11

Authentic Christianity
An Introductory Study of the Westminster
Standards
Part I
Joe Morecraft, III
I. THE IMPACT OF THE WESTMINSTER
STANDARDS ON THE INDIVIDUAL,
FAMILY AND SOCIETY
1
A. THE VITALITY OF THE WESTMINSTER
STANDARDS
1. THE SPIRITUAL POWER OF THE
WESTMINSTER STANDARDS
The Westminster Confession of Faith, the Larger
and Shorter Catechisms, written in the late
1640s, still have the spiritual power
to transform individuals, families
and entire cultures on the threshold of
the Twenty-First Century. As no other
book, outside the Bible, the Westminster
Standards have been informing, inspiring
and transforming people and nations
for over 350 years. Why? Because
they take seriously all the facts of the
written Word of God and all the facts
of reality and human life. They seek
to understand everything we need to
know about God and the universe in the light
1 For these observations on the impact of the standards on the in-
dividual family and society, I have leaned heavily on an article by J ohn
Cannon, entitled, The Inuence Exerted by the Westminster Symbols
upon the Individual, the Family and Society, which appeared in the
Memorial Volume of the Westminster Assembly, published by the
Presbyterian Committee of Publication, Richmond, Va., 1897. I also
quote from William Coxs article, The Inuence of the Westminster
System of Doctrine, Worship and Polity on Civil Liberty and Respon-
sible Government, from the same volume.
of that Word, Psa. 36:9. They look at all of life
from the perspective of the God of the Bible,
for from Him and through Him and to Him are all
things, Rom. 11:26. It is for this reason that the
Westminster Shorter Catechism begins with
the question: What is mans chief end?; and
answers: Mans chief end is to glorify God and
to enjoy Him forever.
2. THE PEERLESS QUALITY OF THE
WESTMINSTER STANDARDS
As far as what they were meant to be, the
Westminster Standards are peerless. They
form a summary of the system of truths
taught in the Bible, which everyone ought
to believe, because it is taught in the Bible.
Therefore, these standards comprise our
confession of faith. They are, in fact,
the most faithful summary of Biblical
teachings ever written by fallible men.
They are not on par with the Bible,
but are a faithful summary of what
the Bible teaches. As J ohn Murray has
written in his COLLECTED WORKS, (Vol. I,
pg. 317): No creed of the Christian church
is comparable to that of Westminster in respect
of the skill with which the fruits of fteen centuries
of Christian thought have been preserved, and at
the same time examined anew and clarified in the
light of that fuller understanding of Gods Word
which the Holy Spirit has imparted.
the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON
12
Joe Morecraft, III
3. THE POWER OF THE WESTMINSTER
STANDARDS AS THE PREACHING OF THE
WORD OF GOD
This is the reason the Westminster Standards
still have an impact on individuals, families and
societies: insofar as they are a faithful exposition
and application of the Word of God, they
bear the authority and power of the Spirit of
God, the Author of that Word. They bear a
transforming power similar to the saving power
of the preaching of the whole counsel of God
revealed in the Bible, I Cor. 1:18; Acts 20:27.
B. THE IMPACT OF THE WESTMINSTER
STANDARDS ON THE INDIVIDUAL
A vital relation exists between faith and life, belief
and conduct, creed and character. A person lives
like he lives because he thinks like he thinks. As
a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. What people
believe they become. Truth embraced by the mind
prints goodness on the character and behavior,
and error prints evil. Therefore, we must guard
our minds from doctrinal error and our lives from
ethical evils. But we must do more. To obtain
goodness of character, we must begin with faith,
faith in God, faith in Christ, faith in Gods Word.
We must believe as true everything the Bible
teaches, simply because the Bible, which is the
Word of God, teaches it.
It can be documented from history that wherever
the system of truth of the Westminster Standards
has been embraced, it has produced individuals with
A NOBLE AND DISTINCT type of character.
Thomas Chalmers, the great Scottish preacher
of the early Nineteenth Century observed:
Wherever there has been most Calvinism, men
have been most moral. Consider the superior
men and women of the Huguenots of France,
the Protestant Dutch of Holland, the Puritans of
England, the Covenanters of Scotland, and the
Scotch-Irish of Ulster. The distinct, pure and
noble type of character developed among these
people has never been surpassed in the history of
the world.
