Westminster Confession of Faith

Union with Christ: The Westminster Confession

Stephen Unthank
Feb 22, 2019
For English Reformed Orthodoxy, the doctrine of a believer’s union with Christ was paramount. John Owen, enunciating the centrality of a believer’s union, exclaimed that our union with Christ is the “principle and measure of all spiritual enjoyments and expectations.” [1] Likewise Thomas Goodwin...

Word, Sacrament, and Discipline: Preaching

Jeffrey Waddington
Dec 29, 2018
During the time of the Protestant Reformation, the Reformers came to the conclusion, in the face of defection and departure from biblical orthodoxy, orthopraxy, and doxology within the medieval Roman Catholic Church, that there needed to be a means whereby a true Christian church could be...

It Pleased God...to Create

Richard C. Barcellos
Jul 23, 2018
The words "it pleased God...to create," in Westminster Confession of Faith 4.1, refer to divine willing, to the decree of God. Creation is due to the will of God. It is not necessary to the divine essence, however. The Triune God is God without creatures and in no absolute sense (or necessary to...

Considering Exceptions: Singing Psalms

Stephen Tipton
May 14, 2018
Often, potential exceptions to the Westminster Standards take this form: "If the Confession is saying 'x', then I must state my difference with that section." One particularly common example of this is found in WCF 21.5, which reads, If the "singing of psalms with grace in the heart" means that we...

The One Who Endures: The Confession

Joel Wood
May 9, 2018
A friend of mine, a fellow pastor, spent some time as an ultra-runner. Most runners, who run with any sort of seriousness, seem to knock out a 5k or 10k for fun. Some of those will take some more time to train and get a 1/2 Marathon done. Fewer are those who go the whole 26.2 miles for Marathoner...

Surveying Sanctification: Union with Christ

John Hartley
Apr 11, 2018
That holiness of life which the Christian has from God and before God and for God is not sourced nor drawn from even the best doctrinal formulations – as essential as they are to our faith. Nor is holiness of life sourced or drawn from moral transformation – as essential as it is to living out our...

Eternal Generation: A Confession of Historical Significance

Jeffrey Waddington
Feb 22, 2018
The Presbyterian tradition has had a history of doctrinal slippage. This does not make the various Presbyterian denominations unique. Pretty much all theological traditions within Christendom have fumbled the theological ball at some point in history. This fact does not excuse the church from...

Considering Exceptions

Stephen Tipton
Jan 23, 2018
It is not uncommon for ministers in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) --the denomination in which I pastor--to lament a lack of doctrinal uniformity among fellow pastors in our denomination. It is also not uncommon for ministers in the denomination in which I minister to lament the...

Why Study Theology: Good & Necessary Consequence

Stephen Unthank
Jan 19, 2018
The Westminster Confession of Faith begins with what many have deemed some of the most well articulated statements concerning the doctrine of Scripture. And incorporated right into the confession’s understanding of Scripture is a brief, little clause on how one might do theology. The clause, which...

Teach Me To Pray!: Ask to be Kept from Doing Evil

Grant Van Leuven
Jan 18, 2018
We often pray the fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer after sinning. We should learn to pray the sixth petition before similarly sinning again, remembering, ye have not because ye ask not (James 4:2). The essence of the sixth petition, And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil (...