot of those come from their their their books of, you
know, directing doctrines and so on.
But they say this presbyterianism and a wide sense
is the system of church government by representative
assembly is called President Aries in opposition to
government by Bishops, which is the Episcopal system or by
congregations, which is congregationalism, by the way,
we'll see congregationalism and presbyterianism running together
a lot but in its strict sense. Presbyterianism is the name
given to one of the groups of ecclesiastical bodies that
represent the features of protestantism emphasized by
French lawyer, John Calvin, whose writings crystallized,
much of the reformed thinking that came before him.
So that's that's from their website.
And kind of gives them in a quick nutshell, but
presbyterianism in Presbyterian Church, government was was
solidified. I guess you could say in
Scotland by the acts of Union in 1707.
And again this is something that we could really get into the
Weeds about you'll just have to trust me on this and and you can
go back up and look acts of Union if you want to.
But it actually created the Kingdom of Great, Britain
created the kingdom of Scotland, as well at the same time, but in
Fact, most Presbyterians found in England.
Can trace a Scottish Connection in the Presbyterian.
Denomination was was also taken to North America, mostly by
Scots and scots-irish. They were the ones who spread
that in America and we'll talk about that a little bit more
next week, but Presbyterians in the United States.
Also came from New England, Yankee communities, that had
originally been congregationalists but change
because they had an agreed upon was called the plan of Union of
1801. And they They did that the
congregationalists in the Presbyterians came together for
the sake of reaching the frontier areas with the gospel.
And, you know, obviously the American frontier was just wide
open then, and they were very much on the cusp on the, on the
cusp Leading Edge of getting out into those Frontiers with the
gospel. So, Presbyterian, denomination
in Scotland, all those denominations that are there in
Scotland that are Presbyterian, hold to the reformed theology of
John Calvin and his immediate successors, but there's a range
Of theological views within each one of those denominations.
And there's, there's there's a good number of them that
actually are relatively decent in size and they disagree with
each other, on a. On a lot of issues there, still
Presbyterian mainly because of their form of government.
But local Congregation of churches that use Presbyterian
polity, which we're going to talk about again next week, but
they're governed by sessions that are made up of
congregations which they call, you know, their elders and then
it's a Earlier approach, which consider your means that it's
they adhered to councils whatever the council decides.
That's what they go with as a whole and then they have
government by Synod and by general counsel general assembly
and and that's that's where all the levels of decision making
are that decide what the Presbyterian Doctrine is going
to be and that's what runs the whole thing.
So, according to Wikipedia, there's there's roughly 75
million Presbyterians in the world.
That's a lot. Obviously, there's eight million
people is in the world, but 75 million is a lot of, a lot of
people in the United States. And this is according to the the
Presbyterian Church USA website. They're the largest denomination
within the Presbyterian Church kind of by far.
But according to them, they had as of 2021 1.1 million people in
their in their denomination. So they had 8,000 congregations
on top of that. So, You know, give or take,
there's probably five or six million Presbyterians in the
United States. 75 million in the world.
So you can you know obviously it came here from Europe and other
places but it's remained big in other parts of the world.
Well the twentieth century and this again is where a lot of
them got off. Some Presbyterians played a very
important role in The ecumenical movement, including the World
Council of churches, which is something that we mentioned.
I think I mentioned this when we were talking about Out
Lutheranism the World Council of churches is something that you
that we will never touch with 100-foot pole that is trying to
bring all of the denomination's together and Roman Catholic
Lutheran, Methodist Presbyterian.
Let's all come together for the sake of the Gospel.
Well, I'm sorry but most of them are not preaching the gospel and
we don't need a World Council of churches to try to do anything.
But but there was a lot of Presbyterians who were helpful
in getting them involved in that ecumenical movement.
Ain't it a lot of Presbyterian denominations have found ways of
working together with other reformed denominations and
Christians of other Traditions quote-unquote, especially in the
world, communion of reformed churches.
And again, not something that we want to have anything to do
with. But some Presbyterian, churches
have entered into Union with all the churches, like,
congregationalists and Lutheran's and anglicans and
methodists. And we've talked about a lot of
those things. There is nothing that we have in
common with them, other than that we, you know, have this the
quote on quote same Jesus, right?
I mean, a lot of them are going about all of this stuff in the
wrong way, as far as trying to get to heaven, and they've got
their own ideas about how to get to heaven.
