Views 552

Favoured 36

The historical creeds and confessions have been used to assert the orthodox position and thus protect the Church against heresy and false doctrine regarding the fundamentals of the Christian faith. The Reformed Church’s confessions have always been viewed as subordinate to the Scriptures, simply identifying what we believe concerning key and necessary doctrines. The fundamental and erroneous assumption that must be destroyed is the statement that the Bible does not allow for “human creeds.” If we consider a creed is simply a confession of what one believes; then the statement that the Bible disallows “human creeds” is absurd. We are to confess (credo) our faith as per Matthew 10:32-33, 12:35-37 and Romans 10:9-10. "Whosoever therefore shall confess (Latin credo) me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I deny before my Father which is in heaven." "A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" ( Matthew 12:35-37). In Romans 10:9we read; "if thou shalt confess (credo) with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

As 21st century Australians enjoying the privileges and blessings of the historical outworking of the Reformation, and over 2,000 years of Christendom's influence, we may not comprehend the importance of the Confession commencing with the Scriptures. It may be obvious to us that one must start with the Scriptures to answer the question “how do you know God?” It comes naturally to us now. However, we must understand that at the time the Confession was written this was a significant change. The other Reformed confessions do not have a focus on the Epistemilogical starting point of the faith. Epistemology “investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of knowledge, discovering what we know and how we come to know it.”³ In other words “how we know what we know,” our theory of knowledge. Most creeds do not commence with how we know what we know, the Westminster Divines started here. It makes sense in the context of that day, people were debating what they believed and worked their theories back into the Bible. The Divines commenced with the Scriptures as the yardstick for all, and every doctrine in the Confession must measure up to; “how do we know God?”

It must be said that in this time of history (17th century) and the next 300 years, Epistemology was at the forefront of Philosophical thinking.⁴ For example the Catholic Philosopher Rene Descartes, “the father of modern philosophy,”⁵ commenced asking questions like “how can we be sure about anything, how can we get beyond doubt and really know?” Descartes said that “I might be dreaming now that I am awake,” I can’t trust my senses. He tried to strip back every conviction that one could doubt and from there tried to arrive at a conviction that is beyond doubt. He believed that even though he might be alluding himself he must exist because he must exist to be having the dreams or illusions! So if I am thinking I must exist⁶ and we are probably all aware of his infamous aphorism; “I think therefore I am”⁷ or “I doubt therefore I am.” Descartes was asking “how do I know anything at all.” Then from the foundation that he must exist he proceeded to develop how he knows everything else that he knows. We aren’t here to determine if Descartes was correct but the simple refutation is that he was begging the question. He assumed that which he was trying to prove by stating “I think.” You could assert anything on this false premise; “I am beautiful therefore I am, I am intelligent therefore I am, I stink therefore I am.” You cannot just beg the question about your existence. Descartes and now many others want a system of Epistemology that focuses on the self-sufficiency of the individual as a thinker and from there everything else would be put into place...including the existence of God. This is true of many moderns, “I think therefore God is like such and such or I think therefore God does not exist.” The Triune God of the Bible is not impressed with this way of thinking, He is not flattered. God is not happy with autonomous man thinking he is sure about himself and then turns to God, who is next in line, and perhaps acknowledges or does not His existence.

In the period wherein Descartes the Philosopher was flourishing the Westminster Assembly has gathered. Now, in Western Philosophy we see the major question turning to the theory of knowledge and also in Reformed theology the Epistemological question is addressed by the Divines. Thus the great significance of the first chapter of the Confession outlays how we know what we know. It reveals our starting point, “faith is the foundation for all knowledge”⁸ (reason). The faith which makes sense of the world around us and our experiences is nothing less than Biblical Christianity. All theories of knowledge, e.g. evolution, atheism, secularism and all other faiths are trying to destroy the foundation of knowledge, faith in the Word of God, and replace it with an idolatrous epistemology.

