Given the current state of the Church of Scotland and uncertainty of King Charles III’s sincere commitment to Protestantism, today’s pageantry may prove to be mere formality and tradition. Nevertheless, Jesus Christ, the only King and Head of the Church, has taught us to pray: “Thy kingdom come,” which, in part, is a petition that the church would be “countenanced and maintained by the civil magistrate” (Westminster Larger Catechism Q. 191).With the death of Queen Elizabeth II the United Kingdom and a watching world are preparing for a lot of royal pageantry. It’s a pageantry that comes with a lot of history and even a little bit of theology. This morning in London, according to an old tradition dating back centuries, King Charles III was officially proclaimed King in the presence of the Ascension Council. For the first time in history people were able to view the event and the simple but profound process by which this is done. With impressive activities and ceremonies the proclamation of the new monarchy will be made throughout the country.
One of the first things King Charles III did — and it was his stated intention to do so at the first opportunity — was to make a formal oath to the security of the Church of Scotland. He did so in the following words:
I, Charles the Third, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of My other Realms and Territories, King, Defender of the Faith, do faithfully promise and swear that I shall inviolably maintain and preserve the Settlement of the true Protestant Religion as established by the Laws made in Scotland in prosecution of the Claim of Right and particularly by an Act intituled “An Act for securing the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government” and by the Acts passed in the Parliament of both Kingdom for Union of the two Kingdoms, together with the Government, Worship, Discipline, Rights and Privileges of the Church of Scotland. So help me God.
What does all of this mean? As King of the United Kingdom, Charles III bears the title “Defender of the Faith.” As such, he is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. By and large this position is mostly ceremonial and symbolic. However, even as the titular head of the Church of England, King Charles III will appoint high-ranking members of the church.
Historically, this position for the British Monarchy dates back to the Act of Supremacy in 1534. That act confirmed the king’s supremacy over the church. By 1536 King Henry VIII — who wanted out of his first marriage — broke with the Catholic Church and declared the Church of England as the established church and named himself the supreme head.
An “established” church is a church that is officially endorsed by the state – government sanctioned religion. This isn’t to be confused with theocracy, but simply means that a state is not secular and has an official religion. This may seem strange to Americans who value the First Amendment and the freedom of religion. The First Amendment says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” What has been true of the federal government since 1791 became true of every state by 1833. This has not, however, been true in the United Kingdom. Still today the Church of England is the established church in England, and the Church of Scotland in Scotland.
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The three presbyteries will be regional in nature: Southwest Presbytery will encompass Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, and Missouri. Northern Presbytery will encompass all the congregations north of Tennessee and North Carolina (with the exception of Pathway Presbyterian Church (mission) in Clarksville, TN). The Southeast Presbytery will cover all the states east of the Mississippi River and south of the northern borders of Tennessee and North Carolina. All three presbyteries will have their formal organizational meetings to elect a Moderator and Clerk. They will also decide on a name for their body.

Vanguard Presbytery began on February 6, 2020 with the reception of two ministers, TE Dewey Roberts and TE Michael Frazier. The congregation of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Destin, FL soon voted to follow their pastor, TE Roberts, into Vanguard Presbytery. Other congregations and pastors followed. Vanguard held its formal Convocation in Nashville, TN in July of 2020. Vanguard Presbytery now has 17 particular churches, 10 mission churches, 2 mission works, and one pastor serving in a church that is expected to follow him into Vanguard. Additionally, the denomination is regularly discussing its distinctives with pastors and churches who are inquiring about Vanguard.
At its 14th stated meeting on October 18, 2024, Vanguard Presbytery met at Chapel Woods Presbyterian Church in Snellville, GA. The Presbytery voted unanimously to organize the denomination into three presbyteries and call for a General Assembly to be held some time before the end of August 2025. The three presbyteries will be regional in nature: Southwest Presbytery will encompass Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, and Missouri. Northern Presbytery will encompass all the congregations north of Tennessee and North Carolina (with the exception of Pathway Presbyterian Church (mission) in Clarksville, TN). The Southeast Presbytery will cover all the states east of the Mississippi River and south of the northern borders of Tennessee and North Carolina. All three presbyteries will have their formal organizational meetings to elect a Moderator and Clerk. They will also decide on a name for their body.
