The Evangelical Union was a 19th-century religious denomination which originated in the suspension of the Rev. James Morison, minister of a presbyterian United Secession congregation in Kilmarnock, Scotland, for certain views regarding faith, the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation, and the extent of the atonement, which were regarded by the supreme court of his church as anti-Calvinistic and heretical. It professed a creed which allowed them greater freedom as preachers of the Gospel.
Morison was suspended by the presbytery in 1841 after publishing in the previous year a pamphlet entitled The Question, 'What must I do to be saved?' Answered under the pseudonym Philanthropos, and soon withdrew from the United Secession Church. His father, who was minister at Bathgate, and two other ministers, were deposed not long afterwards for similar opinions. The four met at Kilmarnock on 16 May 1843 (two days before the Disruption of the Free Church), and, on the basis of certain doctrinal principles, formed themselves into an association under the name of the Evangelical Union, for the purpose of countenancing, counselling and otherwise aiding one another, and also for the purpose of training up spiritual and devoted young men to carry forward the work and pleasure of the Lord.
Eric Liddell, a famous Olympian and missionary, was involved with this group.
See also
- Morisonianism
References
Authorities
- The Evangelical Union Annual
- History of the Evangelical Union, by F Ferguson (Glasgow, 1876)
- The Worthies of the EU (1883)
- W Adamson, Life of Dr James Morison (1898)