Should we change the Westminster Confession of Faith?

Transcription

1 Should we change the Westminster Confession of Faith? Every now and then in the life of Presbyterian churches the idea crosses people's minds that it would be a good thing to change the Westminster Confession of Faith in one way or another. We devoutly hope that such a thing could never happen in our own beloved Free Church of Scotland, but it may do us no harm to look at the subject at this time. Let us consider the Westminster Confession and its importance to our Free Church of Scotland by looking at three basic questions: 1. Why should we not change the Confession? 2. What is lost when churches change the confession? 3. Why is the Confession important for us all today? 1. Why should we not change the Westminster Confession? A variety of different reasons can be suggested, and in the past have been suggested, as to why a Presbyterian church should seriously think of altering the Confession. We look at some of these suggested reasons here: 'Our Church should be based only on the Bible and not on any human document' This is a point of view which can be made to sound very pious and reasonable because it is based on a half-truth. It is of course absolutely correct to say that our faith as Christians is to be based only on the Bible. It is certainly true to affirm that churches are to confess and teach only what is found in the Word of God. However, this point of view is not quite fair either to the Westminster Confession or to the Bible itself. Whilst it is true to say that we are not to base our faith on any human document, it is not true to say that churches are not to have brief summaries of the teaching of the Bible for the benefit and guidance of their people. The Westminster Confession is not, and does not pretend to be, a document to be believed in place of the Bible. Rather it claims to be a convenient summary of the doctrine of the Bible. It is a short explanation of what the Bible teaches. Let us put it very plainly. The Confession of Faith is a statement which gives us the meaning of the Bible. It is an explanation of the Bible's message. So, to call it a 'human document' is misleading. It is a very accurate exposition of many of the central truths of the Bible. 'The Confession of Faith is one of those things that belongs to the past and so is only a piece of tradition' This is another objection to the Westminster Confession. Again, it has an element of truth in it. The Confession was written some three hundred and fifty years ago in Puritan times. In that sense it belongs to the past and could be represented for that reason as a mere sacred relic. How do we answer this? First, it has to be remembered that a thing is not necessarily wrong, bad or out-of-date merely because it is old. Some old things are of very great importance to us today. Many of our basic laws are old and yet they are still essential because human society has not entirely altered with the passing of the centuries. People are still people. Right and wrong are still right and wrong. 1

2 The fact that we have electricity and telephones today obviously does not make all the laws of the past obsolete or ridiculous. Second, we need to remember that the Christian faith does not change with the times. It is a wonderful fact that the Christian faith is the faith 'once delivered to the saints' (Jude 3). It is not a message that alters when other things alter. The Puritans had the same Bible as we have. To say that the Westminster Confession needs serious revision is to suggest that truth grows old and needs to be patched, like an old piece of cloth. But that is not so. It is as modern in its content as the day it was first written. 'But this modern generation needs to have the old truths of the gospel presented to it in a modern style and the Westminster Confession is not in modern style'. This kind of objection has something to commend it at first sight. The generation in which we live is notorious for its rejection of the old values of religion and morality which our grandfathers accepted. A new era began in the 1960s. It drove a wedge between young people and their elders. It has at the same time led people to concentrate on the here-and-now, to the neglect of the past. The coming of this new era into church circles was slower than into unchurched sectors of modern society. The Bible, preaching and the catechism protected church families from this new anti-god attitude. But thirty years on, it has come extensively into church families as well. However much we regret this, it means that the preacher today must take account of the influences which are touching young people who come to church. It is obvious at a glance that the world of the Westminster Confession is poles apart from the world of today. What then is the point of holding on to this old Confession when it appears to be so irrelevant to the culture of the modern world? The answer in very simple. The modern preacher must by all means strive to communicate effectively with his generation. But he dare not alter, even in one degree, the content of the gospel which he preaches. The modern preacher may use contemporary words, phrases and illustrations. But what he actually teaches is no different from what the Puritans or the Reformers or the Apostles preached in their day. It is to be 'the whole counsel of God' (Acts 20:27). The old message can and does save the sinner today just as it saved the sinner in past ages. By all means clothe the gospel in a style which is up-to-date. But do not change the gospel itself in its substance or essence. What the Westminster Confession does is to define the content of biblical Christianity. Since that does not alter, neither does the Confession. One thing more. When a sinner is born again, he or she thirsts for truth and for holiness. As a newborn soul grows in grace it comes to recognise and to love increasingly 'the truth which is according to godliness' (Titus 1:1). It is a fact today that all over the world and in many, many countries Christians are coming to understand and to love the doctrines of grace through reading the best Christian books. That is bound to happen when people are truly saved. 2. What then is lost when churches start to change the Westminster Confession of Faith? Let us not forget that over the years there have been many attempts to change the Westminster Confession or else to relax its hold over ministers' consciences. It was seriously considered in the Church of Scotland in the late eighteenth century, when the Moderates were in control. It was discussed in the American Presbyterian churches in the 1890s, when Liberalism was beginning to bite. It was achieved in that country in the 1920s, when the great Dr J. Gresham Machen was put out of the church as a 'die-hard traditionalist'. Still more to the point, it was attempted in the old pre-1900 Free Church of Scotland in the 1890s by the introduction of a notorious Declaratory Act in

3 On every occasion when the church has tried to alter the Westminster Confession, something important has been threatened or else actually lost. What things are lost? The magnificent biblical view of God What conversion does is to open people's eyes to see God as holy, sovereign and glorious. Conversion means turning from sin to God. Sin has blinded mankind to God. The Bible is therefore given to us to restore our knowledge of God. It informs us that God is all-seeing, sinhating, holy and gracious. The Confession sets out a view of God which is magnificent precisely because it is so biblical. Wherever the Confession is preached, taught and loved, it produces a type of Christian character which is wonderful. Christians who feed on the teachings of the Confession are full of the fear of God and love of Christ. They have a godly fear of offending God. They are scrupulous in the keeping of his commandments and they aim to live to his glory. In consequence they love one another because they know how much Christ has loved them. When the Confession of Faith is altered it is always altered 'downwards'. Every attempt at 'creedal revision', to use the technical term for it, results in a weaker and a less biblical view of God. Those who revise the Confession always do this. They tone down the sovereignty of God, by tampering with Predestination, Election and Reprobation. They tone down the justice and holiness of God by over-stressing his 'love'. And they tone down the demands on the believer to be holy in this life by softening the claims of the Moral Law and suggesting to the Christian that he should make a greater use of his 'Christian freedom'. So, one thing that is lost when the Confession is revised, is outstanding Christian godliness. Great saints like Knox, Rutherford, the Erskines and McCheyne are ignored. Their books are not read. New Christian heroes become popular. But they are seldom, if ever, to be compared with the great saints of the past. The Puritans and Covenanters become now disliked. People pay a grudging lip-service to their eminent leaders of past days. But their real heroes are usually worldly Christians, who are felt to be more comfortable to live with. A second thing which is lost is a deep, practical interest in Christian Theology. In the best ages of the Christian church theology is loved and talked about day and night by the people of God. The church's ministers are to be found reading and meditating on the great truths of the faith. Calvin, Owen, Boston, Edwards and Spurgeon are the constant study of preachers and they labour to bring the old truths of Scripture before their congregations with the same clarity and fulness as did these weighty divines of old. In a word, the people of God live to learn about God. It is their pleasure, their relaxation and their ambition. Other things are important only relatively. Truth felt powerfully in the heart is what they live for first. In a word, Christians in their true character, live to glorify and enjoy God both here and hereafter. This, it need hardly be said, is precisely the teaching and the religion of the Westminster Confession and Catechisms. These documents are a compendium of biblical religion. However, when the Confession of Faith is revised, it is invariably in a day when people in churches have lost interest in theological study and discussion. Experience of God's grace in their lives grow into matters that are not talked about. Truths are admitted with a nod of the head but they do not cause the heart to burn. At such times ministers are inclined to put the emphasis on other things rather than on Christian doctrine. The idea creeps in that the church should try to win the world by becoming as like it as it dare. Theological reading goes out. Theological discussion is out. Something lighter and easier takes their place. 3

