On October 31, the Lord willing, we com­memorate the birth of Protestantism as an outgrowth of Martin Luther's 95 Theses being posted on the church doors of Wittenburg. This year, however, also represents the 350th anniversary of the commence­ment of the famous Westminster Assembly of divines, whose labors produced the last great set of Reformed confessional state­ments. The following article is excerpted from RTS Ministry (fall, 1993), and pro­vides a basic summary of the significance of the Westminster Assembly.

In 1643, England was on the brink of civil war. Its citizens were deeply divided over matters of morality and authority, and it was clear the coun­try could not survive amid such diver­sity. Into this grave crisis came a new government, the "Long Parliament," determined to address the nation's fragile social fabric.

How did they do it? Not by enact­ing harsh laws or sending out troops to quell the rioting, but by convening over one hundred ministers of the gospel to help regulate the doctrine, worship, and discipline of the kingdom.

This year marks the 350th anniver­sary of the Westminster Assembly, a group of 121 "divines" (or ministers) who gathered in London's Westmin­ster Abbey to pull the tattered shreds of England's Christian heritage back together.

Its charge was to make proposals to Parliament for reforming the religion of the Church of England, "clearing the doctrine of [the Church of England] from all false aspersions and miscon­structions," in order to make it "more agreeable with the Word of God." Its role was only advisory, and its pub­lished work would take the form of "humble advice."

Yet from its inception on July 1, 1643, until its conclusion five and a half years and 1163 regular sessions later, the Assembly would produce a body of work which would change the course of Reformed Protestantism for­ever, far beyond the "three kingdoms" of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Originally, the divines set out to re­vise the Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, considered essentially or­thodox, yet not sufficiently Calvinis­tic. But they soon realized that more was necessary. The work of the As­sembly expanded, and it eventually produced several documents — the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, the Directory for Public Worship, and the Form of Church Government.

Theology⤒🔗

The "standards" of the Assembly — the Confession of Faith and the cate­chisms — are its most familiar products. These Standards were the last in a series of great Reformation creeds, such as the Scotch Confession, the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Irish Articles. The chronology is significant, since thedivines were able to compare and evaluate the labors of Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and Knox. Theologian John Murray concluded:

The Westminster Confession and Catechisms are, therefore, the mature fruit of the whole movement of creed-formation throughout fifteen centuries of Christian history, and, in particular, they are the crown of the greatest age of confessional exposition, the Protes­tant Reformation. No other similar docu­ments have concentrated in them, and formulated with such precision, so much of the truth embodied in the Christian revelation.

Like several of its predecessors, the Confession begins with the Bible, the proper starting point for all theology. Chapter one sets forth inspiration, authority, and sufficiency as the infallible rule of faith and practice, in clear opposition to Roman Catholicism (which elevates tradition as equal) and Rationalism (which teaches the sufficiency of natural reason). Prince­ton theologian B.B. Warfield wrote:

There is certainly in the whole mass of confessional literature no more nobly conceived or ably wrought-out statement of doctrine than the first chapter "Of the Holy Scripture," which the West­minster divines placed at the head of their Confession and laid at the foun­dation of their system of doctrine. It has commanded the hearty admiration of all competent readers.

From Scripture, the Confession systematically covers the other subjects of theology: God, man, Christ, salva­tion, the church, and eschatology. In thirty-three chapters it presents the best of Puritan covenant theology and is characterized throughout by simplicity, dignity, and restraint, never formulating theology beyond the teach­ing of Scripture. The sovereignty of God is proclaimed without the suspension of human responsibility. Its focus is always on the work of Christ as the mediator and head of His people.

At the close of the Assembly two catechisms were written: the larger, for pulpit exposition, and the shorter, for education of children. Noting in question three of the Shorter Catechism that the Bible teaches us "what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man," both catechisms logically construct their teaching around the twofold teaching of the Bible — doctrine and life. True life, the divines insisted, consists of sound doctrine; truth is in order to produce goodness. Re­formed Puritan pastors claimed that the Shorter Catechism was "a most ex­cellent sum of the Christian faith and doctrine, and a fit test to try the ortho­doxy of teachers."

