What Everyone Needs to Know about John Witherspoon
John Witherspoon was an integral figure in American Presbyterianism. Today, Stephen Nichols and Kevin DeYoung explore this Scottish pastor’s legacy as a theologian, patriot, and president of Princeton University.
DR. STEPHEN NICHOLS: Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. It was a few weeks ago that I had Dr. Kevin D. Young. We shipped him off to a deserted island. Well, I have brought him back and he did his PhD dissertation on John Witherspoon. So, I've invited Dr. DeYoung to talk to us about what everyone must know about John Witherspoon. Dr. DeYoung, it's great to have you.
DR. KEVIN DEYOUNG: Oh, wow. Five hours in church history, did you say? Okay, we'll try to limit this to five minutes. It's very dangerous when you ask someone about their PhD. John Witherspoon, the initial boilerplate is he's most famous as the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence.
So he was a delegate from the Colony then the state of New Jersey sent to the Continental Congress, really just about a week before the pivotal vote, and then July 4 in approving Jefferson's declaration. So there's one thing you need to know, but you got to back up before that because more than half of his career was in Scotland. So he was born outside of Edinburgh and Yester Parish in Scotland, 1723. He is a direct descendant of John Knox, so everyone needs to know that, and there's been some debate on that. But really, I've got the genealogies. He was a direct descendant on his mother's side of John Knox or through one of John Knox's daughters. So you need to know. He went to school in Gifford, which is the same parish school that John Knox went to.
His father was a pastor, so he grew up in the mans, went off to Edinburgh, stayed at Edinburgh to get his divinity degree, and then becomes a pastor in the Church of Scotland. He serves two parishes in Scotland over on the west side of the country near Glasgow. So the first one is a little town called Beith, which is not, it's an Ayrshire, and if you ever watch golf, and the British Open has sometimes been at the Royal Troon Golf Course, that's pretty near Beith where Witherspoon would've pastored. So he was there from 1745 into 1757, and then he went to Paisley, which is now a suburb of Glasgow. And you all have Paisley socks, Paisley ties, well, that's where they're invented there because this is a major textile center. And that pattern originated at Paisley where Witherspoon was the pastor.
He gets married at Beith to Elizabeth. They have all told 10 children, fewer than half of them live into adulthood, which was sadly common at the time. And he makes his name as a very effective writer and preacher. He was a popular preacher, and the Church of Scotland is divided during the 18th century between what was called the moderate party, think of kind of liberals, but not really liberals. They're more latitude and status quo. And then the popular party evangelicals, they were called popular because they were for the popular vote of pastors. One of the biggest issues was patronage. Can the patron, the aristocrat, give you your minister whether the pastor wants it or not? This is what causes the disruption a hundred years later with the free church. So he is among the most competent arguers on this side. And he writes a number of effective things. He writes a satire called Ecclesiastical Characteristics, which is still, you go find it. It's really, really funny. It's Babylon Bee kind of funny. Witherspoon was a satirist, and he was very effective. So, he writes a number of different things.
He writes some satirical works. He publishes sermons. He publishes a treatise on justification, regeneration. In 1648, after going back and forth for two years, he receives the call to Princeton. He makes his mark in America as a university educator. He's the president at the College of New Jersey, and he's very successful. And then he throws himself into the revolutionary effort, at least on our side of the pond. He's a patriot. In fact, some people back in the UK said America has run off with a Presbyterian parson, and there's what they say, like 20,000 Johnny Witherspoons coming at us. So the Presbyterians were firmly on the side of independence, and Witherspoon was one of the key men in that they burned some of his papers. They took over Princeton when they came through. His son died at the Battle of Germantown outside of Philadelphia and led a remarkable career instrumental in the establishment of the Presbyterian Church, the National Presbyterian Church. And so he left his mark on church, theology, the New Republic, Princeton and the Presbyterian Church in America. And he's definitely worth all of your listeners knowing.
SN: Well, that was a great tour, not only through the life of John Witherspoon, but also through Scottish Church history. So thank you for that. That was Dr. Kevin DeYoung on John Witherspoon. And I'm Steve Nichols, and thanks for joining us for 5 Minutes in Church History.