4 Thirdly, when the Confession is threatened with revision it seems always to happen that the Christian church loses its good order and its spiritual beauty. There is great power in the witness of a pure, holy, truth-loving church. Where members are spiritual, where worship is devout, where preaching is theological and yet also practical, where discipline is sound - there is God in the midst. Such a congregation is a testimony to the reality of the gospel. Even the unconverted have to admit that there is a power to be felt in it. This must be so, because men do not deny themselves the pleasures of this life unless they are under the supernatural influence of God's grace. Worldliness is what all sinners want. To find a company of holy people who are prepared to take up the Cross of Christ and to put God first is to find a place where God is truly present and at work. Sadly, it normally happens that revision of the Confession coincides in history with decline in the purity and power of congregations. It was so in eighteenth-century Scotland. It was so in America in the 1920s. It will probably always be so because a desire to revise the Confession is normally only found in men who feel uncomfortable with its theology and its high expectation of spirituality. 3. We may ask: Why is the Confession of Faith important for us today? The Confession of Faith is most important for us today as the Free Church of Scotland because it states very fully what it is that we believe and affirm as a Church. The Free Church in not, of course, the only church or even the only Reformed and Evangelical church in the land. We are happy to recognise churches which differ from us in some less important doctrines. It is inevitable that churches will believe and affirm only what they believe to be the teaching of God's Word. Not all true Christians in this life see eye to eye on all points of doctrine and practice. By our adoption of the Westminster Confession we do not unchurch other Christians who can make a credible profession of faith in Christ but who feel they must differ from us in some of the things which they believe and teach. However, the Free Church, by her adoption of the Westminster Confession in 1843, and since then to the present day, states plainly, openly and honestly to all men what the articles of her belief are. It is the manifesto of her theology. It is the constitution of the Church. By that term is meant that, so long as she keeps to this standard she is true to herself. If she should depart from this standard she would automatically cease to be the Free Church. By changing her Confession she would have become a different church. If anyone doubts the correctness of this statement let him look at our Practice of the Free Church of Scotland (1995 Edition) published by the Knox Press. The section on Historical Documents abounds with references to the idea that the Free Church's constitution is based on the Westminster Confession. Take one instance out of many: 'it in an essential doctrine of this Church, and a fundamental principle in its constitution, as set forth in the Confession of Faith thereof, in accordance with the Word and law of the most holy God...' (p.122). These words are part of the famous Claim, Declaration and Protest of 1842, approved of by all our General Assemblies from that day to this. Therefore, if the Confession were ever to be changed, it would inevitably mean that the Free Church had changed. It must not be thought that this Confession is an obstacle to gaining converts to the church's membership. Those who become members of the Free Church need only make a credible profession of faith in Christ. No one needs to swear to all the Confession in order to become a member. At the same time, all men who become ministers, professors, elders and deacons must swear publicly and solemnly in the presence of God that they believe the teachings of this Confession. It is in this way that our Church endeavours to keep herself sound in her faith and consistent to her constitution from generation to generation. At the appointment of every new deacon, elder, minister or professor, therefore, certain Questions are read out to which the 4

