Elijah Thomas Chacko
The leaflet bearing this title has been published recently by The Westminster Tradition, an organisation in Singapore which stands “for the advancement of the Reformed Faith”. By kind permission we reproduce the leaflet here in a slightly edited form. Pastor Chacko, with some of his congregation, visited New Zealand in 1994 and attended some of our church services there. —Editor
WHILE we acknowledge that Scriptural creeds and confessions cannot take the place of the Holy Scriptures as the pre-eminent, final and entirely complete rule of faith and life for all men, yet it would be utter folly to undermine their vital role and diminish their value in the Church. The value of creeds and confessions was particularly underlined by the pivotal function they played in the battle for the historic Christian faith.
Of all the creeds and confessions, those formulated during the Protestant Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries, are without doubt the most outstanding in the annals of church history. One predominant reason for this was that the battle against apostasy came to a climax during this period. The Antichrist, that is, the Papacy, was convincingly defeated, and exposed for what it is. The Reformed creeds and confessions were formulated not only to summarise the doctrines of Scripture but also to refute the false teachings propounded by the Roman Catholic Church and her offspring churches.
The most famous of these confessions is The Westminster Confession of Faith, the product of the collective learning and wisdom of some of the ablest and most spiritual men in England and Scotland in any generation. They possessed almost unrivalled acumen and judgement. The Confession of Faith was drawn up in the first half of the 17th century, during the reign of Charles I. It was completed in 1646. In comparison to other credal works, the Confession of Faith is matchless in terms of accuracy, cogency, clarity and comprehensiveness. It is theology compressed into a compendium, and the incredible thing is that it is crafted so eloquently. Notwithstanding its conciseness, none of the fundamental tenets of the Christian faith are omitted. It contains the whole range of Reformation teaching, and is Calvinism in its quintessence. Without doubt, it is an excellent exposition of the historic Christian faith.
Now, I aver again, the essence of The Westminster Confession of Faith is Calvinism, that system of theology formulated by John Calvin, a Frenchman who laboured in Geneva, making it the Reformation capital of the world at that time. While John Calvin, being its ablest and strongest proponent, rightly deserves the honour of having his name used to identify this particular system of interpreting the Holy Scriptures, he is by no means its sole exponent. He was preceded by other illustrious men, some of them way back to the time of the pristine New Testament church. Augustine (354 – 430 AD) was a renowned teacher of much of what later was known as Calvinism. It was practical Calvinism that motivated the Separatists, the Puritans, the Pilgrim Fathers, the English Non-Conformists, the Scottish Covenanters, the French Huguenots, and the American Presbyterians and Congregationalists. Hence it is no surprise that most of them embraced The Westminster Confession of Faith as their subordinate standard, firstly, for the interpretation of the Bible, and secondly, as the declaration of their doctrinal stance, (though some of the others adopted a modified form).
We affirm that Calvinism is the only true and proper interpretation of the Holy Scriptures; and there can be no other. With the avalanche of wrong teachings (such as Arminianism, Higher Criticism, Dispensationalism, Charismatism, and Pentecostalism) having been conceived in the womb of apostasy, and spawned in Christendom with alarming rapidity, the necessity for creeds becomes imperative. We are therefore immeasurably indebted to God for the fact that we have inherited Calvinism, with its pastoral implications. By the grace of God, we refuse to condone all other modes of interpretation. The body of teaching found in Calvinism, also known as the doctrines of the sovereign grace of God, was bequeathed to us because our godly forbears stood steadfast for the truth, despite the fierce persecutions and martyrdom they had to suffer. It is our firm view that this glorious legacy called Calvinism is in full bloom in The Westminster Confession of Faith.
Before concluding, it is needful for me to comment on a very serious matter. We are adopting the original version (1646) of the Confession as our official creed, and in doing so we are categorically renouncing all other amended versions, including the 1903 revision. The latter, among other things, precludes the Establishment Principle. We now affirm this principle, thanks to the godly influence wielded by the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The refutation of the Establishment Principle wrests from Christ Jesus His rightful sovereignty over the nations (Psalm 2 and Psalm 110). In recording in the second Psalm the crowning of Christ as King, the Psalmist did not confine the scope of His royal sceptre to Zion alone but to all the nations of the world. Difficulties in comprehending how the doctrine could be practically implemented in many parts of the world should not in any way prevent us from embracing it by faith. Our conviction of the tenets of our faith is never dependent on their feasibility from the perspective of human logic. Those who advocate Voluntaryism stand grossly guilty of denying Christ His claim of dominion over all nations, and thereby are inclined to depose our Lord from the rightful realm of His reign.
Apart from the deletion of the Establishment Principle, another salient point that has been obliterated from the 1903 version of the Confession is the statement of the fact that the Romish papacy is the Antichrist. This statement of the identity of Antichrist has been the consistent position of almost all the renowned Reformers (including Martin Luther, John Calvin and John Knox), and the Puritans. However, the 1903 version of the Confession literally expunges this statement, reflecting the spiritual declension of those in Princeton Seminary who advocated the amendment at the turn of the century. It is our conviction that the denial of the Pope as the Antichrist effectually paves the way for Protestant churches to be amalgamated with Rome. One ought to be wary of the stance of Princeton at around that time and since then, for in significant aspects it had defected from conservative, reformed thinking. We do not rule out the possibility of the involvement of the Jesuits in this matter. How enormous is the power exerted by Rome when even a Reformed citadel like Princeton should capitulate!
