The 1857 Secession of Classis Holland from the Reformed Church in America

Reformed Church in America

The Reformed Church in America is a mainline Reformed Protestant denomination in Canada and the United States. It has about 170,000 members, with the total declining in recent decades. From its beginning in 1628 until 1819, it was the North American branch of the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1819, it...

 occurred in January of that year. The classis became the basis for the Christian Reformed Church in North America

Christian Reformed Church in North America

The Christian Reformed Church in North America is a Protestant Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. Having roots in the Dutch Reformed churches of the Netherlands, the Christian Reformed Church was founded by Gijsbert Haan and Dutch immigrants who left the Reformed Church in...

. The secession was led by Gijsbert Haan

Gijsbert Haan

Gijsbert Haan or alternate spelling Gysbert Haan was the leader in the 1857 Secession of Dutch-Americans from the Reformed Church in America, and the creator of the Christian Reformed Church in the United States and Canada...

 and other orthodox ministers of the "northern" or DeCocksian Groninger tradition of the Afscheiding Issues included the perceived liberalization of the church in areas such as the use of hymns instead of only Psalms

Psalms

The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...

, offering communion to non-Reformed people, neglecting doctrines such as predestination

Predestination

Predestination, in theology is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God. John Calvin interpreted biblical predestination to mean that God willed eternal damnation for some people and salvation for others...

. Van Raalte, however, remained in the RCA, and the early CRC found few supporters outside of its own circles. A controversy over Freemasonry in the RCA in the early 1880s led many Dutch Americans into the CRC.