DOCSLIB.ORG

Sabbath-Recreations-CPJ51.Pdf

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Sabbath-Recreations-CPJ51.Pdf 5 The Confessional Presbyterian 2009 A Journal for Discussion of Presbyterian Doctrine & Practice Table of Contents 2. Editorial Articles 3. The Westminster Assembly & the Judicial Law: A Chronological Compilation and Analysis. Part One: Chronology By Chris Coldwell 56. The Westminster Assembly & the Judicial Law: A Chronological Compilation and Analysis. Part Two: Analysis By Matthew Winzer 89. John Calvin on the Doctrine of Divine Revelation By W. Gary Crampton. Th.D. 115. Samuel Rutherford’s Contribution to Covenant Theology in Scotland By D. Patrick Ramsey 127. Presbyterian Quintessence: The Five ‘Heads’ of Church Government By Frank J. Smith, Ph.D., D.D. 161. Johannes Megapolensis: Pioneer Reformed Missionary to the Mohawks By Wes Bredenhof 170. An Answer to the Challenge of Preaching the Old Testament: An Historical & Theological Examination of the Redemptive-Historical Approach By Rev. Anthony T. Selvaggio, J.D., M. Div. 185. The Deacon: A Divine Right Office with Divine Uses By C. N. Willborn 199. Francis Turretin and Barthianism: The Covenant of Works in Historical Perspective By James J. Cassidy 214. Pictures of Jesus and the Sovereignty of Divine Revelation: Recent Literature and a Defense of the Confessional Reformed View By David VanDrunen 229. The Sabbath Day and Recreations on the Sabbath: An Examination of the Sabbath and the Biblical Basis for the “No Recreation” Clause in Westminster Confession of Faith 21.8 and Westminster Larger Catechism 117 By Lane Keister 239. “So Great a Love”—James Durham on Christ and His Church in the Song of Solomon By Donald John MacLean The Confessional Presbyteri an, P. O. Box 141084, Dallas, Texas 75214. All Material Copyright © 2009 by Confessional Presbyterian Press. Editor: Mr. Chris Coldwell. Email: edi [email protected]. This periodical is indexed in the ATLA Religion Database®, a product of the Reviews Editor: Mr. Lane Keister. Email: [email protected]. American Theological Library Association, 300 S. Wacker Dr., Suite 2100, Subscriptions: USA $18; Library/Foreign $25. Retail: $25. Chicago, IL 60606, USA. email: [email protected], www:http://www.atla.com. The Confessional Presbyterian, Volume 5 (2009). Front Cover: John Calvin (1509–1564). Copyright © 2009 by Mike Mahon. ISSN 1549–9979 ISBN 978-0-941075-44-2 Back Cover: Westminster Abbey, Exterior, North Entrance, Rose Window. The Confessional Presbyterian Purchase Current and Back Issues of The Confessional Presbyterian Journal cpjournal.com The Confessional Presbyterian The Sabbath Day and Recreations on the Sabbath An Examination of the Sabbath and the Biblical Basis for the “No Recreation” Clause in Westminster Confession of Faith 21.8 and Westminster Larger Catechism 117 By Lane Keister Practical Introduction “pleasure” refers to business rather than to recreation. This article will attempt to provide a relatively cursory Wherein the wickednesse of this exceedeth, in that glance at the biblical evidence for the Puritan position men commonly no day in the weeke followe so muche on the Sabbath in general, and also that the Puritan their own wayes, and delightes of their owne hart, as understanding of “no recreation on the Sabbath” is in on that day, which is appointed to learne them how to fact the biblical understanding of the Sabbath Day.3 cease from their owne wayes, workes, and delightes. To do this, we must first examine the redemptive-his- For a great number (& those not the worst of all,) take torical unfolding of the Sabbath Day to show that the that day to be ordeined only for ease of their bodie & moral, unchanging, creational principle is that of one to be a day of recreation after their trauels & labours day in seven (not the Saturday Sabbath) to rest from that haue been the sixe dayes before, and vse it accord- all normal weekly activities (except works of necessity ingly: whereas, the Lorde hath appointed it to the ex- and mercy) so that we can worship God, which was in ercise of word and prayer, that beeing vnburdened of the Old Testament appointed by God to be the seventh their worldly affaires, they mighte with free harts and day, and in the New Testament the eighth or first day. mindes attend vpon the word, prayer, and meditation…. Thus the right vse and end of the Sabbaothe is cleane The Author: Lane Keister is a PCA pastor laboring out of bounds altered, and not that only, but chaunged into a practice serving RCA and CRC churches in rural North Dakota. Rev. Keister’s moste contrarie to the institution thereof. For beeing sermons, book reviews, and critiques of the Federal Vision appear on appointed to bee the market day of the soule, to make his blog, Green