This character has been marked by a STRICTNESS
of life and worship which regulates both by the
The Westminster Assmbly
the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON
the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON 13
Authentic Christianity
Word of God. This is understandable in the light
of the fact that all excellence is marked by
strictness. Strictness certainly characterizes
everything that truly represents God. --- Any
pretended exposition of the moral nature and
claims of God which is characterized by looseness,
by that very fact brands itself as false.- Cannon,
pg. 262.
The adherents of the Westminster Standards have
also been distinguished by INTELLIGENCE.
It is a plain fact of history that Calvinism and
ignorance have never dwelt together in unity.
Wherever they have met, one or the other has had
to quit the field. pg. 263.
Those molded by our confessional standards
have also been marked by COURAGE. He
who believes in an Almighty Father, who has
foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, and who
through His overruling providence is preserving
and governing all His creatures, and all their
actions, is made superior to those experiences of
life which cause others to quake and fear.-pg.
264. Faith in a sovereign God of grace makes a
man or a woman a hero.
Adherents of the Westminster Standards have also
had a HIGH REGARD FOR THE NEEDS AND
DUTI ES OF MANKI ND. Honesty, integrity
and all social and domestic virtues have been
developed among them to a degree that is rarely
seen in this selfish and grasping world. Men
may talk as much as they please,
1
says Mr.
Beecher, against the Calvinists, Puritans, and
Presbyterians, but you will find that when they
want to make an investment they have no objection
to Calvinism, Puritanism, or Presbyterianism.
They know that where these systems prevail their
capital may be safely invested.
1
pg. 264.
It is not too much to claim that the Calvinistic
peoples have been marked by a LOVE OF TRUTH
AND J USTI CE, a DEVOTI ON TO DUTY,
an UNSWERVING ALLEGIANCE TO RIGHT,
a PERSONAL UPRIGHTNESS and PURITY of
character, not surpassed by the adherents of any
other creed or system. We may with confidence
maintain that the world has never known a higher
type of stalwart manhood, nor a gentler, purer,
or more lovable womanhood than has prevailed
among those peoples into whose hearts and life
has entered this Calvinistic creed....- Cox, pg.
280.
C. THE IMPACT OF THE WESTMINSTER
STANDARDS ON THE FAMILY
The Westminster Standards have had a
particularly powerful influence on marriage
and family life. One historian has written:
Home, as we conceive it, was the creation of
the Puritan. Certain it is that the ideal Christian
home has been most nearly realized in those
places where the influence of the Westminster
Symbols has been most dominant. --- ...in all the
history of the Puritans there is not an example
of divorce.- Cannon, pg. 265. The Reformed
Faith has constantly emphasized that the Christian
family is our rst defense organization, political
unit, school, judicial system, church and
factory.
2
These Westminster Christians perceived more
clearly than others the Biblical truths that: (1). the
family, rather than the individual, is the basic unit
upon which church and society are built; (2). the
family of the believer is included in the provisions
and promises of Gods gracious covenant; (3). the
children of believing parents have a place in the
church, covenant and kingdom of God. They have
never been content to offer life and salvation to
the individual hearer, but (have) always included
in (their) offer the children whom God has given
(them). No smaller gospel can adequately
express the exceeding riches of redeeming grace;
no smaller gospel can perfectly satisfy the need
of the human soul. That deep yearning of the
soul the gospel answers with the assurance that
as we confidently commit ourselves, so may we
commit our children, into the arms of redeeming
love. This precious feature of our holy religion
the Westminster Standards clearly expound, and I
am not sure but it is their most distinctive glory.-
Cannon, pg. 266.
Wherever the Reformed Faith as expressed in the
2 Two important books on the inuence of the Reformed Faith
on the Family are: When Fathers Ruled: Family Life In Reformation
Europe by Steven Ozment, Harvard University Press, 1983, and The
Puritan Family by Edmund Morgan, Harper and Row, NY, 1966.
the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON 14
Joe Morecraft, III
Westminster Standards has prevailed, homes
and families have been characterized by two
features: FAMI LY DI SCI PLI NE and FAMI LY
WORSHI P. Such features are indigenous
to the Presbyterian soul; and if our beloved old
church ever loses her glory, it will be when the
fires go out on her family altars.- Cannon, pg.
