RPCNA History

[VirginiaHuguenot]

* On May 15, 1810, the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was founded.

* On May 18, 1798, the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America was founded.

[Edited on 5-24-2005 by VirginiaHuguenot]

 

[Peter]

Reformation Principles Exhibited
http://www.truecovenanter.com/reformedpresbyterian/rpe.html

The plan upon which the Reformed Presbytery propose to exhibit their principles to the world, embraces three parts. Historical, Declaratory and argumentative. The Historical part exhibits the Church as a visible society in covenant with God, in different periods of time; and points out precisely the situation which they themselves occupy as a distinct part of the Catholic Church. p7

A Historical View of the Catholic Church

In proportion as objects exceed in grandeur they demand the admiration of the human mind. And there is not among the ranks created being one object worthy of comparison in respect of sublimity, with the Christian Church. A moral Empire, consisting of members animated by the Eternal Spirit, the mediatory Person, God manifested in the flesh as its head, the vast machinery of creation moving in regular subordination to its interest, and exhibiting the ineffable glory of the Divinity, is an object to be contemplated with admiration and awe. "out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined." p15

The revolution of 1688, which overturned the house of Stuart for having violated the civil compact, justified the conduct of those presbyterian covenanters who rejected the same authority upon the same principle, several years before this event. It also justified the conduct of the same people, in rejecting the settlement of king William, when he was invested with power, in direct violation of the national constitution, which was settled at the reformation, and which both kingdoms, according to the solemn league and covenant, were bound by oath to defend.

The remnant of the reformed presbyterian church did, consequently, disown the revolution settlement both in church and state. An oath they considered as obligatory until the whole end of it be accomplished. They had solemnly sworn to defend the reformation in their several places and stations, to oppose by all lawful means Popery, Prelacy, and Erastianism, and to adhere to the doctrine and order of the Church of Scotland, as constituted between the years 1638 and 1649. The covenants, they thought it their duty repeatedly to renew. The faithful testimonies of their martyrs, they were not disposed to relinquish or condemn. Erastianism was interwoven with the constitution under William the third. He apostatized from the principles of the Church of Holland, and became the visible head of the Church of England. He exercised supremacy over the Church of Scotland, and with unhallowed hands violated the right bestowed upon the ministry, by the Lord Jesus Christ, of calling and dissolving at pleasure the various courts of judicature. Presbyterian covenanters did not deny to the civil authority the right of calling an assembly of divines in extraordinary cases, in order to obtain advice. They knew it was the duty of the magistrate to preserve the peace as well as the liberty of Church courts, by suppressing disorders and restraining violence. But they would not yield, as was now done, the right to the king´s commissioner, to call and dissolve at pleasure, the general assembly of the Church. The assembly could not now convene, except by the royal authority. When such powers therefore were rendered essential to the crown of Britain by the revolution settlement, the covenanters dissented from that settlement, refused an oath of allegiance to this erastian system, and disowned all the constituted authority. As the minority, they claimed the right of enjoying their sentiments, their lives, and their property unmolested, while they determined to behave as peaceable and regular members of society in every part of the land. By the new constitution they were indeed effectually excluded from the privileges of the national society. The oaths of allegiance to the government excluded the oath of the covenants which they had already solemnly sworn, and to which they held themselves bound. Being thus excluded from membership in the national society, the rulers in that society could by no means be recognized as their magistrates."”They were united to them by no moral tie. p86-88

[Edited on 5-16-2005 by Peter]

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

On May 24, 1809 the first meeting of the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America took place.

 

[WrittenFromUtopia]

Praise God!

 

[ABondSlaveofChristJesus]

Originally posted by WrittenFromUtopia
Praise God!

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

I've just learned that the History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America by W. Melancthon Glasgow is now accessible online at the RPCNA website. Check it out!

 

[Arch2k]

Question...how faithful is the RPCNA currently? Are they like the PCA/OPC in that there is a great diversity in doctrines, and in many areas headed toward the wrong road (i.e. images of Christ, Sabbath keeping etc. etc.)?