Worship←⤒🔗

Earlier in the seventeenth century, in order to unite the religions of Eng­land and Scotland, English Kings tried to impose Anglican rites on the Church of Scotland. Scottish resis­tance and English Puritan dissent were swelling by the time of the Long Parlia­ment and the calling of the Assembly.

The result was the Assembly's pro­duction of its Directory for the Pub­lique Worship of God in 1644. Like the Confession, the Directory reflects Puritan spirituality. Proceeding from its conviction of the lordship of Jesus Christ in worship, the Directory estab­lished the "Regulative Principle" of worship. According to the Confession, "the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will." Thus all human inventions that are not warranted by the Word of God were to be abolished in worship.

The Directory also placed strong emphasis on the centrality of preach­ing. Borrowing from the order of wor­ship in Calvin's Geneva, it stressed the reading, exposition, and preaching of the Word of God. Preaching must be conducted painfully, plainly, faithfully, wisely, gravely, with loving affection.

Above all, the instructions of the Directory were to preach the Word faithfully in order to be pastoral and evangelistic: "So shall the doctrine of truth be preserved uncorrupt, many souls converted and built up."

The Directory met with mixed reception. Anglicans scorned it, and In­dependents recoiled at its precision. Yet historian Bard Thompson put it well when he lauded it as "a monumental effort to comprehend the virtues of form and freedom."

The Assembly sought a compromise between the set liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer and the individual spontaneous whims of a congregation. Many contemporary critics lament the Directory's role in steering Presbyteri­anism in a nonliturgical direction. To some extent, they are right. But the general guidance of the Directory is certainly not against all liturgy, and the divines would recoil at the irreverence that characterizes much of the sponta­neity and looseness in many contem­porary worship services. The Directory assumed a disciplined community that worshipped with order and dignity.

Church Government←⤒🔗

The divines convening at Westmin­ster were divided into three groups: Presbyterians, Independents (who be­lieved in the autonomy of the local church), and Erastians (who believed in the ultimate supremacy of the state in the affairs of the church).

As they discussed church govern­ment, they entered into what historians would call the "grand debate" over the "divine right" of Presbyterianism. Presbyterians taught that the church was ruled by Christ through elders in graded courts —  sessions, presbyteries, and assemblies.

Was Presbyterianism then directly taught in Scripture as a "divine law"? The Assembly answered in the affirm­ative. Backed by an influential contin­gent of Scottish commissioners who were advisors to the Assembly, the Presbyterians triumphed against the Independents, Erastians, and the desires of Parliament.

As in doctrine and worship, the principle of the sovereignty of God determined the Assembly's thinking: "Jesus Christ is the only King, the only Head of Zion." At stake, ultimately, was not only the liberty of the church from state control, but the "crown rights of Jesus Christ," who alone rules His church.

Influence of the Assembly←⤒🔗

The influence of the Westminster Standards in the land in which it was written was minimal. After the English Civil War, Independents came into power, and later the Episcopacy returned when the monarchy was restored in 1660.

Instead, the Assembly's influence was felt elsewhere. In Scotland, the Westminster documents were adopted in the Scottish Kirk. When English Puritans and Scotch-Irish set­tlers immigrated to the New World, the Confession came with them.

In America, the effects of the Assembly are incalculable. As Douglas Kelly points out in his recent book, The Emergence of Liberty in the Mod­ern World, the Christian liberties won by the Assembly (denying state con­trol over religion) became formative in the development of civil liberties in the United States constitution.

Regretfully, interest in the Westmin­ster Standards has waned in the last century. Protestant liberalism has long abandoned a commitment to doctrine in the life of the church, and contem­porary evangelicalism has become in­creasingly hostile to doctrine as well.

The Westminster Confession itself states that "all synods or councils, since the apostles' times, whether general or particular, may err; and many have erred." As we commemorate the great work of the Assembly, we must avoid what the divines themselves viewed as sinful — letting our veneration of the Confession become idolatrous. To regard it as infallible, of course, would be to deny its very teaching.

Nevertheless, as John Murray wrote: "The doctrine of the Confession is the doctrine which the church needs to confess and hold aloft today as much as in the seventeenth century."