Is the Westminster Confession Useful to the Church?

The impulse of the Christian faith is to speak truth, to declare, and to be open about what we believe. Creeds and confessions are, at the very least, our attempt to be honest. We are not hiding anything. Cults hide things. Christians proclaim things.

I think the reason why evangelicals have gravitated towards the briefer creeds is because we are not trying to clutter the church with doctrine. We want to get on to what really matters. Our doctrinal minimalism has not helped the church. I do not think it has aided us in our mission, not only to evangelize, but also to teach the nations.

I think the antidote to minimalism is maximalism–  the kind that the great confessions of the Reformation have to offer for us. The great confessions of the Reformation, the long Reformation, include, I think,  the Westminster Confession.

The Westminster Confession of Faith is a banquet of biblical teaching; it is rich in theology. There is a wealth of doctrinal teaching there for Christians to study and to own for themselves.

What I like about the Westminster Confession of Faith is that it is a guide to scripture, which in itself is a guide to God. It is a great map. I think it is a valuable asset for the church to have a fulsome rather than a limited state, and the Westminster Confession of Faith certainly offers that.

I am not inclined to apologize for the age of the text, it being written in the 1640s. I think it is actually good for us to have statements of faith that remind us that Christianity was not invented during the Reagan administration.

What we believe is not new. Even the Westminster Confession faith is echoing and picking up on the truths that Christians have been teaching and coming to a clear understanding through the ages. I have come to learn the Bible better through studying the Confession. I have come to understand God better and the plan of salvation better. And there are a few joys grated in that.