267.
D. THE IMPACT OF THE WESTMINSTER
STANDARDS ON SOCIETY
1. THE SHIELD OF LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR
ALL
Wherever Presbyterianism has been planted,
and has been true to her doctrinal Standards,
she has made a distinct impression upon the
face of society. She has never failed to bless the
state under whose aegis (shield) she has dwelt.-
Cannon, pg. 267. Along with her emphasis on
self-government, family government and church
government, she has emphasized the necessity for
representative, limited, constitutional, Christian
republicanism as essential to liberty and justice
for all. The freest people in the world today must
trace their institutions back through England,
Scotland, the Netherlands, of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, to the Geneva of Calvin;
and the England, the Scotland and the Netherlands
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were
to their hearts core intensely Calvinistic. They
won civil liberty and established responsible
governments because Calvinism had made them
desire to be free, and had fitted them to achieve
and enjoy freedom.- Cox., pg. 281.
2. THE INSTILLING OF SELF-GOVERNMENT
& THE HATRED OF TYRANNY
It was not a general kind of Reformed Faith that
had such an impact upon states and nations;
it was specifically Presbyterianism which had
such an impact. It furnished the people in their
ecclesiastical affairs a pure type of representative
republicanism. It habituated them to self-
government. It trained them to self-restraint. It
taught them independence and self-reliance. It
developed among them a capacity for leadership,
and a power of command which served them
equally as well adapted to the state as to the church.
It stimulated in them a desire for civil liberty. No
people accustomed to govern themselves in one
sphere could ever become reconciled to an
unmixed despotism in the other.- Cox, pg. 28If.
3. THE MODEL & MOTIVE FOR CHRISTIAN
REPUBLICANISM
This Christian republicanism in a church, governed
by elders, elected by the people to represent the
law of Christ, the head of the church, also served
as the pattern for ci vi l government, wi th
i ts democrati cal l y el ected representatives,
whose duty it was to administer the nations
constitutional law, under the headship of Christ,
the Ruler of the kings of the earth, Rev. 1:5.
In the last century, Bancroft, the historian of the
United States, was able to say that Calvinism is the
system which for a century and a half assumed the
guardianship of liberty for the English-speaking
world.- Cox, pg. 297.
4. THE RESISTANCE TO ALL TYRANTS
Westminster Christians have always stood against
all forms of totalitarianism in church and state.
I n the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
these Reformed Christians stood practically
alone in teaching that tyrants were usurpers and
were to be resisted and deposed.- Cox, pg.
285. The Westminster Standards were written
to put down ecclesiastical tyranny represented
in Bishop Laud and High Anglicanism, with
its move toward Rome, and civil tyranny as
represented in King Charles I of England, with his
theory of the di vi ne ri ght of ki ngs. Between
1640 and 1649, the Presbyterians had done
their work. They had overthrown the monarchy,
never, in the sense in which Charles understood
the word, to rise again in England.- Henry White,
Social and Political Condition of Britain at the
Time of the Calling of the Westminster Assembly,
MEMORIAL VOLUME, pg. 28.
5. THE BIRTH OF AMERICA AND THE WAR OF
INDEPENDENCE
It is not an exaggeration to say that it was the
principles of the Westminster Standards, applied
the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON 15
Authentic Christianity
and defended by the adherents of those principles,
which gave birth to the American War of
Independence and this American Republic. Here
the political principles of Calvinism have been
most fully wrought out, and their beneficient
effects most fully realized.- Cox, pg. 294. (At
least, that was true in 1897.) The Scottish
settlers in the province of Ulster, Ireland,
bore the seeds of that principle, (i.e., Christian
republicanism), to our own Appalachian ridges
and foothills. The open Bible, the Westminster
Confession, and the Shorter Catechism taught
them the principle of resistance to kings, and they
formed the bone and sinew of the revolutionary
party that wrought out the independence of the
American colonies.- White, pg. 29.
E. THE IMPACT OF THE WESTMINSTER
STANDARDS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST
CENTURY
3
1. THE HOSTILITY OF OUR AGE TO
REFORMED CHRISTIANITY
We live in an age of anti-christianity, an age of
intensifying hostility toward Reformed Christianity.
