The 1839 RPCS Testimony has been placed in permanent abeyance by a decision taken by the RPCS Presbytery. The decision was made at a pro-re-nata meeting of Presbytery on the 12th March 2011. That decision was then formally ratified, and it was put into permanent abeyance at a pro-re-nata meeting of Presbytery on the 16th April 2011.

At that same meeting on the 16th April 2011, the new Constitutional Statement for the RPCS was approved

The purpose of a Testimony is, according to the preface of the 1839 version, both to defend the position of the Church and to address those who vehemently deny and oppose the truth. We appreciate and accept the need for the Church to do this. The question though is, what is the best way to do it in terms of written documents?

When the Presbytery considered this two issues came to the forefront:

1. The amount of duplication between the Westminster Standards and the 1839 RP Testimony, a fact admitted to in that Testimony – “In the public formularies of churches, it is not unusual to find a Confession and a Testimony substantially united.”

2. The relevancy of the content of the Testimony to the situation in the Church and society today.

The solution to the first issue was relatively simple – make the Westminster Standards the sole subordinate standards of the RPCS.

The second issue of the relevancy of the Testimony is of course not a new one, as the following extract from the 1839 RP Testimony clearly shows. “The first Testimony of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, after the Revolution, was published in the year 1761. In the lapse of three quarters of a century, many and great changes have taken place.

Truth is immutable; but the forms of error and ungodliness are perpetually changing. That it may confront the varying forms of error, it is, therefore, indispensable that a Testimony be progressive. The times are not the same, the controversies are not the same, the parties are not the same, that they were seventy-eight years ago.

In a document published at so remote a period, there must be many things which, however necessary and appropriate then, are inapplicable to modern times. The evolutions of Providence during the same period, bring into existence a long train of events, of which it is proper that the church should make some improvement. The necessity for a new exhibition of the principles of the church had, therefore, become evident many years ago.”

The problems arising from the need to be relevant are two-fold:

1. Historically it seems that this point was not acted on. The first RP Testimony was published in 1761, the second in 1839, and the third, well, it was still on the ‘to do’ list.

2. If an agreement were to be made to revise and reprint the Testimony every 20 years, would it merit the considerable resources to do so?

In light of these points, the RPCS Presbytery has taken the decision to produce a series of position papers on the issues of the day as and when required.

Please note that this decision is not a diminution of our adherence to the principles of our forefathers, in fact we regard it to be the opposite. We believe that this is a good decision, because it will enable us to both articulate these principles with the same clarity and forthrightness as our predecessors did and address the errors of our day, in a much more frequent and relevant manner.

Source: http://www.rpcscotland.org/index.html

[Editor’s note: The original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid, so the links have been removed.]