the Stated Clerk of the General As sembly, in a private letter, said that a letter could not be granted to mem bership in the IFCA. Now the IFCA is a group of men who are not schismatic. They are certainly not in heresy, and the Independent Chris tian Churches which they serve forge a chain across America of the purest loyalty to the faith. Finding it impossible to continue a relationship where a liberal ma chine has taken over the Church that I loved, I then asked that they drop my name from the roll of the de nomination. I received the following letter;,from the Stated Clerk: “ Dear 1 Dr. McGee: In keeping with your request, and under the provision of the Book of Discipline, Chapter VII, Section 2 (b) ‘When a minister, not otherwise chargeable with an offense, renounces the jurisdiction of this Church, it shall be the duty of the presbytery of which he is a member to divest him of his office and to erase his name from the roll,’ the Presbytery of Los Angeles, at its meeting of Jan uary 11, 1955, divested you of your office in the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., and erased your name from its roll of members. (signed) O. Scott McFarland, Stated Clerk.” No doubt the question arises in any fair mind at this point—just how cold blooded can the Christian world become? In the secular world, should they go even so far as to fire a man, they at least have the kindness of in stinct to add, “Well, we hope that you will get along all right.” No such wish was included in the above letter from this body. May I state that I know today how Chiang Kai-shek feels. He is called a traitor by those in Peiping, but for my money he represents China, and he represents the Chinese people. Friends, I have come out of an “ oc cupied country,” but I must state that I am still Presbyterian under the purity of faith of the founding fath ers of the Church. This article is not to be interpreted as a blanket condemnation >of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. There are still good Gospel churches that are Presbyterian — there are still churches filled with Bible believing folk, and there are many sound men in the faith, and they are better men than I am. I want to make clear that I have not broken fellowship with those men who are sound. They are like islands today, and they are in churches that are islands in a sea of liberalism, but they are there in the denomination. I do not desire to damage a denom
ination in which I was reared. I was brought up in the Southern Pres byterian Church, and I owe a great deal to the Presbyterian Church. They educated me and I will be eternally grateful to them for it. I went to a Presbyterian prep school, I went to a Presbyterian university, I went to a Presbyterian seminary, and I have a love in my heart for that denomination; 3 ? perhaps a greater love than a great many of the folk who, today, are ringing the changes for it. I still thrill at the story of John Witherspoon, that great preacher in the Thirteen Original Colonies, a member of the Continental Congress. He was responsible for the conversion of John Hancock. The night that John Witherspoon preached on "the text, “ I am the door, by me if any man enter in he shall be saved” (John 10:9) John Hancock was saved. And in the Continental Congress when they were talking about sign ing the Declaration of Independence John Witherspoon, the preacher, got to his feet and quoted two verses: “ If the Son make you free, you shall be free indeed” — “ And where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty.” And he said that no man’s soul should be bound by, a foreign govern ment. And, my friend, no man’s soul should be bound by a Presbytery or a bishop as he stands in the pulpit today — he should be bound only by the Word of God! Now the real danger, and the thing that brought me to the point of de cision, is the precarious position of the young men who are entering the ministry today. I had four splendid young men ask that I counsel with them as to the seminary to which they should go. Those four young men went to an Eastern seminary and three of them came out firmly rooted in the Neo-Orthodox position. A Presbyterian minister wrote me recently and expressed a feeling of
danger in sending our young men to study for the ministry. A quotation from his letter follows: “ It seems to me that this octopus of unbelief is devouring all of our Presbyterian seminaries. I cannot believe, Vernon, that we can any more send our men to these schools before God with a clear conscience . . . since Fuller,'Tal bot and Dallas are out for Presby terians, where can we send them?” That is his question. I have the answer, and the above condition is one of the prime reasons why I left the Presbyterian Church. I have seen young men come out from seminaries who have lost their zeal to preach, the Gospel. Then I havq, found those who have gone ’through‘ the seminary and have retained their zeal to preach the Gospel — but I have also watched them go through the machine. And any young preacher who goes through the machine today will not have the liberty that I had when young. The young man entering the ministry to day cannot do so with freedom be cause the machine will ask him cer tain questions. They will say to him, “W ill you put in the new curricu lum? W ill you follow in this pro gram?” If he does not answer in the affirmative he will not be permitted to take that church. This is regimen tation with a vengeance. The only hope in this hour is an aroused laity. Oh, if the man in the pew could be waked up! He is asleep — I am sorry, he is asleep today! The Lord Jesus said in the parable, “While men slept the enemy sowed tares,” and my friend, they have tak en over the Church today. I have a challenge to laymen in this hour to take a stand for God! Now I do not intend to enter upon a ministry of criticism—that is not in my thinking. May I state that the man in the pew can only be wakened through a revival, and I want to pray that revival will come to the Presby terian Church. That is the only thing that can check the present onslaught of liberalism. John Witherspoon, the minister, stood and with magnificent faith flung into the oncoming years the fact from the pages of God’s Word, “ If the Son make you free, you shall be free indeed,” and he called upon those men under God, and through Jesus Christ to take a stand against Great Britain, and sign the Declara tion of Independence. His Elder, John Hancock, said “Hand me the docu ment, I will be the first to sign,” and he signed for freedom. Mr. Layman, are you willing to sign for the freedom of faith that that faith might not perish from the Church? END.
About the Author Dr. McGee has been pastor of Los Angeles' Church of the Open Door since 1949. Before that he served Presbyterian churches in Texas and Tennessee and was at Pasadena's Lin coln Avenue Presbyterian Church for nine years. Among schools he attended are Wallace University Prep School, Southwestern Presbyterian College, Columbia Theological Seminary, Dal las Theological Seminary. He has an outstanding radio and public speaking ministry and has written four books: Ruth, The Ro mance of Redemption; Esther, The Romance of God's Providence; The Prayer The Lord Did Not Pray and Briefing The Bible.
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