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Call Operators Are Standing By!!!

Call Operators Are Standing By!!!. Call And --- Ask For A Copy Of This Presentation. BY EMAIL, BY FLOPPY DISK or IN PRINT. Ask To Be Added To The Beacon’s Mailing. Ask For A Free Bible Correspondence Course. Check Out Our Website – www.wordandsword.com Call With A ---

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Call Operators Are Standing By!!!

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  1. Call Operators Are Standing By!!! • Call And --- • Ask For A Copy Of This Presentation. • BY EMAIL, BY FLOPPY DISK or IN PRINT. • Ask To Be Added To The Beacon’s Mailing. • Ask For A Free Bible Correspondence Course. • Check Out Our Website – www.wordandsword.com • Call With A --- • Biblical Question Or Comment. • Receive a Biblical Answer – “Book, Chapter and Verse”. Call (828)485-5555

  2. Where Did They All Come From? Doctrines and Denominations! LUKE 20:4-7 “The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed ye him not? But and if we say, Of men; all the people will stone us: for they be persuaded that John was a prophet. And they answered, that they could not tell whence it was.” The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

  3. The Reformation – THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – It’s History • An Introduction: • The Protestant Reformation which was sparked by Martin Luther in Germany, soon spread to other European countries, where similar protests against Catholicism arose. • The efforts of John Calvin and Huldreich Zwingli in Switzerland to the formation of the Reformed branch of Protestantism. • "In the narrow sense of the term, ‘‘Presbyterian’’ refers only to the Reformed Churches of English or Scottish origin, and the term ‘‘Reformed’’ is used for those of Continental (European - jc) origin." (Merit Students Encyclopedia, XV:263). • Today, there are approximately 50 million Presbyterians in the world, with about 5 million in America.

  4. The Reformation – THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – It’s History • HISTORY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH - BEGINNINGS OF PRESBYTERIAN THOUGHT. • The history of the Presbyterian Church traces the growth and development of a group of churches that were founded on the ideals of the Protestant Reformation, and based upon the concept of democratic rule under the authority of God. • John Calvin. (1509-1564) • A Frenchman, Calvin was a Roman Catholic trained in law, who became the theological giant of the Reformation. His theological writings gave form and substance to much of Protestantism.

  5. The Reformation – THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – It’s History • John Calvin. (1509-1564) • Calvin was converted to the principles of the Reformation about 1533, while still in France. • But, when King Francis I began persecuting the Reformists, he fled to Switzerland, which had become a haven for Reform scholars. • While there, he wrote the first edition of Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536), which became a guidebook for Protestants and established Calvin as a religious leader.

  6. The Reformation – THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – It’s History • John Calvin. (1509-1564) • Also, he developed views on church structure and a representative form of government which were later incorporated into the organization of the Reformed and Presbyterian Churches, as well as civil governments. • From 1538-41, Calvin was exiled in Germany when he refused to accept the power of civil authorities over church liturgy. • But, in 1541 he was invited back to Geneva, where he became the city magistrate and proceeded to establish an ecclesiastical government. • Instead of the state ruling the church, Calvin believed in a theocratic government (the church ruling the state).

  7. The Reformation – THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – It’s History • John Calvin. (1509-1564) • Calvin’s theology revolved around 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." • (Handbook of Denominations, 8th ed., p. 206)

  8. The Reformation – THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – It’s History • John Calvin. (1509-1564) • Calvin’s system of theology, which had its roots in Augustinian thinking (St. Augustine, c., 400 A.D.), has been summarized into five main points, using the acronym, T-U-L-I-P: • Total Hereditary Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace and Perseverance of the Saints. • Because Calvin was magistrate of Geneva, the center of Reformation scholarship, his impact upon the Protestant Reformation was profound. • "Strictly speaking, John Calvin did not found Presbyterianism; he laid the foundations upon which it was constructed in Switzerland, Holland, France, England, Scotland, and Ireland." (Ibid.)

  9. The Reformation – THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – It’s History • John Knox. (1505? - 1572) • One of the men influenced by Calvin was John Knox, a Scottish Catholic who was converted to Protestantism by about 1545. • Because of persecution from England’s Queen Mary Tudor ("Bloody Mary"), he fled to Geneva, where he "adopted the Calvinist doctrine that salvation is by faith alone and is restricted to those who are predestined by God to be saved. • He developed Calvin’s ideas on church government into Presbyterianism, in which religious authority is shared by a national assembly, regional synods, sub-regional prebyteries, and local congregations." (Merit Students Encyclopedia, X:432). • Knox, as much as anyone, must be credited with the actual formation of the Presbyterian Church.

  10. The Reformation – THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – It’s History • THE GROWTH OF PRESBYTERIANISM. • As we have said, Calvin’s teachings laid a base for the Reformed Churches in Switzerland, Holland and Germany; the Huguenots in France; and the Presbyterian Church in England and Scotland. • Most Presbyterians in America trace their origin back to the British and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians which fled religious persecutions in the 17th and 18th centuries.