Baggins, http://greenbaggins.wordpress.com. 1 1. John Knewstub, Lectures upon the twentieth chapter of Exodus provision for the dayes following. (1577) 72–73. Quoted in James T. Dennison, Jr., The Market Day of the Soul: The Puritan Doctrine of the Sabbath in England, 1532–1700 Being on the Candidates and Credentials Committee (1983; Morgan, Pa.: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 2001) 29. of my Presbytery means that I look often at differences 2. Hereafter WCF and WLC. WCF 21.8 says, “This Sabbath is then that candidates have with the standards of the church. kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not We have even seen a few candidates who deny that the only observe an holy rest, all the day, from their own works, words, Lord’s Day is the Christian Sabbath at all. These, for- and thoughts about their worldly employments, and recreations, but tunately, are few. More commonly, however, the most also are taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises often taken exception is to the “no recreation” clause in of His worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy” (emphasis Westminster Confession of Faith 21.8 and Westminster added). WLC 117 asks “How is the sabbath or the Lord’s day to be 2 sanctified?” The answer is that “The Sabbath or Lord’s day is to be Larger Catechism 117. As an added bonus, I am usu- sanctified by an holy resting all the day, not only from such works as ally treated to a description of “throwing a football” are at all times sinful, but even from such worldly employmentsand around on the Sabbath. Sometimes I wonder if it isn’t recreations as are on other days lawful...” (emphasis added). really that they want to watch football on the Sabbath! 3. The Puritan view may be summarized by the following points: 1. At any rate, I usually press them on their understanding the Sabbath is a creation ordinance; 2. Saturday-Sabbath is not com- manded in the Decalogue; 3. The Lord’s Day is the New Testament of Isaiah 58:13–14 which is the biblical basis for the Pu- Sabbath; 4. the Lord’s Day is by God’s positive command on Sunday; ritan understanding of “no recreation” on the Sabbath 5. The Lord’s Day should be passed in suspension of recreations and day. If any answer is given, it is usually that the word rest from normal labor. See the excellent chart in Dennison, 177. Volume 5 (2009) 229 The Confessional Presbyterian Articles This must be done in order to show that Isaiah 58:13–14 does this mean? Well, Jesus clarifies that in the very applies not only to the Old Testament version of Sat- next verse. “Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, urday Sabbath, but also to the New Testament version he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things of Sunday Sabbath. Then, finally, we will examine the concerning Himself” (emphasis added). If we are left exegesis of Isaiah 58:13–14 (the key text in the debate in any doubt as to how Jesus interpreted the OT, here concerning recreations) in order to show that the Pu- let us doubt no longer: Jesus thought that the entire OT ritan understanding of the Sabbath is the best exegesis was about His death and resurrection. Now, in verse 27, of the passage. there is some question as to whether Jesus refers tosome things in the Scriptures concerning himself, or that the I. Old Testament and New Testament entire Scriptures refer to Him. It must be the latter, be- cause of verse 32, where the disciples (their eyes now One of the main issues involved in the discussion of Sab- open) ask this poignant question, “Did not our hearts bath worship versus Sunday worship is the relationship burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while of the Old Testament to the New Testament (hereafter he opened to us the Scriptures?” and verse 45, where abbreviated as OT and NT, respectively). How does the Jesus opened their minds to understandthe Scriptures. NT interpret the OT? Are there discontinuities between This emphasized phrase means the entirety of the OT.4 the testaments? If so, where do the lines fall? How do we In fact, there is no place where this phrase is used in know what continues and what does not? This is a huge the entire Bible, where it does not refer to the entire question that rockets around the reformed world in the OT (with the possible exception of Daniel 9:2, since form of the issue of theonomy, a term that comes from the OT was not a closed canon at that time). This pas- theos (God) and nomos (law), which is an interpreta- sage in Luke 24 clearly indicates that Jesus interpreted tion that sees only continuity between the testaments, the entire OT to be about Himself.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Old School Presbyterian Church and the American
