The Standards and Reformers Part 8
by Fred T. Di Lella
The Westminster Standards
After the nations of England, Ireland, and Scotland had covenanted (National and Solemn League) with the Lord to love His truth and abhor all evil, the Westminster Assembly convened in order to take the first major step in making good their covenant promises.[1] The product of the Westminster Assembly, the Westminster Standards, was faithfully and solemnly grounded upon the word of God and upon the entirely Biblical covenants (National and Solemn League). The Westminster Standards was (and still is) an earnest, accurate, and essential statement for the truth and against evil. Denying the veracity of the Westminster Standards and the Covenants (National and Solemn League) is undoubtedly to reject, to spurn God’s Law and the Church’s Testimony.
As with the other creeds and confessions of the church, the covenants (National and Solemn League) and the Westminster Standards were (and continue to be) the church’s testimony for the truth and against evil.
As with the other creeds and confessions of the church, the Westminster Standards and the covenants (National and Solemn League) were a statement of true doctrine: “this is pure doctrine! This is the true religion.”
As with the other creeds and confessions of the church, the Covenants (National and Solemn League) and the Westminster Standards were a proclamation of the Bible’s teachings: “this is what the Bible teaches!”
As with the other creeds and confessions of the church, the covenants (National and Solemn League) and the Westminster Standards were a pronouncement of the only true religion: “this is the only true religion!”
As the other covenants, creeds, and confessions of the church were binding on posterity and were absolutely essential to the well-being of the church, the covenants (National and Solemn League) and the Westminster Standards were (and continue to be) morally binding on posterity and positively imperative for the Church.
As with the other creeds and confessions of the church, the covenants[2] and the Westminster Standards were (and continue to be) the church’s testimony for the truth and against evil.
The following quote from the preface to the Westminster Assembly should demonstrate this:
I A.B. do seriously promise and vow, in the presence of Almighty God, that in this Assembly, whereof I am a member, I will maintain nothing in point of doctrine, but what I believe to be most agreeable to the word of God; nor in point of discipline, but what may make most for God’s glory, and the peace and good of this church.
This promise and vow of the Westminster divines is, of course, in full agreement with and congruent to the solemn and sobering oaths in the Covenants (National and Solemn League):
“To the which Confession and Form of Religion we willingly agree in our conscience in all points, as unto God’s undoubted truth and verity grounded only upon his written word. And therefore we abhor and detest all contrary religion and doctrine; but chiefly all kind of Papistry in general and particular heads, even as they are now damned and confuted by the word of God and Kirk of Scotland…for the preservation of ourselves and our religion from utter ruin and destruction…that we shall in like manner, without respect of persons, endeavour the extirpation of Popery, Prelacy, (that is, church-government by Archbishops, Bishops, their Chancellors, and Commissaries, Deans, Deans and Chapters, Archdeacons, and all other ecclesiastical Officers depending on that hierarchy,) superstition, heresy, schism, profaneness, and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godliness, lest we partake in other men’s sins, and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues; and that the Lord may be one, and his name in the three kingdoms.”
The Larger Catechism of the Westminster Standards also sounds forth its love for the truth and hatred of all error. In the sins forbidden in the first Commandment, the Biblical list includes “idolatry, false opinions, unbelief, heresy, misbelief,” etc….LCQ.105.
The duties required in the Second Commandment encompass the “disapproving, detesting, opposing all false worship; and, according to each one’s place and calling, removing it, and all monuments of idolatry”…LCQ.108.
Contained in the sins forbidden in the Second Commandment are “all devising, counselling, commanding, using, and any wise approving any religious worship not instituted by God himself; tolerating a false religion; corrupting the worship of God, adding to it, or taking from it, whether invented and taken up of ourselves, or received by tradition from others”…LCQ.109
The sins forbidden in the Third Commandment incorporate “the misapplying of God’s decrees and providences; misinterpreting, misapplying, or any way perverting the word, or any part of it, maintaining of false doctrines; the maligning, scorning, reviling, or any wise opposing of God’s truth, grace, and ways; being ashamed of it,[3] or a shame to it, by unconformable, unwise, unfruitful, and offensive walking, or backsliding[4] from it”…. LCQ 113
The Reformers Holding Fast to the Truth
Just as the Apostles, prophets, other genuine teachers of the truth, and the remnant as a whole, these reformed ministers had no desire to plow new paths. They had no desire to invent new doctrines, nor follow after erroneous teachings of old. Their desire was to teach, uphold, defend, preserve, and pass on the truth.
These reformed ministers knew that God’s word was not yes, yes; no, no. They knew that God’s word said something. They knew that God’s word was not useless. They knew that God’s word was the truth. They did all they could to teach, defend, and preserve that truth. They bought the truth and would not sell it. They verily regarded the truth to be more precious than their very lives.
