Resolution 79:05: Valuing the Westminster Standards

The very fact that the Bible Presbyterian Church has adopted the Westminster Confession of Faith as its subordinate standard (under the Word of God), demonstrates our confidence in it as a clear and dependable source for understanding the teaching and message of the Word of God. Its every doctrinal expression was supported by the testimony of the Scripture and its terms were crafted with the utmost care in light of that truth.

Robert Shaw said in his commentary on the Confession (Preface, The Reformed Faith, p. 8):

…if the Confession, two hundred years ago, contained a faithful exhibition of the truth, it must do so still; for scriptural truth is, like its divine Author, “the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.”

The intervening years have done nothing to change this reality.

While, in so much of Christianity today, caution is thrown to the wind and men and women take it upon themselves to do what seems right in their own eyes, inventing and ignoring doctrine as they please, it is a blessing to have set down, by holy men of wisdom and clear thinking, in plain terms, some of the most vital doctrines of Scripture.

Their efforts have helped generations of believers to be better versed in the Word of God, better able to express their faith in clear and precise terms and to be able to keep a steady course through the relentless winds of opposition to the truth, blown about by apostates and deceivers of every sort and the waves of society’s whimsical, often sinfully foolish, fashions and trends.

We, the Bible Presbyterian Church, meeting in this 79th general synod in Cape Canaveral, Florida, August 6-11, 2015, duly called, do declare, without reservation, our confidence in the truth that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice, and that we continue to believe that the Confession of Faith and Catechisms of this Church contain the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures.

We commend its study to our members, and fellow believers everywhere, as dependable and faithful guide to the understanding of God’s Word in this age, when truth seems such a rare commodity.

And we recommend it to those who do not believe, as a useful commentary on the Word of God and the Gospel of Salvation.

In its address to the heads of families, the authors of the Confession said…

“The two great pillars upon which the kingdom of Satan is erected, and by which it is upheld, are ignorance and error.” The Westminster Confession of Faith, a faithful explanation of the teaching of Scripture, serves as one of the most dependable and effective weapons in bringing down those pillars.