15
October 1699 A.D. Rehoboth
Presbyterian Church—1st Presbyterian Congregation in America?
Archivist.
“October 15: Rehoboth Presbyterian Church.”
This Day in Presbyterian
History. 15 Oct 2014. http://www.thisday.pcahistory.org/2014/10/october-15-2/. Accessed 15 Oct 2014.
October 15: Rehoboth Presbyterian Church
The
First Presbyterian Congregation in America?
This
writer puts a question mark in our title simply because there are several churches
which claim to be the first Presbyterian Church in the colonies. Each of
them presents its claim with good evidence. Sometimes a claim is based on the
existence of at least one elder. Or the stated date of organization might be
based on when Bible studies first began in a given location, or when a building
was first occupied by the congregation. Time and poorly kept records leave all
of this unclear. But what is clear about Rehoboth Presbyterian Church in
Rehoboth, Delaware is, that it is the first Presbyterian Church built by the
Father of American Presbyterianism, namely, Francis Makemie.
“Our mission was from Jesus
Christ, and warranted from the Scriptures.”—Makemie.
There
are actually two dates of October 15 associated
with Makemie. The first one took place in 1699 when the Irish immigrant
minister appeared before the County Court of Accomac to request permission to
preach the gospel in Virginia. Many Christians, and especially Christian
Presbyterians do not realize that those minister/missionaries outside of the
Anglican faith had to apply for licenses to preach the gospel. Further,
if you were not attending an Anglican, or we would say today, an Episcopal
church, there could be civil penalties for not attending church. He asked
permission to preach at two homes. It was on October
15, 1699 that permission was given to him.
Later on, an Act of Toleration was granted for all ministers to freely worship
and proclaim Christ’s truth. But before that, preachers could be arrested
and held in jail for daring to preach without a license. Francis Makemie
himself was arrested in New York for doing just that.
The
other date associated with this date of October
15, 1706 was when Rehoboth Presbyterian
Church of Maryland, was opened by the Rev. Francis Makemie.
Rehoboth meant “There is Room.” Later in the eighteen hundreds, there was
a great deal of physical construction done to the one floor church. Today
this church continues on and it is currently a congregation of the PC(USA) in
Rehoboth, Delaware.
Words
to live by: Suppose the Rev. Francis
Makemie had not come to the shores of the American colonies, saying that it was
too far, too expensive, too dangerous, and whatever excuse might be
offered? Humanly speaking, we might not be writing a Presbyterian blog
because there would have been no Presbyterian presence in the land. But
that is “humanly speaking.” The truth is that the sovereign God ordained in the
colonies that there be Christian Presbyterians as one of the key
ingredients of our forefather’s faith. And did they ever come!
Thousands upon thousands came over the Atlantic Ocean. And from our
earliest days, the Bible of Presbyterianism was presented as the infallible
Word of God, and God added to Himself a church, such as Rehoboth Presbyterian
Church, in Delaware.
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