Dr. John Fesko, Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology, explains the benefits of holding to the Westminster Standards today. He highlights how they direct us back to Scripture as our highest authority, connect us with the historic church, and offer a rich, comprehensive summary of biblical doctrine that guards us from a selective approach to the faith.
The following is a transcript of the video above.
What are the benefits of holding to the Westminster Standards in our present day?
What are the benefits of holding to the Westminster Standards in the present day? Well, one of the things that we want to remember is that the very first thing that the confession says in chapter one is that the confession itself, as well as the catechisms, are subordinate to the authority of Scripture. So it gives us a healthy reminder that Scripture alone is our chief authority in doctrine and in life.
There’s a second benefit to adhering to confessional standards: it helps us join hands with the Church of the past. In other words, the theology that we profess, the doctrine that we teach, is not something that we just came up with just a few minutes ago. It’s not as shallow as simply our own profession of faith. As important as that profession of faith is. Rather, what we’re doing is we’re joining hands with the Church across the ages and confessing, as Jude says, “the faith once delivered to the saints.” (Jude 1:3) And that while the Westminster Standards are reformed confessional standards coming out of the 16th and 17th centuries, they also confess doctrine that is Catholic in nature, Catholic with a lowercase C. In other words, it’s truth that is confessed throughout the history of the Church. So when we profess the Westminster Standards, it helps us to join hands with the Church throughout the ages in professing that faith.
A third and final benefit that we can see in professing a confessional faith in the present day is that we live in what we could say is a bespoke culture. In other words, we take a salad bar approach to life. I’ll take a little bit of this or a little bit of that. And while that may be legitimate, say in clothing or perhaps in the things that we do in our daily activities, it’s very different when we’re talking about professing the faith, in that we can’t just pick and choose the doctrines that we want or that best suit us. And so this is where the Westminster Standards help out because they talk about doctrine, from the doctrine of God all the way to the doctrine of last things and everything else in between. And it helps us to see the full-bodied nature of the doctrine that we see taught in the Scriptures.