It's not by Jesus Christ Alone, even though many of them would
say that, that's what it is. And I think for the most part
likelike, A lot of the Presbyterian Church where much
of the Presbyterian Church like a lot of the other Mainline
denominations has moved away from its Foundings in its
doctrines, it's practice and it's and I don't I mean from The
Sixteen Seventeen eighteen hundreds, I don't think it's
anything like it today. Like it was back then and a lot
of the names that we know in Christianity.
A lot of the really well-known preachers of the past were
Presbyterians, I say a lot but there's a good number of them
that if I started listing some of these names you'd say wow I
didn't know that guy was Presbyterian again because they
were preaching the gospel and they Standing for the truth of
the word of God, often a few doctrines but standing for the
truth of the word of God. So let's get into it.
We're going to look at their history and then we'll look at
some of their doctrines. Like I said, we'll take a few
weeks by the way. Here's what I'm going to do.
We did this maybe three or four years ago, but we've talked
about all these other different denominations and all of these
other Cults and everything else. And what I want to do when we
finish up with this, in a few weeks is to go back to What it
means to be a Baptist and and go through a lot of those things
and then talk about some of the differences, even amongst the
Baptist was talking to Kevin. Where's that, what's the
difference between independent Baptists in southern baptist?
There is differences, otherwise, we'd be Southern Baptists,
right? So what sets us apart, what what
sets Baptists, apart from all of these other denominations.
And then what sets, the individual Baptist apart, there
is, there's a lot of different denominations of Baptist.
Probably a lot of them that you've never even heard of.
You know obviously Reformed Baptist is one of the ones that
I mentioned that is getting very big but you have American
Baptist, you have Southern Baptist, you have Primitive
Baptist. You have, you have to two seed
in the spirit baptism. We have all kinds of stuff that
are that actually are part of the Baptist Church, right?
What's the difference? And we don't have time to go
through all of them. But I'm going to, I'm going to
try to take a few of those and go through them but again to get
back to the history of the Presbyterian Church, The roots
of Presbyterian. Presbyterianism are found in the
Reformation in the 16th century, which the example of John,
Calvin's Republic of Geneva. Again, another thing that you
could really go back and look into, it's pretty interesting,
but that was very influential. And here's another thing, you
know, a lot of these denominations that came out
during that time that I guess that you could say, came out of
breath out of the Reformation, which again is protestantism
because they were protesting the Church.
Right? And a lot of these guys came out
of the Catholic church and so they still had a lot of those
Traditions that they were holding onto.
That's why they're Protestant. Baptists are not Protestant.
We're not part of the Protestant movement.
We were never part of the Catholic Church to be able to
protest anything against it. They were always Protestants if
you want to call it that, right? Because we've always protested,
the Catholic Church. The term Baptist didn't come
around until the 1600s by the way.
But well, Talk about that later as we get into it, but a lot of
these guys Presbyterians and so on ended up doing their best to
make that denomination part of the state religion, if you will,
and Geneva was one of those, the Republic of Geneva.
I've got a lot of quotes that I'm going to read to you,
that'll hopefully. Make it go a little bit faster
but this comes from the handbook of denominations and it says
this originating between 1534 and 1560 with the Protestant
theological program of John Calvin and France and
Switzerland Presbyterian. Refers to a church governed by
presbyters which is Representatives this
denomination. Places great emphasis on the
Theology of God's sovereignty over the world.
In people's lives, K was French and trained in the law turning
to theology. His Keen legalistic mind and
Lust For Freedom from the rigid confining forms of Roman
Catholicism. Drove him as a fugitive to
Geneva, where he quickly grasped the reins of leadership in the
reformed sector Resolute and often harsh, with his opponents,
he established his theological system in the Swiss Capital,
making it according to McCauley the cleanest and most wholesome
city in Europe. K whole thought revolved around
the concept of sovereignty sovereignty of God and his
Universe, the sovereignty of Christ and salvation, the
sovereignty of the scriptures and faith in conduct the
sovereignty of the individual. Is in the interpretation of the
will and word of God. Again this this one also comes
from the handbook of denominations, but strictly
speaking John Calvin did not find presbyterianism.
He merely laid the foundation upon which it was constructed in
Switzerland, Holland, France, England, Scotland, and Ireland
from France came to huguenots. And by 1560 there were in that
country to thousand churches of Presbyterian.
