200th Anniversary

Two hundred years ago today, February 4, 1810, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church began in the humble cabin of Presbyterian minister Samuel McAdow on what was then the western frontier of Tennessee in Dickson County. Two other ordained Presbyterian ministers, Finis Ewing and Samuel King, had traveled by horseback from their homes in Logan County, Kentucky, to see Rev. McAdow for the purpose of urging him to join them in the effort to re-constitute Cumberland Presbytery, a judicatory of the Presbyterian Church that had been disbanded four years before due to disputes over doctrine and the preparation for ordained ministry, occasioned largely by the Great Revival movement dating from the turn of the 19th century in that region. The constitution of the Church required a minimum of three ministers to formally establish a presbytery. Believing that their Revival Party had received no adequate redress of grievances despite appeals to the higher judicatories, Ewing and King were convinced this was their only recourse. After a night of fervent prayer, McAdow consented to proceed with the new presbytery. Their first official act as a presbytery was to ordain a man named Ephraim McLean, who had accompanied King and Ewing to McAdow's home.

The doctrinal disputes arose from the Revivalists' view that the Westminster Confession of Faith put forward a concept of predestination that they regarded as "fatalism," that is, that before creation, Almighty God ordained that some (the elect) should be eternally saved while others (the non-elect) would be condemned. This perception ran contrary to the Revivalists' conviction that each human being, upon hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ, is responsible to make the decision to accept or reject the gift of grace and salvation. Though such a decision is impossible apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the idea of human participation to accept God's grace meant a heightened understanding of human freedom of will. They further believed that Christ's atoning work was in behalf of all humankind, not just some, and that all who believed in Jesus Christ could be saved, and therefore 'elect.'The Revivalist leaders, then, were accused of temporizing on the sacred doctrine of the sovereignty of God and of a leaning toward the Arminian perspective of free will. Further, there were objections to their practices of open-air camp meetings during which there were calls for repentance from sin and frequent expressions of exuberance as people, filled with the Holy Spirit, rejoiced in their new-found salvation. The Revivalists, though they believed in an educated clergy, attempted to meet the rising demands of a rapidly growing population and the scarcity of formal theological schools, by approving the licensing and ordination of some who were not classically educated. Their opponents would maintain, inaccurately, that the Revivalists, and later the Cumberland Presbyterians, did not value an educated clergy.

The motivating factors in the early development of this Church were a desire to proclaim the gospel of Christ along the nation's new frontier, seeing multitudes of people experience the life-transforming salvation and hope of Christ. The contributions of the early leaders of the movement were significant: in the spiritual life of the region as it developed; in the establishment of schools and colleges; in the beginning of churches and Sunday schools that followed the move Westward; in the social concern for lawfulness where law was little known, and for justice and the opportunity of spiritual growth for the poorest in the land (the camp meetings were modestly integrated), whites, African Americans, Native Americans; the first co-educational institutions of higher learning; the first woman to be ordained to the gospel ministry... Ours is a "goodly heritage."

Yet the frontier of the 21st century beckons now. It does little good to look back with pride on accomplishments of the past if we are not at the same time rededicated to touching today's world with the same hope of the gospel. What motivated the earliest representatives of our movement needs still to urge us on: a desire that all may come to a saving, life-affirming, life-transforming relationship with Jesus Christ.