Westminster Confession

Context

Reformed theology developed from the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century as a mixture whose strongest component was the thought of the French theologian John Calvin (1509–1564). The major issues that distinguished the Reformed tradition from other branches of Protestantism included the Eucharist and infant baptism, which Reformed theologians supported. The issues most identified with a distinctive Reformed tradition, however, were those concerning salvation. As was true of Protestants generally, the Reformed supported the idea of justification by faith alone, not through works. However, Reformed theology was particularly associated with predestination, the theory that God had determined, solely of his own will, who was to be saved (a minority known as the “elect”) and who was damned (the rest of humanity, known as the “reprobate.”) This was accompanied by the doctrine of “Total Depravity,” the belief that human beings, since the fall of Adam, were by their nature utterly corrupt. Only divine grace, which God was completely free to bestow or withhold, could exempt a human from damnation. Jesus Christ had not died to save all, but the elect only—“Limited Atonement.”

The systematization of these beliefs is often associated with the Synod of Dort, a meeting of Reformed divines from all over Western Europe held at the Dutch city of Dort (or Dordrecht) in 1618 and 1619 that put forward The Decision of the Synod of Dort on the Five Main Points of Doctrine in Dispute in the Netherlands. The “Five Points” are Total Depravity; Unconditional Election, not predicated on any quality of saved individuals but solely on God’s grace; Irresistible Grace, which cannot be rejected by a human; Limited Atonement; and the Perseverance of the Saints, or the doctrine that grace once given will never be withdrawn. Although the term Five Points is not found there, the Westminster Confession follows this model.

The “covenantal” element of Reformed theology was not principally derived from Calvin, although there are elements of Calvin’s thought that point to it. Its original sources include the theology of the Swiss minister Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1575). Covenantal theology placed the relationship between God and the saved individual on a contractual basis. By entering into an agreement binding on both sides, God voluntarily limited his absolute power. God’s first covenant, the covenant of works made with Adam, was no longer in effect. In the covenant of works, salvation would be granted in return for obedience to the law of God. Adam himself had destroyed the covenant of works by yielding to temptation and violating God’s commands. The covenant of grace as originally offered to Abraham replaced the covenant of works. In the covenant of grace, God bound himself to save those who took up their side of the covenant by having faith and striving to follow the moral law, even though they would inevitably fail to live lives of absolute perfection. Covenant theologians sometimes moved far away from Calvin’s emphasis on the unknowability and mystery of God’s decrees toward a legalistic interpretation of the relationship of God and humanity, although they never viewed the Covenant as abrogating the doctrine of predestination.

Reformed doctrine since the sixteenth century had been put forth in a series of creeds and confessions produced primarily on the European continent. The necessity of establishing a common theological basis for the numerous Reformed churches led to a demand for relatively simple, portable statements of Reformed belief.

Reformed theology had a strong influence on the Church of England when it was formed in the mid-sixteenth century. However, the Church was not a theologically rigid organization. Some leaned toward Arminianism or opposed Calvinism without being very clear what they supported. In the Church of Scotland, however, Reformed theology was combined with a widespread belief in the government of the church by ministers and elders rather than bishops—“Presbyterianism.” In 1603 the accession of James VI of Scotland (1566–1625) to the English throne as James I brought the two countries under one royal dynasty, the house of Stuart. James, and far more openly his son Charles I (1600–1649), opposed Presbyterian organization in both kingdoms.

In the years immediately preceding the Westminster Assembly, the principal conflict within the Church of England was between the “Arminians,” led by Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud (1573–1645) with the support of King Charles, and “Puritans,” most of whom leaned to Calvinist theology. Arminianism is the doctrine associated with the Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609) that rejects the doctrine of predestination to hold that Christ died for all, not just the elect, and that all are potentially, if not actually, saved. The Arminianism of Laud, sometimes referred to as “English Arminianism,” however, was based less on Arminius’s doctrinal positions and more on a view of Christianity that emphasized ritual and the “beauty of holiness” over the Calvinist practice of emphasizing doctrine and the sermon.

The conflict between Arminians and Puritans led many Puritans to oppose the institutions of bishops—“Episcopacy”—altogether, in favor of either Presbyterianism or “Congregationalism,” built on the supremacy of individual congregations. A similar conflict was raging in Scotland. The outbreak first of the Scottish rebellion (known as the First Bishops’ War) in 1639 and then of the English Civil War in 1642 involved political as well as religious issues. However, Arminians in both kingdoms usually supported the king, while many English Puritans along with the Scottish “Covenanters” (so-called for their support of the Scottish National Covenant of 1638) supported the rebellions. By 1642 there was a full-scale civil war in England as well, between the king and the English parliament The cause of “further Reformation,” purging the Church of Catholic and Arminian elements, was popular in Parliament. It voted to reform the Church of England and convoked a meeting at the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster to do so. The gathering was composed of some of England’s leading theologians and religious scholars, nearly all Presbyterian or Congregationalist with a small minority of Anglicans.

Shortly afterward, Scottish Covenanters and English Parliamentarians made an alliance, the “Solemn League and Covenant,” in 1643. One goal of the Solemn League and Covenant was to reform the churches in both kingdom, which to the signers meant moving their theology closer to the Reformed tradition. It was followed by the incorporation of Scottish delegates into the Westminster Assembly.