Overnight Fire Destroys Historic PCA Church In Oxford- UPDATE
A fire destroyed College Hill Presbyterian Church in Lafayette County overnight Saturday [August 13, 2022]. The church is a part of the Presbyterian Church in America.
The church, located at 339 Co Rd 102, burned for more than three hours, according to reports. Crews from the Lafayette County Volunteer Fire Department and Oxford Fire Department battled the blaze.
Founded in 1835, the original sanctuary was built in 1844 and was said to be the oldest Presbyterian structure in North Mississippi and the oldest church building of any denomination in the Oxford area. The pulpit, pews and pew gates were the original furnishings.
Update:
Shawn Bennett, a College Hill resident, got a text from a relative about the fire and headed over to the church at about 11 p.m.
“Before I even got there the sky was just blazing orange,” Bennett said. “When I got there, the fire was fully involved.”
Bennett remained on the scene to watch the fate of the church.
“I thought at first they might be able to save it but it was a complete loss,” Bennett said. “The firefighters fought really hard but they just couldn’t stop it.”
Bennett captured the fire in photographs and videos that have made their way across social media sites Sunday morning.
According to a press release from the Lafayette County Fire Department, the first units arrived on the scene at 11:04 p.m. to find the rear of the structure fully involved. LCFD Engine 10 stretched a line to the rear to begin a fire attack. A second handline was stretched to the front door to begin an interior attack. Interior crews found the fire had spread to the attic space of the structure. As the integrity of the structure deteriorated the decision was made to pull all interior crews out and switch to a defensive fire attack.
All units cleared the scene at 3:20 a.m. No injuries were reported. LCFD FD3, DC2, E10, E4, E17, T17, E7, B10 and 25 firefighters responded to the scene. Oxford Fire Dept. T1, E1, B1 and personnel responded as a mutual aid request.
This church was started on January 11, 1835, in the home of Alexander Shaw, one of the early Scot-Irish settlers in North Mississippi, according to the CHPC website. Originally the church was named Neriah Church, but shortly thereafter it was re-designated Ebenezer Church. The church was renamed College Presbyterian Church in recognition of the founding of the North Mississippi College. In 1842 the congregation paid $400 for 23 acres on which to construct a public place of worship.
The sanctuary, built in 1844 under the direction of Francis Timmons, is the oldest Presbyterian structure in North Mississippi and the oldest church building of any denomination in the Oxford area.
It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The pulpit, the pews, and the pew gates are the original furnishings.
The grounds of the church served as an encampment for Union troops under Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman.
It was also the place where Mississippi author, William Faulkner, married his wife, Estelle, in 1929.
The church cemetery contains a number of unmarked Union soldiers’ graves, along with slave burial sites and many Confederate soldiers’ burial sites.
The cemetery, along with the fellowship hall were not destroyed in the fire.
The church announced on its Facebook page that Sunday School was canceled; however, the regular Sunday worship service would carry on this morning in the Fellowship Hall.
“We encourage you to join us as we celebrate our time as a church in the beautiful sanctuary, mourn its burning, and ask for the Lord’s comfort and guidance,” stated the Facebook post.
The cause of the fire was unknown Sunday morning.
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When the ‘Harvard of Christian Schools’ Goes Woke
Queer theory is the application of postmodernism to sex, gender and sexuality. And its main goal is to liberate these three from their historic, religious foundations. Regarding gender specifically, there is no truth about what is a man or a woman. A person mutilating his or her own healthy body is labeled beautiful. And it is considered good that gender no longer dictates who can participate in men’s and women’s sports. This is where the transgender movement comes from. Might this be where Wheaton College or its psychology professor is headed, teaching aspects of queer theory? It is uncertain, but not implausible. It is certain the college is permitting the professor to advance his views about identity that have roots in an anti-God philosophy.
Wheaton College is often called the “Harvard of Christian Schools” due to its academic rigor being relatively comparable to the Ivy League titan. Its graduates of note range from Billy Graham to Dan Coates, former Director of National Intelligence and U.S. senator.
