Finding the Identity of the ARP by Rev. Benjamin Glaser

 

For the past couple of months I’ve written a few short articles for our congregation concerning what it means to be an Associate Reformed Presbyterian. There is no question we as a denomination have struggled for an identity over the last hundred twenty years as the world and the ARP changed, ebbed and flowed, got weaker and stronger, and had a bit of a wilderness experience. Having largely come out of the struggle in good shape (considering where we could be now) it is a good time for us ARPs to think about who we are and what we want to be. Nothing I say in the following will be shocking to those who know me. But in an age where other denominations are selling themselves out to the zeitgeist of the culture we are uniquely positioned to not just go back to our roots, but to prune back the vine a little so that those roots can strengthen the overall tree with a fresh dose of grace as we learn from those who have faced similar battles and found their footing in the good news of Jesus Christ, unencumbered with fears of this present evil world and its petty grievances.

I am not going to rehash everything I’ve written in those aforementioned posts. That would be kind of lazy. I always get kind of annoyed when I buy a new book by an author I appreciate and I realize it’s just a collection of stuff he posted on the internet and that I’ve already read. However, it would be kind of silly for me to come up with stuff that is new for newness sake. So what we’ll do here is take the same substance but give it some different meat.

A question all of us ARPs get is what is  A...R...P..., I mean other than an old person’s support organization. I am sure if we polled our collective church websites they would all say the same basic thing (unless of course we are somehow embarrassed by our denominational affiliation and hide the name on a back corner somewhere). The “A” is in reference to Gairney Bridge and the Seceders, the “R” conjures up the spirit of the Covenanters, and the “P” mentions our form of church government. All obviously true statements. The question is other than being historical curiosities do any of those letters mean anything today? I want to say today that not only should they, but if we want to be consistent with the name on the door we ought to give more oomph to the initials than just a conversation piece with visitors and new members. There should be some weight to what we call ourselves. We have a great, biblically founded history and we might as well use it. It does the ARP no good to just be another bland, “evangelical” denomination which merely exists to be a place where PCA’ers can find a call. We need to have some dignity here.

We are ARPs, and we should be ARPs on purpose.

Our seminary, our college, our churches are to be representative of what the ARP is. So what is that? Does anyone know? Well, let’s go to that “A” for a second to start cleaning out the brush of years of neglect so that others can see the foundation upon which we are built. Everyone knows the name Ebenezer Erskine, some know of Ralph, just because he’s Eb’s brother. But how many in our churches know of Adam Gib or Alexander Moncrieff, the so-called Lion of the Secession? Are they more familiar with John Hagee than John Brown of Haddington? These questions may seem esoteric and odd, but it’s not really about the names as much as it is about the theology of life that these older men taught.

Something that is a trouble in Reformed theology today is that it seems to never affect our way of thinking past the initial act of justification. We are all about the doctrines of grace and the Five Points, as we should be. Yet there is more to being a devotee of the Westminster Confession and her Catechisms than that, and the Seceder men have much to teach us about being Reformed in all of life, especially in our interactions with the civil authorities. As we progress further and further into a world where there are no “good guys” in politics the Church will be forced to make a choice and the writings of men like Moncrieff and Erskine will be of great help in establishing our identity as ARPs that will allow us to be a light of sense in a country of senselessness. It is going to be hard to get our minds out of the post-war political consensus, but do it we must. Unlike our brethren in other communions we have a blessed library of goodness to draw from in our Seceder roots, a way forward grounded in the word of God and the way He has called His providential kingdom to be ordered for the glory of His Church and His civil government. As I was telling someone the other day 1 Timothy 2:2 is in our Bibles for a reason. Here is a quote from Ebenezer Erskine that can help us to see what we’re talking about here:

All sound Presbyterians, who read the history of our forefathers, generally approve of the practice of Mr. Samuel Rutherford, Mr. James Guthrie, and other ministers of this Church, who protested against the resolutions, as a thing inconsistent with our covenants, and prejudicial to the work of reformation, although thereby the door was only opened to malignants to come into places of civil or military trust; and we who live at this time of day, may see the pernicious effects these resolutions had in the Church of Scotland.

Erskine is concerned mostly with the resolutions that had come into the civil realm which allowed false teachers of God’s word to multiply not only in ecclesiastical forums, but in the State as well. If he thought he lived in evil times imagine what Erskine et al would do with 2023. Yet in what we can learn from the political theology of the Seceders there is a message unique that could actually bring positive help to those swimming in the ignorance pool of party politics.

Again, while it may seem wildly out of sorts with the sort of thing we are used to today, and it is, but the reason why I bring this up is that as we seek an identity in the ARP we need not reinvent the wheel. We have something in our own DNA that is screaming to get out. It is ours to embrace and meditate upon. No one else has what we have so there is no point in trying to emulate failed systems when we have before us such a rich tradition of systematic faith bound together in an understanding of how God would have the world to be.

To close this out we’re going to end with some gospel notes to remind us of how the Seceders sought to implement the natural permutations of the covenant of grace.

We’ve all heard how part of the soup out of which the Associates emerged was bound up in a controversy over the Marrow of Modern Divinity. How James Hog had republished the book, Thomas Boston had read it, and the rest is history. What we may not fully grasp is how it shaped the preaching of the A’s.

Adam Gib wrote an excellent book on covenant theology that I doubt has seen the light of day since its publishing. However, thanks to modern technology it is with us again. In that work he has an entire section on how our doctrine of the covenants affects our preaching. As with Erskine above here is a little quote:

And all this wonderful doctrine [of the gospel] is preached, not for mere amusement to the understandings of those who hear it. It is preached, as the word of salvation unto them ; as the gospel of their salvation, as the salvation of God sent unto the Gentiles. And, in this public dispensation of the gospel, there is made to all the hearers of it, immediately and equally, — a most gracious offer of Christ, and all his salvation; with a most gracious call unto them, for their receiving and reding upon him accordingly.

When ARPs preach we preach the free offer of the good news of Jesus to all men, and we mean it when we do it. As much as others have tried to ape our foundational doctrine we need to embrace it ourselves. I think sometimes our gospel preaching is so weak because we are merely blind hoping instead of offering Christ to sinners.

So what is the point? How do we get to the identity markers laid out in this already too long piece? Partly we get there by training our ministers in the works of Seceder men. When William Dickson came to plant Bethany ARP in 1797 he did so after sitting at the feet of the real life John Brown of Haddington. The latter’s Systematics is available in a modern print setting, should we not have our students of theology as conversant with him as Wayne Grudem or Louis Berkhof? It is also means making the works of Moncrieff and others accessible to read in print and on kindle. I’d be glad to do that work, and I think it would be something our seminary could get behind. For if we are going to have an ARP seminary it might as well be training ARP ministers in ARP distinctives from the pens of ARP men. It shouldn’t be controversial to say such.

Like most ministers I’m going to say In Closing a second time.

In closing, we have a great history in the ARP that we need not be embarrassed by or ignorant of in any way. Let’s make use of what we have, get away form our 150 year dalliance with others and stand strong on our own two feet in God’s grace.

Blessings in Christ,

Rev. Benjamin Glaser

Pastor, Bethany ARP Church