Covenant Theology, Scripture, and Reformed Confessions — Unit 10: Confessions in the Life of the Church Today

Key Verse

"And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." (2 Timothy 2:2, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Name at least five places in the life of a Reformed church where the confessions are used.

2. Explain what it means for an elder or minister to subscribe to a confession, and describe the main ways of subscribing.

3. Explain how churches in Latin America, Africa and Asia may hold the old confessions faithfully and still speak in their own languages and settings.

4. State at least three objections to a confessional church fairly and answer them from the Reformed side.

5. Name two dangers in the use of confessions and say how a pastor can guard against them.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition, for students who belong to it. It is conservative and confessional. In this last unit we ask how the confessions we have studied serve a living church today. We state objections fairly and then answer them, because Scripture says, "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). The history of division and renewal in the twentieth century belongs to Course 1, in the unit "Division, Liberalism, and Confessional Renewal in the Twentieth Century and Today." We refer to it briefly and do not repeat it.

Where the Confessions Live

A confession that sits on a shelf is a dead document. The Reformed churches have always meant their confessions to be used. They live in at least seven places.

In teaching. The Heidelberg Catechism and the Westminster catechisms were made for teaching, and Course 5 treats this in the unit "Catechizing and Discipleship." Children and new believers learn the faith question by question. Paul told Timothy to entrust the things he had heard to faithful men who would teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2), and the catechism is one way that a church does this across generations.

In preaching. In many Reformed churches the minister preaches through the Heidelberg Catechism, one Lord's Day at a time, as the people expect a sermon on the Catechism in the second service. The sermon still comes from a text of Scripture, and the Catechism guides the order of doctrine. In churches that use the Westminster Standards, ministers draw on the Confession to see how a text fits the whole teaching of Scripture.

In worship. The ancient creeds are confessed together in many Reformed churches. Congregations hear the law read, confess their sins, sing the Psalms and hymns, and are sent out with the blessing. Worship is not itself a confession, but it expresses what the church believes.

In membership. When a person joins a Reformed church, he or she makes a public profession of faith in Christ before the congregation. Churches differ on what more they ask. Some ask members to agree with the doctrine taught in Scripture and summarized in the confession. Others ask for a simple profession and promises to submit to the church's teaching and government. In either case, the church teaches its members the confession in membership classes, as the pastor did in Unit 6.

In ordination. Elders, deacons and ministers are asked to agree with the confession of the church. This is called subscription, and we treat it below.

In discipline. When a member or a minister teaches or lives in a way that contradicts the faith, the church needs a standard to which it can appeal. The confession, which is under Scripture, gives the elders a fair and public measure, so that they do not discipline according to their own preferences. Course 4 treats discipline in the unit "Church Discipline and Membership."

In fellowship among churches. Churches that hold the same confession can recognize one another and share ministers, missions and mutual care. Different Reformed bodies work together on this basis, and some larger fellowships gather Reformed churches from many nations. Their agreement is wider or narrower according to how strictly each fellowship holds its confessions, and this is a matter on which Reformed believers have differed.

Subscription: What an Officer Promises

When a man is ordained as a minister or elder in a Presbyterian church, he is asked whether he sincerely receives and adopts the Confession of Faith and Catechisms as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures. This is a solemn promise before God. It is also a safeguard for the congregation, which has a right to know what its teachers will teach.

Churches have understood this promise in different ways, and it is honest to say so.

Full or strict subscription. The officer agrees with every statement in the confession. Those who hold this view point to the clarity it gives and to the plain meaning of the vow.

System subscription. The officer agrees with the whole system of doctrine in the confession, but may differ on certain points that do not touch the heart of the system. In many churches he must tell his presbytery of the difference, and the presbytery decides whether it is acceptable. This is the most common Presbyterian practice.

Good-faith subscription. Some churches use this phrase to emphasize that the officer must be honest and open about any difference. The principle is that the vow is a promise made in the sight of God, and must not be made with silent reservations.

Historians trace this discussion to the early American Presbyterians. In 1729 the Synod of Philadelphia passed what is called the Adopting Act, in which ministers adopted the Westminster Standards as their confession and also allowed them to state scruples, with the Synod to judge whether the differences touched essential and necessary articles. Historians still debate whether the Act was meant to be strict or broad, and later Presbyterians have quoted it on both sides.

The Reformed answer to the question of how strict to be rests on principles that all share. A confession is under Scripture, and no officer should be forced to teach what he believes Scripture contradicts. But a church that lets every officer teach as he pleases has no confession in practice. The remedy is honesty: an officer states his differences openly, the church judges them lawfully, and the church does not pretend that nothing is at stake. Course 4 explains how presbyteries examine candidates in the unit "Session, Presbytery, Synod, and General Assembly."

Confessions Around the World

The Reformed confessions were written in Europe, but the Reformed faith is now carried by churches in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Course 1 gave some of this history in the unit on Reformed missions and churches in those regions. Here we ask how these churches may live with the old confessions.

First, they have translated them. A confession in a language the people cannot read teaches no one. Reformed churches have translated the catechisms and confessions into many languages, and the work continues. Faithful translation and good teaching materials are an important service to the church. The Presbyterian Church of Brazil, for example, holds the Westminster Standards.

Second, they teach them in context. The sixteenth-century opponents were Rome and the Remonstrants. In a village in Mexico or Africa the questions may be about folk religion, the prosperity message, the ancestors or fear of spirits. A pastor who knows the confession can use its teaching on God, on the Mediator and on providence to answer these new questions, and does not need to repeat old controversies.

