September 3 Today in OPC History

On this day in 1935, the Presbytery of San Francisco (PCUSA) voted to ordain Edward J. Young after a heated and intense debate. Young’s ordination exam exemplified the authoritarianism of the modernist movement in the old church, which required unqualified allegiance to the denomination’s ecclesiastical agencies. An account of the exam in the Presbyterian Guardian included a partial transcript of the questioning. Dr. Jesse Baird, a signer of the Auburn Affirmation, had the following exchange with Young on the floor.

Baird: Do you promise to study the unity and peace of the church?

Young: I will study the peace, unity, and purity of the church.

Baird: Will you promise to be subject to your brethren?

Young: I will be subject to my brethren, ‘in the Lord.’

Baird: If you become a minister and have charge of a church, will you inform the people that you think the church is disloyal?

Young: We are not Romanists. We do not keep the people in ignorance.

Baird: Here is an excerpt from the 1758 Basis of Union in which it says that any who find themselves in disagreement shall quietly resign from the church. Are you willing to do that if you find yourself at odds with your brethren?

Young: That contradicts the constitution of the Presbyterian church, and I do not agree with it.

At this point, an elder rose to speak: “Mr. Moderator, we are not trying Dr. Machen or Westminster Seminary. Why does Dr. Baird try to inject Machen into this? Let us be fair and examine the young man.” Another elder added: “Let us not shoot Dr. Machen through this young man. Let us not take our spite out on Westminster Seminary by shooting the recruits.”

When the vote of the presbytery was taken, 21 men voted to sustain the exam and 16 voted against. The record indicates that Young was ordained on the same day. On August 25, 1936, he was received into the Presbytery of Philadelphia of the Presbyterian Church of America (renamed the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 1939).

Homepage Picture: From left to right, E. J. Young, Cornelius Van Til, and John Murray.

Picture: Sitting from left to right, Ned B. Stonehouse, Cornelius Van Til, R. B. Kuiper, and Paul Woolley; standing from left to right, E. J. Young, and John Murray.