RPW

How is the Reformed Presbyterian Church different from the National Presbyterian Church of Chile?

Pastor Sánchez

In Chile, the Presbyterian church is more than 100 years old. It was founded by what is now the Presbyterian Church USA, which is a more liberal church. In the 1940s, the National Presbyterian Church split from the Presbyterian Church of Chile. The National Presbyterian Church was a more fundamentalist church. It was led by missionaries of the Bible Presbyterian Church.

That was my church, the National Presbyterian Church. It’s a conservative church, but it was not a big church. To them, it was more important just to be evangelical and conservative than to be Presbyterian. Our confessions didn’t seem to matter a lot. For some years, the church has been small, and it’s not growing. The older pastors are dying, and the church has no seminary; so there are no young pastors. I think that has made the churches worry about not dying rather than being a strong Presbyterian church and teaching Reformed theology and application. The National Presbyterian Church is a church that I love, though; it was my church for almost all my life.

When my session and I decided to follow the regulative principle of worship and not celebrate holidays in worship, they told me, “You must celebrate the holidays because it is the old tradition. You can remain in the church with that condition.” When I said no, they didn’t give me another option, and I had to resign.

RPW

What did God use to convince you and your session of Reformed doctrine?

Sánchez

The National Presbyterian Church sent me to a seminary here in Chile. In my third semester, I had classes with very liberal professors. They denied that the book of Genesis is literal and denied the existence of Adam and Eve; they said Genesis was a tale for unintelligent people. I left the seminary and I received a call from a pastor in Brazil who was a friend. He told me I could come to Brazil and study in their seminary, a seminary of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil.

That church has nine seminaries in Brazil. I went to a seminary in the jungle around the Amazon area, in a state that’s called Rondônia. There, I had a very good pastor, Pastor Ewerton Tokashiki, and he was very serious about the regulative principle. I was convinced about the regulative principle especially when worshiping in the church. I saw a different kind of worship than I was used to. He explained the regulative principle to me and gave me books to read.

When I went back to Chile, and I was ordained in the church, I said, “This is what I believe.” My beliefs aligned with the traditional confession and the old constitution. The elders of the church asked me to teach them to be like the older church. The church was convinced about the regulative principle, and we began to change the way of the church’s worship. The elders and I decided to not celebrate Christmas. In the next presbytery meeting, that decision met with a firm no from the presbytery. One pastor made statements against me, but I was not formally charged or disciplined.

The presbytery then approved celebrating the whole church calendar, and they decided to put the holidays in that calendar. My convictions about the regulative principle led me to the RPCNA. But when I left the church, it was just me, not the local church. I didn’t want to make a schism in the church. I knew that the issue was more important for me than for the church, especially for the local church. I spoke with the elders and said, “You don’t need to follow me in this. If you want, you can, but you don’t need to do it.” The church decided to remain in the National Presbyterian Church. I left the city where I was pastor. I continued to worship in a church of the National Presbyterian Church here in Santiago, because my wife is from Santiago.

RPW

Where is the church where you were a pastor?

Sánchez

It was in Concepción, 600 kilometers south of Santiago. Then I went for six months without a church to pastor. Some people asked me to begin a church. I said, “No, I am presbyterian and I cannot begin a church alone. I need to know and be a member of a denomination of a church.” While I was looking for a church, I met with Pastor David Reese, Rev. Jerry O’Neill, and Edgar Ibarra. They introduced me to the Central and South America (CASA) committee of the RPCNA. I explained my situation to the committee.

They sent me some books to study, including Songs of Zion. After reading the first half of the book, I was convinced. It’s a very good book, a very convincing book, and a very good argument. The author changed my mind, and I understood exclusive psalmody as the best way to apply the regulative principle; so everything now made sense in my mind.

I also was reading Messiah the Prince. I thought, “Yes, this is what the Bible teaches.” I believed these things before I read the books, but I didn’t know the name of the doctrines. Of course, the obligations in politics were new to me, but they make a lot of sense.