The retiring Moderator of Vanguard Presbytery, RE Mark Grasso, was authorized to appoint the convening Moderator and Stated Clerk for the General Assembly. He appointed TE Dewey Roberts to serve as the convening Moderator and TE Joshua Light to serve as the convening Stated Clerk. Both men will be eligible to be nominated for election by the General Assembly. Moderator Grasso also appointed the convening Moderators and Stated Clerks for each of the presbyteries, which will meet soon to establish themselves as separate presbyteries.
This move to divide into three presbyteries and call for a General Assembly was the appropriate time for Vanguard. First, it was becoming increasingly difficult to do the work of both a national presbytery and a denomination. There are some important distinctives of Vanguard Presbyterian Church which contributed to that decision. Vanguard does not have provisions for standing committees at the General Assembly level. We believe that church history shows that such committees can eventually become unaccountable to their denominations and function as administrative hierarchies within their respective spheres of responsibility. Hierarchy is contrary to the Scriptural principles of church polity.
Second, Vanguard believes that the Scripture establishes that the missionary work of the church is to be carried out by congregations and presbyteries—not the General Assembly. It was the Church at Antioch that sent out Paul and Barnabas as missionaries (Acts 13:1-3). Presbyteries have the authority to ordain and conduct oversight of ministers and their work (1 Timothy 4:14 and 2 Timothy 1:6), which includes the responsibility to oversee their work as evangelists and missionaries. The responsibility of the General Assembly is more legislative and judicial in nature (cf. Acts 15:1-35), especially in deciding such issues that affect the spread of the gospel. Thus, the General Assembly of Vanguard Presbyterian Church will be interested in receiving reports from each presbytery concerning how they are carrying out the Great Commission and how they are encouraging and helping every member congregation to do the same.
There are other unique principles that Vanguard has adopted, particularly in light of the heterodox positions taken by many modern reformed denominations. Vanguard holds that the creation account in Genesis took place in a literal six-day period. We believe this is supported by the Westminster Confession and Catechisms that God created “all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good.” We believe those days were all the length of our days—twenty-four hours—since the Scripture says concerning them all that “there was evening and there was morning, one day.”
Vanguard also holds to the office of evangelist as a special gift given to some elders as was held by the New Side Presbyterians in the 18thcentury and the Old School Presbyterians in the 19th century. Indeed, the office of evangelist has great support in the history of the church, in Christian writings, and in the various books of polity of reformed denominations—even if most of those denominations today completely ignore the office of evangelist.
Vanguard also identifies with the theological positions of both the New Side Presbyterians and the Old School Presbyterians. These two movements are mirror images of one another. The New Side Presbyterians during the First Great Awakening emphasized support for that revival while also holding to orthodox theology. During the Second Great Awakening, the Old School Presbyterians opposed the “strange fire” and the heretical positions taken by some people who were actively promoting it, believing that God is the one who sends revival. The only real difference between the New Side Presbyterians and the Old School Presbyterians is the particular circumstances they faced and the times in which they lived. At heart, they agreed on all matters. Also, Vanguard requires full subscription to the Westminster Standards which is a great aid in promoting the unity of the denomination.
One special difference between Vanguard and other denominations is the amount of time spent in worship and prayer at every meeting. Preaching and prayer in Vanguard are not perfunctory, but lively and worshipful. At the most recent stated meeting, presbytery heard two excellent sermons and spent 90 minutes in prayer before conducting our business. The prayer time was an especially meaningful time with heartfelt prayers being offered for matters that are not usually a part of public prayers. Vanguard believes that if presbytery is to be the church of the ministers, then it needs to focus on the two things that the apostles determined should be the main focus of their energies—prayer and the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4).
While Vanguard began with some churches from the PCA, several of them have come from other denominations and some from mission churches planted by Vanguard. We have some churches in cities where no other reformed churches exist, such as Clovis and Roswell, New Mexico. There are some exciting things that have happened in some of the churches. For instance, the Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Live Oak, Texas under the pastoral leadership of TE Dick Jones was organized as a particular church in March of 2021. They recently bought and paid for three acres of land in a choice area for $550,000. The church still has assets in addition to the property of over $600,000. They are planning on erecting the first phase of their building program.