Complexion people of Holland, establish a Dutch, Reformed
Church British Presbyterians gained courage and their
struggle against Bloody Mary Tudor and from Scotland came the
Vernon tears and John Knox. So she a lot of things that came
out of that, but most of them were all part of this reformed
theology. And we'll talk about what that
is in just a little bit and hopefully all understand it.
But let's talk. Let's go, let's go way back and
look at the early history of that Presbyterian tradition.
Particularly Let the Church of Scotland traces, its roots to
the early. Christian Church founded by st.
Columba through the 6th Century. Hi Bruno, Scottish Mission.
So we're going all the way back. The 500s that they actually can
kind of Trace their history back to but tracing their Apostolic
origin all the way to st. John the col deze practice
Christian monasticism which is a key of of key feature of Celtic
Christianity. In that region, where the
presbyter quote, exercising Authority within the
institution. While the different monastic
institutions were independent of one another.
So a church in Scotland, the church in Scotland, kept the The
Easter tradition, right? The the celebration of Easter on
a different day than the Roman Calendar did, which is, you
know, what we follow for the most part.
But, and then which is kind of interesting as well.
The way that they distinguish themselves was that they're
monks, you know, the traditional picture of a monk, right?
With the hair, that's all the way around their head in the
big, you know, the big bald part in the middle.
That's I mean, it's not that all the monks were bald, they shave
their head that way and so to Themselves from these other
different denominations, the monks would shave their heads in
different ways. So that you could tell the
difference between what, you know, which Monastery they were
a part of and everything else, which I thought was funny, they
call that tonsure, but it's just the unique style of tonsure.
They would shave their hair or clip, their hair in different
ways. So, you know, they have that
little ring around the outside of their head, but the Shaving
was different and the size was different, everything else.
But anyway, the Synod of Whitby In 1664 ended that distinction.
Ian and said, quote, that Easter would be celebrated according to
the Roman date, not the Celtic date.
So although the Roman influence came to dominate the church in
Scotland, certain Celtic influence has remained in that
Scottish Church. Which remember we said that a
lot of the Presbyterian came from Scottish and scots-irish
descent, right? So the influence of this Celtic
Church in Scotland continued on and so the singing of metrical
hymns, many of them set to the old Celtic Christianity,
Scottish Shhhh traditional and folk tunes later became a
distinctive part of the Scottish Presbyterian worship.
Well according officially to them Presbyterians, Trace their
history to the 16th century and the Protestant Reformation.
So all of those things that happened in the five six.
Seven hundreds were important to them but a lot of that was lost
as it went through and of course the 500s to the 1500s.
Most of the world was mired in Catholicism and a lot of that
stuff, got lost until the Reformation happened and those
things started to be reborn. The beginning of presbyterianism
as a Stink movement occurred really during the late 16th
century Protestant reformation. And so, as the Catholic Church
started to resist the reformers, which remember you had the
Spanish Inquisition, you had all those things where they were
just they were torturing and killing anybody.
That dissented to the Catholic church in an effort to wipe out
this Reformation. But the more they tried to wipe
it out the stronger it grew in the more people started opening
their eyes and saying hang on. They're so desperate to keep
this power why you know, and so several different theological
movement splintered from the church in different
denominations were born throughout that time which again
we've talked about the Methodist and the Lutheran's and the
Presbyterians in some of these other denominations all got
their birth around that time presbyterianism was especially
influenced by John Calvin the French Theologian, and he's
credited with the development of reformed theology which again
when talking about but you have a picture of him their brother
Josh I put that before that are we going John Calvin they all
look the same. They all had those those
funny-looking hats and long beards, right?
We'll see a picture of John Knox in a seconds.
I'm going to mention him. In fact, you can go ahead and
put that picture up there brother Josh, but John Knox was
a Scottish Catholic priest who studied with Calvin in Geneva
and he brought back reform teachings to Scotland.
So again, he looks the same that's a wood carving of him.
They obviously didn't have pictures back then but I mean if
you were to see those Two pictures you probably wouldn't
really be able to tell the difference between John Knox and
John Calvin. They look very similar but they
work together and then John Knox ended up, bringing that Doctrine
back to Scotland which again is going to come up big here in
just a minute but the Presbyterian Church traces its
ancestry back primarily to Scotland well in August of 1560.
