Beliefs
The term ‘Presbyterian’ refers to the form of Church government adopted not just by the Free Church of Scotland but by far the largest grouping of churches in Scotland today. We deny the Church is a hierarchy, with junior and senior ministers and office-bearers. In this way we distinguish ourselves from both the Roman Catholic Church and the Scottish Episcopalian Church, which belongs to the Anglican Communion. What distinguishes Presbyterian office-bearers is not rank but function. The minister serves by explaining and applying to the people the Word of God, the Bible and by administering the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Pastoral responsibility and the function of governance falls equally on the minister and the elders, who are elected by the congregation. Deacons serve the congregation as stewards of its material assets. Local congregations are not independent. Churches in relatively close geographical proximity come together as Presbyteries. Presbyteries group as regional Synods. And all Presbyteries send ministers and elders to the annual General Assembly to debate and determine matters of ministry, mission, policy and, where necessary, discipline. An honorary moderator, appointed annually, serves the General Assembly as its chairman. The moderator may also serve as the public representative of the Church during his year of office.
In recent decades, particularly in Scotland, Calvinism has suffered a bad press, Calvinists are seen as repressive, inhibited, and conformist, obsessed with theological and moral nit-picking and hair-splitting. It is true that there exist a number of self-confessed Calvinists who exhibit such lamentable traits, but the blame is not to be found in Calvinism itself. Calvinism is a system of Christian theology and an approach to Christian life and thought, articulated by John Calvin, a Protestant Reformer in the 16th century, and subsequently by successors, associates, followers and admirers of Calvin and his interpretation of Scripture. B B Warfield defined Calvinism, not as a narrow bigoted creed, but as an holistic Biblical world and life view, ‘The religious relation attains its purity only when an attitude of absolute dependence on God is not merely temporarily assumed in the act, say, of prayer, but is sustained through all the activities of life, intellectual, emotional, executive.’ He also described the Calvinist in similarly attractive terms, ‘The Calvinist believes in God without reserve, and is determined that God shall be God to him in all his thinking, feeling, willing – in the entire compass of his life-activities, intellectual, moral, spiritual, throughout all his individual, social, [and] religious relations.’ The greatest summary of Calvinistic doctrine is to be found in the Westminster Confession of Faith (see below).
The term is derived from the Greek word ‘euangelion,’ usually translated as ‘Gospel,’ or ‘Good News.’ Historically, an evangelical was one who followed the teaching and influence of the German Reformer, Martin Luther, rejecting medieval Christianity and embracing his radical recovery of the Christian doctrine of salvation. To Luther, the Gospel was entirely the product of God’s grace, it was received by faith alone and could not earned by religious observances or good works. Today, confusion, like wasps around a honey pot, clusters around this term. In Latin America ‘evangélico’ is more or less synonymous with non-Catholic Christianity. Contemporary media have further distorted the meaning of the word by making it synonymous with Pentecostal and Charismatic expressions of Christianity. To further add confusion there are those who style themselves neo-evangelicals, post-evangelicals, catholic-evangelicals and liberal-evangelicals. Free Church evangelicalism affirms Luther’s radical understanding of the Gospel as by grace alone, through faith alone. It concurs, with Charismatic Christians, that the Church is dependent on the presence and grace of the Holy Spirit, but distinguishes itself by denying that miracle workers and gifts of revelation continue in the Church today. The Free Church affirms such core evangelical principles as: the entire perfection of Holy Scripture, as necessary, authoritative, sufficient and clear; the centrality of the person and work of Jesus Christ, as the only Saviour of humanity; and the God given mission of the Church in sharing the Good News with all people everywhere.
The name ‘Free’ Church of Scotland begs the question, from what is it freed? The answer is, from State control or interference. The Scottish Church has historically held to the view that there is no head or governor of the Church other than Jesus Christ himself, ruling by Scripture through constituted office-bearers. This conviction has been expressed by the idea that there is in this land two kingdoms and two monarchs, there is the kingdom of Christ, over which he rules as sole King and Head, and there is another kingdom over which rules Her Majesty the Queen, in Parliament. When, during the first quarter of the nineteenth century State interference in the Church of Scotland resulted in ministers being imposed on congregations against their will, many ministers, elders and members found this intolerable and, in 1843, abandoned the Church of Scotland to found a Church that would be free of such impositions. The name it eventually adopted was the Free Church of Scotland. The Free Church protest was not, however, an affirmation of the total separation of Church and State, as is practised in the United States of America. The Free Church of Scotland affirms the principle of Christian Establishment, that is to say, it believes the State is constitutionally obliged to support the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government of the Church of Scotland. This is symbolically affirmed each year when our General Assembly receives the representative of Her Majesty the Queen, the Lord High Commissioner, who greets and addresses the Assembly on behalf of the Queen.
So, we are Presbyterian, Calvinistic, evangelical and free, but in what order of importance might these principles be ranked? One of the many influential leaders of the 1843 Free Church was Dr John Duncan who once compiled a similar list. He affirmed: ‘I'm first a Christian, next a Catholic [belonging to the universal Christian Church], then a Calvinist, fourth a Paedobaptist, and fifth a Presbyterian. I cannot reverse this order.’ Duncan’s concern was to assert most what we have in common with other Christians, and not succumb to the temptation of isolating ourselves by giving undue priority to our more narrowly distinctive doctrines. We in Greyfriars happily share his outlook.
The Free Church of Scotland is committed to the doctine of the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. These publications were produced by the Westminster Assembly appointed by the Long Parliament in 1643. Designed to foster doctrinal unity between the Churches in England, Scotland and Ireland, the Confession and Catechisms, and the other documents of the Westminster Assembly, including the Directory of Public Worship, were eventually adopted with revisions in England, but later revoked at the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660. All of the documents were embraced by the Church of Scotland. Further, they formed the cornerstone of the worldwide family of Presbyterian Churches as they established themselves throughout Europe and America. Click here for details of the Westminister Assembly Project which exists to make the writings of the Westminster Assembly and its members available to scholars and to the general public.