I will be visiting the local RPCNA this month and am doing some research on them. Thanks!

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Originally posted by Jeff_Bartel
Question...how faithful is the RPCNA currently? Are they like the PCA/OPC in that there is a great diversity in doctrines, and in many areas headed toward the wrong road (i.e. images of Christ, Sabbath keeping etc. etc.)?

I will be visiting the local RPCNA this month and am doing some research on them. Thanks!

I'll send you a u2u, Jeff.

 

[Arch2k]

Originally posted by VirginiaHuguenot

Originally posted by Jeff_Bartel
Question...how faithful is the RPCNA currently? Are they like the PCA/OPC in that there is a great diversity in doctrines, and in many areas headed toward the wrong road (i.e. images of Christ, Sabbath keeping etc. etc.)?

I will be visiting the local RPCNA this month and am doing some research on them. Thanks!

I'll send you a u2u, Jeff.

Thanks

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

I've just learned that the History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America by W. Melancthon Glasgow is now accessible online at the RPCNA website. Check it out!

Update:

GLASGOW'S HISTORY OF THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH REPUBLISHED!

Friends of the RPCNA,

My name is Nathan Eshelman and I am a Master's of Divinity student at Puritan Reformed Seminary in Grand Rapids, MI. I am hoping to be ordained within the RPCNA and have been in communication with the candidates and credentials committee of the Great Lakes-Gulf Presbytery. I also, with the Lord's blessing, hope to see an RP congregation in the Grand Rapids area in the near future.

The reason that I am emailing is that I am working on a project with Reformation Heritage Books (RHB) (www.heritagebooks.org). We would like to see the book History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America by WM Glasgow republished. This book was published in 1888 under the leadership of the board of publications.

According to Dr.Beeke, the president of Puritan Seminary as well as RHB, we would need 50 people to give a word of mouth confirmation that they would like the book before we could go to press. RHB is a nonprofit book distributor and their goal is to get inexpensive Reformed material into the hands of the church for her further reformation. 50 copies would make this possible so that RHB does not lose money on this venture.

The RPCNA has many exciting milestones coming up within the next couple of years and I hope that this book would aid in the celebration! It would also be nice to have available for the International Conference that meets at Calvin College. Grand Rapids Christian bookstores love to see the RPs coming and it is a blessing to have such a reading denomination.

I am not receiving any money from RHB to promote this book, just the satisfaction of making a book affordable that should at least be in the library of every RP minister. If you do a search online for an original copy, it will cost you $165. The book has become very rare and the secular used-book market knows this! I would hope that with this new release that every RP home could have a copy to show that they have 'a goodly heritage'!

Reformation Heritage Books will be offering this book for the following prices:

$35 paperback edition.
$45 cloth binding with dust jacket.

I do not need any money up front, I do not need any financial anything from you. I am only attempting to get a 'feel' for whether this book is needing to be republished. I sent my first emails out yesterday to various friends and a couple of Internet groups that I belong to and the demand looked favorable. I have almost 20 people that would like copies.

I would only need your name, mailing address, and the number of copies that you would like emailed back to me. I am saving them in a folder on my email and when I get 50 orders I will give the names to Dr.Beeke as confirmation that this will be worthwhile as a project. I pray that the Lord blesses this republication.

Yesterday I mentioned on my yahoo group that the denomination is indebted to Nathaniel Pockras of the Belle Center congregation for making a PDF version available online. We will not be using Nathaniel's copy, but a very nice 1888 version that sits in a place of honor on my desk. Thank you again to Nathaniel for making this available online.

Friends, if this is something that you are interested in send me your name, mailing address, and number of copies. Please indicate number of paperbacks and number of cloth bound books that you would like.

For Christ's Crown and Covenant,

Nathan Eshelman
[email protected]
www.puritanseminary.org