Let us read chapter 1, section 1 of the Confession; “I. Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men unexcusable;⁹ yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of His will, which is necessary unto salvation.¹⁰ Therefore it pleased the Lord, at sundry times, and in divers manners, to reveal Himself, and to declare that His will unto His Church;¹¹ and afterwards for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the Church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing;¹² which makes the Holy Scripture to be most necessary;13 those former ways of God's revealing His will unto His people being now ceased.”¹⁴

Throughout this series I will try not to repeat myself over and over. But, in this opening section can you see how precisely the Divines express themselves? This is just not a matter of personalities but rather a striving for exactitude; it is not infallible but they strive to get it right, which you don’t see in a lot of theology. The Divines would even have days of debate over an expression, they saw the importance of asserting theology correctly. If the opening premise is true only in a general sense then theologians get into trouble down the track. For example; the Arian heresy of the 4th century began with Arius asserting that the Son was of like substance with the Father, not God Himself. St Athanasius and Alexander (the Bishop of Alexandria) vehemently opposed this theology as it was not exact. Many Bishops did not see the problem and in 325 A.D. Emperor Constantine called the Council of Nicea to consider this schism within the Church. Now listen to this; the debate and controversy was over an incredible ONE IOTA or one Greek letter! The Orthodox view, as per the Nicene Creed declares the Son to be of the same substance with the Father. Greek for same substance is homo ousion. The Arians denied this and argued that the Son is of like substance with the Father, He is homoi ousion with the Father.¹⁵ They added the iota or I to form homoi from homo. Homo is the root word for homogenised, wherein the particles within a substance (e.g. milk) are made uniform or the same. The Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. declared the Orthodox position and excommunicated Arius and his followers for his inexactitude of one letter!¹⁶  

Notice that the Divines commenced this section with “although.” They are building a lengthy premise in order to make a truth statement. They are qualifying a truth statement with a truth in order to bring us to the necessity of the Scriptures. The fundamental question that we must ask is; “how do we know God?” Let us read the  Divines premise for answering this question; “Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men unexcusable…” (WCF 1:1). So, we see that the Confession answers the  question in two ways; one we know God through “the works of creation and providence” and secondly through God working in man.

“The light of nature” refers to the creation ordinance wherein God has created man in His own image ( Gen. 1:26-27). Through the natural creation order God has given man a light, an inward revelation of Himself to every single man. John Calvin states it like this; “...God himself has implanted in all men a certain understanding of his divine majesty. Ever renewing its memory, he repeatedly sheds fresh drops.”¹⁷ In fact Calvin commences his Institutes of the Christian Religion with the Epistemological question of how do we know God. In fact he opens the Institutes with saying that all knowledge we possess is based on knowledge of God and self, the two are “joined by many bonds.”¹⁸ Therefore Calvin asserts that; “[w]ithout knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God…[and] [w]ithout knowledge of God there is no knowledge of self.”¹⁹ My knowledge of me is to know myself as the image of God and to know God is to know myself as His creature. The knowledge of self and God are simultaneous and inseparable. One of my favorite 21st century theologians, John Frame, explains Calvin’s thoughts well; “...Calvin recognised [the] ‘knowledge of God’ as one important perspective through which the whole Bible can be helpfully understood, as one useful means of summing up the whole biblical message, as well as being a key to certain specific areas of biblical teaching. Where did Calvin get this remarkable idea? Doubtless through his own study of Scripture. We tend to forget how often in Scripture God performs His mighty acts so that man will ‘know’ that He is Lord (cf. Exod. 6:7; 7:5, 17; 8:10, 22; 9:14, 29f.; 10:2; 14:4, 18; 16:12; Isa. 49:23, 26; 60:16; etc).”²⁰

Now, I believe what the Confession terms the “light of nature” is a reference to this natural revelation that all men have internally. Men cannot help but know God. The Apostle John tells us in the first chapter of his gospel that Jesus is the light that enlightens all men entering the world. Thus because men can make moral judgements and are rational beings we can state that all know God. This is the first reason for the knowledge of God, “the light of nature” shows the goodness, wisdom and power of God. Secondly the “works of creation and providence“ do this also.

It must be noted that the writers of the Confession made footnotes with Scriptural evidence for every of their major theological assertion. The Scripture proof given for the Divines’ assertions that all men know God through the internal light given them as the image of God and the external evidence of nature and God’s providential work in history is Romans 1-2. The Divines listed Romans 2prior to Romans 1as proof because when citing Scripture as proof the idea is that you cite Scripture in the order of what you are proving. So, their first assertion is that all men know God through “the light of nature,” which we have said is the inward light each man has because he is made in the image of God. The Divines cite Romans 2:14-15 as proof for this; “for when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.”

Paul asserts that every single person engages in this “excusing” and “accusing” procedure. This is a wonderful apologetic tool to use. There is no man in the world who does not seek to morally excuse themselves for their behavior. Everyone who is accused of something or other seeks to excuse their actions on some sort of moral grounds. But, whenever people are engaged in accusing or excusing each other they are assuming morality, a standard of right and wrong. They are assuming that we live in a universe wherein morality makes sense. Only true Biblical Christianity can Epistemologically account for this. Why would a random universe consist of universal moral principles?

