Early History of the Christian Church

The earliest Christian church consisted of Jews in the first century who had known Jesus and heard his teachings. It gradually grew and spread from the Middle East to other parts of the world, though not without controversy and hardship among its supporters

During the 4th century, after more than 300 years of persecution under various Roman emperors, the church became established as a political as well as a spiritual power under the Emperor Constantine. Theological and political disagreements, however, served to widen the rift between members of the eastern (Greek-speaking) and western (Latin-speaking) branches of the church. Eventually the western portions of Europe, came under the religious and political authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Eastern Europe and parts of Asia came under the authority of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Reformation

In western Europe, the authority of the Roman Catholic Church remained largely unquestioned until the Renaissance in the 15th century. The invention of the printing press in Germany around 1440 made it possible for common people to have access to printed materials including the Bible. This, in turn, enabled many to discover the writings of religious thinkers who had begun to question the established religious authority of the time. One such figure, Martin Luther, a German priest and professor, started the movement known as the Protestant Reformation when he posted a list of 95 grievances against the Roman Catholic Church on a church door in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517. Some 20 years later, a French/Swiss theologian, John Calvin, further refined the reformers' new way of thinking about the nature of God and God's relationship with humanity in what came to be known as Reformed Theology, sometimes called Calvinist theology. John Knox, a Scotsman who studied with Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland, took Calvin's teachings back to Scotland. Other Reformed communities developed in England, Holland and France. The Presbyterian church traces its ancestry back primarily to Scotland and England.

Reformed, Always Reforming

Presbyterians recognize their Calvinist heritage, but do not adhere to every aspect of Calvin's theology. There is plenty of room for disagreement among Presbyterian theologians and laypeople on subjects like grace, salvation, and perfection. Our constitution, the Book of Order, says “God alone is Lord of the conscience.”

Some of the principles articulated by John Calvin remain at the core of Presbyterian beliefs. Among these are:

--the sovereignty of God (God is the supreme authority throughout the universe.)

--the authority of the scripture (Our knowledge of God and God's purpose for humanity comes from the Bible, particularly what is revealed in the New Testament through the life of Jesus Christ.)

--justification by grace through faith (Our salvation/justification through Jesus is God's generous gift to us and not the result of our own accomplishments.)

--the priesthood of all believers. ( It is everyone's job - ministers and lay people alike - to share this Good News with the whole world. That is also why the Presbyterian church is governed at all levels by a combination of clergy and laity, men and women alike.)

“Always reforming” means that reformed Christians seek new ways to understand and interpret scripture for our own time. We proclaim the word of God in contemporary language. Our Book of Confessions has 11 statements of faith in it. The Book of Confessions says, “The church writes confessions of faith when it faces a situation of life or a situation of death so urgent that it cannot remain silent but must speak, even at the cost of its own security, popularity, and success.” The Theological Declaration of Barmen opposed the Nazis. The Book of Confessions contains The Nicene Creed [325]; the Apostles' Creed [8th century]; the Scots Confession [1560]; the Heidelberg Catechism [1563]; the Second Helvetic Confession [1566]; the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Shorter Catechism, the Larger Catechism, [1647]; the Theological Declaration of Barmen [1934], the Confession of 1967, and A Brief Statement of Faith [1991]. The Study Catechism of 1998 has not yet been adopted, but is in use among Presbyterian Churches. Copies of these confessions are available at First Presbyterian Church.

The Presbyterian Church in the United States

Our name comes from a New Testament word, "Presbuteros," meaning "elder" and refers to the custom of choosing spiritual leaders from among members of the church. The Presbyterian Church is a representative democracy governed by elders of the congregation. Presbyterians have featured prominently in United States history. The Rev. Francis Makemie, who arrived in the U.S. from Ireland in 1683, helped to organize the first American Presbytery at Philadelphia in 1706. One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, the Rev. John Witherspoon, was a Presbyterian minister. The Rev. William Tennent founded a ministerial "log college" in New Jersey that evolved into Princeton University. Some early historians called the American Revolution “the Presbyterian Rebellion.”

The Presbyterian Church in the United States has split and reunited many times over theological and social issues including politics, clergy educational standards, women's ordination, and prohibition. In the nineteenth century, the largest Presbyterian Church bodies split over the issue of slavery. These bodies reunited in 1983 to become the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A). Other Presbyterian denominations are the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church in America.

For more information on Presbyterian Church history or theology, visit the pcusa website.