    “THE BOND OF UNION”: THE OLD SCHOOL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND THE AMERICAN NATION, 1837-1861 Volume II A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Peter J. Wallace, B.A., M.Div. _______________________________ James C. Turner, Director Graduate Program in History Notre Dame, Indiana April, 2004 CONTENTS VOLUME II CHAPTER SIX. WHEN SCHISM IS NOT AN OPTION: THE PROBLEM OF SLAVERY, 1818-1849 .......................... 390 1. The Old School Center: Breckinridge and Hodge ..................... 400 2. South Carolina and the Charleston Union Presbytery .................. 410 3. The Northwestern Debates, 1841-1845 ............................. 415 4. The General Assembly of 1845 ................................... 423 5. The Brief Comment of 1846 ..................................... 433 6. 1849: The Last Gasp in Kentucky ................................. 439 Conclusion ..................................................... 446 CHAPTER SEVEN. THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PRO-SLAVERY CONSENSUS IN THE SOUTH ................................................ 448 1. The Growth of Sectionalism ..................................... 449 2. The Defense of Slavery ......................................... 463 A. The Mission to the Slaves ................................. 473 B. The Reform of Slavery ................................... 478 C. The Problem of Race ..................................... 484 3. Slavery and the Breakdown of Ecclesiastical
    [Show full text]
  • Nance, Mantle
    UHI Thesis - pdf download summary The Adorable Trinity Old Columbia Seminary’s Stand for Trinitarianism in the Nineteenth-Century American South Nance, Mantle DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (AWARDED BY OU/ABERDEEN) Award date: 2017 Awarding institution: The University of Edinburgh Link URL to thesis in UHI Research Database General rights and useage policy Copyright,IP and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the UHI Research Database are retained by the author, users must recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement, or without prior permission from the author. Users may download and print one copy of any thesis from the UHI Research Database for the not-for-profit purpose of private study or research on the condition that: 1) The full text is not changed in any way 2) If citing, a bibliographic link is made to the metadata record on the the UHI Research Database 3) You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain 4) You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the UHI Research Database Take down policy If you believe that any data within this document represents a breach of copyright, confidence or data protection please contact us at [email protected] providing details; we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 01. Oct.
    [Show full text]
  • The Nineteenth Century Engagement Between Geological and Adventist Thought and Its Bearing on the Twentieth Century Flood Geology Movement
    Avondale College ResearchOnline@Avondale Theses PhD Theses 12-2016 The Nineteenth Century Engagement Between Geological and Adventist Thought and its Bearing on the Twentieth Century Flood Geology Movement Cornelis Siebe Bootsman Avondale College of Higher Education, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://research.avondale.edu.au/theses_phd Part of the Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons Recommended Citation Bootsman, C. S. (2016). The nineteenth century engagement between geological and Adventist thought and its bearing on the twentieth century flood geology movement (Doctoral dissertation, Avondale College of Higher Education, Cooranbong, Australia). Retrieved from https://research.avondale.edu.au/ theses_phd/7 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses at ResearchOnline@Avondale. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses PhD by an authorized administrator of ResearchOnline@Avondale. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Nineteenth Century Engagement Between Geological and Adventist Thought and its Bearing on the Twentieth Century Flood Geology Movement Cornelis Siebe Bootsman BSc, MSc (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), PhD (Witwatersrand) Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Discipline of Science and Mathematics Avondale College of Higher Education September 2016 Statement of Original Authorship I declare that the work contained in this thesis has not been submitted previously for a degree or diploma at this institution, an Australian or overseas university or any other institution of higher education. To the best of my knowledge and belief, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made.