The Apostle Paul tells us that even those who have not received the written Word of God, the “Gentiles, which have not the law,” never the less display that the “work[s] of the law [are] written in their hearts.” They internally know God and know His law. And Paul uses the term that they “do by nature the things contained in the law.” To know God, His law and its requirements, is part and parcel of what and who people are. It is inescapable.

Therefore, the light of nature shows God and the second Scripture proof text given is Romans 1:19-20. Paul tells us that even without God making a personal appearance to each individual or trying to use the red phone to call every person He has made known Himself to all men through the light of creation. Note what Paul says; “that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen.” Notice the paradoxical language used by the Apostle, the invisible God is clearly seen. This assertion sets the WCF against the majority of Evangelical Christians of the 21st century. Most people who teach Romans 1will say that all men know that there is “a God.” They will say all men have some vague concept of a supernatural force behind all things, a first cause. But this is not what the Apostle Paul states. Paul states that God is clearly seen and the verse continues; “being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead;” with the result “that they are without excuse.” So, we see that on the final day no one is with excuse, no one can say God you were ambiguous and that there was so much static on the line that I could only comprehend some supernatural power. There was so much static that I couldn’t comprehend it was you the true God, so I made some mistakes about who You are or what You required. No, Paul does not buy this for “they are without excuse,” no one can say they know not God.

Francis Turretin, the masterful 17th century Reformed Theologian, stated it like this; “[a]lthough the knowledge of God is natural, it does not follow that no mortal can deny his existence. For if they have denied him, they have done so not so much through ignorance as through perverseness, their own conscience convicting them...Therefore the reason for the denial was not so much an absolute ignorance of God as their corruption and wickedness choking the implanted knowledge and all but destroying it in order that they might sin more freely.”²¹ Ignorance of the God of the Scriptures is not an excuse, because it does not exist; all know God but some suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

The Divines use Psalm 19to backup the assertion that all know God and are without excuse.  Verses 1-3 state; “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handy-work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.” To put it simply God is verbally communicating without words; but what He is communicating is as good as words. And then the Assembly directs us to Romans 1:32; “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” The Divines then add Romans 2:1; “Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.” Please get this in your notes, it is important and an essential apologetic tool; “[a]ll men know God, the true God, the only God. They do not merely have the capacity for knowing him; they actually do know him, and cannot possibly evade knowing him…[i]n order to continue in rebellion against God...man must lie to himself about the situation. He must suppress the truth in unrighteousness ( Rom. 1:18)…[which] is wholly due to sin, and not in any way due to an insufficiency or defect in natural revelation.”²² So we can say with David in Psalm 14:1; “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”

“[T]he light of nature, and the works of creation and providence, do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable” (WCF 1:1). That is the although statement, it is the premise upon which the Confession begins. There is something missing here, the opening line of the Confession does not speak of the grace of God in salvation. It tells us that all men know God as creator and are without excuse. But we read on…”yet (yet) they are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of His will, which is necessary unto salvation…” (WCF 1:1). This is a very hard doctrine that is especially unpopular today. The Divines are teaching us from Scripture that the people who only have the revelation of God in the natural order cannot be saved. There is no salvation outside of the declaration of the Gospel. What God has declared from heaven against all unrighteousness and unholiness is what according to Romans 1? His wrath! All men know the “goodness, wisdom, and power of God” (WCF 1:1) and knowing this they know they are under His wrath.

Natural revelation cannot and does not resolve the problem, it does not show us the salvific solution.

Therefore, please note that the major opening point of the Confession is the “insufficiency of natural revelation.”²³ The great Scottish Presbyterian of the 19th century Dr. Robert Shaw (1795-1863) stated it bluntly; “...the light of nature is insufficient to give fallen man that knowledge of God, and of his will, which is necessary unto salvation.”²⁴ A A Hodge asserted it like this; “...the amount of knowledge attainable by the light of nature is not sufficient to enable any to secure salvation. This proved to be true by...Scripture. 1 Cor. i. 21; ii. 13, 14.”²⁵

So, let me quiz you; why is natural revelation insufficient? Is it because it is too vague and general? No, it leaves men inexcusable. It is clear, it makes God known. “The insufficiency is that it doesn’t go far enough to deal with man in his sinful condition.”²⁶ If men are only left with natural revelation they know only the wrath of God (e.g. the Egyptians). This really is a tough doctrine. Many will say that this is not possible because many who have not been historically blessed with living in an area where the Bible is available and the Gospel brought are going to be lost. Surely this is unfair for those who have never heard of Jesus will be damned. Are we willing to say this with the Apostle Paul, who stated in Romans 10that none can be saved without the preaching of the Gospel? This is why it is so important to send missionaries and witness to people. In Australia we have Churches on every corner and Christian book shops distributing the Bible in our language so we take for granted what God has blessed us with. Our main problem is trying to persuade people to believe the truth, to believe what is presented to them. But the far greater problem is that there are literally millions of people throughout history and even today who have not heard the Gospel. Now many will object; “how can these people be held accountable if they have not even heard the Good News?”