The apostasy, and bankruptcy of the American
culutre deepens everyday. Western society is
affluent, highly specialized, undisciplined and
Godless. It is a society becoming more and more
hostile to all the claims of J esus Christ. To such a
society, the Westminster Standards are symbolic
of all that is obscure, irrelevant, primitive and
unworthy of modern man.
2. THE NEED OF THE HOUR: MODIFICATION
OR CLEAR CONFESSION?
What are we to do? Modify our Standards to
suit the objections of the modern, humanistic
world? NO! What we can to is to confess Christ
clearly and relevantly to this increasingly
hostile society. Our confession of Christ must
be clear! We cannot afford to allow society to
misunderstand the claims of Christ with which
we are to confront it. And our confession of
Christ must be RELEVANTrelevant to the
3 This section is based on F. Nigel Lees booklet, THE WEST-
MINSTER CONFESSION AND MODERN SOCIETY, Scottish Re-
formed Fellowship, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1972.
specific needs of twentieth-century, (and twenty-
first century) man.- F. Nigel Lee, pg. 2.
Nothing clarifies our confession of Christ more
effectively and relevantly than the careful exposition
and application of the doctrines, principles, laws,
and worldview of the Westminster Standards.
As an honest study of these standards will
show, the Westminster Confession of Faith, the
Larger and Shorter Catechisms are sufficiently
relevant in their content and emphasis to the
special problems of men and women in the Twenty-
First Century.
Our confession of Christ in modern
society must, without in any way
compromising the unchangeable truths
of Christianity, also take account of
these characteristics of our society. Our
affluent society must be confronted
with the greater afuence of (Reformed)
Christianity to make it realize its own
relative poverty; our societys over-
specialization must be challenged by
(Reformed) Christianitys even greater
capacity for detail yet overriding and
unified life and worldview; we must
confront societys increasing decay with
the benevolent discipline yet perfect
freedom of (Reformed) Christianity;
and by this rich and relevant manner
of confessing Christ, we must show
society the irrelevant poverty of its own
Godless smugness.- Rev. Dr. Nigel
Lee, pg. 4.
II. THE AUTHENTIC CHRISTIANITY OF
THE WESTMINSTER STANDARDS:
BIBLICAL, HISTORICAL CALVINISM
A. THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTER OF THE
REFORMED FAITH (CALVINISM)
1. THE DEFINITION OF CALVINISM
Reformed or Calvinistic Christianity is
Christianity in its purest human expression. I
have my own private opinion that there is no such
thing as preaching Christ and Him crucied, unless
we preach what is nowadays called Calvinism. It is
a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the
the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON 16
Joe Morecraft, III
gospel, and nothing else....- Charles Spurgeon,
quoted in J .I. Packers INTRODUCTION TO
THE DEATH OF DEATH.
The Calvinist is the man who has seen
God, and who, having seen God in His
glory, is filled on the one hand, with a
sense of his own unworthiness to stand
in Gods sight as a creature, and much
more as a sinner, and on the other hand,
with adoring wonder that nevertheless
this God is a God who receives sinners.
He who believes in God without
reserve and is determined that God
shall be God to him, in all his thinking,
feeling, willingin the entire compass
of his life activities, intellectual, moral,
spiritualis, by force of that strictest
of all logic which presides over the
outworking of principles into thought
and life, by the very necessity of the
case, a Calvinist. The Calvinist
is the man who sees God behind all
phenomena and in all that occurs
recognizes the hand of God, working
out His will; who makes the attitude of
the soul to God in prayer its permanent
attitude in all its life-activities; and who
casts himself on the grace of God alone,
excluding every trace of dependence on
self from the whole work of salvation.
The Calvinist is the man who
sees God. Everywhere he sees God in
His mighty stepping; everywhere he
feels the working of His mighty arm, the
throbbing of His mighty heart.- Benjamin
B. Wareld, SELECTED SHORTER
WORKS, Vol. II.
2. THE THREE BASIC TRAITS OF REFORMED
CHRISTIANITY
Reformed Christianity, or Calvinism, is basically
three things:
(1). Pure and mature Theism, (belief in one
God), come to its rights. To the believer in the
living and almighty God, there can be but one
God, of whom, through whom and to whom
are all things, to whom be the glory forever,
Rom. 11:36. Belief in one, almighty Lord God to
be true must be consistent. Insofar as we detract
from Gods glory or Gods sovereignty, we
depart from true Theism. All that Theism, to be
really Theism, must be is already in principle,
Calvinism.
