How John Dunlevy
Relates to the
Heresy of Decisional Regeneration

John Dunlevy (1771-1824) was one of the five ministers to leave the Presbyterian Church after disagreements over the handling of Presbyterian Sacramental Meetings in Kentucky. On September 10, 1803, John Dunlevy, along with Barton W. Stone, Richard McNemar, Robert Marshall and John Thompson, left the Kentucky Synod of the Presbyterian Church forming the Springfield Presbytery, saying they were going to follow the Bible alone. This was the formal beginning of the Restorationist movement. The Springfield Presbytery was dissolved nine months later on June 28, 1804 with the Document, The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery.

Robert Marshall and John Thompson eventually regretted leaving the Presbyterian Church, and in 1811, and wrote,  A Brief Historical Account of Sundry Things In the Doctrines and State of the Christian, or as it is Commonly Called the New Light Church. This was a formal renunciation of the doctrines espoused by Barton Stone in his Letters on Atonement.

Donlevy was educated in Scottish Common Sense Realism by Robert Wilkes Finley at his Log Cabin Seminary along with Richard McNemar and  John Thompson. These three Presbyterian ministers took Scottish Common Sense Realism too far and left the Presbyterian Church to become Restorationists,

Joining the Shakers: Shortly after leaving the Presbyterian Church and joining Stone’s Restorationist movement, Dunlevy, along with fellow revivalists Richard McNemar, left Stone's group in 1805 to join the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, commonly known as the Shakers. He served honorably as an elder in a Shaker Community in Harrodsburg, Kentucky until his death in 1824.