TO FREE PRESBYTERIANS
: A PLEA FOR EXPLICITLY REFORMED CHRISTIAN POLITICS
The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland (FPCS) has a noble history of adherence to the Westminster Standards, even when others wavered. When the old Free Church passed the Declaratory Act, dropping full subscription to these standards, the FPCS declined to be part of such change. As Mr. Roy Middleton and others have noted, one of the doctrines which many were retreating from is the Establishment Principle. Many had become embarrassed by the Westminster Confession’s strong stand on this topic, such as expressed in these words:
“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: yet he hath authority, and it is his duty, to take order, that unity and peace be preserved in the Church, that the truth of God be kept pure and entire; that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed; all corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline prevented or reformed; and all the ordinances of God duly settled, administered, and observed.“
This stand was simply a continuation of what the reformed Church of Scotland had long held, such as expressed in these words from the Scots Confession of 1560:
“…to kings, princes, rulers, and magistrates, we affirm that chiefly and most principally the conservation and purgation of the religion appertains; so that not only they are appointed for civil policy, but also for maintenance of the true religion, and for suppressing of idolatry and superstition whatsoever: as in David,[6] Jehoshaphat,[7] Hezekiah,[8] Josiah,[9] and others, highly commended for their zeal in that case, may be espied.”
Thankfully, the FPCS has remained committed to the doctrine of the Establishment Principle, as well as the other doctrines in the Westminster Standards. We adhere to the principle that the civil magistrate should uphold both tables of the Ten Commandments, and that the civil magistrate should be a nursing father to the reformed Church. We believe reformed churches can be helped by having a sound reformed civil government, even as promised in God’s word (“…kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers…“ – Isaiah 49:23).
But when it comes to our political party affiliation and support, does it match our doctrinal profession?
Explicitly reformed Christian politics is not a novelty. For over a century Dutch reformed Christians in the most conservative reformed denominations in the Netherlands have supported explicitly reformed Christian political parties like the Reformed Political Party (the SGP). The SGP has not entered into political alliances with heretics and infidels. And it has successfully upheld righteous Dutch laws such as prohibiting blasphemy and closing shops on the Christian Sabbath.
And going back much further in history, the political group or party called the “Lords of the Congregation” were important in bringing about reformed Christian civil government to Scotland during the time of John Knox.
More recently, the Reformation Party ( www.reformationparty.org ) has elected a national council in the USA, chapters are forming in Brazil, Northern Ireland and the Philippines, and outreach efforts are underway in Scotland, Canada, Australia, Singapore and elsewhere. Should not Free Presbyterians be among the first to join such an explicitly reformed Christian political party adhering to the original Westminster Standards, rather than supporting secularist parties including heretics, infidels, pro-abortionists, adulterers, etc. like the Republican Party (USA), the Conservative Party (UK), etc.
Westminster theologian George Gillespie was right to warn of the dangers of entering into political confederacies with heretics and infidels in his tract “Forbidden Alliances: Concerning Associations and Confederacies with Idolators, Infidels, Heretics, or Any Other Known Enemies of Truth and Godliness” as he expresses here: “The reason for the unlawfulness of such confederacies are brought: 1. From the law, Ex. 23:32; 34:12,15; Deut. 7:2. Yea, God makes this a principal stipulation and condition, upon their part, while he is making a covenant with them, Ex. 34:10,12; Judg. 2:1-2. And lest it should be thought that this is meant only of those seven nations enumerated [in] Deut. 7, the same law is interpreted of four other nations, 1 Kings 11:1-2; so that it is to be understood generally against confederacies with idolators and those of a false religion. And the reason of the law is moral and perpetual, viz., the danger of ensnaring the people of God. Therefore they were forbidden to covenant either with their gods or with themselves; for a conjunction of counsels and familiar conversations (which are consequents of a covenant) draws in the end to a fellowship in religion…”
So my plea is that my fellow Free Presbyterians would refrain from political confederacies with heretics and infidels, and instead pursue a course of explicitly reformed Christian politics. Thankfully, several Free Presbyterian members, including a ruling elder, have already joined the Reformation Party.