What Are the Principles of Modern Cumberland Presbyterianism?

by Jay Earheart-Brown

Text: John 3:16-20

I am proud to be a Cumberland Presbyterian. I am not proud of everything we do, and I do know pride can be a dangerous thing. The Scriptures counsel us not to think too highly of ourselves, but they also counsel us not to think less of ourselves than we ought. As dangerous as too much pride can be, I think the greater danger for us as a church is that we don’t take enough pride in who we are, by God’s grace, and in what God is calling us to do and be in the world. I want to use this occasion to reflect on a few of the reasons why I am proud to be a Cumberland Presbyterian.

In a history of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches by Alan Sell, former executive secretary of that organization, Sell used three words to describe the work of the Alliance. Those three words are good descriptors of our heritage as Cumberland Presbyterians: evangelical, reformed, and catholic.

We are evangelical.

But what does that word mean? In these days, it gets used often in a variety of contexts, but the way Sell uses it in this context goes back to its origin: rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church was born out of the great revival on the frontier, out of a passion to preach the good news. The introduction to our Confession of Faith opens with these words:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) This is “the gospel in miniature.” It is true testimony to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of the world. It has been the testimony of Cumberland Presbyterians from the outset of their origin. It is the statement of purpose of this confession of faith and its organizing principle.

In my travels as president of Memphis Theological Seminary, I attend many different presbytery meetings. It used to bother me that many of our presbyteries aren’t very good at parliamentary procedure. We, as Cumberland Presbyterians, get bogged down sometimes in trying to figure out how to do what we want to do, and sometimes what we do can only be described as “tolerably legal.” As frustrating as it can be, I have come to appreciate the fact that our strength lies in our ability to tell the good news of Jesus Christ. I’m learning to tolerate other flaws, as long as we remember to keep that evangelical purpose primary.

The word evangelical is one that makes some people uncomfortable. It has, in some circles, taken on a political meaning that makes me uncomfortable at times. But in its original meaning—centered on the good news of the gospel—it is a designation Cumberland Presbyterians bear proudly. Our reason for being is centered in the desire to preach the gospel to men and women everywhere, especially in places that are not being served by other churches.

We are evangelical, and we are reformed.

The first word is more familiar in our churches than the second, but it is no less important. What does it mean to be reformed? It means that we are a part of the historical tradition that grew out of sixteenth century Swiss and German and French and Scottish reform efforts. It means we are a part of the Presbyterian and Reformed family of churches.

The founders of our denomination never intended to be anything but good Presbyterians. There were other Presbyterians at the time who supported the revival movement and who renounced their Presbyterian and Reformed understanding of the church—Shakers, Stonites, and others. Our founders were Presbyterian, and that is why they gathered at the home of the Reverend Samuel McAdow. Before they did anything else, they formed a presbytery.

In two theological convictions in addition to our polity, we give evidence of our Presbyterian and Reformed heritage. Leaders of our tradition wanted to reform the church “according to the Word of God.” Scripture is the highest authority in the church—not bishops, or councils, or confessions—but the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Our Confession refers to the Scriptures as the “only infallible rule of faith and practice, the authoritative guide for Christian life.”

We are not, and have never been, fundamentalist. We use critical reading and critical study to determine what God would say to us through the Scriptures. In fact, the problem with fundamentalist and literalist interpretations of the Scriptures is that they don’t take the Scriptures seriously as a dynamic Word from God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and interpreted rightly with the guidance of the Spirit. Our theology attempts, as the Confession puts it, “to tell the story the Bible tells, the way the Bible tells it.”

Secondly, we believe in the sovereignty of God. In other words, God is God and we are not. Once we learn that truth, we are given a remarkable freedom and a great responsibility. Some within the Reformed tradition have interpreted the sovereignty of God in a way that led to extreme forms of predestination, against which we rebelled. God does not actively condemn persons. As John puts it, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:17) When John goes on to talk about condemnation, he says clearly that the condemnation some experience is not retribution, but the result of their unbelief.

We are evangelical, reformed, and we are catholic.

When John Calvin broke with the Roman Catholic Church, he noted the irony that he and his followers were more catholic than the Roman Church. The Reformed, for all their criticism of the Roman Church, never denied that it had the truth of the gospel, even though they thought that truth was obscured. The Roman Church, on the other hand, refused to recognize the Reformers as Christians.

We have never claimed to be the only church. We know that God’s love extends to all the world. The early camp meetings were almost always ecumenical. It didn’t matter much if you were Methodist or Baptist or Presbyterian. All came together to preach the gospel.

One of the reasons Memphis Theological Seminary is so ecumenical today is that we care more about the gospel of Jesus Christ than promoting a sectarian understanding of that gospel. I’m grateful that my education and formation in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church has formed within me a deeply catholic understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

My prayer for our church is that we will be the church God has called us to be: evangelical, reformed, catholic, but most of all a church God can use to proclaim God’s love for all the world, demonstrated fully in the gift of Jesus Christ.

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