Appendices to Our Statement of Faith
Appendix I
The Proper Use of Creeds from The Scots Confession 1560
Chapter XX
General Councils, Their Power, Authority, and the Cause of Their Summoning
As we do not rashly condemn what good men, assembled together in general council lawfully gathered, have set before us; so we do not receive uncritically whatever has been declared to men under the name of the general councils, for it is plain that, being human, some of them have manifestly erred, and that in matters of great weight and importance. So far then as the council confirmed its decrees by the plain Word of God, so far do we reverence and embrace them. But if men, under the name of a council, pretend to forge for us new articles of faith, or to make decisions contrary to the Word of God, then we must utterly deny them as the doctrine of devils, drawing our souls from the voice of the One God to follow the doctrines and the teachings of men. The reason why the general councils met was not to make any permanent law which God had not made before, nor yet to form new articles for our belief, nor to give the Word of God authority; much less to make that to be His Word, or even the true interpretation of it, which was not expressed previously by His holy will in His Word; but the reason for councils, at least to those that deserve that name, was partly to refute heresies, and to give public confession of their faith to the generations following, which they did by the authority of God’s written Word, and not by any opinion or prerogative, that they could not err by reason of their numbers. This, we judge, was the primary reason for general councils. The second was that good policy and order should be constituted and observed in the Kirk [presbytery] where, as in the house of God, it becomes all things to be done decently and in order. Not that we think any policy or order of ceremonies can be appointed for all ages, times, and places; for as ceremonies which men have devised are but temporal, so they may, and ought to be, changed, where they foster superstitions rather than edify the Kirk.
(Modern Translation by: James Bulloch, St. Andrews Press, Edinburgh, 1960)
Appendix II
Proposed Changes to the WCF 1646
In the interests of honest subscription, we want to state plainly here what portions of the WCF 1646 we believe could be revised profitably by the church at large. The first section concerns phrases which we believe require careful historical study so that the contextual meaning of seventeenth century theologians may be understood. The second section includes some exegetical concerns, and the third reveals some theological disagreements.
Contextual concerns:
1. WCF VII.ii -- Change "covenant of works" to "covenant of creation." The same of WCF XIX.i.
2. WCF XXV.vi -- Delete "but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition." This does not represent any softening of the Reformed view of the Roman Catholic claims.
Exegetical concerns:
1. WCF I.viii -- Change "in Hebrew" to "in Hebrew and Aramaic."
2. WCF XXVIII.iii -- Insert the word "also" between "is" and "rightly."
3. WCF I-XXXIII - The Scripture proofs cited by the WCF do not uniformly support the theological truths expressed in the articles to which they refer.
Theological concerns:
1. WCF XXI.viii -- Replace "the whole time" with "with rest."
2. WCF XXIII.iii -- Delete the last phrase, beginning with "to provide that whatsoever..."
3. WCF XXV.i -- Delete "which is invisible."
4. WCF XXVII.iv -- Replace "by any but by" with "without the oversight of," and follow the phrase "minister of the Word" with "or elder."
As you can see, even though the above concerns are substantive, we are in agreement with the overwhelming majority of the WCF 1646. May God move on the hearts of His people everywhere to take heed to their doctrine (1 Timothy 4:16) until it is evident to all creation that there is indeed but one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all (Ephesians 4:4-5).