CloudofSteam

Unlike many years in the 1990s, Her Majesty the Queen has done a good job identifying the meaning of Christmas.

The Resurgence continues its series on the creeds and confessions of the Church with a helpful overview of the Westminster Confession of Faith, which is also available with Congregationalist and Baptist patches (the Savoy Declaration and the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith).

While refuting the claim that the WCF is “hammer-headed Calvinism”, Justin Holcomb hits the nail on the head in his understanding of the contemporary significance of the Westminster Confession:

While the entire Westminster Confession is relevant for Christians as a rich formulation of Christian theology, it has special relevance for the current situation in which the Church finds itself. First, the Confession would encourage those who claim to be Reformed to expand their theological horizon to embrace a larger system of Reformed theology rather than reducing it to only soteriology.

Additionally, the Confession is extremely careful, seeking to find a scriptural balance between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. The WCF is more careful than most contemporary Calvinists.

It is easy to dismiss the creeds and confessions as stuffy old documents shrouded in old language, but to write them off is to lose a valuable treasure. Many resources have been created to help us benefit from them, including this modern English version of the WCF in parallel to the original English version from the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in the US.

Though the creeds and confessions are not the Scriptures, their hard-fought definitions help us to understand the word of God and how our forerunners in the faith have grappled with things that are contested or hard to comprehend.

For these reasons, the whole series is worth reading.

A wonderful and relevant discovery in the Valley of Vision during preparation to preach on 1 Peter 2 this weekend:

My Father,

In a world of created changeable things,
Christ and his Word alone remain unshaken.

O to forsake all creatures,
to rest as a stone on him the foundation,
to abide in him, be borne up by him!

For all my mercies come through Christ,
who has designed, purchased, promised, effected them.

How sweet it is to be near him, the Lamb,
filled with holy affections!

When I sin against thee I cross thy will, love, life,
and have no comforter, no creature, to go to.

My sin is not so much this or that particular evil,
but my continual separation, disunion, distance from thee,
and having a loose spirit towards thee.

But thou hast given me a present, Jesus thy Son,
as Mediator between thyself and my soul,
as middle-man who in a pit holds both him below and him above,
for only he can span the chasm breached by sin,
and satisfy divine justice.

May I always lay hold upon this mediator,
as a realized object of faith,
and alone worthy by his love to bridge the gulf.

Let me know that he is dear to me by his Word;

I am one with him by the Word on his part,
and by faith on mine;

If I oppose the Word,
I oppose my Lord when he is most near;

If I receive the Word,
I receive my Lord wherein he is nigh.

O thou has hast the hearts of all men in thine hand,
form my heart according to the Word,
according to the image of thy Son,

So shall Christ the Word, and his Word
be my strength and comfort.

The Valley of Vision, edited by Arthur Bennett, Banner of Truth, p. 30-31.