    [Show full text]
  • Yatos (Download Pdf) Psalms (Geneva Series of Commentaries) Online
    yaTOs (Download pdf) Psalms (Geneva Series of Commentaries) Online [yaTOs.ebook] Psalms (Geneva Series of Commentaries) Pdf Free William S. Plumer ePub | *DOC | audiobook | ebooks | Download PDF Download Now Free Download Here Download eBook #200548 in Books W S Plumer 2016-03-22Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 10.10 x 2.50 x 7.00l, 3.88 #File Name: 08515120971216 pagesPsalms | File size: 45.Mb William S. Plumer : Psalms (Geneva Series of Commentaries) before purchasing it in order to gage whether or not it would be worth my time, and all praised Psalms (Geneva Series of Commentaries): 2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. A Great Devotional Commentary on the PsalmsBy George W PrescottWritten by a nineteenth century American Old School Presbyterian, this is truly one of the finest devotional commentaries on the Psalms available. The comment by an earlier reviewer is correct - technical issues such as our understanding of Biblical Hebrew do require a more current commentary to address the technical aspects. For those, however, who either do not wish to get involved with the technical aspects of the Hebrew or have no need to do so, this will be a entry into the great spiritual treasures of the Psalms.My note about who Plumer was is important, because his theological views will appear in the text. He was a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, having been instructed by Archibald Alexander, and was firmly devoted to the so-called Princeton Theology as taught by such notables as Alexander, the Hodges, B. B. Warfield, and Machen.I had purchased this commentary for my own use several decades ago.
    [Show full text]
  • V*"*'7 Oct 8 1957 Descen Dants
    &ji: Qobert V. Smith V*"*'7 OCT 8 1957 DESCEN DANTS OF ARCHIBALD McALLISTER, OF WEST PENNSBORO TOWNSHIP, Cumberland County. Fa. 173U--1898. DATE MICROFILM JTEM ON ROLL l.. BY I CAMERV A NO. '%_,? •- MARY CATHARINE McALLISTjER. CATALOGUE NO. 7'«* ^// G^N=AL^ ' :AL SOCIETY CF THE Q OF JESUS CHRiST OF LAT R-DAY SAINTS !I:irii.sliurg, IVun'iu: ScbefTer'&rrinUiigy Bookbinding House, It !S.fimt No. 2J South Soeond Street, 1898. E K RATA. Pages 7 and 8—for Angus read Angus. Page 38—for McKibben read Pierce. Rage 72—Thomas Gates McAllister, 4, b. Aug. 26, 1784, in 1-ondondcrry Township, l*ancaster Co., Pa. Copyrighted, 1896, MARY CATIIAIUNK MCAI.UWTKI: Fort Hunter, Pa. PREFACE. HIS compilation from original documents, and family T history has been made with the hope that at some future day, it may be of service to the inquiring minds of coming generations. For the original idea, the general plan, and valuable assis- auee, the author is indebted to Mr. Frederick Schober, mem­ ber of the Historical and Genealogical Societies of Pennsyl­ vania. The author desires to thank members of the different brunches of the family who so kindly and willingly fur­ nished information of their several lines. NOTICE. Numbers on the right of name indicate generation. Numbers on the left of name number in succession, A star on the left of a number in succession indicates detailed information further on. MCALLISTER t GEflEALiOGY. MACALLISTER:—That is, son of Allister a branch of the famous and warlike clan, MacDonald, whose chief was Lord of the Isles:—(Hebridean Isles).