After two months, I had a meeting, again with CASA. I told them, “I’m convinced because of the books you sent me and the things I studied on the internet.” They invited me to go to Pittsburgh, Pa., for the meeting of the Presbytery of the Alleghenies.

RPW

Could you tell us about your family and how you came to Christ?

Sánchez

I am 39, and have been married for 7 years. I have a 5-year-old daughter and a 4-month-old son. I was born in a small city near Santiago, and my parents were members of the National Presbyterian Church. They met in the National Presbyterian Church. I have been Presbyterian all my life. I grew up in that church. My friends are from that church. I met my wife in the meetings and the camps of that church. The history of my wife’s family is the same.

I grew up hearing the gospel and biblical preaching. I was never a rebel or bad boy. My life was very quiet; but in my teenage years, around 15 or 16, I understood the gospel. I remember a conference for teenagers that explained the canons of Dordt. I understood my sins. I was convinced of the gravity of my sins. They are serious and hard, my sins. I understood and realized that Christ died for me and for my sins and that He paid for my sins to the Father.

There’s not one moment I can say was the moment. I always knew the gospel, and in my teenage years, I realized I believed the gospel. The Lord’s Day after the presbytery meeting when I was first received into the RP Church, I started a worship service in my yard here in Batuco.

Batuco is a town about 30 minutes from Santiago. It’s a very small place. People live here because it is cheaper. People go to Santiago for school and work. Batuco is a very poor place.

When I resigned from my previous church, I didn’t have a house to live in. My mother and my grandmother had a house here and they told me, “You’re going to live in that house.” I came here, and that same day I started the first worship service. My family, the family of my wife, and some friends came to the worship service.

Other families came after that, but everybody who was coming was from Santiago except my mother’s family; so we decided to move the service to Santiago. My parents-in-law told us they would open their house in Santiago and we could meet in their house.

So we moved the worship service to Santiago and kept another service here in Batuco, where it’s only my family and my mother’s family. Sometimes we had some other visitors as well. Recently we received a family as members of the church here in Batuco. We naturally have been seeing the two different groups form in Batuco and Santiago.

The biggest group is the one in Santiago. It’s there we receive the most new members. We have 12 members, but there are 22 people who worship with us. There is a big family waiting until all these COVID restrictions pass and then they will go live in the south of Chile. That’s why they haven’t become members of the church.

RPW

Is there anybody who worships in Batuco who has joined the mission church?

Sánchez

The family we received in our last meeting will worship here in Batuco. We are seeing one church in two different places.

RPW

Batuco is a satellite worship center for the Santiago church?

Sánchez

Yes. Santiago is the main place. Here in Batuco, we worship in my house and in the yard when it’s warmer.

RPW

Besides COVID, what are some big challenges that your church faces?

Sánchez

Culturally, people here are becoming very secular and don’t pay attention to spiritual things. People don’t stop if you tell them that you want to talk about Christ and the gospel. They just don’t have time for that. It’s different than other countries in Latin America that are very spiritual, with many different religions. Here in Chile, everything is becoming more secular. Another thing is that, culturally, we don’t like strangers in our houses. If someone doesn’t know you, they don’t let you go into their house or even come into their yard. That’s very hard for traditional evangelism. We have seen that the church has been growing when we call our friends and neighbors, or people we already know. Some people who have gotten to know us through the internet have been coming to the church.

Our first objective with the church was to make a core group. When planting churches, this group goes and teaches people about the distinctives of the church. In the beginning, you need a group that believes in the distinctives of the church. After we all have the same mind, we begin to evangelize openly. We have that group now. We received the members of the church, but then COVID came and it stopped our plans to evangelize. We have been stuck in that way for a time, just calling our friends or trying to work online.

RPW

What are some ways that people can pray for you and the congregation?

Sánchez

I sometimes forget to mention the challenge of Chile becoming very left-leaning politically, very quickly. Recently, we had elections for the officials who will write a new constitution for our country. Last year, there were a lot of riots and violence here in Chile. To stop that, there was an agreement to make a new constitution.