(2). Pure and mature religion at the height of
its conception. Religion is a sense of absolute
dependence on God and reaches the height of
its conception only when this sense of absolute
dependence is complete and all-pervasive in the
thought and feeling of life. But when this stage
is reached we have just Calvinism.- Benjamin B.
Wareld, SELECTED SHORTER WORKS, Vol. II.
Calvinism is the preservation in all our thinking
and living of an attitude of utter dependence on
God which we assume in prayer.
(3). Pure and mature evangelicalism in its
only stable expression. Evangelicalism, in its
best sense, implies sin and salvation from sin by
grace through faith in Christ. Evangelicalism
is religion at the height of i ts conception
as it forms itself in the hearts of sinners.
I t means utter dependence upon God for
salvation. It implies therefore, need of salvation
and a profound sense of this need, and utter
dependence on God for its satisfaction. Its
type is found in the publican who smote his breast
and cried, God, be merciful to me a sinner!
1
No
question there of saving himself, or of helping
God to save him, or of opening the way to God
to save him. No question of anything but, I am a
sinner, and all my hope is in God my Savior!
1
Now
this is Calvinism, not something like Calvinism
or an approach to Calvinism, but just Calvinism
in its vital manifestation. Wherever this attitude of
heart is found and is given expression in direct
and unambiguous terms, there is Calvinism. -
Calvinism is just Christianity. Calvinism is the
casting of the soul wholly on the free grace of
God alone, to whom alone belongs salvation.-
Benjamin B. Warfield, SELECTED SHORTER
WORKS, Vol. II.
B. THE HEART-DELIGHT IN THE
WESTMINSTER STANDARDS
The Westminster Standards are the product of
the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON 17
Authentic Christianity
intellect working only under the impulse of the
heart, and must be a monument of the religious life.
This is true of all the great creedal statements,
and pre-eminently true of the Westminster
Standards. Their authors were men of learning
and philosophic grasp; but above all of
piety. Their interest was not in speculative
construction, but in the protection of their
flocks from deadly error...I n proportion as our
own religious life ows in a deep and broad stream,
in that proporti on wi l l we f i nd spi ri tual
del i ght i n the Westmi nster Standards.-
W.G.T. Shedd quoted in TO GLORIFY AND
ENJ OY GOD, pg. 61.
III. THE USES OF A CONFESSION OF
FAITH AND CATECHISMS
A. A LANDMARK PRESERVING THE
CHURCHS MATURITY
A confession of faith is a landmark used to mark
and preserve the churchs grown in knowledge of
revealed truth.
The signicance of the Westminster Standards as a
creed is to be found in the three facts that: historically
speaking, they are the final crystalization of the
elements of evangelical religion, after the conicts
of sixteen hundred years; scientically speaking,
they are the richest and most precise and best
guarded statement ever penned of all that enters
into evangelical religion and of all that must be
safeguarded if evangelical religion is to persist
in the world; and, religiously speaking, they
are a notable monument of spiritual religion.-
Benjamin B. Wareld, SELECTED SHORTER
WRITINGS OF BENJ AMIN B. WARFIELD,
Vol, II, pg. 660, (Nutley, N.J .: Presbyterian and
Reformed Publishing Co., 1973 reprint).
No creed of the Christian Church is comparable
to that of Westminster in respect of the skill with
which the fruits of fifteen centuries of Christian
thought have been preserved, and at the same
time examined anew and claried in the light
of that fuller understanding of Gods Word which
the Holy Spirit has imparted.- J ohn Murray, The
Importance and Relevance of the Westminster
Confession, in COLLECTED WRITINGS OF
J OHN MURRAY, Vol. I, pg. 317, (Edinburgh,
Scotland: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1976).
B. A PROTECTION FOR THE CHURCH
FROM FALSE DOCTRINE
It is a protection for the church from false and
unbiblical teaching. It can be used as a test of
orthodoxy for preachers, teachers and officers in
the church.
