FPC History: 1900 - 1903 Revisionism

At Perrineville on 25 September 1900, the Presbytery of Monmouth's Committee on Revision recommended in favor of revising the Westminster Catechism, according to The New York Times. But the membership voted down the motion, 16 to 38. Turning Points in American Presbyterian History says the General Assembly had received 34 overtures that summer from presbyteries seeking revision, so the GA had appointed a study group that included former US President Benjamin Harrison and sitting US Supreme Court Justice John Harlan to look into the matter. It would be three more years before this battle between Union and Princeton, launched in 1891 by Charles A Briggs (pictured left) of Union Theological Seminary, would result in a modification of Westminster that took the focus away from the tenet of predestination and added support for ecumenism. Presumably FPC Matawan and Monmouth Presbytery took these revisions in stride.