by Rev. Donald MacLean, Glasgow
Ordination vows are entered into freely by those who are ordained to office in the Christian Church. In the Presbyterian system these vows are undertaken by ministers, elders and deacons. They are binding upon the conscience, and breach of them is a very serious matter both in the sight of Christ, the Head of the Church, and in the sight of the Church itself.
This article will deal with ministers in particular, but the observations made here have their application to the other offices in the Church. As far as a minister is concerned, ordination vows are, of course, bound up with ordination itself.
Ordination to the ministry means the setting apart of a man to that particular office and proceeds on the assumption that such an individual has already been set apart for this work by the Saviour Himself. It is He, and He alone, who gives ministers as gifts to his Church, and He does this by the operation of his Spirit through his Word. He first calls them effectually by his grace out of an estate of sin and misery into an estate of salvation. In this effectual call, the sinner experiences conviction of sin, by which his conscience is awakened, his false hopes destroyed, and his soul brought in guilty before God. In effectual calling he learns the true nature of sin, its intrinsic evil against God, ruinous to his own soul and exposing him to all the miseries of this life, to death itself and to the pains of hell for ever. He sees clearly his utter inability to deliver himself from the sad and dangerous condition in which he finds himself. He is, therefore, in need of a Saviour such as the Son of man who came to seek and to save that which was lost. In effectual calling, the Spirit of God enlightens the soul in the knowledge of the Saviour. Through the Word of God he comes to see the glory and grace of the Person and work of Christ. His will being renewed, he is enabled to embrace Him as his Saviour, and to rest in Him alone for salvation. He now has an experimental knowledge of the Gospel, and possesses eternal life in virtue of which he knows the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Effectual calling does not make a man a minister, but a solid, savoury experience of Gospel deliverance, the efficacy of the blood to cleanse from all sin, and of the gracious work of God the Holy Ghost in conviction, illumination and renewing, is generally granted to those whom the Lord intends in due time to call to the office of the ministry.
As in effectual calling saving grace is imparted to the soul to enable that soul to answer the call of the Gospel, so in the call to the ministry grace is imparted to the soul to answer this call. Consequently there is no ministerial grace to carry out the functions of the ministry without Christ’s call to this work. Very often a fundamental mistake is made here. A young man may have a good religious background; he is articulate and capable of expressing himself well; he takes up a religious profession and then enters the ministry. None of these benefits, however, can replace the actual call to the ministry, and sooner or later this is seen to be so. Such a person may begin his ministry in quite a promising way, but eventually the trials, difficulties and testings which are inescapable from the ministry arise, and it soon becomes clear to any discerning eye that these duties are beyond him. The reason is that he has never been called to this work, and consequently he does not get the necessary grace to fulfil such a ministry.
The call to the ministry is therefore of the greatest importance. For a man to run without being sent is one of the greatest calamities which can happen to himself, to his congregation, or to the Church unfortunate enough to have such in its ministry. In this call, the Holy Spirit uses the Word and providences of God, bringing the person to feel cut off from his worldly employment, giving him a desire for the glory of Christ, a thirst for the salvation of souls, and a longing for the prosperity of the Church of God in the world. By the operation of the Holy Ghost, and through his Divine anointing, he is set apart to the ministry of the Word.
When such a person has been accepted and trained by the Church and called by a congregation he is ordained by the Presbytery to the work of the ministry. Ordination without the call to the ministry does not make a man a minister, but according to the Word of God he must be ordained and set apart to this work by a Presbytery. At such a time he comes under vows of a most solemn nature. These vows are called Ordination vows, and in the Free Presbyterian Church are contained in the questions put to the minister, and the formula which he signs in the presence of the congregation.
These vows, for the sake of clarity, can be divided up as follows:
1 Doctrinal.
He accepts the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and as the only rule of faith and practice. He owns the Westminster Confession of Faith to be founded upon the Word of God, and acknowledges the same to be the confession of his faith, and promises that he will assert, maintain and defend the same. He disowns all Popish, Arian, Socinian, Arminian, Erastian and other tenets inconsistent with the Confession of Faith. It will be noticed here that he accepts the Confession as the confession of his own faith, and as founded upon the Word of God. We read of a minister in another denomination who stated that he sincerely accepted the Confession except in so far as it might be contradicted by the supreme standard, that is, the Word of God. This sounds very pious, but it is in fact a perversion of the ordination vow. If a minister decides that to his understanding a part or parts of the Confession of Faith are inconsistent with the Word of God, his proper course is to leave the church, and not to stir up trouble by advancing his personal views inconsistent with the vows he undertook.
2 Worship.
He promises, to the utmost of his power, to assert, maintain and defend the purity of worship at present practised in this Church. This purity of worship, as is well known, excludes the use of hymns of human composition, and instrumental music.
3 Governmental.
He professes that the Presbyterian Government and discipline of the Church are founded upon the Word of God, and agreeable thereto, and undertakes to maintain, support and defend it. He further promises not to endeavour directly or indirectly the prejudice or subversion of such Government. He promises to submit himself to the Judicatories of the Church humbly and in the spirit of meekness.
4 Historical.
He approves of the general principles of the Claim, Declaration and Protest of 1842. He approves of the Deed of Separation of the Free Presbyterian Church, adopted at its first Presbytery at Portree, 14th August, 1893.
The whole of the foregoing can be summed up in the final promise which he gives in the following words, “And I promise that I shall follow no divisive course from the doctrine, worship, discipline and exclusive jurisdiction of this Church, renouncing all doctrines, tenets and opinions whatsoever contrary to or inconsistent with the said doctrine, worship, discipline or Government or jurisdiction of the same.”
The solemn, searching and all-embracing nature of these vows should make those who undertake them tremble, especially at the thought of breaking them. Yet the Free Presbyterian Church felt it necessary to pass a resolution in the Synod of 1903, on the subject of Creed Subscription. This resolution is in the following terms — “The Synod also, considering the dishonest and degrading manner in which the most solemn promises and engagements relative to subordinate standards are violated by many that hold office in Presbyterian Churches, the great reproach brought thereby on the name of Christ, and the reflection cast upon all office bearers, feels bound to restate what is the real nature and implication of these engagements, and what is expected of all office-bearers of this Church in this connection. The solemn promises and declarations made at ordination — commonly called ordination vows — are made not so much unto men as unto God, and are therefore of the like binding obligation with an oath, and ought to be made with the like seriousness and religious care. The Synod, therefore, believing that the Westminster Confession of Faith, as received by the Church of Scotland in 1647, is founded upon the Word of God, and agreeable thereto, cannot accept the view that this Church will at any time be at liberty to depart from the doctrine, government, mode of worship and discipline which the said Confession sets forth, and which all office-bearers have solemnly engaged to assert, maintain and defend. The Synod expects of its office-bearers, as honourable men, that whosoever they are conscious of having ceased to believe in any of these doctrines and principles, or to approve of the mode of worship, which they have vowed to maintain, they should lay down their office, and not help to deprive the Church of its peace and purity; and finally it expects of the Church itself, through its Courts, to see that in this connection its discipline is observed wheresoever in any case such honourable dealing does not appear to characterise any office-bearer whatsoever.”
May each one of us, who has undertaken these vows, be exercised with a conscience purged by the blood of Christ from dead works to serve the living God, so that we may firmly and faithfully seek grace to discharge our ordination vows according to the promises given, and in the strength of Him Who said, “My strength is made perfect in weakness.”