4
C. A BASIS FOR CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
It is a basis for Christian fellowship and unity so that
Christians may be able to live and work together
harmoniously. In Ephesians 2-4, Christian unity
is unity in the truth.
5
4 When a man i s ordai ned to an offi ce i n the Re-
formed Presbyteri an Church in the United States, he is required
to subscribe strictly and fully to the Westminster Standards with the
vow: Do you sincerely receive and adopt the Confession of Faith
and the Catechisms of this Church as containing the system
of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures...? Notice that the
vow requires the adoption of the Confession and Catechisms,
and not just the system of doctrine. It holds that the ordinand,
(the one being ordained), is subscribing to nothing more or less
than the entirety of the Confession and Catechisms as containing
the system of doctrine taught in the Scriptures. This is not to
say that the full subscriptionist does not recognize that some of
the teachings of the Confession and Catechisms are not more foun-
dational than others, but it is to say that the full subscriptionist
believes that in professing that the Confession and Catechisms
are his confession, that he is subscribing to all the doctrines in
the Confession and Catechisms. Note that full subscription
does not require subscription in terms of adopting every word
of the Confession and Catechisms, but rather in terms of every
doctrine or teaching of the Confession and Catechisms. When
the full subscriptionist insists on the fact that our subscription
includes all the doctrines in the Confessional Standards, he is
not insisting on every statement regarding each of these doc-
trines, but rather that each of the areas of teaching dealt with by
the Standards is included in his subscription.- Morton H. Smith,
THE CASE FOR FULL SUBSCRIPTION TO THE WESTMIN-
STER STANDARDS IN THE PRESBY TERI AN CHURCH
I N AMERI CA, (Greenvi l l e, S.C.: Greenville Presbyterian
Theological Seminary Press, 1992), pgs. 7,19,20. Loose subscrip-
tion maintains that we subscribe to a system of doctrine, which is
not specically dened, but which is contained in the Confession and
Catechisms of the Church. This is similar to the liberal interpreta-
tion that the Bible contains the Word of God. The question
is whether the Church believes the Confession in its entirety con-
tains the system of doctrine taught in the Bible, or whether only a
part of the Confession contains what is taught in the Bible. To
allow loose or system subscription is to open the door for the
deformation of the Church.- Morton H. Smith, pgs. 8, 9, 15.
5 The Westminster Standards were not intended to be a
test of church membership. The requirement for church mem-
bership is a credible profession of faith in Christ. But, the hold-
ing of office in Reformed and Presbyterian Churches does require
of the ofce-holder subscription to those standards. Furthermore,
those who are considering churches that subscribe to the West-
minster Standards ought to familiarize themselves with them and
ask themselves whether they would be happy and remain teachable in
a church that teaches such doctrines.
the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON 18
Joe Morecraft, III
D. A TOOL OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
It is an instrument of instruction in the Christian
education of the church. It provides a Biblical
philosophy of education and a basis for unity
of curriculum.
E. AN EVANGELISTIC TOOL
I t is the churchs profession of faith to the
world, and as such it is an evangelistic tool.
IV. THE BIBLICAL BASIS FOR A
CONFESSION OF FAITH
A. THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH AS
THE CUSTODIAN OF THE TRUTH
The Church of the Living God is the pillar and
support of the truth, I Timothy 3:15. As such,
it is to be the custodian, witness, defender and
interpreter of the truth of God to the church and
the world. It is to guard the truth from corruption
and mixture, I Tim.6:20-21; II Tim. 1:12-14,
and it is to teach that unmi xed truth to i ts
members. Furthermore, the church has been
commissioned by Christ to be His authoritative
witness to the world, Acts 1:8; Phil. 2:15-16, and
His authoritative protestor against the worlds
unbelief and evil, Eph. 5:11f.
This office of custodian, teacher, witness and
protestor of the truth of Gods Word has usually
been discharged by the Church in the creation of
confessions of faith and statements of doctrine,
which not only were declarations of the gospel,
but which also defended of the faith and bore
witness against false doctrine and heresy. When
the church confesses her faith in written form
faithfully and relevantly, that confession will
always serve a twofold purpose: it will be a
witness to the truth of Gods Word and a protest
against disbelief and error regarding that Word.
