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Home / Publications / Free Presbyterian Magazine / 1998 to 2003 / October 2001 / The Westminster Confession of Faith – It’s Usefulness for the Church

The Westminster Confession of Faith – It’s Usefulness for the Church

Before enquiring into the usefulness of the Westminster Confession of Faith, we must note that Confessions of Faith are legitimate for those who avow the supreme authority of the Bible, and that the Westminster Confession of Faith is exceptionally suitable for all the public and ecclesiastical functions of a Confession. Those who have subscribed the Confession of Faith without reservation are obviously convinced on both of these points, but it may be helpful to outline part of the argument for the necessity and legitimacy of creeds and to assure ourselves of the suitability of the Westminster Confession of Faith as a creed in order to provide a basis for considering its usefulness.

1. The necessity and legitimacy of creeds. The Church is called “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15). The Church is dependent upon the Word of God and not the Word upon the Church, but it is within the Church the Word is preserved and passed on. The Church through her authorised teachers is to speak the truth authoritatively. “And the things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (2 Tim 2:2). “Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Tim 4:2). “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). Historically the Church has endeavoured to fulfil her responsibility to preserve and propagate the truth by preaching and by the production of Creeds and by having office bearers subscribe them.

From the beginning, Christians have confessed their faith. The Church required confession of faith, and faith itself sought expression. Creeds, in the sense of statements of Biblical truth intended to counteract error, emerged early in the Church’s history. Within the inspired Scriptures, some controverted doctrines of the faith were put into alternative terms intended to clarify truth and counteract errors which had arisen since they were first proclaimed. At critical times in the post-Apostolic history of the Church, creeds were drawn up to controvert current error and declare what was understood to be the truth of God on the matters under dispute. Well-known examples include the Nicene Creed of 325 AD, confessing the eternal, pre-existent Godhood of Christ; the Chalcedon Definition of 451 AD, confessing the truth concerning the Person of the incarnate Son of God; and the Athanasian Creed from some time after the fifth century, confessing the truth concerning the Holy Trinity.

Creeds counteracting error and declaring and defending truth were characteristic of the Churches springing from the sixteenth-century Reformation. From the Lutheran section of the Church came such creeds as the Augsburg Confession of 1530 and the 1576 Formula of Concord. Among more Reformed or Calvinistic Creeds, we have the First and Second Helvetic (Swiss) Confessions of 1536 and 1566, the Scots Confession of 1560, the Belgic Confession of 1561 (revised at Dort in 1619), the Heidelberg Catechism of 1563 and the Canons of the Synod of Dort, 1619. The Westminster Confession of Faith, completed in 1647 and adopted in that year by the Church of Scotland, is the last of the Reformation creeds and crystallises the best of all that went before. It also came into existence out of a desire to promote Biblically-grounded harmony between national Churches adhering to the Protestant Reformation. The Church of Scotland Assembly received the Westminster Confession “as a principal part of the intended uniformity in religion, and as a special means for the more effectual suppressing of the many dangerous errors and heresies of these times” (2).

If we believe in the supremacy, sufficiency and perspicuity of the Word of God we must ask if it is right for the Church to put her professed faith into language other than that of Scripture – to provide humanly-devised summaries of Christian doctrine as subordinate standards of the Church’s belief and practice. Creeds have been objected to as undermining the place, authority and sufficiency of the Word of God.

Some say that it is enough to confess that we accept the truth of God in the Bible as our doctrinal standard. However, in claiming that we believe the Bible is the Word of God we are already making a statement of our own in response to what the Bible says; we are expressing our own understanding of what the Bible says, uttering an elementary creed, giving expression in our own words to what we believe to be true. But the claim that the Bible is the Word of God means many different things to different people. When we look more closely, we find there are those who, for example, claim that the Bible contains the Word of God, or that it bears testimony to the Word, or that it can be the means of conveying the Word of God to us. There are those whose Bible contains Apocryphal writings. There are different views as to how the Bible came into existence as the Word of God, different views of revelation and inspiration. So our claim to believe that the Bible is the Word of God has to be expanded and put in a form which includes what is necessary to a true statement of the facts concerning the Bible and excludes all the errors which have arisen on the subject.