Two weeks ago, the officials were elected, and 80 percent of them lean far to the left politically. They will write the constitution. That could be a step far away from being a country that recognizes Christ as King. I know that, in the will of God, all these things will result in His glory. But it’s hard to understand how that will happen. We have been governed by right-leaning policies for the last four years, but not much has been different. They recognize gay marriage and different genders. People change their gender easily, and this has been approved in the last four years. Morally, the political right and left are not very different.

Pray for Chile, for a country that is approving immorality and making very bad political and economic decisions. Pray for the church, that we can be a voice. We’re a very small church. It’s hard to think of us being a voice in our country. We know the preaching of the Word is what will change the conscience of the country. We want the Lord to use us for growing His kingdom. We want to be faithful to Him in the work of the church, in the preaching of the church, and to be diligent in the care of souls. We need the Lord to make us faithful and diligent.

We have six babies in our congregation. We pray that through them our church will continue working. They could grow to become communicant members of the church. They could teach their own children the Covenanter principles, because they are the biblical principles. Pray for families.

We are also thinking about buying or constructing a place to worship. We have no more room in my in-laws’ house. Pray that we can find a place and that we have the money to pay for it. Pray that I can be a good pastor for the Lord’s sheep here in Chile.

RPW

What are some of the challenges that you have faced in bringing together Spanish-speaking and English-speaking churches?

Sánchez

The main challenge is being so far away. It’s very hard to feel like we are part of the church in the United States. Our purpose is to be a national church. The CASA members and I don’t want this congregation to be in the RPCNA for decades. I think that’s healthier for the church. I tell the members of our church about the church in the United States, but they don’t know the pastors.

I have to try to teach the history of the church, but that’s very challenging for us. We don’t have a lot of materials and textbooks that teach the distinctives of the church. There is no book about exclusive psalmody or the mediatorial kingship of Christ published in Spanish.

Thanks be to God, we have the psalter. It’s difficult to teach people outside our church, because the distinctives of our church are very strange for a lot of people. We need to translate and write more about this.

We began a blog and a web page about mediatorial kingship. We have been translating articles and posting on that web page. A lot of people are reading the blog. I have been receiving calls to teach about mediatorial kingship in other churches in Latin America because of the blog.

RPW

What are some ways that the RPCNA, being a small denomination, can assist churches in Central and South America?

Sánchez

We need to plant churches in Central and South America. Our experience with the Bolivian church was not very good. They asked us for missionaries to teach them and the church because it’s small. But we didn’t have the missionaries or resources to do that. They finally received other views and they left the Covenanter principles.

I think the church would be a great help if they sent missionaries. It’s very hard for a Latin American pastor to go to the RPCNA, because most people in Latin America don’t speak much English. For me, it was very hard. I remember the exams and the preaching in English.

I know pastors that are convinced of exclusive psalmody and mediatorial kingship, but they don’t know how to speak English. I know people who finished their studies in their seminaries, but they are not ordained in their churches because they believe in exclusive psalmody and the regulative principle. They can only go to the seminary in the United States to study one year or begin the process to be ordained in the RPC because it’s a very long process.

People who want to go to the seminary in the United States from Latin America can’t pay for the seminary. Our salaries don’t allow us to pay to live in the United States. I think the church must think of a way to receive Latin American students with scholarships.

I know that the RPCNA is an English-speaking church and it’s hard to ask for exams in other languages. I think the former way that the church used to send missionaries to plant churches, teaching the local people, is a very good way to do it. I think we can send missionaries to Latin American countries.

RPW

Is there something else that you wish I had asked or that you wanted to talk about?

**Sánchez **

I have felt very well received in the RPCNA. All the people that I know and that I met when I went to the United States were very interested in our work. The CASA committee has been very supportive of me. As I told you, I am Presbyterian and I like to have fellowship with other pastors. I am alone here in Chile, as the only pastor for the denomination. They have been very good friends and a very great support for me. I am very grateful for the way that the church has been working with us, and with me especially.