The Westminster Confession was written in House of Westminster during a time of conflicting political and religious loyalties that held an uncertain outcome. It became a founding document of both Scottish and American Presbyterian belief.
The situation in Great Britain was significantly different to that of the rest of Europe. For one thing Britain was not a single state. Scotland and England were different nations. There was a long running conflict with France, an alliance with whom was seen by some as strength, others as a threat. There was the influence of Germany and Spain to contend with, and various political alliances that had been made through marriage or treaty.
The Reformation affected England and Scotland in very different ways. In Scotland the influence of John Knox that led to the Scots Confession had been along similar lines to the Reformation in Europe. John Knox had spent time studying in Geneva under John Calvin. His ideas of the relation of Church and state were influenced by events in Geneva.
In England however King Henry VIII had adopted the Protestant faith for reasons that were political rather than religious. The Catholic Church recognized neither his Kingly rule nor, more significantly, his series of marriages. The Church of England provided Henry with not only the wedlock he sought, but also political and religious power.
The church he governed was not dissimilar in many respects to the Catholic Church, a fact that dismayed the growing Puritan movement, who influenced by the Pietism and Anabaptist Reformation movements in Europe sought for far more radical reform.
Throw into this confusing mix the fact a series of Kings and Queens came to the throne who were either Catholic or Protestant in their sympathies, (alongside the fact that the most radical of the dissenting Protestant groups felt that royalty should not exist) and it all made for a most unlikely backdrop against which the most influential of Presbyterian creeds should have been composed!
The only link between some of those that authored the Westminster Confession and Catechisms, was that they had no sympathy with the Roman Catholic Church. They wanted neither a Romish King nor a Pope!
Trouble and Civil War
In 1637 King Charles I sought to unite the church by imposing an Anglican liturgy upon the Scottish Presbyterians. A bad move! The Presbyterian Scots rioted and raised an army. By 1640 their army occupied many of the Northern English counties.
In 1640, Charles I called what became known as “The Long Parliament” to raise money to fight against the Scottish rebels. Another disaster. The Parliament split on issues such as the role of bishops, how to quell an Irish rebellion that had also broken out, and who should choose the Kings advisers and ministers.
By 1642 that political quarrel had become an armed conflict, the English Civil War. On one side were those loyal to Charles I, the ‘Cavaliers’, on the other side were those loyal to Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell and known as the ‘Roundheads’. The Roundheads, gained the support of the Scots armies by promising to reform the Anglican Church along Scottish Presbyterian lines.
A Called Assembly
In 1643 the Westminster Assembly was called with the specific aim of producing documents to reform the Church along Presbyterian lines. This was done in conjunction with the Scots, who the same year had made their ‘Solemn League and Covenant’ with the Scots people and parliament.
The Westminster Assemblies aim was to abolish the Church of England and its Episcopal system (with its ties to royalty) and replace it with a Presbyterian system which would adhere to Calvinistic standards of doctrine and worship and unite the church in England and Scotland. It was only under such terms that the Scots were willing to join the parliamentary forces in their war against Charles I. Eventually Charles I was defeated (in 1649) and executed.
Restoration… kind of.
The turmoil that followed under Parliamentary rule led to a restoration of the monarchy in 1660 when Charles II became King. One of Charles II first acts was to restore the Episcopal system and declare the Church of England the national church.
Meanwhile in Scotland things had taken a different turn. The Westminster Confession was adopted entire by the General Assembly of the Scottish Church in 1647 and ratified by the Scottish parliament in 1649.
In 1729 the first organized Synod of Presbyterians in America, meeting in Philadelphia, adopted the original Westminster Confession, with some reservations, as its official statement of doctrine.
Until the adoption of ‘The Book of Confessions” by the United Presbyterian Church in 1967 the Westminster Confession of Faith was the sole doctrinal standard of Scottish and American Presbyterian belief and its longer and shorter Catechisms were its major tools of instruction.
The majority of the 121 commissioners to the Westminster Assembly were Presbyterian. They wanted to see a Presbyterian system set forth in the documents produced by that body. They were convinced that Presbyterianism was of God, and not an invention of man.
The Confession
The Confession of Faith is divided into thirty-three chapters. The opening chapter of the Confession deals with the doctrine of the Holy Scripture, as the source of all divine truth. The Westminster Divines wished to set forth the Scriptures as the foundation upon which to build their confession. In particular they were guarding against two heresies
a) Rome's insistence upon a living voice in addition to the Scriptures,
b) the ‘enthusiasts’ claims to continuing special revelation.
Next come four chapters on the topics of the nature of God and the Holy Trinity, the Divine Decree, and the works of God in Creation and Providence. These opening five chapters form the first distinct division in the Confession. Then comes the next division relating to the Fall of Man into Sin, God's Covenant with Man, and Christ the Mediator of the Covenant. These topics are set forth in Chapters Six through Eight.
Following them the Confession deals with the subject of Free Will in Chapter Nine. The Confession continues with the application of redemption in Chapters Ten through Eighteen. The order of the treatment of these subjects indicates, first, the actions and processes of which God is the agent - Calling, Justification, Adoption, and Sanctification (Chapters Ten through Thirteen). Next come the responses given by those who are sovereignly acted upon by God - Faith, Repentance, Good Works, Perseverance, and Assurance (Chapters Fourteen through Eighteen).
There are two chapters on the Law of God and Christian Liberty (Chapters Nineteen and Twenty), and then eleven chapters on the relations within the church and between the visible church and the world (Chapters Twenty-one through Thirty-one). They deal respectively with Religious Worship, Oaths and Vows, Church and State relations, and the Church and Sacraments. Finally, the last two chapters (Thirty-two and Thirty-three) deal with Eschatology (End-Times Theology)
The Catechisms
After the Westminster Assembly completed its work on the confession, it focused its attention on preparation of a catechism. Its early attempts were frustrated, and a consensus developed that two catechisms would be needed, "one more exact and comprehensive, another more easier and short for new beginners."
The Larger was intended for pulpit exposition, while the Shorter was intended for the instruction of children. These were completed, the Shorter in 1647 and the Larger in 1648. Both function as official standards of doctrine in many denominations today within the Reformed tradition. The Larger has, to a considerable extent, fallen into disuse, while the Shorter has been greatly used and loved, though many have found it too difficult to be an effective teaching aid for children.
Both are structured in two parts: (1) what we are to believe concerning God, and (2) what duty God requires of us. The first part recapitulates the basic teaching of the confession on God's nature, his creative and redemptive work. The second part contains;(a) exposition of the Decalogue, (b) the doctrine of faith and repentance, and (c) the means of grace (word, sacrament, prayer, concluding with an exposition of the Lord's Prayer.
THE BIG TEN
The first ten clauses are one of the most studied sections of any confession. Briefly stated;
1) There is one source of Revelation: God’s Word (not any man or council)
2) Scripture given to us by the inspiration of God.
3) The Canon is complete.
4) Scriptures authority rests on the testimony of God.
5) The internal witness of the Holy Spirit is our final proof.
6) Scripture is a rule for the fundamentals of salvation (not a history of all that can be possibly known about life)
7) Scripture has a plain message.
8) Scripture requires diligent study (allowing the plain message to interpret the harder parts)
9) Scripture is a Unity – its one message being the saving Grace of God in Jesus Christ
10) The Spirit and the Word offer a united witness.
By far the most influential of all the Creeds upon Presbyterian doctrine, the Westminster Confession is claimed by some to be the only statement of genuine orthodox Presbyterian belief.