Congregational Study Track at WTS Meets with CCCC Board Approval
by David Brand
At its July meeting, the CCCC Board of Directors of the CCCC approved in principal the Proposal for a Congregational Study Track at Westminster Theological Seminary. The board will now get back with Westminster Seminary to communicate its approval and to work out a few adjustments of some of the details For example, the Board prefers to stick with the terminology now in use with respect to Gordon-Conwell Seminary as a "seminary of choice" rather than move to another definition, such as "conference-related seminary."
David Brand presented a workshop at the annual Conference entitled "Westminster Theological Seminary — An Excellent Match for the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference." Copies of the actual proposal originally presented to Westminster Seminary were distributed, as well as the following summary outline of Brand's presentation:
Westminster Theological Seminary — An Excellent Match for the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference
A) Commitment to Biblical Conservatism
1. The CCCC was incorporated in 1949, and, as its name attests, represented a conservative response to the liberal theological direction being pursued by the General Council of Congregational Christian Churches. It is faced with the challenge of maintaining
that biblical conservatism as it receives ministers and congregations disenchanted with, but deeply influenced by, the extreme liberalism of the UCC.
2. WTS was founded in 1929 as a response to liberal developments at Princeton Seminary. It adheres to its scholarly,biblical / theological legacy that remains the evangelical standard of response to modern assaults on the Christian faith. The writings of WTS founding faculty, such as J. Greshem Machen, Robert Dick Wilson, and Oswald T. Allis, have been ignored, but never answered. Cornelius Van Til has greatly impacted the field of Christian apologetics subjecting human reason to biblical authority.
B) Congregational Roots
1) CCCC: Provision for a CCCC representive on the Westminster Seminary campus, and courses taught by him or his designee, will assure that Congregational polity is upheld in the Congregational study track at WTS. The doctrines of the Reformation and the prominence of the covenant in theology characterized historic Congregationalism in Old and New England and are the fabric of the Savoy Declaration, as well as the Westminster Confession.
2.WTS: Princeton, chartered in 1746 as the College of New Jersey, began classes in 1747 under the presidency of Jonathan Dickinson, a Yale graduate with strong affinities to New England Puritanism. The Congregationalists of New England emphasized the experiential religion of the heart in contrast to their strict subscriptionist Scottish Presbyterian brethren. Later presidents included Aaron Burr, son-in-law to Jonathan Edwards, and Jonathan Edwards himself. WTS Chancellor Samuel T. Logan, Jr., is an authority on Puritan New England, on Jonathan Edwards in particular, and highly regards the New England Congregational polity represented in the Cambridge Platform. Dr. Sinclair Ferguson is an authority on the 17th-century English Congregational leader John Owen. Two of his papers are published in the book entitled John Owen: The Man and His Theology. Dr. Peter Lillback was recently appointed WTS President. His superb doctoral thesis has been published under the title The Binding of God: Calvin's Role in the Development of Covenant.
C) Respect for Christian Diversity
1. CCCC: "The Nature of Our Fellowship": "There is freedom in the CCCC today to practice the strictest Reformed theology of our early fathers, as well as essentially Christian theology which differs in certain ways from the Reformed perspective. Should either be denied on a forced unity, contrary to the ecclesiology of the original founders, we would no longer be fully Congregational."
2. WTS: The emphasis is emphatically Reformed, yet there is a remarkable diversity in the WTS student body which, according to the 2004-2005 catalogue, represents 91 ecclesiastical denominations and 39 countries. WTS faculty members over the years have spoken at evangelical gatherings, such as Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. WTS's response to the CCCC proposal attests to the Seminary's openness.
D) Concern for Urban Ministry
1. CCCC: Statement on Racial Reconciliation: "The CCCC recognizes the need to evangelize the entire spectrum of American culture, including the fastest growing segment of our population in our urban centers."
2. WTS: The Seminary is announcing Westminster in the City — a new program beginning Fall 2005. You can earn a certificate in Biblical and Urban Studies or a Masters of Arts (Urban Mission emphasis) degree in the evenings in the City of Philadelphia.
It is significant that Brand himself who was ordained in the UPUSA, and who served in that denomination for 10 years before pastoring an independent, charismatic Baptist church in New Jersey, became persuaded of the biblical superiority of the historic New England Congregational polity inscribed in the Cambridge Platform of 1648 while pursuing a Th.M. program at WTS in the 1980s.
Brand stated that there are already a sufficient number of courses in place at Westminster to make the Seminary a haven for any Congregationalist wanting to prepare for Christian ministry. Brand pointed out that evangelistic fervor mingled with scholarly excellence has been the hallmark of WTS from its very inception. Robert Dick Wilson was called by the Lord to give up a successful open-air evangelistic ministry to become a Christian scholar. He mastered 26 languages in order to refute the erroneous claims of the liberal higher critics who were assaulting the authority of the Old Testament. Machen, world renowned for his Christianity and Liberalism, Virgin Birth of Christ, and the Origin of St. Paul's Religion, similarly took on the liberal assault on the New Testament. Machen attended a couple of Billy Sunday's meetings in Philadelphia and was remarkably impressed with the evangelist's spell-binding communication of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The impact of WTS presidents, Ed Clowney and Sam Logan, has prepared the Seminary for such a day as this, when the original Great Awakening influence which gave rise to the College of New Jersey (later Princeton) is once again being underscored as essential to ministry preparation.
