Gordon Clark: Tulchan Bishops (The Southern Presbyterian Journal)

1957. Tulchan Bishops. The Southern Presbyterian Journal. 3–4. Dec 11

Tulchan Bishops

In modern English the phrase tulchan bishop could be translated stuffed shirt. Originally he was a man who agreed to two policies in order to get his appointment: first, he was to return to the noble patron a good part of the church's income, and, second, he was to dilute the Reformed faith and work for the imposition of espiscopacy and finally of Romanism on Scotland. The device of forcing the congregations to have ministers not of their choice was not only appropriate to the designs of the Stuarts but was indeed necessary. The Presbyterians wanted none of it.

Therefore the Covenanters made a particular point of the right of congregations to call their own ministers.

History has a way of repeating itself, not perhaps exactly, but in general form. Whenever ambitious ecclesiastics wish to gain power, it is natural for them to attempt to infringe upon the rights of the people. Control must be centralized. Liberty must be restricted. In this age and in this country, of course, a Romish king and an Arminian nobility play no part. What is needed is committees that will assume the prerogatives of the congregations and gradually usurp their functions.

In the new United Presbyterian church, that will soon come into being as the result of a merger of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. and the United Presbyterian Church of North America, the rights for which the Covenanters bled and died will be severely restricted.

The Plan of Union, in its Form of Government, chapter 27, establishes a Committee on Ministerial Relations. "The election of this committee shall take precedence over all other presbytery committee elections and appointments." To this committee the presbytery shall assign the supervision of all churches without pastors. "The session shall meet with the Committee and with its aid and advice secure temporary supplies..." Note that the congregation cannot even have a temporary supply without the aid and advice of the committee. This committee "shall meet and consult with every committee appointed by a church to nominate a pastor... The presbytery shall permit a call to be placed in the hands of a minister only when the nominating committee of the church has thus consulted the Committee of presbytery before the name is presented to the congregation."

Although these provisions do not go the lengths of Stuart Erastianism, they are a long step toward a dictatorial ecclesiastical hierarchy. The rights of the people are being denied. Conformity and regimentation are the trend of the age.

History is not repeating itself exactly. In 1572, in 1638, and later, the Covenanters were willing to suffer for Presbyterian doctrine and Presbyterian government. But does anyone care today? The churches are infiltrated with ministers who deny the truthfulness of the Scripture, who deny the Virgin Birth, the Atonement, and the Resurrection. All that matters is loyalty to an external organization; and for a powerful organization episcopal or even papal control is better than Presbyterian principles.

When a prominent Presbyterian ecclesiastic asserts that the majority vote of the Presbytery is the voice of God, it shows that he is Presbyterian in name only, and that the Westminster Confession is a dead letter.

However, we may be fortunate enough to be atomized by the Communists before our spiritual condition grows much worse.

— G.H.C.