When people agree on the Biblical view of what the Bible is, they can differ considerably in their view of what the Bible says. Even when we look at doctrines so obviously central to the gospel as the doctrines of God, Christ, sin, grace, atonement, justification and election, we find that it is not enough for people to say they believe what the Bible says on these subjects. They must say what they mean by what the Bible says on these subjects, and say it in such a way that they cannot be misunderstood as implying what another man erroneously means when he expounds these doctrines. A man who claims to believe the Bible to be the Word of God may reject the most basic doctrines of the Word biblically understood. This is not due to any defect in the Bible, which is in its entirety the inspired, inerrant and clear revelation of God’s mind to us. It is due to the fact that the Word of God demands human understanding and reception and response.

To show that we truly understand and accept what God has said, we have to use human words which capture and reflect the significance of the divine words. For example, people mean many different things when they quote a text such as John 3:16. One might think this is about the simplest text in the Bible to understand (although that is by no means the case) and yet almost every kind of error can be contained under a professed understanding of this text. This is not because the text is unclear, but because the human mind is perverted and tends to take Scripture statements out of Scripture context. There must always be human interpretation of the divine revelation and our concern must be to seek, by the use of the Word in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, such a correspondence between the truth and its interpretation as will bring us to say authoritatively, “Thus saith the Lord”.

Correspondence with the Word is what gives a Confession its authority. When a Confession corresponds to Scripture as an account of the Church’s understanding of what the truth of God is, it is quite out of place to suggest that requiring allegiance to the Confession is interfering with allegiance to the Word of God. For those who recognise the authority of God’s Word as the revelation of His will in every matter, a Confession of Faith is not a substitute for Scripture but a necessary expression and summary of what Scripture teaches. As A A Hodge says, “The real question is not, as often pretended, between the Word of God and the creed of man, but between the tried and proved faith of the collective body of God’s people, and the private judgement and the unassisted wisdom of the repudiator of creeds”. (3) The objection that creed-making and creed subscription undermine the place, authority and sufficiency of the Word of God is without foundation when that creed is subordinate to, and conforms to, the Bible and there is an appeal from the creed to the Bible.

Some have also objected to creeds as interfering with the liberty of the Christian. In response to this objection, it may briefly be said that the liberty of the Christian is liberty to be subject to the will of his Lord revealed in His Word. It cannot be left to each elder and minister to determine his own standard of orthodoxy. “I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine” (1 Tim 1:3); “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 1:13); “And the things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2); “Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers” (Titus 1:3). The Church is not interfering with any man’s liberty when he is asked to acknowledge the subordinate authority of a creed which faithfully confesses the doctrines of the Word of God.

2. The public or ecclesiastical uses of creeds and the suitability of the Westminster Confession of Faith for these uses. The public uses of a Confession have been variously described but, according to William Dunlop, “the uses of creeds and Confessions may be grouped under three general heads . . . (1) to give a fair and authentic account of Christian doctrine to the world . . . (2) to furnish a standard of orthodoxy and test for office-bearers . . . (3) to provide the members of the Church with a useful summary of the articles of the faith”. (4) A Confession indicates the beliefs of the body adhering to it as to the teaching of the Bible on the matters most closely connected with the glory of God and the good of souls; it preserves the doctrinal achievements of the Church; it distinguishes between truth and error; it constitutes a means for securing and preserving the purity of the Church’s doctrine; it provides a basis for exercising Biblical discipline as far as doctrine is concerned; supplies a method for instruction; and it is an instrument for preserving and promoting unity in the faith. It is one guarantee that the truth is held and proclaimed by all who have been ordained to office in the Church.