    [Show full text]
  • Religion and Social Change, 1723-1921
    Religion and Social Change, 1723-1921 Title Author Year Published Language General Subject 101 Things for Adult Bible Classes to Do Moninger, Herbert; 1876-1911. 1911 English Religious education of adults A Bible School Vision Welshimer, P. H. (Pearl Howard); 1873-1957. 1852 English Sunday schools A Brief Study of Christian Science Sandt, Geo. W. (George Washington); 1854-1931. 1911 English Christian Science A Call for a Convention to Effect a National Organization for the Improvement of Religious and Moral 1902 English Christian education Education Through the Sunday School and Other Agencies: To Be Held in Chicago in February or March, 1903. A Call Upon the Unemployed Talent of the Church: A Sermon in Behalf of the American Sunday School Potts, George; 1802-1864. 1853 English Sunday schools Union A Century's Change in Religion Harris, George; 1844-1922. 1914 English Church history A Commentary on Hegel's Logic McTaggart, John McTaggart Ellis; 1866-1925. 1910 English Logic A Cosmic View of Religion Halstead, William Riley; 1848-1931. 1913 English Religion A Creed for Christian Socialists: With Expositions Stubbs, Charles William; 1845-1912. 1897 English Socialism, Christian A Critical History of Free Thought in Reference to the Christian Religion Farrar, Adam Storey; 1826-1905. 1862 English Free thought A Critical Study of Current Theories of Moral Education Hart, Joseph Kinmont; 1876-1949. 1910 English Moral education A Defence of "the Eclipse of Faith" Rogers, Henry; 1806-1877. 1854 English Skepticism A Defence of Liberal Christianity Norton, Andrews; 1786-1853. 1812 English Liberalism (Religion) A Defence of Philosophic Doubt: Being an Essay on the Foundations of Belief Balfour, Arthur James Balfour; 1st Earl of; 1848-1930.
    [Show full text]
  • April 2009 • Number 2
    Volume 42 • April 2009 • Number 2 42 • Volume in this issue: Editor’s Notes 1 The Gift of Assurance: The Spirit of Christ and Assurance of Salvation 3 David J. Engelsma Survey of Southern Presbyterian History (2) 47 Eugene Case H i s t o r i c a l I n t r o d u c t i o n t o G u i d o d e B r è s ’ Letter to King Philip II of Spain 77 Russell J. Dykstra Guido deBrès’ Letter to Philip II of Spain, Appended to the Belgic Confession 80 P R O T E S T A N T R E F O R M E D translated by Marvin Kamps T H E O L O G I C A L Process Theology: Philosophical Idolatry 89 S E M I N A R Y Daniel Holstege Book Reviews 117 4949 Ivanrest Avenue Wyoming, Michigan 49418-9142 ISSN 1070-8138 Volume 42 • April 2009 • Number 2 PROTESTANT REFORMED Book Reviews THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL 117 Bavinck, Herman. Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 4: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation 125 Dennison, James T. Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation: Vol. I, Published twice annually by the faculty of the Protestant Re- 1523-1552 formed Theological Seminary: 127 Dennison, James T. The Letters of Geerhardus Vos 137 Hall, David W. and Lillback, Peter A. Theological Ronald L. Cammenga, Editor ([email protected]) Guide to Calvin’s Institutes: Essays and Analysis Russell J. Dykstra, Book Review Editor ([email protected]) 143 Hyde, Daniel R.