Third, they may write their own statements. Churches have done this in the past, and the practice is not wrong when the new statement is under Scripture and agrees with the old confessions. For example, the Barmen Declaration of 1934 was a statement by the Confessing Church in Germany against Nazi claims over the church. The Belhar Confession, written in South Africa in the early 1980s, came from the struggle against apartheid. Some Reformed churches have adopted it and others have debated whether it should stand beside the older confessions, and conservative Reformed students will want to read it carefully in the light of Scripture. The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy of 1978 is another example of a modern statement used by many Reformed Christians. Such documents help a church to speak to its day, but older confessions have been tested for longer.

Fourth, they remember that the confession is not tied to a nation. The Heidelberg Catechism's question about our only comfort belongs to a Brazilian farmer as much as to a German prince. The gospel does not belong to any one culture.

Two Dangers

Dead orthodoxy. A church can hold every word of the confession and have no life. The risen Lord said to one church, "You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead" (Revelation 3:1). The Heidelberg Catechism guards against this by being warm and personal. Its first question asks for comfort, and its last part is about gratitude. A pastor can guard against dead orthodoxy by preaching the confession's doctrines as truths that give life, by praying with his people, and by teaching that faith is trust in Christ and not only agreement with a statement.

Using the confession as a weapon. Some use the confession to wound others, or to win arguments. Paul tells us to speak "the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15). A pastor can guard against this by remembering that the confession serves the Word, and that he must teach "in humility correcting those who are in opposition" (2 Timothy 2:25).

There is also a danger on the other side. Churches that give up their confessions often drift. Course 1 told how some Reformed denominations in the twentieth century lost their hold on the faith by treating the confessions loosely. We say this sadly and not proudly.

Objections and Our Answers

Objection 1: Confessions divide the church.

Many Christians, especially in evangelical and Pentecostal circles, say that detailed statements make walls between believers who all love Christ. They quote Paul's call to keep "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3).

Our answer. We hold to that call. But the unity of the Spirit is a unity in truth, and the same chapter speaks of "one Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Ephesians 4:5). A confession does not decide who is a Christian. We recognize believers in many churches. It decides what a particular church will teach and practice. A church that says plainly what it believes can work with other Christians more honestly, because everyone knows where it stands.

Objection 2: The Spirit's freedom is hindered by written forms.

Some in the charismatic and Pentecostal churches, who are part of our readership, fear that confessions limit what the Spirit can do among the people.

Our answer. We believe in the Spirit's work in new birth, in sanctifying God's people and in empowering the church for witness. Yet the Spirit who inspired the Scriptures does not contradict them. The Westminster Confession teaches that the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture is the final judge in all religious disputes (1.10). A confession is a human summary of what the Spirit has already said, and it is open to correction by the same Word. The Spirit's freedom is never a freedom from His own Word.

Objection 3: Confessions say too little, or too much, about the questions of today.

Some ask why the confessions do not address every modern question, and others say they are silent where we need guidance, for example on questions of office and the roles of women in the church.

Our answer. The confessions teach the great truths of the faith, and they cannot answer every new question. On such questions the church applies Scripture through its government, in its book of church order. On the question of office and gender, conservative Reformed churches reserve the offices of elder and minister to qualified men, while some Reformed bodies ordain women, and all affirm the wide service of women in the church. The unit "Office and Gender in the Reformed Churches" in Course 4 sets out the views. The Westminster Confession addresses marriage, and teaches it as the union of one man and one woman. The Heidelberg Catechism commends chastity, whether in marriage or in single life. These teachings help a church to care for families and single people with clarity and kindness.

Pastoral Application

A faithful man in a Presbyterian church in Latin America has been nominated to serve as an elder. He loves the Lord and the people, and the congregation trusts him. During the examination he tells the pastor privately, "I cannot say that I agree with every word of the Confession's section on the Lord's Day. I am afraid to make a promise I cannot keep."

The pastor does not scold him and does not tell him to say nothing. First, he thanks him for his honesty. Second, he explains that the church's vow is made before God and is meant to be taken seriously. Third, he explains that the church does not ask for silence but for openness, and that the man should state his difference plainly to the session and the presbytery, who will judge whether it touches the system of doctrine. Fourth, he suggests that they study Scripture together on the subject. The man is not asked to hide his conscience or to ignore the confession. He is asked to act honestly under the Word.

Summary

The confessions live in teaching, preaching, worship, membership, ordination, discipline and fellowship among churches. Ordained officers subscribe to the confession, and churches understand this as full subscription, system subscription or good-faith subscription, with the Adopting Act of 1729 an early example of the discussion. All agree that the vow must be honest and open. Around the world, churches translate the confessions, teach them in context and may write new statements under Scripture. The two dangers are dead orthodoxy and using the confession as a weapon. Objections say that confessions divide, limit the Spirit, or fail to answer modern questions. We answer that unity is in truth, that the Spirit never contradicts His Word, and that the confessions give the great truths while church order guides the details. The confession is a servant of the Word, and the Word alone is the final norm.

Further Reading

• The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Questions 1-2 and Lord's Day 52.

• The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (1646-47).

• The Canons of Dort (1619), Heads 1 and 5.

• Zacharias Ursinus, Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism.

• John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Beveridge translation, 1845), Book 4, chapters 8-9.

• Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (1872-73).

• Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor (1656), on the pastor's care of his flock.

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