All right. You have to follow follow
closely with this. If you can the parliament of
Scotland adopted What's called the Scots confession as the Read
of the Scottish Kingdom. Again, you have to remember that
a lot of these nations were very much used to Catholicism as
their form of not just religion, but their form of government.
So many of these nations when they, when they threw off,
Catholicism didn't know what to do other than to, and I'm not
giving them a pass, but this is what they knew instead of, you
know, well, we're not Catholics anymore, were were So we're
going to adopt that as our national religion and that's
what a lot of them did. And, and again, if you didn't
accept presbyterianism, you were tortured, you were, you know,
you were imprisoned, you were whatever until you accepted it.
Presbyterianism wasn't as bad maybe as Lutheranism and some of
these others, but, but it was still the same way.
That's why they say, John Calvin was not a very nice guy to his
opponents. People who opposed John Calvin's
theology, many of them were not. Just, you know, he didn't just,
you wouldn't just mean to him, they killed him.
And so you know, that still has that same mindset that if you
don't agree with me, then you deserve to die until you say
that you agree with me, it's not Christianity but again in this
parliament of Scotland, adopted the Scots confession in
December. So just later on that year of
1560, the first book of discipline as it was called was
published outlining important doctrinal issues, but also
establishing regulations. Church government including the
creation of these 10 ecclesiastical districts with a
pointed superintendents, that later became known as
presbyteries and that's where presbyterianism really started
to get its birth. But it came out of this form of
government in Scotland. And in time, the Scots
confession would be replaced by the Westminster Confession of
faith and the larger and Shorter.
Catechism is those were formulated by the Westminster
assembly between 1643 and 1649 but again that's where this
idea. Dia of the Presbyterian form of
government started, to formulate, the doctrine of the
Presbyterian. Church is traced to the
Westminster assembly. That was held in England from
1643 issue, 16, 48 49 and this assembly of ministers, was
called by the English Parliament, to establish a
government in the Church of England that would do away with
Bishops. And again, they were trying to
throw off the Catholic. This church and throw off the
Catholic doctrines and all of those other things and there was
tremendous Us at the time, was the king, who was Charles the
first? He was the successor to James.
Who was the King James King, James of the King James version
Fame, if you will. But one of the Chief Products of
this assembly, was the Westminster Confession of Faith,
which I'm going to read, fairly extensively from here in a
little bit, to show you exactly where they stand on a lot of
those things, but, that Westminster Confession of Faith,
really was the embodiment of everything.
Thing that John Calvin and his successors were teaching and
they express the doctrinal platform of Presbyterians in
England, Scotland in America. That's what this Westminster
Confession of Faith was so this assembly also produced shorter
and longer catechisms which together became the Westminster
Confession and they're called the Westminster standard.
And again this is the type of church government where the
Westminster Confession of faith is what runs The denomination.
This is what we go by to determine what we should and
should not do what we do and do not believe what we agree and do
not agree with. And so on that's the type of
church government that we're talking about but this
Westminster Confession of Faith stood for a long time and
according to their website again that details their history, it
says this most important standards of Orthodox.
Presbyterianism are the Westminster Confession of faith
and catechisms of 1647 the chief distinctive features set forth
in the Westminster. Declarations of belief are
Presbyterian Church government calvinistic Theology.
And the absence of prescribed forms of worship.
That's that's it in a nutshell but there's a lot in that
Westminster Confession of faith and the Westminster Confession
of faith has statements in it that that a bible-believing
Christian cannot agree with and has to oppose and has to reject.
But the Westminster Confession of Faith exalts Jesus Christ as
the Saviour ER, in in a particularly precise in a very
well worded manner, if you will, but other denominations have
have based their confessions off of this Westminster Confession
of Faith because of how precise and how well-worded if you will
that it was. But let me let me give you some
excerpts from this. Just to give you an idea of what
this Westminster Confession of faith is about and just, just
think about how much Like us this is all right.
Under the name of Holy Scripture or the word of God, written are
now contained all the books of the Old and New Testament, which
are these listed all 66, books of the English Bible all which
are given by inspiration of God, to be the rule of faith in life,
but a great statement, the Bible is the rule.
Here's another one, the authority of the Holy scripture
for which it ought to be believed and obeyed.
Dependence not upon the testimony of any man or church
but wholly upon God, who is truth itself.