Now we need to learn some theological precision; “the Bible does not teach us that men will go to hell for rejecting what they did not hear. God is not going to do what is so obviously unjust. He is not going to on the day of judgement say to somebody who lived as an Australian [Aboriginal] in the 17th century...well you didn’t believe the Gospel, of course you never heard the Gospel, you have no idea what the Gospel is, you don’t know who Jesus is...but since you didn’t believe it you are going to go to hell.”²⁷ The Bible does not teach that you will be condemned for that which you didn’t hear. But then it might be said; they might have a chance outside of hearing and believing the Gospel. Well, no what the Bible does teach is that what they did know about God is sufficient to send them to hell. It is important to note here that God is not going to be unfair to those who have not heard the Gospel. But God being just and fair does not mean they are going to be saved. Because, as the Confession highlights, men are inexcusable due to the “light of nature, and works of creation and providence” (WCF 1:1). Natural revelation does not deal with man in his sin, it leaves him under the wrath of God.

This leads us into the sufficiency of Scripture, which is the other side of the coin of the insufficiency of natural revelation. By understanding properly the insufficiency of natural revelation we will know why Scripture is necessary. Without it we wouldn’t know God’s saving plan for man. 1 Corinthians 1:21and 2:13 state; “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” and “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Natural revelation is not sufficient for salvation; we need a special revelation from God to reveal His plan for salvation. “[T]herefore it pleased the Lord, at sundry times, and in diverse manners, to reveal himself, and to declare that his will unto his church” (WCF 1:1). God was not under obligation to show Himself a merciful God, if He was it would not be mercy but duty. This is really enough to go home and meditate on...it pleased God not to leave us in our sin. It would not have been unfair or unkind of God to let us go our own way. If we were left to the light of nature, which we all suppress in unrighteousness, God could simply have sent us all to hell. But it pleased  the Lord to reveal Himself, His will and mercy unto His Church. He did this “at sundry times, and in diverse manners” (WCF 1:1) and the Divines point to the well known Hebrews 1:1as proof; “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.” God elected to reveal Himself at different times through different means. Tell me some of the ways God communicated His salvation plan to people in the Old Testament? (Spoke to and through people, the sacrificial system,  types and foreshadows - a picture of salvation, e.g. Passover, through prophets, angels, a donkey, God killed the Egyptians and they knew Him in Exodus 30, etc.) Doesn’t it just thrill you to think how diversely God communicated with His people, He is a very effective teacher. He used all these different avenues to show His redemptive design. But the highest form of God communicating is seen in the once for all climactic event of Him “in these last days [having] spoken to us by His Son” (Hen 1:2). God Himself came in the form of His Son and has directly revealed His plan of salvation to us, in the form of Jesus’ acts (dying on the cross and rising again) and words.

Now the Divines add something to the necessity of divine revelation, the necessity of inscripturation. There is a difference between revelation and inscripturation. Which is the broader concept?...Revelation is (as it is not written down). Inscripturation is a narrower concept than God revealing Himself in the natural order. Why is special revelation required?...Because natural revelation doesn’t show the way of salvation. Why do you think God would inscripturate His Word?...well this is how the Confession replies; “ and afterwards for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the Church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing; which makes the Holy Scripture to be most necessary...” (WCF 1:1). What would have happened if Christ came, completed the salvation plan and then returned to heaven and not inscripturated it at all? We would be left with hand-me-downs that would be full of “Chinese-whispers.” You would not be very sure of the actual message of the Gospel due to the sloppiness of communication, the malice of the world and the corruption of man. If you were one in the chain of passing the message on and you don’t like bits of the message; you would alter those bits that you don’t like. Eventually the original communication from God would be totally incorrect and invalid. How many generations would this take? For the better preserving preserving of the Church God put His revelation in writing. The Confession is not claiming the Roman Straw-man that God could not have orally proclaimed and preserved His word over the generations through tradition. How sure can you be with the declaration of a Gospel that is handed down by word of mouth? Instead, God put His gracious good news in writing. This does not mean there will be no problems as there are still malicious scribes. But what it does mean is that the Word can be reproduced and we can examine the traditions of families and Churches.²⁸ The written Word gives us assurance that we can know God’s original Word by comparing the 5,686 Greek manuscripts that have been passed down to us through the ages.²⁹