  11. The Reformation – THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – It’s History • IMPORTANT DATES IN PRESBYTERIAN HISTORY. • 1533 - John Calvin converted from Catholicism to the Protestant Reformation. • 1536 - First edition of Calvin’’s Institutes of the Christian Religion was written. • 1541 - Calvin became magistrate of Geneva, Switzerland, and implemented a Presbyterian form of civil government. • 1555 - First Reformed congregation in France (Huguenots). • 1559 - John Knox returned to Scotland from Geneva, where he established the Presbyterian faith. Presbyterianism became the official religion of Scotland within about 10 years. • 1611 - Presbyterian congregation in Virginia.

  12. The Reformation – THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – It’s History • IMPORTANT DATES IN PRESBYTERIAN HISTORY. • 1643-49 - The "Westminster Assembly," consisting of 151 Presbyterians, met and wrote, among other documents, the Westminster Confession of Faith. • 1706 - The first presbytery in America was formed in Philadelphia. • 1861 - Presbyterian Church split into north and south. North: The Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (PCUSA). South: Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS).

  13. The Reformation – THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – It’s History • IMPORTANT DATES IN PRESBYTERIAN HISTORY. • 1903 - A "Declaratory Statement" was added to the Westminster Confession, and the PCUSA invited all Presbyterians to reunite. • 1958 - Merger between the United Presbyterian Church of America with the northern church (PCUSA). This produced the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (UPCUSA). • 1983 - Merger between UPCUSA and the southern church (PCUS). This produced the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). With this merger, the major branches of American Presbyterianism were united.

  14. The Reformation – THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – It’s History • THE CONFESSIONS OF PRESBYTERIANISM - THE PURPOSE OF PRESBYTERIAN CONFESSIONS. - Subordinate, Changeable Standards, Which Are Used To Promote Unity. • PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: • "Confessions and declarations are subordinate standards in the church, subject to the authority of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, as the Scriptures bear witness to him. No one type of confession is exclusively valid, no one statement is irreformable." ("The Confession of 1967," Preface; The Book of Confessions, 9.03) • "The purpose of the Confession of 1967 is to call the church to that unity in confession and mission which is required of disciples today." (Ibid., 9. 05)

  15. The Reformation – THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – It’s History • THE CONFESSIONS OF PRESBYTERIANISM - Confessions Are Seen As Tools For Understanding The Gospel. • PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: • "The United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America acknowledges itself aided in understanding the gospel by the testimony of the church from earlier ages and from many lands. More especially it is guided by the Nicene and Apostles’’ Creeds from the time of the early church; the Scots Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Second Helvetic Confession from the era of the Reformation; the Westminster Confession and Shorter Catechism from the seventeenth century; and the Theological Declaration of Barmen from the twentieth century." (Ibid., 9.04)

  16. The Reformation – THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – It’s History • THE CONFESSIONS OF PRESBYTERIANISM - Confessions Are Seen As Tools For Understanding The Gospel. • However, consider this statement from the Westminster Confession: • "The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture, is the Scripture itself; and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture (which is not manifold, but one) it may be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly." ("The Westminster Confession of Faith," Chap. I, 9; The Book of Confessions, 6.009)

  17. The Reformation – THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – It’s History • THE CONFESSIONS OF PRESBYTERIANISM – The Confessions Accepted By The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): • The Nicene Creed. (325 A.D.) • The Apostles’ Creed. • The Scots Confession (1560). • The Heidelberg Catechism (1562). • The Second Helvetic Confession (1566). • The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647-48). • The Shorter and Larger Catechisms (1647-48).

  18. The Reformation – THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – It’s History • THE CONFESSIONS OF PRESBYTERIANISM – The Confessions Accepted By The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): • The Theological Declaration of Barmen (1934). • The Confession of 1967 (1967). • In addition to these, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has a Book of Order, which contains guidelines for its church government and rules of discipline. • "Likewise we reject human traditions, even if they be adorned with high sounding titles, as though they were divine and apostolic, delivered to the Church by the living voice of the apostles, and, as it were, through the hands of apostolic men to succeeding bishops which, when compared with the Scriptures, disagree with them; and by their disagreement show that they are not apostolic at all." ("The Second Helvetic Confession," Chap. II, Paragraph 4; The Book of Confessions, 5.014).

  19. In Conclusion: • THE BIBLE: • 2 Timothy 2:15 - We can understand truth and properly apply it by studying it. • Human confessions are not authorized to meet this need. – 2 Timothy 3:16-17 • This makes it clear that one must accept more than the Bible in order to be a member of the Presbyterian Church! • THE BIBLE: • 1 Corinthians 4:6; Revelation 22:18-19 - We are not to go beyond what God has revealed to us in His word. (cf. 2 John 9)

  20. Call To Speak ToUS Live Now!!! • Call And --- • Ask For A Copy Of This Presentation. • BY EMAIL, BY FLOPPY DISK or IN PRINT. • Ask To Be Added To The Beacon’s Mailing. • Ask For A Free Bible Correspondence Course. • Check Out Our Website – www.wordandsword.com • Call With A --- • Biblical Question Or Comment. • Receive a Biblical Answer – “Book, Chapter and Verse”. Call (828)485-5555

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