Is the Westminster Confession of Faith suited for the public and ecclesiastical uses of a creed? William Hetherington, writing his History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines (5) in 1843, had no doubt: “All that learning the most profound and extensive, intellect the most acute and searching, and piety the most sincere and earnest, could accomplish, was thus concentrated in the Westminster Assembly’s Confession of Faith, which may be safely termed the most perfect statement of Systematic Theology ever framed by the Christian Church. . . . The first thing which must strike any thoughtful reader, after having carefully and studiously perused the Westminster Assembly’s Confession of Faith, is the remarkable comprehensiveness and accuracy of its character, viewed as a systematic exhibition of divine truth. . . . It contains the calm and settled judgement of these profound divines on all previous heresies and subjects of controversy which had in any age or country agitated the Church. This it does without expressly naming even one of these heresies – the great Antichristian system alone excepted – or entering into mere controversy. Each error is condemned, not by a direct statement and refutation of it, but by a clear, definite, and strong statement of the converse truth. . . . Closely connected with this excellence of the Confession of Faith is its astonishing precision of thought and language.”

Although B B Warfield later defended the early twentieth-century revisions of the Westminster Confession of Faith in the Presbyterian Church in the USA (as in an article entitled The Confession of Faith as Revised in 1903 (6)) he wrote an article in 1897 entitled The Significance of the Westminster Standards as a Creed (7) in which he said of the Westminster Documents that, “historically speaking, they are the final crystallization of the elements of evangelical religion, after the conflicts of sixteen hundred years; scientifically speaking, they are the richest and most precise and best-guarded statement ever penned of all that enters into evangelical religion and of all that must be safeguarded if evangelical religion is to persist in the world; and religiously speaking, they are a notable monument of spiritual religion”. Referring to the controversies out of which the Reformed Confessions grew, he continued: “In these struggles . . . the gem of the gospel was cut and polished, and it is on this account that the enunciation of the gospel in the Reformed Confessions attains its highest purity; and that among other Reformed Confessions the Westminster Confession, the product of the Puritan conflict, reaches a perfection of statement never elsewhere achieved. . . . All attempts at restatement must either repeat their definitions or fall away from the purity of their conceptions or the justness of their language. . . . The nicety of its balance in conceiving, and the precision of its language in stating, truth will seem to us scholastic only in proportion as our religious life is less developed than theirs. . . . In proportion as our own religious life flows in a deep and broad stream, in that proportion will we find spiritual delight in the Westminster Standards.”

The spirit in which the Westminster Divines approached their work is illustrated by a sermon preached to them in 1646 by one of their leading men, John Arrowsmith. He told them of three rules he attempted to follow in his own Assembly work: “1. Take heed of voting against light. 2. Take heed of voting without light. 3. Take heed of refusing to bring thy judgement to light by thy vote.”

The greatest thing to be said in favour of the Westminster Confession of Faith is that it is faithful to God’s Word. That commended it to the Church of Scotland General Assembly in 1647, which received it as “most agreeable to the Word of God”. Departures from the Westminster Confession have never been in the interests of closer approximation to the Word of God. The result has never been stronger adherence to Biblical truth, whether departures have been by rejecting this Confession in favour of another, or of none; by confining adherence simply to the system of doctrine it contains, or to the substance of the faith included in it; by declaratory statements explaining, or explaining away, offensive doctrines or propositions; or simply by closing eyes or ears to deviations from Confessional statements.

Of course, if the Westminster Confession of Faith is to fulfil the functions for which it is admirably suited, subscription to it must be strict and honest and enforced, and must be reflected in the preaching and practice of the Church. The Free Presbyterian Church came into separate existence to a large extent as a protest against the 1892 Declaratory Act of the Free Church General Assembly, which practically replaced the Confession of Faith as the statement of the Church’s belief with something vaguely described as that which enters into “the substance of the Reformed Faith therein set forth”, the precise determination of which the Church reserved to itself “in any case which may arise”.