The author thereof and therefore it is to be received because it
is the word of God. There's another we may be moved
and induced by the testimony of the church to an high and
Reverend esteem of the Holy Scripture and the heaven heaven,
leanest of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the
Majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the
scope of the whole which is to give all glory to God, the full
Discovery, it makes of the only way of man's salvation.
The many other incomparable excellencies in the Perfection
there of our arguments whereby. It doth abundantly evidence
itself. To be the word of God yet,
notwithstanding our full persuasion and Assurance of the
infallible, truth and divine Authority.
There of is, from the inward work of the Holy Spirit bearing
Witness by in, with the word in our hearts, great statement
about the Bible, here's another one, the whole counsel of God,
concerning all things necessary for his own Glory man,
salvation, faith and life is either expressly set down in
scripture or by good and necessary consequence.
May Be deduced from scripture on to its nothing at any time is to
be added whether by new revelation of the spirit or
traditions of men. Now, that is in direct
opposition to a lot of the other doctrines that were, that were
popping up during that time, especially the Catholic church.
And then, of course, A lot of these other Cults that came
along after that, the Old Testament in Hebrew, which was
the native language of the people of God, of old, and the
New Testament in Greek, which at the time of the writing of it
was, most generally known to the nation's being a me.
Inspired by God and by his singular care and Providence,
kept pure in all ages are there for authentical.
So as in all controversies of religion, the church is finally
to appeal unto them. But because these original
tongues are not known to all the people of God, who have right
onto the interest in the scripture and are commanded in
the fear of God to read and search them.
Therefore, they are to be translated into the vulgar
language of every nation unto which they come.
Now, the word of God dwelling plentifully and all they may
worship Him in an acceptable Manner and through patience and
comfort of the scriptures. I have hope again, the Supreme
judge by which all controversies have religion are to be
determined and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient
writers, doctrines of men and private Spirits are to be
examined. And in whose sentence, we are to
rest. Can be no other but the Holy
Spirit speaking in the scriptures, here's what they say
about God, there is but one only living and true God who is
infinite and being in Perfection.
A most pure Spirit invisible without body parts or passion,
immutable immense Eternal incomprehensible.
All Mighty most wise Most, Holy most free, most, absolute
working, all things, according to the counsel of his own
immutable, and most righteous will for his own Glory, most
loving gracious, merciful long-suffering, abundant in
goodness, and Truth forgiving iniquity transgression and sin.
The rewarder of them that diligently seek Him and with
almost just and terrible in his judgments hating all sin and who
will by no means, clear the guilty but a great statement
about God, right? Here's a statement about the
trinity in the unity of the godhead there be three persons
Is of one substance power in eternity.
God the Father God, the son and God the Holy Ghost.
Father, it is of none. Neither begotten or proceeding
the sun is eternally begotten of the father.
And the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the father and
the son. Great statements and again a lot
of that Westminster Confession is written that way and very
much lines up with with our Doctrine and what we believe.
But I want to point out also that the Westminster Confession
had a lot of statements that purposefully rejected, the
doctrine of the Catholic church and made it made it a point to
reject those things. It contains statements that
denied the inspiration of the Apocrypha explicitly, cut it out
of the bye. Because it's not a part of the
Bible and and to take it a step further.
And I remember, okay, the Catholic church had a
Stranglehold on everything for over a thousand years until the
mid 1500s. This is only the mid-1600s at
the latest, and this is what they said.
There is no other head of the church, but the Lord Jesus
Christ. Nor can the pope of Rome in any
sense, be had thereof. But is that Antichrist?
That man of Sin and Son of Perdition that exalteth himself.
Elf in the church against Christ and all that is called God, they
called the Pope the Antichrist. And I mean that's a bold
statement especially during that time.
So the Westminster Confession of Faith was a very bold courageous
stand for the word of God and everything that the word of God
espouse is when it comes to Doctrine.
During that period in England's history in which the Westminster
Confession was being defined. There was a Civil War was waged
against the British crown, Oliver Cromwell.
That's probably a name that you recognize at least, but he was a
Cavalry commander that led the opposition Force to the ousted,
the king attempted to establish a commonwealth.
In England in the late mid to late 1600s but those efforts
failed. The monarchy was eventually
re-established which you know that to be true because by the
1700s and by the late 1700s, even that's what America was
fighting against and trying to gain her freedom.
From was a king that was telling them what they had to do, right?
But tens of thousands of Presbyterians and Puritans.
Now think about when this is 1600s right?
