When the PCUSA Was Almost the USA Church

Published on by D. G. Hart

James Hutson in Church and State in America tells this story:

In 1798 John Adams experienced how inflammatory the exercise of a familiar religious act by a national official could be in a country that had been taught to cultivate and cherish republican jealousy. On March 23 of that year, when the nation was in the midst of a “quasi-war” with France, Adams proclaimed a national day of fasting and humiliation, a practice that American magistrates had followed since the earliest days of the seventeenth century. It so happened that the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church was meeting in Philadelphia when Adams issues his proclamation. Though not a Presbyterian, Adams was branded one by his political opponents and was accused of scheming to rivet a Presbyterian establishment on the nation, the evidence being his fast day proclamation. “A general suspicion prevailed,” he wrote, “that the Presbyterian Church was ambitious and aimed at an establishment as a national church. I was represented as a Presbyterian and at the head of this political and ecclesiastical project.” The result of his fast day proclamation, Adams claimed, was his defeat in the presidential election of 1800.

Hutson gives evidence why Americans should never have suspected that Presbyterians would be the national church. The reason is that their theology was entirely incompatible with one of the major reasons the founders gave for religion being important to a free society. According to Rev. Samuel West, of Massachusetts:

perhaps no one if of greater importance to promote the peace and safety of the community than the doctrine of a future state of reward and punishment; for we shall find that persons are often restrained from gross immoralities by the fear of future miseries, when civil penalties prove insufficient for that purpose. A doctrine of such amazing importance to promote the civil good of society ought to be very strongly impress’d upon the minds of men in order to render it beneficial to society. (111)

Since Presbyterians and Lutherans who trusted Christ no longer feared future punishments, they were immune to such incentives to civic virtue. In fact, Calvinism’s may have been a threat to civil society as republicans conceived it.

10 thoughts on “When the PCUSA Was Almost the USA Church”

  1. of course, there is this

    “As Christ would have us to be certainly persuaded that there shall be a day of judgment, both to deter all men from sin; and for the greater consolation of the godly in their adversity: so will He have that day unknown to men, that they may shake off all carnal security, and be always watchful, because they know not at what hour the Lord will come; and may be ever prepared to say, Come Lord Jesus, come quickly, Amen”

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  2. Paul, or this:

    The Lord Jesus, by his perfect obedience, and sacrifice of himself, which he, through the eternal Spirit, once offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice of his Father; and purchased, not only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father hath given unto him.

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  3. I’ve always respected the decision of one of our Presbyterian Presidents, Andrew Jackson, who, when he was presented with a proposal of a national day of fasting and prayer, turned the proposal down, basically on 2K grounds. What a guy!

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  5. Fesko, Justification: Understanding the Classic Reformed Doctrine (2008, P and R). p 315: “Gaffin tries to argue that works are not the ground of judgment. ‘It is not for nothing, I take it, and not to be dismissed as an overly fine exegesis to observe that, in Romans 2:6, Paul writes “according to works” and not “on account of works”… Gaffin’s point is that ‘in accordance with works’ are synechdochial for faith in Christ.

    Fesko responds: “Can such a fine distinction be supported by the grammar alone…What difference exists between the two? ‘Corresponding to’ is common in reference to the precise and impartial standard of judgment that will be applied on the great Day. Gaffin and Venema fail to account for judgment according to works for the wicked….According to Gaffin’s interpretation, are the wicked judged according to their works, but the works are not the ground of their condemnation? Romans 4:4—“now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as WHAT IS DUE.”

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  6. Am i going to appear before the judgement seat of Christ?

    Does knowing that deter me from sin?

    Does a non-believer knowing that he will appear before the judgement seat of Christ deter him?

    The confession says yes to all. What say you?

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  7. Paul, I don’t know how to answer questions you ask to yourself. I’m also not sure why you are now so eager to follow the Confession. Are you so zealous when it comes to the Fourth Commandment or liturgical seasons?

    As for what it says about judgment day, can its knowledge deter from sin when the Confession also defends a good work (free from sin) pretty narrowly:

    1. Good works are only such as God hath commanded in his holy Word, and not such as, without the warrant thereof, are devised by men, out of blind zeal, or upon any pretense of good intention.

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