HISTORY OF PRESBYTERIANISM

The Great Protestant Reformation is dated from October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther (1483-1546) nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg, Germany. Those 95 Theses were against the corruptions in both doctrine and practice that had crept into the church over the previous centuries. About the same time that Luther began to lead the Reformation in Germany the Lord raised up Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland to preach the same biblical essentials, although he and Luther did not agree in every detail. The Reformation started from the question: “What must a sinner do to become right with a holy God?”, and gave the answer from Holy Scripture: “A sinner becomes acceptable to a holy God by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone according to the scriptures alone.” There are three fundamental principles of the Reformation: the supremacy of the scriptures over tradition, the supremacy of faith over works, and the supremacy of the Christian people over an exclusive priesthood.

In the generation after Luther and Zwingli the Reformation flowered in Switzerland under the leadership of a Frenchman, John Calvin (1509-1561). John Knox (1505-1572), a Scot, studied under Calvin in Geneva, returned to Scotland and led Scotland to embrace the Reformation in 1560. The Church of Scotland is in a major way the Mother Church of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, but there are other important roots.

Presbyterianism was established here in colonial days largely by Scottish, Scotch-Irish, English Puritan, Welsh and French Huguenot settlers. There were also some of German and Dutch origin. The earliest Presbyterian congregation in America seems to have been one established before 1625, of which the First Presbyterian Church of Norfolk, Virginia, is the modern descendent. Another was organized as early as 1644 at Hemstead, Long Island, by English Puritans who had moved to Long Island from Connecticut. But the father of American Presbyterianism was Francis Makemie (1658-1708), a Scotch-Irishman who arrived in the colonies in 1683, founded a church at Snow Hill, Maryland, and in 1706 with six other ministers organized the first presbytery in America-that of Philadelphia. Four of the organizers were New England Puritans--one came from Scotland, and two, including Makemie, from Ireland. In 1716 the first synod, made up of four presbyteries in the American colonies, was established and in 1729 it adopted the Westminster Confession and Catechisms as the standard of doctrine. The first General Assembly met in 1789.

Hosts of people from varied backgrounds were added through the great revivals. As the church has reached out in evangelism people have come from all of this country’s ethnic and racial origins. There are now about 100,000 members of The Evangelical Presbyterian Church -- our denomination.  There are also several other Presbyterian denominations in this country.  As Presbyterian churches have reached out in world mission, the Church of Jesus Christ holding the Reformed Faith and adhering to the presbyterian order has been planted throughout the world.