The mid-1600s. What do you know happened in
1620? Plymouth Plantation, the
pilgrims came over. I saw a lot of that stuff was
happening and and I'm trying to try to put this together in your
mind to try to help make help it all make sense, right?
But you had the Presbyterians the Puritans independent
Independence that fled to America in search of political
Liberty, but also in search of religious liberty because they
were not allowed to practice these things.
The Westminster Confession of faith.
And so on that they were espousing because the church
England was not Presbyterian, right?
It was an Anglican and that was the official religion, and you
were not allowed to be anything, but that they weren't Catholic,
but you didn't have a choice. You were Anglican, and you paid
into the Anglican church and all of that stuff or you were
persecuted. So, we'll talk more about that
in a little bit, but since we're on the topic, let me address it.
Now, rather than bringing up later, one of the errors in this
is what we'll end with tonight. but one of the errors of the
It's late. I need to stop.
I don't want to get into all of this and then take you till 8:30
tonight. And that's probably what,
probably, what it will do. So let me stop there for
tonight. All right, we'll get into this
later. Let me let me tell you what the
error is, and then we'll talk about it next week.
One of the errors of the Westminster Confession is that
it reflected John's K, John Calvin system of predestination
theology, which is a lot of what reformed theology is about and
that Destination theology is known as Calvinism and has been
summarized in the Tulip Theory. All right, I'm gonna give it to
you right here so you can see what it is.
We'll talk about it next week, but the Tulip Theory stands for
the total depravity of man, which means that man is
incapable of responding to the gospel on his own.
If God does not give you the ability to respond to the
gospel, then you cannot respond to the gospel.
That's the total depravity of man unconditional election.
Mean, God means God chooses, who will be saved.
Saved, and who will be lost. And again, we're getting into
this without without being able to explain these things.
But limited atonement means that Christ died for only those who
will be saved. He didn't die for the whole
world. He only died for those who
actually will be safe. That's what limited atonement
means. I hope these things are throwing
up red flags to you and that you're thinking of different
verses in the Bible that really fly right in the face of this
Doctrine. Limited atonement.
Jesus Christ. Death was not for everybody.
It was only for those who actually will be saved.
No, that doesn't, that doesn't go with John. 3:16 for God.
So loved the world that he gave his only begotten, son, that
whosoever Her believeth in him should not perish but have
everlasting life. That doesn't sound like a
limited atonement to me. The eye is irresistible Grace
means that that a sinner cannot resist, God's call to Salvation.
If God is calling you to Salvation, you don't have a
choice. You're going to accept it.
That's irresistible Grace. And the last one is perseverance
of the Saints means that those who are saved are going to hold
out. Faithful to the end.
That means if you're not faithful to the end, you never,
you never got saved, essentially, you can lose your
salvation because if you got saved and you were faithful and
you didn't stay faithful to Till the end and you die, and you
were in your sin so to speak. Then you either lost your
salvation or you never had in the first place.
And you never had in the first place because you didn't
persevere till the end. So, there's a lot of things
about the this, this that K Calvinism and this this
predestined Aryan theology, that's Reformation theology.
Reformed theology is what is known as today?
It's right in a lot of areas but the Westminster Confession
Chang's in those areas are contrary to the word of God, and
we're gonna have to wait till next week till we get into them.
I was planning to get to it tonight and hit the leave you
hanging on that, but I'll do it. What the Sunday School teachers
always do when they get to a point in the story where they're
about to tell you what happened and then they say, come back
next week and you'll find out what happened, right?
We'll look at some of these verses a lot of these verses
next week when we get back together.
All right, let's pray. It will be done.
Father, we love you, give me. Thank you so much for your
goodness to us. Thank you for an opportunity.
We have to study your word. I thank you for the fact that we
have your word and that we can rely on it for everything that
we need in faith in practice Doctrine and got operated.
You don't put to stand on the truth of the word of God and not
on man-made doctrines or theology or any of these other
things. Thank you for all that you do
for us in Jesus name. Amen.
It will be done. Father, we love you, give me.
Thank you so much for your goodness to us.
Thank you for an opportunity. We have to study your word.
I thank you for the fact that we have your word and that we can
rely on it for everything that we need in faith in practice
Doctrine and got operated. You don't put to stand on the
truth of the word of God and not on man-made doctrines or
theology or any of these other things.
Thank you for all that you do for us in Jesus name.
Amen.