But recently, the school in the leafy suburb west of Chicago has begun to mimic Harvard’s wokeness. Banning biblical words, teaching critical race theory, and psychologizing gender identity issues may not seem extreme in modern academia. But for a school which houses the works of Rev. Graham, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, it is adrift from its orthodox, Christian moorings. But this isn’t a recent drift.
In the 2000s, the education department commended the teachings of Marxists. In 2016, 78 faculty members voiced support for a fellow professor who stated Christians and Muslims worship the same God. And five years later, the school held its first ceremony recognizing graduating minority students sans White students. And currently, Wheaton permits its professors to teach critical race theory.
Marxism, religious syncretism and segregation are incompatible with Christian teaching.
But its most blatant offense against Christianity is banning certain biblical words that are key to the faith’s foundation. In this year’s curriculum for freshman, students are informed about opportunities to meet the needs of those less fortunate. This is commonly known as the act of service.
Wheaton, however, instructs the students not to use the word, “service.” Instead, they are to use “sacrificial co-laboring.” The reason given is service “may invoke power dynamics across socio-economic, racial, and cultural lines.”
Why would Wheaton sideline a word (or its derivatives) used throughout the Bible and by Jesus himself? For those in the Christian faith and outside of it, the existence of an unbalanced power dynamic is the very reason for service. Furthermore, the crux of Jesus’ ministry on earth was serving. And his service erased the superficial lines dividing people and united them around himself.
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The Trinitarian God & the Songs We Sing
I wonder whether we are better in our songs to specifically reference the Father, Son and Spirit more than we talk more generally about God. It’s not that using the word God is wrong. Nor that it would always be inappropriate. But I suspect many of us hear about God and do not naturally think of Father, Son and Spirit.
I was reflecting with somebody recently about the songs we sing. We can sing songs that reference God, but not much else. It is interesting, when you actually analyse what we have sung, that folks from quite a few other religious backgrounds could come in and sing those songs without any real change in their understanding of God at all. That doesn’t strike me as ideal.
I was re-reading something in Michael Reeve’s The Good God and came across this quote that seemed relevant:
John wrote his gospel, he tells us, so ‘that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name’ (John 20:31). But even that most basic call to believe in the Son of God is an invitation to a Trinitarian faith. Jesus is described as the Son of God. God is his Father. And he is the Christ, the one anointed with the Spirit. When you start with the Jesus of the Bible, it is a triune God that you get.
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Justification by Faith Alone Demonstrates God’s Righteousness
BEING justified by faith, we have peace with God. Conscience accuses no longer. Judgment now decides for the sinner instead of against him. Memory looks back upon past sins, with deep sorrow for the sin, but yet with no dread of any penalty to come; for Christ has paid the debt of His people to the last jot and tittle, and received the divine receipt; and unless God can be so unjust as to demand double payment for one debt, no soul for whom Jesus died as a substitute can ever be cast into hell. It seems to be one of the very principles of our enlightened nature to believe that God is just; we feel that it must be so, and this gives us our terror at first; but is it not marvellous that this very same belief that God is just, becomes afterwards the pillar of our confidence and peace!
21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:21-26 (NASB)
The passage above (Romans 3:21-26) is loaded with doctrinal truth. I could write a paper just on Romans 3 and it would probably take me quite some time to get all the cross-references tied in and all the explanations set just right so those who read it would be edified. However, just reading these Holy Spirit inspired words, ῥήματα (rhēmata), should cause us to reflect on the incredible work of salvation God has done in us for none us deserve it (v23) nor did we do anything to attain it (v24) except believe by a faith that was a gift from God according to Ephesians 2:8-9:
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8-9 (NASB)
Spurgeon fully understood this, which was one of the reasons his ministry was so powerful. It wasn’t him or his knowledge or abilities that did that, no, it was the working of the Holy Spirit through Him as he proclaimed Gods very rhēmata to those God brought to hear him.
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