After nearly 400 years of service, the Westminster Confession of Faith continues to provide Reformed and Presbyterian churches around the world with a brilliant summary of the major teachings of Scripture. But how is it that this document, drawn from such a different age, has remained just as relevant to the Church today?
As we explore this question, let us consider nine essential elements of the Confession by which the 17th century Reformed Church stands shoulder to shoulder with the 21st century church and those to come.
1. The Westminster Confession was designed as a doctrinal compass to maintain the biblical courses of the Church towards the truth, even when it is affected by error and division. The civil war had thrown the Church of England into political, social and ecclesiastical turmoil. As a first step toward rebuilding the church, parliament convened a national assembly of clergy to advise on biblical guidelines for doctrine, worship, and government. Between 1643 and 1648, the Westminster Assembly of Divines created six separate documents to re-equip the church, but of all of them, the Confession of Faith was key. This document expressed the mind of the church regarding the truths of Scripture and combined the worship and government documents into a unified working system.
2. From its beginnings, the Confession was subordinated to the Word of God. In writing the Confession of Faith, the assembly remained passionately committed to the Reformation phrase, Sola scriptura: Scripture alone has the final authority in all areas of faith and life. In fact, the Confession statement “Of the Holy Scriptures” is the first and longest chapter of the document. Scripture is declared inspired, inerrant, sufficient, understandable, and the supreme judge of all disputes. Throughout the work of the assembly, members were bound by oath to affirm only those propositions supported by Scripture. Reflecting this commitment to the Word, the 33 chapters of the Confession are packed with more than 4,000 verses.
In the Westminster Confession, Scripture is declared inspired, inerrant, sufficient, understandable, and the supreme judge of all disputes.
3. By presenting the fundamental truths of Scripture, the Confession followed a complete and unified system of faith, which goes back to the Apostles’ Creed. In fact, among the main Protestant confessions of the Reformation (Augsburg, Belgian, French, Second Helvetic Confession), not only did they have in common the main truths of the Scriptures, but the doctrines were classified in the same categories: faith in God Y duty to god. Following the creeds that preceded it, the Westminster Assembly carefully preserved this doctrinal division of faith and service, a distinction the Smaller Catechism presented most expressively as “what man is to believe concerning God” and “the duties that God imposes on man.
4. In its opening chapters, the Confession represents the heart of Reformed orthodoxy and historic Christianity. Here the doctrines of faith emerge in three parts: the creative work of God and the fall of man (chs. 1-6), the work of Christ as Redeemer (chs. 7-8), and the work of the Holy Spirit in applying redemption (chs. 9-19).
5. The remainder of the Confession (chs. 20-33) describes the believer’s responsibility to serve God, a service that encompasses our neighbor, the state and the church. However, the church is the main place where we serve God. Moving through chapters 25-31, the Confession develops the doctrine of the church, the communion of saints, the sacraments, and the far-reaching scope of church discipline. At the culmination of the life of service to God of the saints is the entrance to the glorified church, described by the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment (chs. 32-33).
6. “Of Christian Liberty and Freedom of Conscience” affirms how the individual believer’s conscience is free to serve Christ alone. But this freedom of conscience is also subject to the legitimate civil and ecclesiastical authorities instituted by Christ. Balancing the various God-ordained authorities over conscience proved to be one of the assembly’s greatest challenges in crafting the Confession, especially as it faced increasingly autonomous parishioners and the claims of competing civil and ecclesiastical authorities.
7. The Confession offers a superlative platform for expressing consensus on the doctrines of Scripture and build unity within the church at large. When the Westminster Assembly worked to rebuild the church in the 17th century, England, like Scotland and many parts of the Continent, recognized only one church, making unity a social and ecclesiastical imperative. Today, although multiple denominations have replaced the one-church model of the Reformation, the Confession retains its place in fostering unity within and between Reformed and Presbyterian churches throughout the world.
8. Within each of these nine essential elements of the Confession lies the centrality of the church of Christ. Guided solely by Scripture, the Confession provides a doctrinal anchor that expresses the breadth of faith within the framework of the historic church. The saints are carefully guided to render their fullest service to God, especially within the visible church, where they are built toward unity in the one faith. In fact, although the Confession can be seen to have involved all the great solos of the Reformation, it stood out in advancing the “forgotten solo” of single ecclesiathe church alone.
While the Confession can be seen to have involved all the great solas of the Reformation, it stood out in advancing the ‘forgotten sola’ of sola eclessia, the sola church.
9. The Confession was not designed to serve as a doctrinal storehouse, but to be communicated to each member of each church. The Larger and Shorter Catechisms were composed for this purpose. Thus, when writing their catechisms, the assembly remained “attentive to the Confession.” But this approach meant more than just replicating content; the catechisms effectively conveyed the purposes of confession, for as the principles of faith, life, and church were taught and memorized, they built unity in the one faith from scratch.
Originally posted on . Translated by Team Coalition.