Therefore, it is out of this duty of the church to
confess her faith clearly, faithfully and relevantly
to the world, to defend that faith and to instruct
her members in it, that is derived her authority to
declare her faith to its members and to the world
by means of creeds, confessions and catechisms.
B. THE CONFESSIONAL NATURE OF THE
CHURCH IN THE O.T. AND N.T.
The Church in both the Old Testament and the
New Testament is a confessional (confessing)
Church called by her Head to confess what she
believes, Deuteronomy 26; Matthew 16:13f; Romans
10:9. In fact, it was upon Peters confession that
J esus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God,
that J esus said He would build His Church, Mat.
16:13f. Furthermore, every great period of Spirit-
produced revival and reformation in the Church
has produced a great creed or confession
The Apostles Creed, The Nicene Creed, The
Heidelberg Catechism, The Belgic Confession,
The Canons of Dordt, The Westminster Confession
of Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms.
C. THE AUTHORITY OF A CONFESSION OF
FAITH
The authority of the Churchs confession of faith
is inferior, secondary and subordinate to the Bible;
and binding in so far as, and no further than, (it is)
a declaration or exhibition of the meaning of
the Word of God.- J ames Bannerman, Vol. I,
pg. 305. The Bible is our ONLY infallible rule of
faith and practice, and our church confessions
and catechisms are HELPS in understanding
and applying the one rule of faith and practice.
Our Divinely-produced creed is the Bible, and
the Church-produced creed is the Churchs
interpretation of that Divine creed. Therefore,
the Churchs creed is derived from, depends
upon, and is subordinate to the Bible, and her
creed may never be placed above or on par
with the Bible. The Scriptures, as the inspired
word of God, rightly sit upon the throne in all
matters pertaining to religious belief, conduct
and worship. The Bible is the fixed,
unchanging and infallible rule, while the creed
may be regarded as the secondary, subordinate,
temporary standard of faith and life.- Francis R.
Beattie, THE PRESBYTERIAN STANDARDS, pg.
31, (Richmond, Va., The Presbyterian Committee
of Publication, 1896).
The Churchs creed may not be separated from
the Bible. The Bible is the inerrant truth of God,
the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON 19
Authentic Christianity
the Churchs creeds, confessions and catechisms are
the accepted interpretations of that Divine truth.
The Bible is interpreted by the confession and
catechisms of the church. The real standard
is not the confession or the catechisms, but
the Bible as interpreted by the confession and
catechisms.
D. THE OBJECTIONS TO A CONFESSION OF
FAITH
FIRST OBJ ECTION: the imposition of a human
creed or confession upon church ofcers or
members denies the sole supremacy of the Bible as
the only source of the churchs law and doctrine.
ANSWER: Creeds and confessions are inferior,
fallible, and subordinate standards, and are
binding on us only in so far as, and no further
than, they are accurate interpretations and
declarations of the true meaning of the written
Word of God. The secondary standards must
remain ever open to the judgment of the Word of
God. When viewed in this light, they cannot be
charged with usurping that place which is due
only to the Bible.
SECOND OBJ ECTION: the use of subordinate
human standards is adding to the Word of God.
ANSWER: The Bible was, in fact, given to
us as a revelation from God to be a complete,
perfect and all-sufficient standard of truth in
doctrine and ethics, and its language is clear,
full and definite; and to it may nothing every be
added or subtracted. But the creeds, confessions and
catechisms of Historical, Orthodox and Reformed
Christianity are simply declarations of the truths
of the Biblical revelation, and nothing more; and
therefore, are not open to this charge. I n
fact these written doctrinal standards must be
considered as having a similar character to the
exposition and application of the Word of God in
the faithful preaching of the Word by any minister
of the gospel. The confession is no more guilty
of adding to the Word of God than the sermon.
Both profess to be the Churchs interpretation of
the mind of God revealed in His written Word.
They both claim to be believed because they
declare the truth of God, and no further than
they declare it.- J ames Bannerman, Vol. I, pg.
313.
THIRD OBJ ECTION: the use and imposition
of subordinate standards of faith restricts the
Christian liberty of church members. ANSWER:
If the adoption and imposition of subordinate
standards of faith on the churchs ofcers and
members were the imposing of new doctrines to be
believed and new laws of conduct, previously not
obligatory, and not based on the Word of God,
then the charge of restricting Christian liberty
would be established. But if the doctrines and
laws of these subordinate standards are nothing
more than the declaration of the truths of the Bible,
then they do not restrict the liberty of Christians
any further than the Bible already restricts it.