Are we like the Apostles, prophets, reformed ministers, other genuine teachers of the truth, and the remnant as a whole, who had no desire to plow new paths? Or are we innovative lone shark “christians”, who disregard the Law and the Testimony?
To The Law and the Testimony
Are we being like the Apostles, prophets, reformed ministers, other genuine teachers of the truth, and the remnant as a whole, who had no desire to invent new doctrines, nor follow after erroneous teachings of old? Or are we arrogant and audacious ignorers of history and our very heritage?
Are we being like the Apostles, prophets, reformed ministers, other genuine teachers of the truth, and the remnant as a whole whose desire was to teach, uphold, defend, preserve, and pass on the truth? Or do we think that we alone have the Spirit of God and that we alone can figure out the truth?[5]
The Apostles, prophets, reformed ministers, other genuine teachers of the truth, and the remnant as a whole knew that God’s word was not yes, yes; no, no. Do we truly believe that God’s word is not yes, yes; no, no? If we will not take a stand for the truth and against all error, then there is a very serious problem.
Perhaps, the difficulty is with what we believe and, thus, we find ourselves in a state of uncertainty (and misery). Or maybe the difficulty could be that we do not know what we actually “believe.” Or could the obstacle be that we do not believe what we say (or think) we believe? The real problem may even be that we simply do not believe the Bible at all. The hindrance, though, to taking a passionate stand for the truth and against error, certainly is not the word of God. The problem lies with us. God’s word is not yes, yes; no, no. Neither, therefore, should a christian regard the Bible to be yes, yes; no, no! Every Christian must unreservedly, unabashedly, and uncompromisingly “contend for the faith[6] once delivered to the saints.”[7]
The Bible Definitely Says Something
The Apostles, the prophets, the other genuine teachers of the truth, and the remnant as a whole knew that God’s word said something. They knew that God’s word was not a useless book. Do we honestly believe that the Bible says something? Do we sincerely believe that the Bible is a useful Book? Every professing christian would answer “yes” to the above questions. Yet, if we are willing to tolerate doctrines that are in direct opposition to the Law and the Testimony;[8] if we are willing to call proponents of such heretical doctrines, “evangelical brethren”; if we are willing to call evil[9] good and to label the good[10] as narrow, unloving, and uncharitable;[11] and if we are actually willing to concede that the heretics could be right and the Testimony wrong, can we honestly declare that we believe the Scriptures say something? Can we truthfully proclaim that we do not hold the Bible to be a useless book? It is the false teachers, who hate the good and love the evil![12]
God is Against False Teachers
The Apostles, the prophets, the other genuine teachers of the truth, and the remnant as a whole knew that God’s word was the truth. Do we genuinely regard the word of God to be the truth? Or do we consider it to be an obscure and confusing collage of christian literature? If it is the truth, then it must say something. If it is the truth, then we must hold fast to what it says! “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
The Apostles, prophets, other genuine teachers of the truth, and the remnant as a whole did all that they were able to do in order to teach, defend, and preserve the truth. Are we doing all we can to sound forth and safeguard the truth? If we are in the midst of compromise; if we adhere to a general principle of pluralism; if we are proponents of religious toleration and freedom, we definitely are not doing all we can to be a guardian and preserver of the truth. As a matter of fact, if we are compromisers, pluralists, or advocates of religious freedom and toleration, we are plainly not custodians of the truth. Rather, we are enemies of the truth.
“If I profess with loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except that little point which the world and the Devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”
NOTES:
[1] Viz., the covenanted uniformity in religion.
[2] I.e., National and Solemn League.
[3] I.e., one’s profession of the true religion.
[4] E.g., violating one’s [or, his physical or spiritual ancestor’s] vows to the Covenants, National and Solemn League.
[5] But, of course, as pluralists, how could we ever take such a dogmatic position—viz., actually believing that any set of doctrine could genuinely be called the truth and, therefore, all others, error.
[6] I.e., the truth.
[7] E.g., Jude 3.
[8] E.g., such heresies as: arminianism, dispensationalism, papism.
[9] I. e. doctrines clearly, and even repeatedly, condemned by the church (e.g., Arminianism, antinomianism, and papism).
[10] I.e., the Testimony of the church for the truth and against the very errors that we say are o.k.
[11] Viz., unchristian, EVIL.
[12] E.g., Jeremiah 23, Micah 3, Matthew 7.
Rev. Fred Di Lella is pastor of Covenanted Reformation Church in TX which is part of The Biblical Reformed Synod of Christ the King.
