What We Believe
We stand firm in our belief in God’s inerrant Word and we proclaim the gospel of God’s grace without apology. We strongly adhere to the teachings of the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechism written in 1647. We do not believe in baptismal regeneration. We baptize adults upon their profession of faith in Jesus Christ, unless they were baptized as infants. Our denomination does not belong to the National Council of Churches or The World Council of Churches. You can read more about our Statement of Belief here.
Salem History
Salem Presbyterian Church was organized June 19, 1836. Today, 175 active members enjoy a stability that has been characteristic of Salem throughout its history, as evidenced by the fact that in 170 years we have only had 8 pastors and 8 treasurers. Our sanctuary is the 4th one to be built on the premises, the 1st being a log church and the 3rd having burned to the ground in 1939. The dark wooden Gothic arches of the ceiling are complemented by the beautiful stained glass windows on both sides of the sanctuary and at the rear. A pipe organ accents the front of the church directly behind the split chancel.
Associate Reformed Presbyterian History
Our historical roots go back to Scotland where in 1733 the Associate Presbytery was organized followed by the Reformed Presbytery ten years later. These two groups eventually came to this country and in 1782 they united to form the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Distance and travel limitations in the early 1800’s led to a separation of the northern and southern branches of the church, the northern branch having since merged with other Presbyterian bodies. The present ARP church, with over 200 churches, although no longer geographically limited to the American south, is the continuation of the southern branch.
We have a written history of our church published in 1986 (our sesquicentennial edition) and there is also a history of the denomination written in 1966 by Ray King who was then a professor at Erskine Seminary in Due West, South Carolina. The title of this publication is “A History of the ARP Church”. For more information about the Associate Reformed Synod, please visit their website at: http://www.arpchurch.org/Site/ARP_History.html.
To read more about the standards of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (Westminster Confession of Faith, Catechisms, etc.) follow this link.