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In 1977, I was on my first trip to Great Britain and spent a few days in the home of Iain and Jean Murray in Edinburgh, Scotland. One day, I made a comment to Iain that Presbyterians—rather than Independents—had the correct form of church government. He replied, “Yes, but Independents often have more of theContinue reading “True Church Power”

John Lafayette Girardeau (1825-1898) was born on James Island, South Carolina to French Huguenot parents.  Many French Huguenots had fled to South Carolina after the Edict of Nantes (1598) was revoked in 1685. That edict had previously granted religious toleration and rights to Protestants. Girardeau’s grandfather had fought in the American Revolutionary War and he was,Continue reading “John L. Girardeau on Evangelists”

On August 20, 1944, four American B-29’s built by Boeing were forced to make an emergency landing in far eastern Russia. One plane crash landed at Khabarovsk and the other three safely landed near Vladivostok. The crews of the three intact fighter planes thought that they would be allowed to refuel and fly out ofContinue reading “Scripture: the Church’s Only Prototype”

In his excellent commentary, The Confession of Faith, Archibald Alexander Hodge wrote the following concerning Chapter XXXI, Of Synods and Councils: As we have seen in the last chapter, all Church power is vested by Christ in the Church as a whole—not as a mob, but as an organized body. As organized, the Church consists ofContinue reading “Shall We Trust Church Courts Implicitly?”

In recent days, I have had several people contact me about the Asbury Revival which is happening presently at Asbury University in Asbury, Kentucky. Time will tell if this is a true revival or just a work of the human flesh. Either way, there will certainly be some people who come to faith as aContinue reading “The Asbury Revival, True or False?”

In the nineteenth century, there were two leading publications that enlightened orthodox Presbyterians on doctrine and life. Charles Hodge was the general editor of The Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review. James Henley Thornwell was the editor of The Southern Presbyterian Review. Both men were committed to Old School Presbyterianism and were the leading theologians, respectively, in theContinue reading “Evangelists in Old School Presbyterianism”

The courts of the United States only recognize two forms of church government—hierarchy or congregationalism. The first question, therefore, that is considered in all church cases before the civil courts is whether the denomination is hierarchical or congregational. The answer to that question determines how the court rules in the case. I agree that thereContinue reading “If Not Independency or Hierarchy, Then What?”

In his great work, The Apostolic Church” Which Is It?, Thomas Witherow makes the following observations concerning the form of church government known as Independency:  It is difficult to ascertain the particulars of ecclesiastical order approved by Independents, inasmuch as we are not aware that they have embedded their views of what the Scriptures teach onContinue reading “Shall We Be Independents?”

            One of the questions I get asked very frequently is why Vanguard Presbyterian Church was started. Perhaps the best way for me—individually—to answer that question is to give some of my personal Christian history. In my early life, my parents took us to Baptist churches in West Virginia and Kentucky where we lived. At theContinue reading “Why I Left the Methodist Church”

The lives of Jesus and Herod Antipas were entwined in many different ways though they had never met when reports of the miraculous works of Jesus began to filter back to the Tetrarch (Cf. Matthew 14:1, 2; Mark 6:7-16; and, Luke 9:7-9). Herod Antipas became the Tetrarch of Galilee at the death of his father,Continue reading “Herod’s Troubled Conscience”