Remember that we hold to the inspiration and inerrancy of the autograph, the first and original copy. Some may say we don’t have the original copy. We don’t. However, through textual criticism what we do have cannot be matched for accuracy by any other historical document. If you want further information on this subject please read the late Dr. Greg Bahnsen’s article; ‘The Inerrancy of the Autographa.’³⁰ In fact the Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry states that “[t]he internal consistency of the New Testament documents is about 99.5% textually pure. That is an amazing accuracy. In addition there are over 19,000 copies in the Syriac, Latin, Coptic, and Aramaic languages. The total supporting New Testament manuscript base is over 24,000.”³¹ It must also be noted that the slight textual variants, 0.5%, in the manuscripts do not have any bearing on any fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith.

Note the comfort we are given from the Bible that the Scriptures have been inscripturated:

Proverbs 22:19-21 “That thy trust may be in the Lord, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee. Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?

Luke 1:3-4 “It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.”

Romans 15:4 “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

Matthew 4:4 & 7 “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” “Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” “Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”

Isaiah 8:19-20 “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”

The Scriptures make us wise unto salvation, natural revelation does not. Listen to how Paul, in His 2nd Epistle to Timothy instructs “[a]nd that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” ( 2 Tim. 3:15). And 2nd Peter 1:19; “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.” Thus we can affirm with the Divines that the Word of God was of necessity committed to writing for the “establishment and comfort” of the Church.

Lastly, the final reason we are given for the necessity of Scripture is that “ those former ways of God's revealing His will unto His people being now ceased.” Those former ways were the manner in which God spoke to and through people, He had ritual institutions, types and antitypes, theophanies and all the other ways in which He communicated in the times of the Old Testament. The Divines teach us from Hebrews 1that those were the former ways God spoke with His people. They have now ceased as we are told in Hebrews 1:1-2; “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.” The Confession does not teach that God lost the ability to reveal Himself in diverse manners now. Very often our friends, and they are our friends in the Lord, who are doctrinally wrong here; those who believe that God continues to reveal Himself in a special and verbal way today will often criticise us and say that we believe God can no longer communicate in this manner. Has He lost the authority or ability? Well, we are not claiming this. We are saying that God chose to stop revealing Himself through diverse means.

God had been revealing Himself in a picture book fashion and then He sent His Son, the Word of God in the flesh, to reveal Himself. There is no higher revelation than that. God has ceased revealing Himself in those old ways because He finally did it all, He Himself came as the very Word made flesh who dwelt among men. This does not mean no New Testament Scriptures because Jesus is no longer with us. If He stayed with the Church physically forever more there would have been no need for the New Testament. But He is enthroned in heaven and thus for Jesus to attend every single going out of the Great Commission, in the teaching and preaching, He appoints Apostles. An Apostle is one who is sent out but also in the Jewish culture an Apostle was one who could speak on your behalf in the courts, like a power of attorney. Jesus gave His power of attorney to the Apostles to give His Word on to others. The Apostles are not with us today and therefore committed the same to writing. After the completion of the Apostolic affirmation of the Word to writing there is no further need for revelation. God chooses not to guide us as in the days of Old because His Word has been committed to writing through the Apostles.³²

May the body of Christ accept His Word and give it the place of ultimate truth in every aspect of our individual, family, church and state life and faith. The Scriptures must be the core of our Epistemology.

Further reading and resources:

Free:

1. Subscribe to our free newsletter by following this LINK , or subscribe to our RSS feed by clicking this LINK.
2. Dr Greg L Bahnsen's article The Westminster Assembly (1643-1649): A Brief Historical Summary free to view at this LINK.
3. Dr Kenneth Gentry Jr's article on ethics and the Westminster Confession of Faith can be read free at this LINK.

To buy

1. You can go to the Doctrine/Theology section of our book store via this LINK.
   
   

Published in : Worldviews, Doctrine

Keywords : Westminster Confession of Faith, Law of God, Church history, Reformed theology, Westminster Confession, predestination, creeds, Westminster Catechism

Users' Comments (0)

Add your comment