A Bit of Local Presbyterian History

In 1906, the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (CPC) voted to merge into the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA). This vote occurred 100 years after the Cumberland Presbyterians had split from the PCUSA over issues related to the Calvinist language of the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms.

The single largest event that lead to the two groups reuniting was the PCUSA changing the language of their version of the Westminster Confession of Faith to water down the explicit Reformed language regarding the doctrines of grace.

At the time of the merger, the CPC was the third largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States. Approximately 1,000 pastors and 90,000 members merged into the PCUSA (a significant minority, about 50,000 members, remained outside the PCUSA and continue as the Cumberland Presbyterian Church to this day).

Recently, it came to my attention that the 1906 General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church which voted to merge into the PCUSA met in Decatur, IL, where I live! I wanted to track down the location where that General Assembly met, to see if the church was still standing. I started with a photograph of the Church, First Church, Decatur, IL, provided to me by Wayne Sparkman of the PCA Historical Center.

Photo of First Church, Decatur, Illinois provided by the PCA Historical Center

This photo only names the church as (Former) First Church, Decatur, Illinois. There is also an inset of the pastor of this church, Rev. J. W. McDonald.

I did not recognize the church building, and after comparing it to a few existing churches in Decatur, I went to the Local History room of the Decatur Public Library to see if there was any information on church buildings from that era.

While the library volunteers sorted through archives to see if they could find anything about this church, I pulled the Decatur City Directory from 1905 off the shelf and found a listing for First Cumberland Presbyterian Church located at the northeast corner of Monroe and Eldorado streets.

City of Decatur Directory, 1905

The 1912 City Directory did not list a First Cumberland Presbyterian Church, but there was a listed for a Second Presbyterian Church located at the same place:

City of Decatur Directory, 1912

Next, I checked the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map of Decatur from 1908 to see what was at the northeast corner of Monroe and Eldorado, and low and behold, 1st Cumberland Presbyterian Church is shown:

Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Decatur, 1908.

While I was checking these sources, I asked the library volunteer helping me to locate a file titled "Index to churches of Decatur scrapbook in Decatur Herald and Review Library" I had found in the library's catalog.

While there was no information about First Cumberland Presbyterian Church or Second Presbyterian Church, there was a history of Westminster Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) which still exists today. That history noted that Westminster Presbyterian came about from the combination in 1917 of Second Presbyterian Church and a Mission Sunday School of First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) of Decatur! The history (see the three pages below) recorded the name change of First Cumberland Presbyterian to Second Presbyterian, and also noted the Rev. J. W. McDonald as the pastor of First Cumberland Presbyterian/Second Presbyterian at the time of the CPC/PCUSA merger.

Page 1 of the History of Westminster Presbyterian Church

Bottom of page 1 of the History of Westminster Presbyterian

Page 2 of the history of Westminster Presbyterian

Now that I knew what had happened to the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Decatur, IL, I drove to the intersection where the church had stood. Here is the northeast corner of Monroe and Eldoradro today:

The intersection of Monroe and Eldorado, 2019.

It was on this spot, where a water-related parts manufacturing company now stands, that one of the largest mergers of Presbyterian denominations in the United States occurred 113 years ago!

A Comparison of WCF 23.3 (Of The Civil Magistrate)

Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 23, section 3 is a very interesting section if for no other reason than it has been modified so differently by various American Presbyterian denominations. Below is a link to a PDF I put together with a side-by-side comparison of this section as it appeared in the original Confession, as well as how the ARP, PCA, OPC, RPCNA, EPC, and PCUSA have modified it.

WCF 23.3 Comparison Chart (PDF)

WCF 23.3 Comparison Chart (Word) 

The ARP was not a "Wave of Reformation" of the PCUSA

The Aquila Report has republished an article by Carmen Fowler LaBerge of The Layman Online discussing denominational reformation. In as far as the article emphasizes a return to confessionalism, it's a good article. However, one thing ought to be clarified: When LaBerge lists waves of reformation that have sprouted out of the PCUSA, the following denominations are listed: The Orthodox Presbyterian Church, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian Church in America, and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. But, the ARP was never a part of the PCUSA. The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church split from the Church of Scotland in the 1700s and the Associate Presbyterians in the United States were never a part of the Presbyterian Church USA.


You can read more about the history of the ARP here.

The Layman Online: Letter to the Editor

In light of the news coming out of the PCUSA today, I am reprinting a Letter to the Editor of The Layman Online written by my own pastor, Rev. Kent Moorlach. I think it very accurately sums up the issues with the PCUSA and explains why I will still call myself a Presbyterian, despite what the PCUSA says and does.

PCUSA will ultimately be supplanted by a more faithful Presbyterian denomination

Posted Thursday, March 24, 2011

Five years ago, we planted Communion Presbyterian Church (ARP). Just prior to this launch, our core team spent some time discussing whether or not we would actually banner “Presbyterian” in our church name. I still recall one dear saint pleading with our group, “Could we please not use the term Presbyterian? My Christian neighbors are concerned that I attend a Presbyterian church and I constantly tell them that we are not those Presbyterians.”

Who are those Presbyterians?

