The Southern Presbyterian Journal/Volume 13/Number 22/The Word of God
Articles on the Westminster Confession
by Gordon H. Clark
The Word of God (WCF 1)
Creeds
Knowledge and Ignorance
The Trinity (WCF 2)
A Hard Saying (WCF 3)
Providence (WCF 5)
Creation (WCF 4)
Healthy, Sick, or Dead? (WCF 6)
The Covenant (WCF 7)
Christ the Mediator (WCF 8)
Justification (WCF 11)
Sanctification (WCF 13)
Free Will (WCF 9)
Effectual Calling (WCF 10)
Adoption (WCF 12)
The Law of God (WCF 19)
Assurance (WCF 18)
Saving Faith (WCF 14)
Repentance (WCF 15)
Good Works (WCF 16)
Christian Liberty (WCF 20)
Perseverance (WCF 17)
Worship and Vows (WCF 21, 22)
The Sacraments (WCF 27)
Baptism (WCF 28)
The Church (WCF 25)
The Civil Magistrate (WCF 23)
The Lord's Supper (WCF 29)
Censures and Councils (WCF 30, 31)
Resurrection and Judgment (WCF 32, 33)
When the Reformers of the sixteenth century proposed to establish a church and order their own lives in a manner pleasing to God, they were forced to consider what God's requirements are. They needed a rule of faith and practice. In the Roman church tradition as well as the Scriptures was accepted as such a rule, and in actuality superseded and contradicted them. At the same time there were mystics and visionaries who claimed that God spoke to them directly. The rule of faith which the Reformers acknowledged was the Scriptures alone. Their views were summarized in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms. Two quotations follow:
Art. I, Sec. 10. "The supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other than the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture."
Shorter Catechism: "Q. 2. What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?
"A. The word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him."
Since the Roman church still exists, and since there are still those who claim private guidance and revelation, the Westminster standards are as timely today as they ever were. Sermons and Sunday School lessons should constantly refer to them.
With the introduction of modernism into our churches in the nineteenth century and with the coming of neo-orthodoxy in the twentieth, an appearance of loyalty to the Bible and to the Confession has been attempted by emphasizing certain words in the standards, by failing to mention others, and by misinterpreting the whole. Thus unbelieving ministers made the double claim that they themselves accepted the Confession as originally intended, while the fundamentalists were inventing theories never before heard of.
Against the fundamentalists, who insisted on the inerrancy of the Bible, the modernists asserted that the Confession does not say that the Bible is inerrant. And neo-orthodoxy loudly insists that the word of God is found in the Bible, perhaps only in the Bible, but that not everything in the Bible is true. They could even point to the catechism as quoted above. "Does it not say that the word of God is contained in the Scriptures? Somewhere, but not everywhere, between Genesis and Revelation, the word of God is to be found." This is their contention. But if now we wish to know whether or not this was the view of the Reformers, whether or not this is the position of the Presbyterian standards, and whether or not it is the teaching of the Scriptures themselves, which the standards summarize, we need only read other parts of the Confession. Quotations will not be multiplied here because the reader should examine the Confession for himself.
Article I, Section 1, says that at sundry times the Lord revealed his will to the prophets; afterwards, for the better preserving of the truth, it pleased the Lord to commit these revelations wholly unto writing. In this committal, may we ask, did it please the Lord to mix in some error with the truth he intended to preserve?
Section 4 says that the authority for which the Scriptures should be believed depends wholly on God, who is truth itself and the author of the books; therefore the sixty-six books itemized in Section 2 are to be received because they are the word of God. Here it is to be noted that the authority of God attaches to all the Scriptures, not to a part only. Scripture has been defined as the sixty-six books, and God is declared to be the author of them all. God is truth itself, and the Scripture not merely contains but is the word of God.
Section 5 even uses the word infallible. It says that our full assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority of these books is the work of the Holy Spirit. Can there be error in infallible truth? To the same end Section 9 teaches that the infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself.
Can it now be maintained that the Presbyterian standards admit the existence of error, of mistakes, of false teaching in the Bible? And if not, what can be thought of Presbyterian ministers who do not believe in the full truthfulness of the Scriptures? Though they may believe that the word of God is to be found somewhere in the Bible, and perhaps only in the Bible, yet what can their ordination vows have meant to them, if they reject the very basis on which all the remainder of the Confession rests?
For those of us who believe the Bible, the Confession can supply an invaluable introduction to its main doctrines. Growth in grace will follow upon a careful study of the Confession as we compare its statements with the Biblical passages which it combines and summarizes. Let us not neglect this excellent document.