Confessing our Faith
"I, _____________________, do hereby declare, that I do sincerely own and believe the whole doctrine contained in the Confession of Faith, approven by former General Assemblies of this Church to be the truths of God; and I do own the same as the confession of my faith...". These are the words signed by every Free Church office-bearer before being ordained to office. This article will focus on this subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith.
To confess something is to own or admit it as true. Essential to the Christian life is the confession of sin to the Lord: "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy" (Prov.28:13). In addition believers are to confess their personal faith in God. Listen to Nathanael: "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel" (Jn.1:49); or the Ethiopian eunuch: "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God" (Acts 8:37). These statements are simple "creeds" (from the Latin word meaning "to believe"). Personal faith involves confessing Christ (Rom.10:9-10)
Identity
There is also a place for a collective profession of faith. In the Old Testament Israel was taught a basic creed by Moses: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord" (Deut.6:4). This creed gave identity in distinguishing the people of God from the heathen nations around them. The Westminster Confession of Faith gives the Free Church a distinct identity. It separates us ecclesiastically from others, but for a supremely worthy reason loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ, the only King and Head of the church.
Unity
A second purpose of confessions is understood from Paul's exhortation: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" (1Cor.1:10). It is difficult to see how this noble desire for unity among the Lord's people can be accomplished in any other way than by creeds or confessions. At present the Free Church is not "perfectly joined together". Could this be because of differing attitudes towards our Confession of Faith?
Clarity
The necessity of confessions is laid upon the church in Matthew 16:13-16 where Christ challenges his followers to declare their own creed in contrast to the views others have of Him. To those who say proudly, "We have no creed but Christ": we must ask, Which Christ? Is it the bloodless christ of modernism, who provides a moral example and nothing more? Is it the powerless christ of Arminianism? Or is it the glorious sovereign atoning Christ of Scripture? Even those who stress that they have "no creed but the Bible" must at some point make it clear what they believe the Bible to teach, especially in the matter of salvation. Our Confession does this in a most lucid way. So, creeds and confessions are really inescapable. It simply becomes a question of how extensive they should be.
Development
The simple confession of Jesus' divine Sonship allows admission into church membership, but a fuller creed was needed for entrance to church office: how else could heresies be combated and the orthodoxy of teachers be guaranteed? In the early Christian centuries the plain creed of the first disciples was developed as the doctrines of the Trinity and the Person of Christ were hammered out on the anvil of conflict. The so-called Apostles' Creed belongs to this period. Though it is correct in what it affirms it is limited in detail. Gradually the church perfected her understanding of the atonement, the doctrines of grace, the church and her sacraments, especially during the Reformation. Some confessions of this crucial period were largely the work of prominent individuals Luther, Bullinger, Cranmer, Knox but the high points were reached at the conferences of Dort (1618-19) and Westminster (1643-47).
Whole Confession
It is one of the glories of the Free Church, that she has subscribed historically, not to a minimal document like some branches of the visible church, but to the comprehensive statement produced by those excellent men of God who met at Westminster. The policy today is to craft statements which are brief and ambiguous, in order to allow as many as possible to sign. The Westminster Confession however, in the line of all the best creeds, deliberately identifies and condemns specific errors in doctrine and practice, out of a passion for God's truth in every important area.
Sadly, most denominations worldwide which in the past accepted the Confession as their doctrinal standard have now adopted amended and usually softened versions. Not so the Free Church of Scotland. Her office-bearers are committed to the complete Confession. The Act of 1846 anent Questions and Formula was not a revision of the Confession but an explanation of controversial sections. It simply explains that they do not amount to persecution.
Whole Doctrine
The Formula which all Free Church office-beares sign is the link between the Confession and the person concerned. By it the individual voluntarily binds himself to the Church's doctrinal standard and vows before God and man that he shares the same understanding of the Bible as the Church.
The terms of subscription are vital. The most orthodox creed may be rendered useless if those signing it make only a general commitment. This was the cumulative effect of the process of church union which began with the passing of the Declaratory Act of 1892 in the Free Church. By 1929, when the majority of the United Free Church entered the established Church of Scotland, new ordinands were assured that this denomination recognised "liberty of opinion on such points of doctrine as do not enter into the substance of the Faith"; the Formula which they signed pledged them only to believe "the fundamental doctrines of the Christian Faith" contained in the Confession. The fundamentals of course were undefined. This is so elastic that it might just about ensure that a man believes in God and little else besides!
Somewhat better is the Formula commonly subscribed in American Presbyterian Churches, in which the office-bearer receives and adopts the Confession of Faith as containing "the system of doctrine" taught in the Holy Scriptures. However, such a term of ordination can provide loopholes, for the ordinand is bound to believe only that the Confession is correct as regards its general system and not necessarily in all its detail.
In contrast the Free Church Formula could not be more transparent. Those subscribing it are committing themselves to own and believe "the whole doctrine" (teaching) of the Confession of Faith. This is a definite and fixed quantity. No division is made here between "fundamentals" which must be held and "incidentals" which may be disregarded. Neither is there any suggestion of a distinction between "doctrine", which must be believed, and "teaching" or "exegesis", which may or may not. That idea is a fable. The obvious purpose of the Formula is that office-bearers will be distinctively and fully Reformed. Any change of outlook in this area is indicative of declension and is fraught with danger.