In any case, our espousal of the original version of The Westminster Confession of Faith marks another watershed in the process of reformation in our churches. We here, in our churches in Singapore and Malaysia, are very grateful for the grace of God in enabling us to subscribe to The Westminster Confession of Faith and to its ancillary documents, The Larger Catechism and The Shorter Catechism, in their original versions.
Obituary
James MacPherson, Elder, Gisborne, New Zealand
ON 24th September last year, the sad news reached us of the death of James MacPherson, Gisborne, at the age of 74 years. It was the end of many years of conflict with heart disease, to which at last his body succumbed. However, it was also the end of many years of Christian warfare in which we have good reason to believe that our late friend was victorious. “Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life,” (Rev. 2:10).
This Christian warfare was preceded by a godly upbringing in the truly pious home of his parents. Jim was the second oldest in the family of Mr and Mrs Murdo MacPherson and grew up in comparative isolation about 100 kilometres north of Gisborne. This isolated situation was unavoidable as his father farmed a sheep farm, and the family home necessarily had to be in the country. That situation, however, was not without its advantages. It meant less exposure to the influences of a society and culture that were increasingly removing the Bible from its daily diet.
One of the great privileges our late friend enjoyed in the days of his youth was exposure to the Holy Scriptures throughout his formative years. Although it was not possible to attend public church services because of the apostasy of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, the family had formal worship services conducted weekly in the home, in addition to ordinary family worship and catechising. These influences kept Jim from much temptation when later he had to leave home and do his duty to his country in the Second World War. For several years he was away from New Zealand during active service that took him to North Africa and Italy.
After returning home from the war he took a job not far from Invercargill in the South Island, where he continued for several years. It is not known what caused him to be exercised about solemn spiritual realities, and led him to seek for salvation. A telegram he received on the 27th January 1949, his 27th birthday, must have had a deep effect on him. It proved to contain the sad tidings of the death of his younger brother Duncan at the young age of 22 years. After his return home he evidently lost all desire to go back to an employment sphere that had taken him away from the pious influences of a godly home environment.
The truth however was to have a more profound effect when by the grace of God he was effectually called out of the power of darkness into God’s marvellous light. After years of conviction of sin he came to the liberty of the gospel under a sermon preached by the Rev William MacLean. This was when Mr MacLean was out in New Zealand as a church deputy in 1959 accompanied by John MacKenzie, elder. They had been empowered by the Synod to act as a Kirk Session to receive members into the communion of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Jim was among the members received at that time in Gisborne and sat for the first time at the Lord’s table on the last Sabbath of February 1959. It was the beginning of nearly 38 years of usefulness in the church militant.
At the first election of office-bearers in the Gisborne Congregation he was elected an elder, and he acted in that capacity till the day of his death. Throughout his years as an office-bearer he was a valued member of the various Free Presbyterian Church courts and very clearly appreciated the need for a separate witness. Consequently he was a member of the church court which in 1968 adopted a strong protest against the acquittal, by the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, of Professor Lloyd Geering of a charge of heresy. The following is a small extract of the Protest: “…In the light of the base treachery shown to the Divine Redeemer by the decision of the General Assembly, the Kirk Session are of the opinion that the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand can no longer be regarded as a branch of Christ’s visible church on earth, but apostate from the faith once delivered to the saints, and that to those within her pale, the exhortation also applies, And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues’.”
This clause of the protest now applies even more because the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand has officially distanced herself from the Confessional statement that the Pope is the Antichrist. It is not surprising therefore that this denomination has entered close ecumenical relationships with the Roman apostasy through membership of the Conference of Churches of which the Roman Church is a member.
On several occasions Jim travelled to Scotland to take part in the meetings of Synod. The last occasion he undertook the long journey to Scotland was in 1989 to take part in the Synod proceedings in connection with the MacKay case. He was thankful that discipline was upheld by the Synod but saddened that the Church was rent asunder and that the subsequent split also made havoc of the congregations in New Zealand. Jim was a man for unity. He loved the whole truth and therefore exerted himself for an unmutilated Bible and an unmutilated Westminster Confession of Faith. This is what led him to set up the New Zealand auxiliary of the Trinitarian Bible Society in 1987. At the inaugurating meeting on 1st June 1987 in Auckland he was elected chairman, and he continued in that capacity until the day of his lamented death.
The last occasion that he set out for Britain was in April 1993. It was his desire to join with his fellow believers in Edinburgh in thanksgiving for the testimony that was raised in 1893 and that led to the constitution and witness of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. He had to abandon this attempt on reaching Auckland as severe attacks of angina forced him to return to Gisborne. He was enabled to continue his labours in the Church, the church courts and the Trinitarian Bible Society for a further three and a half years.
We have reason therefore for thanksgiving that in spite of failing health he was preserved for usefulness in the cause of Christ for so many years. To his grieving widow and family we extend our sincere sympathy.
(Rev.) Johannes van Dorp