The following brief article (and fairly lengthy post!!) was prepared some year or so ago for another forum which has now closed down. It addresses a question raised in that forum concerning the proliferation of denominations in Presbyterianism. American Presbyterianism seems to have little difficulty with this and the indifference has spread to the UK and even to Scotland. The concept of competing Presbyterian denominations was once considered to be of the very essence of schism in what ought to be a single, national, established Church. The title of the post is suggested by a phrase that I first heard from a now departed minister of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland who firmly held to national establishments and to the sin of competing Presbyterian denominations.
The concept of “denominations” is essentially un-Presbyterian and un-scriptural and brings out a schismatic way of thinking if it is just accepted at face value. The concept is certainly foreign to the principles of the Reformed Church of Scotland and its clear teaching concerning the indivisibility of the visible Church. Even when the Church of Scotland was in a divided state during the Commonwealth period and later during the ‘Killing Times’ and again following the Revolution, there was no recognition of “competing denominations.” The Secession of 1733 did not view itself as a “competing denomination” either; rather it asserted vigorously that it was the true and faithful Church of Scotland. While that claim and profession gradually wore thin with passing years and while it may be contended that it was never a realistic one, the idea that it was a “competing denomination” was not in the minds of its worthy founders.
A “concern about the number of competing denominations in Scotland” ought therefore to be a concern about the concept of denominationalism itself. There is no place in biblical Presbyterianism for more than one visible Church body. No body of men have any right to set up a competing Presbyterian denomination in Scotland and call itself a Church without a real and constitutional claim and right to the Scottish Reformation Church testimony, heritage and privileges. The profession of such a claim is open to scrutiny using the settled constitution of that Church as a basis. To hide behind denominationalism is to deny the indivisibility of the visible Church and its national character as defined by Scripture. Denominationalism is an essentially schismatic, sectarian concept more appropriate to dissenting and independent English bodies than to the Church of Scotland. The influence of anti-establishment views from America must also be detected in its spreading acceptance in Scotland.[1] True Scottish Presbyterians ought to be extremely concerned that their “denomination” has a legitimate and constitutional right to exist. A true right to exist is the right of the Scottish Reformation Church by law established to exist and if it can be proven, it per se denies and disqualifies all other “competing denominations” from claiming that right.
It seems to be increasingly the case that separate denominations in Scotland set themselves up as Churches demanding a full recognition of their supposed rights and freedoms from others without weighing this very serious matter sufficiently. Some of these bodies have appeared in recent years and have emerged from varying degrees of declension, sin, compromise, schism or disunity in a parent body. While some may have a moral justification for separation from those who “cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine” of the Bible, (Romans 16:18) to set up a new denomination on that basis with claims to represent the one Scottish branch of the visible Church may not have moral or legal justification.[2] It is not enough for a denomination to act as heralds of orthodoxy, purity and conservatism. In a nation with Scotland’s heritage there must also be a constitutional legitimacy. Bold claims to orthodoxy cannot mask a fundamental schismatic tendency in relation to constitutional validity. It ought to be a deep concern to Scottish Presbyterians that the constitutional foundations on which the Church of Scotland rests would not be compromised further by such attitudes in some “competing Presbyterian denominations in Scotland.” With the national Church of Scotland recognised by the State in terminal decline and on the verge of the grave, it is high time for the true Church of Scotland to stand forward. Denominationalism undermines the aspiration and endeavour to preserve constitutional unity and integrity.
The challenge therefore in this forum seems to be, not that competing Presbyterian denominations look for ways to compromise and get together. That would be to add the sin of latitudinarian principles to the iniquity of schismatic ideology. Denominational pluralism is not at all the same of biblical Church unity. Rather the challenge ought to be that each office-bearer in each denomination examine before God the legitimacy of his denomination’s claim to represent the Church of Scotland by law established as enshrined on the statute books of this nation.[3] The Church of the Revolution settlement in 1690 is the Reformation Church of Scotland. No Church body, however large, can claim that inheritance if it does not faithfully and consistently and with direct and unbroken lineal continuity represent the “true Protestant religion by law established.” It is that Church that is secured by and defined in the Treaty of Union between Scotland and England in 1707. No subsequent Act of Parliament can negate the terms of that binding international treaty and while it has been attempted and is redefined de jure, it remains inviolable de facto. I would emphatically and without reserve make this claim for one Church alone – the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
In 1920, when the then Westminster Parliament proposed a Church of Scotland Enabling Bill, which was the precursor of the Church of Scotland 1921 Act, the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland sent a detailed memorandum to the Prime Minister asserting privilege and rightful claim to the identity of the Church of Scotland of the Revolution as protected by the Act of Security. It did so with two legal documents – the Claim, Declaration and Protest of 1842 and the Deed of Separation of 1893. These remain unassailable evidences of the legitimacy of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland to be more that a denomination – to be the Church of Scotland of the Reformation.
[1] One American-based blog http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2012/12/28/in-praise-of-denominations/ recently set out the benefits of denominationalism over against an Independent Church outlook. While the arguments may have some weight in that particular contention, they do not stand against the higher claims of the establishment principle and the scriptural order of the Church being identified with every nation or with “all the families of the earth.”
[2] One recent addition to the Scottish denominational scene has openly advocated denominationalism and appears to remove itself from any claim to represent the constitutional continuity with the Reformation Church of Scotland. See http://www.apchurches.org/about/history/ The name chosen by this body also essentially promotes denominationalism.
[3] A further challenge may be to ascertain the true nature of Confessional subscription in the various Presbyterian denominations. The voluntary principles enshrined in the American revisions of the Westminster Confession may well have taken hold in Scottish Churches who formally subscribe to the authentic version of 1647. Their inclusion in a recent Banner of Truth pocket edition of the Confession is not encouraging. A weak or compromised testimony against these voluntary principles in the past makes this negative influence all the more likely. Only one Presbyterian denomination has expressly repudiated voluntary principles in its constitution – the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
By the way... 