    [Show full text]
  • The Presbyterian Quarterly Author/Title Index, 1887 – 1904* Compiled by Wayne Sparkman, Director of the PCA Historical Center, St
    The Presbyterian Quarterly Author/Title Index, 1887 – 1904* Compiled by Wayne Sparkman, Director of the PCA Historical Center, St. Louis, MO. [*The July and October, 1903 issues were unavailable for inclusion in this index] Alexander, Henry Carrington [1835-1894] Optimism and Pessimism, 3.1 (January 1889) 17-28 and 3.2 (April 1889) 179-197. Side-Lights on the Correlation between Thoughts and Words, 8.3 (July 1894) 353-391. The Doctrine of Inspiration, 5.2 (April 1891) 190-208. The Doctrine of Inspiration as Affected by the Essential Relation Between Thought and Language, 7.2 (April 1893) 157-186. The General Doctrine of Inspiration, 4.1 (January 1890) 36-47. Alexander, Joseph H. [St. Charles, MO] Who Was Melchizedek?, 1.3 (January 1888) 454-476. Alexander, William Addison, D.D. [1857-1909] A Fifty Years’ Pastorate, 8.2 (April 1894) 276-284. Latter-Day Judaism, 11.4 (October 1897) 503-522. The Comings of Our Lord, 12.2 (April 1898) 187-214. The General Assembly – New Orleans – 1898, 12.4 (October 1898) 571-608. The Reunion of Christendom, 15.4 (October 1901) 487-499. Alexander, William McFadden [1861-1944] Professor Johnson’s History of the Southern Presbyterian Church, 8.4.598-607. The Southern General Assembly, 1897, 11.3 (July 1897) 382-398. Anderson, Neal Larkin [1865-1931] The Montgomery Conference on Race Problems at the South, 14.4 (October 1900) 565-573. The Recoil of Evolution’s Assault Upon Teleology – A Review of the “Argument to Design,” 13.2 (April 1899) 268- 280. Anderson, Robert Campbell, Jr. [1864-1955] Calming Life’s Storms [Homiletic Note on Jonah 1:12], 17.3 (January 1904) 424-426.
    [Show full text]
  • Reporter Dispatch Journal of Old Allegheny History and Lore
    THE ALLEGHENY CITY SOCIETY Summer 2012 | Number 58 REPORTEr DISPATCH Journal of Old Allegheny History and Lore MYSTERY SOLVED Identifying the Architect of the first North Presbyterian Church building of 1868 by Michael Shealey The image at right is a photograph of an architect’s front elevation drawing of the first North Presbyterian Church of Allegheny. The church was completed in 1868 and de- molished in 1897, to be replaced by a larger church on the same site at the corner of what is now Galveston and North Lincoln Avenue. The drawing is identified as a “Front Elevation” of the “North Presbyterian Church Central Street Allegheny.” No further information is provided. Central Street is one of the former names of North Lincoln Avenue. The architect is not identified and the drawing is not dated. A brief history of the congregation of the church be- gins with Dr. William Swan Plumer, pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church of Allegheny during the early years of the Civil War. From the beginning of the war, Dr. Plumer refused to lead his congregation in either prayer for Union troops in the field or in giving thanks for Union victories. From Dr. Plumer’s statements at the time and subsequently, it is apparent that he was not a southern sympathizer. Instead, he was a man of rigid principle opposed to all war and to any intrusion of political life into the operations of his church. A substantial portion of Dr. Plumer’s congregation was FRONT ELEVATION of the North Presbyterian Church, Central Street, unable to reconcile their very active support of the Union Allegheny, photograph of the architect’s drawing from a CDV c1866 cause with Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • "Enter Into His Gates" : History of the First Presbyterian Church, Maxton, North Carolina, 1878-1958
    THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL THE COLLECTION OF NORTH CAROLINIANA PRESENTED BY NCC Gift Fund C285.09 M464f UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 00043135776 FOR USE ONLY IN THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION mteb irrre ms m%$ 3 S^S^^ii \\yY-K ^f-l[-J v5-'-?'>Sf ? HISTORY OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Maxton, North Caroliua "KNOW YE THAT THE LORD HE IS GOD: IT IS HE THAT HATH MADE US, AND NOT WE OURSELVES; WE ARE HIS PEOPLE, AND THE SHEEP OF HIS PASTURE. ENTER INTO HIS GATES WITH THANKSGIVING, AND INTO HIS COURTS ." WITH PRAISE . —Psalm 100 Page l HFP*' 2&m* -**- *• IS7S PREPARED FOR THE EIGHTIETH ANNIVERSARY MOMECOMING CELEBRATION OCTOBER 19, 1958 Page 2 "ENTER INTO HIS GATES" History of the First Presbyterian Church Maxton, North Carolina 1958 By EDWARD M. LaMOTTE and the HOMECOMING HISTORICAL COMMITTEE: R. Fairley Morris, Chairman John B. McCallum G. P. Henderson Mrs. McBryde Austin Mrs. Lacy Williams Page 3 FOREWORD... ." "Enter into His Gates with Thanksgiving . The miracle of God's Church is ever witnessing to us. Through years of persecution and apathy His Church has stood. Earth's mightiest forces, her Kings and Empires, have faded. For almost two thousand years the Church of Jesus Christ has stood, spreading the seeds of eternity from the quiet Judean hillside to the teeming twentieth-century metropolis. "0 where are kings and empires now Of old that went and came? But, Lord, Thy Church is praying yet, A thousand years the same." As voices sing of the glory and triumph of the Universal Church, our faith is strengthened.
