The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Glad News for Congregationalists (and friends)

You should be heartened by news of a recent development intended to alleviate the long-standing dearth of seminaries to provide pastors for the "faithful remnant" of Congregationalism. This dearth has prompted difficult choices for men called to the pastorate, forcing them to choose between schools which either retained the ancient polity but had abandoned orthodox doctrine, or were faithful to the doctrinal standards but did not recognize the polity, or most often, some mixture of both.

At the behest of, and in concert with, the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference, Westminster Theological Seminary (PA) is graciously preparing to provide a "Congregational track" for students wanting to remain faithful to orthodox doctrine under the Savoy Declaration. With Savoy so closely derived from the WCF, this makes perfect sense for both bodies.

Please pray that in the coming generation this training will be used to strengthen sound doctrine and life in our conservative Congregational (maybe I should say "semi-Presbyterian"!) churches.

Paul,

Are Baptists considered congregationalist using the umbrella of Savoy? I have never heard of the Savoy Declaration before. In the historic past, would Congregationalist churches be mostly calvinistic?

John,


I'm afraid I know too little of Baptist history or doctrine to give a meaningful answer.



Absolutely yes! Take a look at this very well-laid-out, helpful comparison of Savoy to WCF.

Although historically they have similar polities, Congregationalists practice infant baptism, in distinction to Baptists.


Yes.

John,

Why not download and install: Refcon3. It's been available on The Highway as a free download for years. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Congregationalism as was true for ALL the denominations which emerged from the Protestant Reformation were "Calvinist" in doctrine. All one need do is read their respective Confessions to see this; e.g., in Schaff's Creeds of Christendom, volume III. It wasn't until many years later that Congregationalism fell to semi-Pelagianism/Arminianism/Liberalism. But it's roots, as can be seen from the Savoy Declaration, were decidedly planted in biblical Calvinism. John Owen was one of the main leaders and later Jonathan Edwards which should give you a good idea of what Congregationalism once was.

That the CCCC has taken this step is a major change in policy. When I was a minister in the CCCC, Calvinists were "tolerated" but not well received. Ironically, when I was charged with impropriety by a couple of local CCCC pastors, at the hearing, part of my defense was the setting forth the "Savoy Declaration of the Congregational Churches" to which I was a faithful teacher. And much to the chagrin of my accusers, I was found to be totally innocent of all charges mainly because my theology was historically rooted in the official and founding confession of Congregationalism. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/evilgrin.gif" alt="" />

In His grace,

Pilgrim,


One of my pastors, who studied under Dr. Clowney at WTS, has been instrumental in making this promising connection. According to him, diligence on the part of the Congregational Reformed Fellowship to become not merely a rogue minority within, but an officially constituted arm of the CCCC, was a key factor in facilitating the CCCC and WTS boards' taking this historic step.

Pilgrim,

Thanks for the heads-up on Refcon3. It is on my desktop now, just one click away.

Maybe this should be in another thread, but why has Calvinistic theology become so disputed these days. As you mentioned, for the first 3-4 centuries after the Reformation, it was the dominant theological perspective in Christianity. I can only think of Rome and the ana-baptists not siding with it. I guess it started eroding in the late 1700s or into the 1800s. Nowadays, christians make fun of it, and I don't think they realize its history. I guess they are under the opioning that the Reformation is still reforming, or possibly do not even know of the Reformation.

An interesting book on this is: Whatever Happened to the Reformation?, by Gary Johnson and R. Fowler White.

This book responds to the assault on the Reformation that is occuring today. This collection of essays explores what is wrong with the evangelical church today, and where everything went wrong. It provides a very sharp caveat against certain tendencies among professing evangelicals, demonstrates the true gravity of these deviations, and challenges us to remain faithful to the faith once for all intrusted to the saints.

Table of Contents:

Introduction : The eclipse of the Reformation in the evangelical church : much ado about nothing?

Dismantling the postmodern prison

Neo-Socinianism and the stand of scripture : basics in the battle for Biblical theism

The future unknown to God : open theism's diminutive conception of God's providence

The future foreknown by God : reaffirming classic theism's conception of God's foreknowledge

The future at risk with God : open theism's imbalanced and excessive conception of God's immanence

Eclipsing the canon? : the Spirit, the Word, and "revelations of the third kind"

Contrary to what you may have heard : on the rhetoric and reality of claims of continuing revelation

Taking every thought captive : the ministry of the Word and the limits of Christian scholarship

A flourishing of fresh wisdoms : the call of the hour in the ministry of the Word

Evangelism rooted in Scripture : the Puritan example

Preaching : still the Holy Spirit's major medium

Unafraid to preach