As another year opens, a question which ought to concern us is whether or not it is necessary to maintain our separate existence as a denomination. For each of us, as individuals, the question will take this form — Is it really necessary for me to be a Free Presbyterian in 1976? Having, as a Church, maintained a separate existence from the other Churches in Scotland for over eighty years, must we still maintain that separation or may we now safely abandon it? As individuals, must we continue to insist on being Free Presbyterians or may we now safely cease to be so?
One reason which might appear to suggest that a relaxation of denominational identity is called for, is the fact that evangelicalism is under attack from atheism, materialism, ecumenism, and other forces. In the face of the growing threat to evangelical Christianity from these sources, would it not be more realistic for Churches that are broadly evangelical to draw together and present a united front to the enemy at the door. However attractive such a proposal might seem to be on the surface, in reality it could not be effected without compromising our witness as a Church to the whole counsel of God.
But to answer our question, let us ask — What is Free Presbyterianism? Is it just the maintaining of certain precise dogmas and practices handed down to us by our forefathers but which have no relevance for a more advanced age? If this is so, then the sooner Free Presbyterianism is abandoned the better. But this is not so. Free Presbyterianism is just Biblical Christianity. Did it differ in any respect from this, then in that particular respect it would not be worth maintaining. Where we differ from those of other denominations in the doctrines we believe and teach, it is not because we just wish to be different from others, but because the Word of God compels us to accept and teach only those doctrines. Where we differ from others in the form of worship we practise, it is not merely to suit our own taste in religion, but because the Word of God compels us to adopt only the form of worship we possess. Where we differ in the order of Church Government, it is not because Presbyterianism is more democratic than other forms of government, but because the Word of God compels us to recognise Presbyterianism as the divinely ordered and appointed form for the Christian Church. Where we differ in the exercise of Church discipline it is not because we judge it useful to maintain order in Church Courts, but because the Word of God compels us to follow in this respect the Apostolic and Scriptural pattern.
As Free Presbyterians we believe that Christ, as Head of the Church, has set up the worship and order of His own house and that we are not warranted to abandon or modify what He has commanded in His Word. This outlook involves us in an uncompromising stand against all unscriptural dogmas and practices; a contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints; an unrelenting exposure of whatever would seek to undermine the faith of the gospel and the practice that is after godliness; an irreconcilable struggle against sin and Satan in our own hearts and lives as well as in the world; a fearless witness on the side of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; and a faithful proclamation of the whole counsel of God.
This is as necessary in 1976 as in the past eighty or more years of our existence as a denomination. While the powers of darkness are rallying their forces it is our privilege as Free Presbyterians, possessing as we do a full-orbed testimony to the doctrines, worship, government and practice of God’s Word, to be in the vanguard of those forces which are set against the Kingdom of darkness. If we are faithful to the Lord and to His Cause in a dark day let us not fear, for the Lord shall go before us and the God of Jacob shall be our rereward. Let us remain resolute and uncompromisingly faithful to the witness handed down to us by Mr MacFarlane, Mr MacDonald, and other godly Fathers of the Church, and we think that the day is not too far distant when that witness will be vindicated before men by Him whose it was to begin and maintain it in perhaps the darkest day of the Church’s history.
No weapon that is formed against thee
shall prosper; and every tongue that
shall rise against thee in judgement
thou shalt condemn. This is the
heritage of the servants of the Lord, and
their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. Is. 54:17.