A previous post showed that God requires ministers and churches to be vessels that preserve and proclaim the truth. This post looks at the Lord’s choice of the vessels. God sovereignly passed by many individuals and chose Paul to be a vessel: “…he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15).
We cannot understand why God chose Paul, and not others, to such a high honour. Paul had nothing in himself that made him more worthy of it. “There is none righteous, no, not one…all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:10, 23). All deserve God’s wrath and curse, both in this life and in that which is to come (The Shorter Catechism, Question 84). In fact, Paul felt that of all people, he was the least deserving of such an honour (1 Cor. 15:9). Yes, God’s choice of him magnified the riches of His free grace (1 Tim. 1:16). But this does not fully explain why he was chosen. Ultimately, God chose him to be a vessel because it pleased Him to do so (Ps. 115:3).
Similarly, God has sovereignly chosen specific races and nations to be vessels of truth. In other words, He has used a church in a particular region, consisting of a particular group of people, to defend and spread the truth. No one can dare charge the Most High with unfairness in this. The Lord makes some nations richer, or more powerful, or more privileged, and withholds the same blessings from other nations (consider Prov. 22:2). The question we should ask is not, “Why hasn’t the Lord given to every person or people an equal number of blessings?” We should ask instead: “Why has He given any blessings to any person or people at all, when we all deserve to be under His wrath and curse forever?”
For thousands of years, the Jewish people were God’s chosen vessel to retain and dispense divine truth (Rom. 3:1-2). The Roman centurion of great faith did not take offence that God had chosen the Jews, rather than his own people, to be a vessel of truth. Rather, he loved their nation (Greek: ethnos) and built them a synagogue (Luke 7:5).
At the Reformation, the Lord chose the Scottish people to be a vessel of truth. That is, He used them to retain all the truths of Scripture uncovered by Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin, and apply them consistently. The result was a thoroughly reformed, national Church: The Church of Scotland, reformed in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government.
It was widely acknowledged by Reformed churches outside Scotland that the Church of Scotland was “the brightest star of the Reformation” (as Charles Hodge wrote in a letter to Hugh Martin). In saying this, they meant that the Lord had chosen the Scottish Church to defend and proclaim more of the truths of Scripture than any other Reformed Church.
17th century Protestants in Ireland and England agreed with this assessment. They longed to see the Church in their lands as thoroughly reformed as it was in Scotland. Consequently, in 1643 ministers and men from England, Ireland, and Scotland signed The Solemn League and Covenant. In the first article, they solemnly swore to strive for the “preservation of the reformed religion in the Church of Scotland,” and the “reformation of religion” in England and Ireland.
Today, a number of churches in Scotland claim to be the true descendant of the thoroughly reformed Church of Scotland. They therefore retain the words “Church of Scotland” in their denominational name. They all claim to be vessels holding to the same truths as the historic Church of Scotland. They cannot all be correct.
To examine their claim, we must examine what is in their vessel. Does it contain all the doctrines, form of worship, church government, and principles of godliness that the historic Church of Scotland held to? Do they use the same Bible they used – that is, a Bible containing the same providentially preserved Hebrew and Greek texts, and the same principles of translation? Do they use the same inspired and faithfully translated book of praise – the Psalms? Do they require women to have their heads covered in public worship? Do they truly adhere to the Calvinistic doctrines of free grace or have they become practically Arminian? Do they shun the observance of Christmas, Easter, and other “holy days” as relics of paganism and Romanism?
What is the condition of these vessels? Do any fractures appear, allowing the truths they claim to hold to be lost? In other words, do they have the same commitment to these principles? Or do they only include them in their confession and constitutional documents, while not requiring their office-bearers to subscribe to them without reservation? Do they admit that once the vessel was damaged, but has been repaired by repentance, reformation, and recovery of all the truths confessed by the historic Church of Scotland? Or do they claim that their vessel has never been damaged?
The answers to questions like these determine not only the contents of the vessel, but the condition of the vessel itself – that is, both their constitutional documents and their commitment to them.
The Church that is fully committed to everything the historic Church of Scotland stood for is a vessel that the Lord has sovereignly chosen to bear His name before “Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.” The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland claims to be, by sovereign grace, the true descendant of this Church. This does not mean that the Lord cannot use any other church to spread the gospel. But we believe that He, by sovereign grace that excludes all boasting, formed the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland to defend and proclaim the whole counsel of God, in a day when the wider Church is unwilling to do so.