A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. The Rev. John P. Vaudry is the minister of St. Andrew’s Church, Wingham, Ontario.
It was my privilege recently to attend a service of Induction in a town not far from our home. A congregation thankful that its pulpit was now filled and hoping for a long and happy relationship with the new minister witnessed his installation by the Presbytery. 1 wonder how many of those present that night listened carefully to the Preamble and Questions put to the new minister. The preamble mentioned the “written Word of God, testifying to Christ the living Word” as “the canon of all doctrine, by which He rules our faith and life.” It went on to speak of the subordinate standards, the principal one being the Westminster Confession of Faith. Then one of the Questions asked the minister to declare his acceptance of the church’s standards.
But it is not only ministers who are to declare their assent to the Westminster standards. Elders are also asked at their Ordination, “Do you accept the subordinate standards of this Church and do you promise to be guided thereby in fostering Christian belief, worship and service among the people?” Now, it is no secret that many ministers are less than enamoured with the Confession of Faith. They regard it as outdated, rigid, over scholastic or simply false. They never refer to it unless it is to criticize or condemn. How these clergy can give such short shrift to the standards they have solemnly vowed to uphold is for them to explain. When it comes to elders, one suspects that although they have all affirmed their acceptance of the Confession and vowed to be guided by it, few have ever read it.
Now it is my belief that those who came before us were wise in choosing the Westminster Confession as the official Presbyterian creed. Our standards were formulated with great care by the pastor-theologians of the Westminster Assembly, the majority of whom had more knowledge of Scripture than most of us will ever have.
The Confession which they finally hammered out was a masterpiece of biblical doctrine summarizing the main teachings of Scripture with a remarkable succinctness and precision. No wonder our standards are the envy of others. For example, not many years after the Westminster Confession was produced, the Baptists in England adopted it as their confession (with a few changes on Baptism and Church Government, of course!). I also remember some lectures I once attended by an Anglican scholar who gave everyone in the class a copy of Chapter One of the Westminster Confession, saying it was the finest statement in Christendom on the doctrine of the inspiration and authority of the Bible. True, people have raised questions about the validity of many of the Confession’s teachings. There has also been a great deal of prejudice and misunderstanding. This has occurred both within Presbyterianism and without. Perhaps, in reply, it may be said that while our Confession is not perfect by any means, the main objections can be answered and the doctrines can be shown to be biblical.
Since I believe the Confession to be so valuable I think it is a pity that this treasure is not better known. As Presbyterians we ought to be familiar with our distinctives. We should know what the church believes and why. We can also be helped in a number of practical ways by our doctrine.
There are at least three ways the church’s standards can aid us in our lives as believers. The first is, of course, as a safeguard against error. That is one of prime reasons for having a creed or confession. It means that the church stands for certain definite beliefs. It holds that the things confessed are taught in Scripture and have an importance and relevance for us. A church with a confession does not allow anything and everything to be taught from the pulpit. There are certain clearly defined limits to the minister’s freedom in preaching. He or she may not simply spout the latest theological fad but must expound the Scripture in accordance with the subordinate standards. It would be well for the church if more people in the pew were familiar with the teachings of Presbyterianism, and if ministers knew they would be held accountable by their people for their preaching.
A second use of the Westminster Confession in the life of the Christian is to provide an overview of the teachings of the Bible. Perhaps this is one of the reasons James Philip gave a series of addresses on the Confession to his Church of Scotland congregation at Holyrood Abbey Church in Edinburgh some twenty years ago. His people would not only have learned what the church believes, but would have been able to see the interconnection of the various doctrines. It is not that the Bible contains several ideas which bear no relation to one another. Often in sermons on isolated texts or topics we see no link between, say, Creation, Faith, Sanctification or Perseverance, but the Confession of Faith helps us see that all these truths belong together as parts of one overarching plan and purpose of God. Our study of the Bible would be aided immensely if we had a surer grasp of the unity of Scripture.
Finally, the Confession has great practical value as an aid to devotion. Many would be quite surprised to hear such a suggestion. They regard this document (and perhaps all creeds) as “dry as dust” theology, the product of an age of emphasis on the head rather than the heart This is a complete misunderstanding. B.B. Warfield of Princeton (who died in 1921) is regarded by many to be one of the most learned minds ever produced by Presbyterianism. He was also a man of profound faith and piety, and his article “Spiritual Culture in the Seminary” ought to be pondered by all our candidates for the ministry. In it he says, “He who wishes to grow strong in his religious life, let him, I say, next to the Bible, feed himself on the great Creeds of the Church.” He goes on to remark, “These Creeds are not the products of metaphysical speculation, as many who know infinitesimally little about them are prone to assert, but are the compressed and weighted utterances of the Christian heart” Warfield recommends the Reformed Creeds as “above all others, charged with blessing to those who will read and meditate on their rich deposits of religious truth.” He singles out the Westminster Confessions and the Heidelberg Catechism as particularly helpful. Someone who experienced this practical devotional benefit was James Henley Thornwell of South Carolina. On a voyage to Europe in 1841 he wrote, “My Bible and Confession of Faith are my travelling companions, and precious friends have they been to me. I bless God for that glorious summary of Christian doctrine contained in our noble standards.”
Yet another tribute to the Confession — perhaps the most moving of all — comes from Alexander Whyte, successor to Robert Candlish in Free St. George’s, Edinburgh. In one of his books he tells of going to visit an elder who had served for years on the Kirk Session of St. George’s and who had been schooled in the theology of the Reformation under Candlish. The elder who was very ill, laid his hand on the Westminster Confession of Faith which lay open at the great chapter on Justification. “Sir” he said to Whyte, “I am dying in the strength of that peace-speaking chapter.”
God grant that another generation will arise who will, like that elder, know and love the Reformed Faith as expressed in the Westminster Confession and find in it great encouragement and comfort. Then it will no longer be a forgotten treasure.