Whole Heart
How is a man to own and believe the whole doctrine of the whole Confession? The word used is "sincerely" ie. straightforwardly, honestly and genuinely. The Confession itself teaches us the way in which promises such as ordination vows are to be made to God (Chapter 22:5,6): religiously, faithfully, conscientiously.
At the point of ordination the individual should be persuaded that the whole doctrine of the Confession is agreeable to Scripture. He should not therefore take his vows in ignorance. Study and thought should preeed this solemn step. He cannot view the doctrine with indifference. It is an intensely personal matter for it is the confession of his faith. He does much more than merely tolerate the teaching, for he promises to "firmly and constantly adhere to the same", and, to the utmost of his power, "assert, maintain, and defend the said doctrine..." Mental reserve or equivocation must have no place, for "Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay" (Ecc.5:5).
The proper relation between Scripture and Confession is understood from the term "subordinate standard" which is applied to the Confession of Faith. The Confession is a standard for office-bearers, an established rule to which they willingly conform themselves. But it is a subordinate one, lower in rank than the Scripture, the supreme standard, and taking its orders from it, the only rule of faith and obedience. The Word of God is incapable of amendment, but a subordinate standard does not possess infallibility. It may be adjusted by the Church in the light of Scripture. Those most zealous for the Church's doctrine, despite the insinuations of some, have never aimed to put the Confession in the place of the Bible. However, it is a great testimony to the soundness of her creed that the Free Church of Scotland has never found it necessary to alter her Confession of Faith in any one particular. In this present backslidden age, desire for credal change is unlikely to stem from new light on Scripture and is therefore to be resisted. One feels that any alteration would be a departure from the truth rather than a development in it.
Conclusion
We ought to see full subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith as a great and joyous privilege, to be reiterated at every suitable opportunity: Thereby we take our stand with our Reformed forefathers in the faith, who believed themselves to be walking in the steps of the New Testament Christians. Surely we are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ? Our great need as a Church is to return to our standards and to relearn them. Then we shall be like the faithful remnant in Pergamos, of which the glorified Lord could say: "thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith" (Rev.2:13).
It is therefore heartening to see that the Presbytery of Skye and Uist are bringing an Overture to the Assembly in order to clarify and communicate our Church's unqualified commitment to the Westminster Confession. We hope and pray that the Assembly will welcome this opportunity to confess our Church's faith in Christ and His Word.
Overture of the Presbytery of Skye and Uist
1) Whereas the Westminster Confession of Faith is a peerless expression of
reformed and evangelical teaching; and
2) Whereas it is always appropriate and timely for the Church to re-affirm its Confession as its understanding of the teaching of God's Word; and
3) Whereas the Westminster Confession of Faith serves the unity of the Church as
delineating the standard of belief in the Church; and
4) Whereas the adherence to the Westminster Confession of Faith serves as a means of identifying the Church in the world in terms of adherence to Biblical truth; and
5) Whereas the Westminster Confession of Faith assists the Church in maintaining internal discipline among office-bearers; and
6) Whereas adherence to the whole teaching of the Westminster Confession of Faith is unqualified in the Free Church of Scotland; and
7) Whereas the Westminster Confession of Faith is an organic whole and unqualified adherence does not allow the differentiation of some parts of the Confession as fundamental over against other parts of the Confession as accidental or non-essential, with the latter not requiring full affirmation; and
8) Whereas there is obligation upon all office-bearers and probationers in the Free Church of Scotland to affirm the whole Westminster Confession of Faith as the confession of their faith; and
9) Whereas there appears to be some uncertainty about the nature of the adherence of office-bearers and probationers in the Free Church of Scotland in respect of its Confessional position;
Wherefore it is humbly overtured, that for the promotion of clarification and unity, the General Assembly reaffirm in the following terms the position of the Westminster Confession of Faith in all its teachings, subscribed by all office-bearers and probationers of the Free Church of Scotland as the subordinate standard of the said Church:-
1) The General Assembly expresses humble thanksgiving to God for tokens of His goodness in the past to the Church in respect of its Confessional position;
2) The General Assembly expresses concern over evident confusion about the nature of the adherence of the Church to the Confessional documents;
3) The General Assembly re-affirms the adherence of the Free Church of Scotland to the whole teaching of the Westminster Confession of Faith as its understanding of the teaching of Scripture and its rule for the unity of the Church;
4) The General Assembly exhorts all office-bearers to diligence and faithfulness in maintaining the whole teaching of the Westminster Confession of Faith without any reservations arising from a differentiation between allegedly fundamental and non- fundamental matters; or arising from any alleged distinction between the 'doctrine of the Confession' and 'accompanying statements';
5) The General Assembly instructs that this deliverance be conveyed to all Presbyteries, Kirk Sessions, Deacons' Courts, and probationers of the Church.
Any comments or questions please E-Mail me or Rev William Macleod the editor.
[Back to Reformed Christian Pages][Back to Free Church Foundations]
[Back to Pre- General Assembly Issue]