History of the Presbyterian Church

I was to Isaiah chapter 46, we're going to get there

Isaiah 46 · chapter mention

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.

John 3:16

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.