5 candidate must respond. Among them is one to this effect: 'Do you sincerely own and believe the whole doctrine of the Confession of Faith... to be the truths of God, contained in the Scriptures of the Old and Now Testaments; and do you own the whole doctrine therein contained as the confession of your faith?' (The Practice, p.151). When any office-bearer has affirmed his faith in this way he is then required by our Church to sign his name to what he has just professed. This action is termed 'Signing the Formula'. The precise words include at the beginning this statement: 'I do hereby declare, that I do sincerely own and believe the whole doctrine contained in the Confession of Faith... to be the truths of God; and I do own the same as the confession of my faith'. It sometimes happens that ministers or elders later change their minds about what they once professed to believe at their Ordination. When that happens they ought in all honesty to inform their Presbytery, who, if eventually necessary, may need to remove them from office. No office-bearer who has ceased to believe in the Confession ought to stay in office but ought honourably to lay down his duties and return to the status of being a church-member without any official position in his church. This goes equally for all office-bearers. What ought not to happen is that any minister, professor or elder continue in his office when he has secretly stopped believing what he swore to uphold at his Ordination. To do otherwise is to act dishonestly and dishonourably. To put matters in this way is not to say that the Confession of Faith is on a level of inspiration with the Bible itself. No one pretends that the Confession is other than a wonderful theological document written by men of God in the past. No one should suppose that the Confession deals with every possible point of theology or answers every possible error which may ever come up in the life of the Church of Christ to the end of time. To deal with such issues as these it has been necessary in all ages of the Church of Christ to write books explaining or else refuting different points of doctrine. But our point here is that it is neither necessary nor desirable for the church to re-write her Confession of Faith. The Confession, secondly, is important for us today because it anchors us securely to the Church of Christ in the Past and joins us to many other churches in the present. We must not despise the past. Old is not the same as out-of-date. A thing is not necessarily good for being new. There are novelties in the religious world of today which are not an improvement on the past but rather a big step downwards. In matters of faith, 'new' often means worse, not better. That is not surprising because the great ages of the church are in the past, so far as Great Britain is concerned. We must not idealise the past, but we cannot pretend that the church's outlook today in Scotland is anywhere as good as it was at the Disruption, say, or earlier in this century. Of course, we hope for still greater days in the future! The Confession reminds us that the church can be strong and evangelistically powerful without any worldly trappings or contrivances. The church in this country did not become the force it was through gimmicks or human devices, but because it was pure, holy, sound and Spirit-filled. The Confession is a deep book, but it has been loved and read by Christians of a humble station in life as well as by intellectuals and academics. It is no small blessing to possess as a church the very Confession of Faith which was loved by the best men in our nation's history indeed by the best men in the history of many nations. It is a comfort to know that eminently spiritual men like Charles Hodge and B.B. Warfield of America had a profound love for the same Confession of Faith as we have in our own beloved Church today. It is good to know too that the same doctrines which we profess are professed in churches from Australia to Brazil and from Korea to Canada. The Confession in an international document. It binds many thousands together. 5

6 Thirdly and lastly, the Westminster Confession is important to us because it provides exactly the kind of sum of Christian truth that is needed in the world today. We live in a confused age in which time is not enough clarity of thought or accuracy of definition. Many people are content to live with only rather vague and hazy conceptions of doctrine. But the Westminster Confession is a perfect cure for vagueness. It abounds with clear, full, accurate statements of truth. It pierces the mists, dispels the confusion, clarifies the great central issues of our Christian faith. We shall doubtless be told that to write in the above way is unfashionable and unwelcome. So be it. The gospel which we preach was never a welcome message in this sinful world. We shall perhaps have it pointed out to us that we cannot possibly believe any longer in Creation in Six Days; in the eternal Reprobation of some sinners to eternal punishment; in hell-fire, etc., etc. We shall be told that we cannot be so unkind as to call the pope the 'man of sin' or antichrist of the Scriptures (2 Thessalonians 2). Let those who sincerely want answers to such questions study the Scripture passages which refer to them in the footnotes to the Confession. Let them read the most reliable books by authors old and new on all of these subjects. We are convinced that if they do so humbly and prayerfully they will return to the belief and conviction of our Church in her best ages, that the Confession of Faith needs no revision and no correction. What we do desperately need in the Free Church today, as in most other churches, is a mighty spiritual revival from the Holy Spirit. Along with that we need a baptism of power in all our pulpits and a fresh unction of godliness in all our lives. A revision of the Westminster Confession is, in fact, just about the last thing we need. M Roberts