Brothers We are Not Erastians, But We are Presbyterians
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By the Rev. Benjamin Glaser
[Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the Seventeen82 blog (https://seventeen82.blogspot.com/2021/07/brothers-we-are-not-erastians-but-we.html)]
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Boy howdy that was a year.
This past sixteen months was instructive in many ways. Those of us already distrustful of centralized power became even more so. Those of us who found comfort in existing relationships saw those strengthened. It was a time for clarity. The long term effects of the Covid panic won’t be known for a long time, which is why they are long term. The English language is funny like that. 😉
So as most of our nation has returned to its normal wayward and idolatrous self I wanted to spend some time in my post for Seventeen82 thinking through two errors which poked their nose into the tent, ones that we can go ahead and deal with without needing twenty years-time of reflection.
ERASTIANISM
How did Elizabeth II affect the Church in America? Well, let me tell you. The governing authorities made decisions for the Church in regards to Covid that they did not have the power to do, and that the people of God were not required to obey in accordance with Scripture and our Confession. Not only did we fight a war so that we, as the Church, didn’t have the State over the Church (Erastianism), but as Presbyterians we come from a long line of folks who thumbed their nose at the civil magistrate when they tried to command, or even ask, the people of God to refrain from meeting together or worship in a particular way. Now, if folks felt led given their local circumstances and their best wisdom at the moment to not meet for whatever reason, that is totally up to them. My point here is not to condemn or excoriate any local congregation, or Presbytery, that made its own decision to do what they felt was right. Our General Synod made no declaration towards that effect, and since we are Presbyterian (more on that in a bit) liberty was the rule of the day. So if y’all decided not to hold in-person service for any length of time, or made provisions based on available opportunity then let conscience be your guide.
I’m not going to judge you.
Yet, all this was not the case for some in the wider Christian world. The arguments drawn from Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 which sounded more like Quakerism left some things to be desired. The Civil Authorities have the right to the sword based upon the enforcement of that which is good and evil (grounded in natural law and the revealed will of the Lord Jesus Christ, their Mediatorial King) as is their role in the Kingdom of Power. The call to honor the King means to pray for him, to respect him, and not violate the commandments in the way speak to him. They do not have authority over things that belong to the Kingdom of Grace. Circa Sacra, not In Sacris. Besides the fact that Romans 13 is prescriptive for Paul’s understanding of what a Godly magistrate should look like, and not necessarily descriptive of a wicked man like Nero, this portion of Scripture does not teach wholesale bowing to whomever the body politic decides to put in that place. To be sure, God’s providence guides those selections, but more often than not it is for our judgment, and for our testing. Rare has been the day when God has rewarded us with a leader who met (or meets) the qualifications of Exodus 18.
Either way the situation with Covid was neither a matter of “good and evil” nor did it rise to the level of the “common good” as laid out in WCF 23:3. Additionally nowhere in either of those passages is the State given authority over the meeting of the people of God for worship. There are lots of examples of faithful Christian brothers and sisters, throughout history, and in contemporary times, not bowing to the King/Emperor/Prime Minister, and meeting despite the legal (in accordance with local constitutions) command of the State to bar the gathering together of the Saints. We wouldn’t call them in sin.
Elsewhere in our Confession it says, “The civil magistrate may not assume to himself the administration of the Word and sacraments, or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven”. It is in light of this that any attempt by the Civil Magistrate to bar the doors of the Church must be found in error, and disobedience to the government in this case is not a violation of either Romans 13 or our Confession of Faith. To give the State this power is to basically acquiesce to an Erastian establishment. This should not be. We are not Erastians. We are Presbyterians…which leads us to the next section.
PRESBYTERIANISM
In the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (in all NAPARC denominations) ministers take vows. Chapter 22 of the Confession makes it clear that oaths and vows mean something. In Section IV it says:
An oath is to be taken in the plain and common sense of the words, without equivocation, or mental reservation. It cannot oblige to sin: but in anything not sinful, being taken, it binds to performance, although to a man’s own hurt. Nor is it to be violated, although made to heretics, or infidels.
One of the vows we make can be found in Ch. 9.30, Q. 5. It says, “Do you promise to submit in the spirit of love to the authority of the Presbytery in subordination to the General Synod, and to promote the unity, peace, purity, and prosperity of the Church?”
We see there that ministers are to submit in the spirit of love to the authority of the Presbytery. If the Presbytery has acted in a way that is not in violation of the Form of Government then we are duty bound, in the spirit of love, to obey the Presbytery. We are not Congregationalists, nor are we Independents, but believe those who confess Presbyterian ecclesiology should act like Presbyterians. There is much humility involved here. One of the things I love about being Presbyterian is that I am not on an island. Even when I fundamentally disagree with my brothers on significant issues there is a brotherhood of which I did not create. It is something I inherited from men who laid the groundwork for my existence within the ARP.
It is my call as a minister of Catawba Presbytery to ask, “How High?” when Fathers and Brothers in the Lord say, “Jump”. The Fifth Commandment is one of those current cultural bugaboos that we are keen for others to follow with more strictness than ourselves, along with the Ninth. If the Presbytery has ruled we are duty bound to heed their call, and again, in a spirit of love to promote the peace and purity, even if they are in error. We’ve given vows to these brothers as equals.
Even if I would find myself in such disagreement that sin is unequivocally in the arena and I am at loggerheads with my brethren there are ways to use Presbyterianism to deal with those problems. We have courts of appeal for a reason. To become situationally Congregational is not the right way to handle things. Much is made of our forbearers decision to form the Associate Presbytery. At no point in time were Ebenezer Erskine or Alexander Moncrieff thinking that they were just taking their ball and going home. It’s worth remembering as well that they patiently waited for years before they took that step. They used the courts of the Church that Christ has establish for His people. It is as much a testimony of the grace and goodness of God to sinners as it is a pragmatic deliverance for order.
The internet has a habit of immanentizing the eschaton a bit. It also makes things seem bigger than they are. It also has the tendency to make us think we are a bigger deal than we really are. The Lord Jesus loves us and wants us to love one another in His order. The courts are our friend.
At the beginning of this I noted that we can’t know right now the extent of the full waste that was brought to our nation by our inefficient and poorly run government. And much like the poor we will nearly always have the lowest common denominator in high office with us. So not much can be done on that front. We need to remember our relationship to it, and remember as well the limitations placed by the King of Kings on their earthly authority.
Likewise, as we start to do some thinking on the way the Church has operated over the past year or so we need to reconsider the importance of Presbyterian government. Those who treat church government as a wax nose, or an opportunity to create their own kingdoms especially need to take a moment and see where they sit on this.
Y’all be blessed. Serve Christ. Preach boldly. Kill Sin. Lead your people to Jesus. Don’t fear the world.
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Benjamin Glaser is the pastor of Bethany Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Clover, South Carolina.
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