Those are they that:

• parade as animals and offer prayers lead by tribal Indian shamans at their General Assemblies;
• participate fully with the World Council of Churches in Geneva but fudge on Calvin’s doctrines of grace;
• demand their seminarians use “gender inclusive language” when referring to God but exclude students preaching an historic and conservative theology;
• condemn national Israel for their politics but condone unbelievers partaking of the Lord’s Supper;
• require "congregational quotas” for session members but reject the qualifications for elder delineated in Scripture;
• include the historic confessions of other Reformed bodies in their Book of Confessions yet have the audacity to re-write another communion’s document in order to accommodate denominational agendas;
• have fraternal relations with the UCC but are unrecognized by NAPARC;
• claim they are “open to the Spirit” but confuse what the Spirit has finally said in the canon.

There is surely more.

I recognize that no church is perfect. My own denomination has come through over 200 years of debate and continues to seek purity of devotion to the Scriptures – this process is as old as Acts 15 (And yes, even before then).

So why did our church plant include an antiquated Greek word describing a form of government in our church name? Because we knew this day was coming: the day when the “mainline” PCUSA would no longer be the largest Presbyterian denomination. Our church embraces the heritage and convictions of the Westminster Confession of Faith (and Catechisms), and because these documents truly reflect the convictions of the Scriptures and a faithful Presbyterian church, we were convinced that the PCUSA would finally fracture, lose enough churches, and ultimately be supplanted by another, more faithful, Presbyterian denomination – one with whom our church would be pleased to represent our own communion. (Right now, that’s looking like the PCA, and when they are ready to join the ARP, we’ll be ready!)

The PCUSA certainly has the freedom to pursue the course on which it treads. The warnings regarding this day have been clearly posted by Machen and others. Regardless, with a sense of sadness, we mourn the trials of the PCUSA; especially for the many committed believers who wrestle with future affiliations. But a new day is here, and in all humility, we’d like to have the name back!

Rev. Kent Moorlach
Communion Presbyterian Church (ARP), Irvine, Ca.

EPC: Speeding Down "PCUSA Road" as Fast as They Can?

I found the sequence of headlines on The Aquila Report this evening interesting. This headline:

Evangelical Presbyterian Church Clears Way for Women to Serve as Pastors

Was followed by this headline:

Will Presbyterian Church USA Redefine Marriage?

And then this one:

PCUSA Net Membership Loss for 2009 Totals 63,000 Members, Another 3%

Does anyone in the EPC realize that one thing leads to another, the end result being the death (spiritual followed by numerical) of your denomination?

I realize that there are a number of churches leaving the PCUSA to go into the EPC, but I wonder if the EPC realizes just how much of the PCUSA they are welcoming into the EPC?

Miracle: The Second Definition

Mostly because of this article written a couple of months ago by Dr. William Evans, I have been paying a bit closer attention to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) than I previously had. I'll save most of my comments about the EPC for a future post (posts?), but I couldn't pass up this article, posted to The Layman Online yesterday:

A Miracle in the Making: Women as Teaching Elders in the EPC

For those of you unfamiliar with The Layman Online, here is point 1 of their Objectives:

1. To provide reliable information and resources concerning significant issues confronting the PCUSA and the Church Universal, thereby equipping and empowering faithful congregations and leaders in the PCUSA and other denominations to fulfill the Great Commission in the 21st century.

So, The Layman is a news outlet for "conservative" PCUSA congregations. Since the PCUSA has been losing "conservative" congregations faster than a oil out of a BP rig, and since a large number of these congregations are finding their way into the EPC, it is no surprise to find this story on The Layman.

What did surprise me was the use of the word "miracle" to describe the EPC's proposed [further] acceptance of women teaching elders. So, I turned to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia to find a definition of "miracle":

The miracle proper is a work of God (Exodus 7:3 ff; Deuteronomy 4:34-35, etc.; John 3:2; 9:32-33; 10:38; Acts 10:38, etc.); but as supernatural acts miracles are recognized as possible to evil agencies (Matthew 24:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:9; Revelation 13:14; 16:14, etc.).

So, I guess it is a miracle after all. Now, for a definition of equivocation, see the EPC's position paper on women's ordination.

What happens when Elders don't do their job?

Elders: want to know what happens when you fail in your duties to guard the purity of the Church? Want to know what will become of the flock God has entrusted into your care when you don't study the current theological controversies in your denomination; when you think "it's better for my pastor to deal with this"? Then, take a look at Al Mohler's latest blog post titled "Vanishing Christianity -- A Lesson from the Presbyterians."

Mohler makes some sad but accurate points. Based on the latest "Presbyterian Panel" survey (2008), only 36% of PCUSA church members either "disagree" or "strongly disagree" with the statement "only followers of Jesus Christ can be saved." Mohler points out that elders are slightly more "conservative" than other church members, but does it even matter any more?

"Theological compromise appeared first among the pastors, theologians, church executives, and seminary professors," Mohler writes. Elders: are you on Candidates and Credentials committees? Do you take an active role in examining what Pastors and Professors seeking ordination in or transfer into your Presbytery (and denomination) believe? If you don't, you can expect that in less than 100 years, your denomination will look exactly like the PCUSA.

"Make no mistake," Mohler concludes, "in the end, vanishing theological boundaries will amount to vanishing Christianity."