Ad
related to: westminster confession of faith calvinism definition world history
Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The Westminster Confession of Faith, or simply the Westminster Confession, is a Reformed confession of faith.Drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly as part of the Westminster Standards to be a confession of the Church of England, it became and remains the "subordinate standard" of doctrine in the Church of Scotland and has been influential within Presbyterian churches worldwide.
The Westminster Confession. Title page, 1st ed. The reformed confessions of faith are the confessional documents of various Reformed churches. These express the doctrinal views of the churches adopting the confession.
The purpose of the Larger Catechism was to help ministers prepare their own catechesis, as they taught the faith to their congregations in preaching, [1] while the purpose of the Shorter Catechism was to educate children and others "of weaker capacity" (according to a preface written by the Church of Scotland) in the Reformed faith.
The Westminster Confession of Faith and Larger and Shorter Catechism have been adopted as doctrinal standards by a number of Reformed and Presbyterian Christian denominations, but not the Church of Scotland nor those derived directly from it. [2] [3] [4]
The Five Points of Calvinism constitute a summary of soteriology in Reformed Christianity. Named after John Calvin , they largely reflect the teaching of the Canons of Dort . The five points assert that God saves every person upon whom he has mercy, and that his efforts are not frustrated by the unrighteousness or inability of humans.
Predestination is a doctrine in Calvinism dealing with the question of the control that God exercises over the world. In the words of the Westminster Confession of Faith , God "freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass."
The Westminster Confession of Faith also teaches (in Hodge's words "clearly impl[ies]") the infralapsarian [96] view, but is sensitive to those holding to supralapsarianism. [97] The Lapsarian controversy has a few vocal proponents on each side today, but overall it does not receive much attention among modern Calvinists.
Most Presbyterian churches adhere to the Westminster Confession of Faith, but the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), in order to embrace the historical expressions of the whole Reformed tradition as found in the United States, has adopted a Book of Confessions which includes the Westminster Confession of Faith.