Why Bible Presbyterian?

Why Bible Presbyterian? Isaiah 6:3 contains what I believe to be the force that will continue to make the Bible Presbyterian Church joyous to me as well as powerful for God. "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts." What a powerful church we would be if each officer were focused upon the holiness of God. We would be the joy of all God's obedient people and a fear to the devil.

Heaven does not here ring out to the shouts of "love, love, love" though that is absolutely essential and has been desperately lacking in our relations one to another. Yet it is not the central characteristic of God for us today. We do not hear "evangelize, evangelize, evangelize" though that is absolutely essential and perhaps has been desperately lacking in our churches today. We don't even hear "unite, unite, unite" as though that would bring us God's approbation. Dr. Arthur Steele, in his syllabus for teaching has listed the PCA as part of the neo-evangelical movement. He rightly points out, "One must look at the direction a church is leaning to discern its future." Uniting has harmed some of our closest brothers. In times of crisis and decline two directions are usually seen: union based upon declining conviction, and disintegration from a non-biblical separation. Unity binds us in a biblical sense to many even beyond the Presbyterian fold. Let it bind our own family together. Unity and not necessarily union is the critical element to our usefulness to Christ. Nor, do I think, do we hear the central message of this passage cry "reconstruct, reconstruct, reconstruct." It is possible to disagree on this point and yet work together as we heed a holy God. And let me say, Bible Presbyterians have in the past been ahead of what the most outspoken Reconstructionists in our activism and call for our churches and nation to turn back to God's Word. We could perhaps make similar disclaimers on the centrality of "program," or "size," or even of "relevance." God grant us wisdom in determining the applications for our church of a Holy God.

This year, I have been in the BP Church fifty years. As a matter of fact I was one day old the day that Faith Theological Seminary was started.

Little Mrs. Perkins, a visitor from the Tacoma BPC, in 1940 came to our poor home and brought clothing and help. She invited the family to her church. My parents sent us. I was a child of three.

What a church it was! Dr. Roy Talmidge Brumbaugh was pastor. The perception is that he, like other BP founders brushed his teeth with barbed wire and used ground glass for catsup. Not so. He was of the family of Pennsylvania's Governor Brumbaugh, and was a mighty preacher and leader. He came to Tacoma from the great Wannamaker Church in Philadelphia. His full sermons were printed in the paper every week. He was a great defender of the faith as well as an evangelist. Over forty thousand soldiers were brought to the church through his leadership. Many were saved. I was among those led to Christ by his ministry.

In those days, other giants roamed the halls of our denomination. I left engineering studies in Washington to attend Highland College in California. There, Clyde Kennedy, who had founded the college, and pastored Calvary Bible Presbyterian Church of Glendale set a pattern of godly and fearless activism and evangelism. He absolutely ignited us students with heroism. Numerous times he rented the Los Angeles Civic Auditorium as the place to hold a great public rally on the controversies of the day. The crowds always came. I don't remember ever seeing him buy gas for his automobile, or pay for a meal at the restaurant without his giving a tract or witness for Christ. Many in Christ's service today accepted Christ through his personal witness. Though virtually forgotten, he was one of the greatest prophets of our church.

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