TE Ryan Denton, ordained as an evangelist by Vanguard, has taken the admonition of Paul to Timothy very seriously: “do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:5). Under his faithful evangelistic efforts, there are several churches that have been raised up. He preaches most Sundays to the Lubbock Reformed Church in the morning and the Grace Covenant Reformed Church (mission) in Clovis, New Mexico in the afternoon. Clovis is 100 miles from Lubbock. Thankfully, Ryan has mentored a young man, TE Erick Welsh, who passed his ordination exam at our recent presbytery meeting. There are other works that have been started through Ryan’s efforts or through his faithful follow-up to opportunities brought into his path. This is what Ryan said about why he is in Vanguard today: “I joined Vanguard because of their culture of prayer, national revival, church planting, and evangelism, along with its commitment to the WCF and historic Presbyterianism. As Vanguard continues to grow, these principles continue to be reinforced and unleashed.”
TE Mic Knox is the founding pastor of Gospel Reformed Church (Mission) in Marietta, Georgia. Before coming into Vanguard, his leadership team looked into several denominations and talked with a representative of Vanguard congregations. They chose Vanguard because, “This is the best denomination for us. There really is nowhere else that would be right.” TE Knox preached at the recent presbytery from 3 John 2. He transferred into Vanguard a year ago and his congregation came into the denomination earlier this year. He gave the reasons for his congregation being in Vanguard: “Our Trinitarian, Covenant Lord—who has saved us by grace—providentially guided Gospel Reformed Church to Vanguard because the Holy Spirit has engendered an encouraging, evangelistic ecosystem where the gospel of Jesus is faithfully preached inside the church as well as in the community—which is the Biblically balanced mandate from Scripture. Vanguard’s regenerate and humble Teaching and ruling Elders galvanize one another in local, national, and foreign evangelism; while Vanguard is filled with godly men who love, glorify, and enjoy the Lord, each other, His Bride, and their local communities with deep compassion for the lost.”
The newest minister transferring into Vanguard is TE Sterling Brown who is starting a new church in Richmond, Ohio—Geneva Reformed Church (Mission)—which was ‘birthed from a body of believers fleeing the growing corruption in many of the well-known corporate Presbyterian denominations.” When he and his congregation were looking for a denomination faithful to the Scriptures and the WCF, he chose Vanguard for the following reasons: “We were thankful to join Vanguard Presbyterian Church because of their strong stance on the Word of God, their commitment to the Reformed faith (Westminster Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms) and the devotion to God in their understanding that the local church for whom Christ shed His blood is more important than corporate Presbytery.”
Vanguard members rejoice in the number of young ministerial candidates and licentiates as well as the number of students in the Vanguard School of Ministry. TE Al Baker, one of the founders of Vanguard, observed: “Vanguard is the very best denomination in our country and I would not want to be in any other one.” His sentiment is universally shared by others in the denomination.
For more information or to make a donation: Vanguard Presbyterian Church; or contact Dewey Roberts or Joshua Light

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God offered His Son Christ as a sacrifice for His people. There is a real heaven and there is a real hell. We don’t believe in Christ only because we’re scared of hell, but rather because He saved us from it, from our sin and from wrath. Therefore, what do we do? Respond to Him in love and affection, saying, “Thank you, my Savior, Lord, and Master. You gave me Your life and I give you mine.”

As human beings, we’re really good at creating narratives that excuse us from doctrines or beliefs that make us uncomfortable. Hell definitely makes people uncomfortable. The idea that we would be eternally separated from God and receive active judgment in a place of burning and gnashing of teeth makes people want to run from that truth. But we can’t run from this truth because the Bible teaches about hell. No matter what somebody tells you or what ideas they come up with, you cannot remove the doctrine of hell from a biblical Christian worldview.
Let’s look at Revelation and then work our way backward. One of the first passages that comes to mind is toward the end of the book. Revelation 20:14-15 says, “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” Another passage that comes to mind in the gospel of Mark. In Mark 9:43, Jesus says, “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire.”
Hell is real and it’s a final and eternal judgment.
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