In fact, rather than depriving the Church of her
Christian liberty, faithful and true confessions and
catechisms protect that liberty. The doctrine
that forbids the use of subordinate standards
in the Church, carried out to its legitimate result,
must throw down all the barriers that protect its
Christian fellowship, and leave its territory a
defenseless prey to the alien and the foe.- J ames
Bannerman, Vol. I, pgs. 313f.
V. THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF
THE WESTMINSTER STANDARDS
A. THE DATE AND PLACE OF THE
WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY
The Westminster Assembly convened on J uly 1, 1643
in Westminster Abbey in London, England, and
met in 1,163 numbered sessions in the J erusalem
Chamber of the Abbey until February 22,
1649. I t continued to meet irregularly as a
examining committee for ministers and ministerial
candidates, until it finally was disbanded, its last
minutes dated March 25, 1652. The Westminster
Assembly was unique. Never before or since
have so many devoted, competent Christian
scholars gathered together for so long a period
of time to define so many crucial teachings of the
faith so well.- J ay Adams, TO GLORIFY AND
ENJ OY GOD, pg. 251, published by The Banner of
Truth Trust.
B. THE MEN OF THE WESTMINSTER
ASSEMBLY
The Seventeenth Century is the decisive century
the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON 20
Joe Morecraft, III
in English history, and the meeting of the
Westminster Assembly is the most important
event of that century. It was comprised of
learned, godly, and judicious divines, (i.e.,
mi ni sters and teachers), from Engl and and
I rel and, together wi th representatives of the
Scottish Church, and advisers from both Houses
of Parliament, numbering some 150 men in all, all of
whom were Calvinists, and, with few exceptions,
Presbyterians. The expectation in the minds and
hearts of most of those who gathered at Westminster
Abbey on 1 J uly 1643, was that the Lord God
expected ALL of Britain to live in obedience to
him and that the task of those there gathered was
to assist in creating a national ecclesiastical
establishment which moved toward that
end.- Samuel Logan, in TO GLORIFY AND
ENJ OY GOD: A COMMEMORATION OF THE
350TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WESTMINSTER
ASSEMBLY, pg. 32, (Edinburgh, Scotland: The
Banner of Truth Trust, 1994).
The great Puritan, Richard Baxter, said of this
Assembly: The divines there congregated were
men of eminent learning and godliness and
ministerial abilities and fidelity; and, being
not worthy to be one of them myself, I may the
more freely speak that truth which I know, even
in the face of malice and envy, that as far as I
am able to judge by the information of all history
of that kind, and by other evidence left to us, the
Christian world since the days of the apostles had
never a synod, (i.e., ofcial assembly), of more
excellent divines (taking one thing with another)
than this Synod and the Synod of Dort, (1618-
1619, A.D. in the Netherlands).- Quoted by T.D.
Witherspoon in MEMORIAL VOLUME OF THE
WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY 1647-1897, pg.
82, (Richmond, Va.: The Presbyterian Committee
of Publication, 1897).
And so, as we contemplate the lives and characters
of these illustrious men, whose lot was cast in the
midst of the storms of political and ecclesiastical
revolution, who heroically bared their breast to
the tempest, receiving in full shock, and hurling
back in defiance the waves of despotic absolutism
in the state, and hierarchical oppression in the
church, their majestic forms loom up before us
in the thick of the conict for the defence of the
civil and religious liberties which we enjoy, and
there is a majesty and a sublimity in the rugged
grandeur of their natures that overawe us. We
uncover our heads with reverence before them,
and our souls thrill with emotions of gratitude,
admiration, and love, as we remember that it
was because they stood breast-deep amidst the
waves, and maintained their position, inflexible
and unawed, under all the fury of the tempest, that we
are today in the midst of a Presbyterianism, which
under the soft sunlight of Gods truth, covers
all its fair fields with verdure, bids the fragile fern
unfold upon the barren cliffs its graceful fronds,
and fills the world with the delicate aroma of
its flowers.-T.D. Witherspoon, MEMORIAL
VOLUME, pgs. 84-85. (These words were written
in 1897!)