    [Show full text]
  • The Church Is a Missionary Society, and the Spirit of Missions Is the Spirit of the Gospel
    PRJ 5, 1 (2013): 189–213 The Church Is a Missionary Society, and the Spirit of Missions Is the Spirit of the Gospel: The Missional Piety of the Southern Presbyterian Tradition CALEB CANGELOSI q When it comes to finding models for Christian theology and prac- tice, nineteenth-century Presbyterians in the American South are often overlooked by modern Reformed Christians. Sometimes this is out of mere ignorance; many have never heard of Benjamin Morgan Palmer, James Henley Thornwell, John Lafayette Girardeau, or Rob- ert Lewis Dabney, much less William Swan Plumer, Thomas Smyth, John Leighton Wilson, John Bailey Adger, Daniel Baker, Charles Colcock Jones, George Howe, Stuart Robinson, Thomas Ephraim Peck, Moses Drury Hoge, or any of the other Southern Presbyterian pastors and teachers.1 At other times, however, they are overlooked out of prejudice against those who were prejudiced. The Southern Presbyterians, both antebellum and postbellum, were not exemplary in every way, and they were children of their age; but the proverbial baby is thrown out with the bathwater when we neglect or dismiss a group’s total body of work due to positions many held on race, slavery, and secession. John Piper has warned us against such a facile and dismissive approach to those who have gone before us in the faith: “From a distance we can make distinctions. We can say: This was an admirable trait but not that. This we will celebrate, and that we will deplore.” He wrote these words to suggest that we treat Martin Luther King, Jr. in the way we treat America’s founding fathers.
    [Show full text]
  • William Swan Plumer William Swan Plumer (1802–1880) Was a Southern Presbyterian Pastor and Theologian Well-Known for His Doctrinal and Experiential Writings
    WILLIAM SWAN PLUMER William Swan Plumer (1802–1880) was a Southern Presbyterian pastor and theologian well-known for his doctrinal and experiential writings. God used the preaching and counsel of a faithful pastor to convict the teenaged Plumer of his sins and bring him to submit to Jesus Christ as his only righteousness. Plumer grew spiritually through reading the Bible and solid Christian literature such as John Flavel’s Fountain of Life. He soon sensed a call into pastoral ministry, completing his education at Washington College, and then Princeton Seminary under Archibald Alexander and Samuel Miller (1826). He served as an evangelist and church planter (1827–1831), and as a pastor of Presbyterian churches in Petersburg, Virginia (1831–1834), Richmond, Virginia (1834–1847), and Baltimore, Maryland (1847–1854). From 1854 to 1862 he was a theological professor at Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny, Pennsylva- nia, also serving as a pastor in the Allegheny church. His pacifism led to the loss of these positions in the Civil War, during which he served briefly in other pastoral posts in Pennsylvania. For the last fourteen years of his life (1867–1880) he was professor of theology at Columbia Theological Seminary, South Carolina. Plumer was a plain-speaking and powerful preacher even into his old age. He was also a prolific author, writing about thirty books and a hundred pamphlets, including devotional material, doctrinal treatises, and biblical commentaries. We might say that Plumer was America’s J. C. Ryle, a simple yet profound proclaimer of God’s sovereign grace in Christ, faithful to call sinners to Christ and to challenge Christians to practical holiness.
    [Show full text]