The Presbyterian Church

If the average American citizen were asked, Who was the founder of America? He would undoubtedly hesitate to reply. A Presbyterian, however, and with considerable justification, might point to the answer given by Ranke, the famous German historian: "John Calvin was the virtual founder of America."
To back up this assertion about their famed theologian, Presbyterians might point out that at the time of the American Revolution two thirds of the population were trained in the schools of Calvin, where they learned the immortal principles of the rights of man, of human liberty, equality, and self-government on which they based our republic. Their intense zeal for liberty was so pronounced that the colonists' struggle for freedom was called, in England, "The Presbyterian Rebellion." Presbyterians are proud that one of their ministers, John Witherspoon, was the only clergyman who signed the Declaration of Independence.
John Calvin, who may be called the ablest expounder of their doctrinal views, was a Frenchman trained for the law; however, his keen legalistic mind and his lust for religious freedom drove him to Geneva, Switzerland, where he quickly grasped the reins of leadership in the Swiss sector of the Reformation. His whole thought revolved about the concept of sovereignty: "the sovereignty of God in His universe, the sovereignty of Christ in salvation, the sovereignty of the Scriptures in faith, and conduct, the sovereignty of the individual conscience in the interpretation of the will and Word of God."
According to Calvin, the chief end of man was "to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever." This statement has become the epitome of Presbyterianism. With it came, Calvin's emphasis on morality, which has had an enduring effect on succeeding generations. Men were not only to acknowledge God, but they were to live the life God would have them live. Calvin stressed these virtues as being proper to Christian: honesty, reverence, chastity, thrift, and industry.

Great Churches of America, Kenneth J. Holland

Where Did the Presbyterian Church Originate?

The earliest Christian church consisted of Jews in the first century who had known Jesus and heard his teachings. It graduallygrew and spread from the Middle East to other parts of the world, though not without controversy and hardship among its supporters.

During the 4th century, after more than 300 years of persecution under various Roman emperors, the church became established as a political as well as a spiritual power under the Emperor Constantine. Theological and political disagreements, however, served to widen the rift between members of the eastern (Greek-speaking) and western (Latin-speaking) branches of the church. Eventually the western portions of Europe, came under the religious and political authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Eastern Europe and parts of Asia came under the authority of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

In western Europe, the authority of the Roman Catholic Church remained largely unquestioned until the Renaissance in the 15th century. The invention of the printing press in Germany around 1440 made it possible for common people to have access to printed materials including the Bible. This, in turn, enabled many to discover religious thinkers who had begun to question the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. One such figure, Martin Luther, a German priest and professor, started the movement known as the Protestant Reformation when he posted a list of 95 grievances against the Roman Catholic Church on a church door in Wittenburg, Germany in 1517. Some 20 years later, a French/Swiss theologian, John Calvin, further refined the reformers' new way of thinking about the nature of God and God's relationship with humanity in what came to be known as Reformed theology. John Knox, a Scotsman who studied with Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland, took Calvin's teachings back to Scotland. Other Reformed communities developed in England, Holland and France. The Presbyterian church traces its ancestry back primarily to Scotland and England.

Presbyterians have featured prominently in United States history. The Rev. Francis Mackemie, who arrived in the U.S. from Ireland in 1683, helped to organize the first American Presbytery at Philadelphia in 1706. One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the Rev. John Witherspoon, was a Presbyterian minister. The Rev. William Tennent founded a ministerial "log
college" in New Jersey that evolved into Princeton University. Other Presbyterian ministers, such as the Rev. Jonathan Edwards and the Rev. Gilbert Tennent, were driving forces in the so-called "Great Awakening," a revivalist movement in the early 18th century.

The Presbyterian church in the United States has split and parts have reunited several times. Currently the largest group is the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which has its national offices in Louisville, Ky. It was formed in 1983 as a result of reunion between the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS), the so-called "southern branch," and the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (UPCUSA), the so-called "northern branch." Other Presbyterian churches in the United States include: the
Presbyterian Church in America, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.

For more information, contact the Office of Theology and Worship in the Congregational Ministries Division at 100
Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY 40202-1396.

Presbyterian Churches

One of the major representative groups of classical Protestantism that arose in the 16th-century Reformation. Generally speaking, the modern Presbyterian churches trace their origins to the Calvinist churches of the British Isles, the Continental counterparts of which came to be known by the more inclusive designation Reformed. The term presbyterian denotes a collegiate type of church government by pastors and lay leaders called elders, or presbyters. Strictly speaking, all Presbyterian churches are a part of the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition, although not all Reformed churches are presbyterian in their form of government.

The Reformed and Presbyterian churches are treated jointly in Protestantism: Reformed and Presbyterian churches. The presbyterian form of church government and the histories of respective Presbyterian churches (e.g., Presbyterian Church [U.S.A.]; Scotland, Church of) are treated individually in the Micropaedia. See also Calvinism.

To cite this page:
"Presbyterian churches" Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
<http://members.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=62833&sctn=1&pm=1>
[Accessed 25 September 2000].

Copyright © 1994-2000 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

1. The Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
2. There is one God, eternal and self-existing in three persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) who
are to be equally loved, honored, and adored.
3. All mankind participated in Adam's fall from his original sinless state and is thus lost in sin and
totally helpless.
4. The Sovereign God, for no other reason than His own unfathomable love and mercy, has chosen
lost sinners from every nation to be redeemed by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit and
through the atoning death and resurrection of His son, Jesus Christ.
5. Those sinners whom the Spirit quickens, come to believe in Christ as Savior by the Word of God,
are born again, become sons of God, and will persevere to the end.
6. Justification is by faith and through it the undeserving sinner is clothed with the
righteousness of Christ.
7. The goal of God's salvation in the life of the Christian is holiness, good works, and service for
the glory of God.
8. At death the Christian's soul passes immediately into the presence of God and the unbeliever's
soul is eternally separated from God unto condemnation.
9. Baptism is a sign of God's covenant and is properly administered to children of believers in
their infancy as well as to those who come as adults to trust in Christ.
10. Jesus Christ will return to earth, visibly and bodily, at a time when He is not expected, to
consummate history and the eternal plan of God.
11. The Gospel of God's salvation in Jesus Christ must be published to all the world as a witness
before Jesus Christ returns.