Endnotes:

1. This is the first part of a paper presented at the 2000 Theological Conference. The substance of this section is developed somewhat more fully by the writer in The Westminster Confession of Faith: Milestone, Millstone or Manifesto? published by The James Begg Society.
2.
Act approving the Confession of Faith, Assembly at Edinburgh, 27 August 1647, Session 23.
3. The Confession of Faith,
Banner of Truth Trust reprint, 1958, pp 1-2.
4.Collection of Confessions of Faith, Catechisms, Directories, Books of Discipline, etc, of Public Authority in the Church of Scotland, 2 vols, Edinburgh, 1719.
5. Pages 353, 358, 359, 360, 361.
6.Selected Shorter Writings, vol 2, pp 370-410.
7.Selected Shorter Writings, vol 2, pp 660-662.

Return to Table of Contents for The Free Presbyterian Magazine – October 2001

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        • No Sense of Need
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        • Book Review: Christmas Evans, The Life and Times of the One-Eyed Preacher of Wales
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        • What Kind of Faith?
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        • The Achreny Mission – 1. 1760 to 1815
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        • The Early Christian Church – The Era of Consolidation
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        • Springing Up After Many Days
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        • A Master in Israel
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        • The Christian’s Life
        • The Puritans on Prayer
        • Advice on Preaching
        • The Great Draught of Fishes
        • Book Review – Church and State
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        • Thomas Cranmer – That God Might Be Truly Worshipped
        • Psalms or Hymns in Public Worship
        • Obituary – Reverend Donald Nicolson
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        • Inventing Religion
        • Princeton and Pelagianism
        • Among the Children
        • Hopes of Future Usefulness – A Letter of John Love
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        • “Religion in its Purity”
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        • Attaining a Knowledge of Our Sins
        • The Meat Offering
        • The Strength of Faith
        • Thomas Cranmer – Moving Towards a Reformation
        • The Extent of the Atonement
        • Rev John MacDonald (1925-2000) – Obituary
        • Book Review – God and Cosmos
        • Protestant View – Queen Invites Cardinal to Sandringham
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        • Revival in Arran
        • Man’s Righteousness and God’s
        • Church of Scotland General Assembly
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        • Protestant View
      • February 2002
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        • Look unto Me and Be Ye Saved
        • Thomas Cranmer – The Man of Extreme Caution
        • The Power of the Gospel
        • The Goodness of God in Redemption
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        • Book Notices
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        • The Call to the Water of Life – Part 2
        • Samuel Rutherford – From Birth to New Birth
        • Those Who Have Fled for Refuge – part 3
        • Obituary – Mrs Annie MacIver, North Tolsta
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        • Coming to Christ – Part 1
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        • Divided Allegiance
        • Obituary – Miss Margaret Sutherland
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      • August 2002
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        • Unity Among the Brethren
        • Those Who Have Feld for Refuge
        • The Early Christian Church – The Era of Conquest
        • Symptoms of Spiritual Death
        • Book Review – The King’s Daughters
        • African Mission News
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        • Knowing God
        • Notes and Comments
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        • The Path of the Just
        • Obituary – The late Miss Jean Nicolson
        • Obituary – The late Mrs Lexie MacLeod
        • Raasay Congregation – a Brief History
        • The Knowledge of Sin
        • Induction at Sengera
        • Book Review: The Source of the IRA/Sinn Fein
        • Protestant View
      • October 2001
        • Tragedy
        • “God Gave the Increase”
        • The Westminster Confession of Faith – It’s Usefulness for the Church
        • Desires for Glory
        • Calling a Minister
        • The Vatican Archives
        • A Visit to Singapore
        • Notes and Comments
      • November 2001
        • Scotland’s Preachers
        • Recent Inductions
        • The Rose of Sharon
        • The Westminster Confession of Faith – It’s Usefulness on the Personal Level – Intellectually
        • “Be Strong and of a Good Courage”
        • God’s Wonderful Goodness
        • “Withhold not Correction”
        • Obituary – The late Mr Donald Beaton, Elder, Auckland
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        • Obituary – The late Mr Donald Beaton, Elder, Auckland
      • May 2001
        • Sinking in Capernaum’s Doom
        • Book Review – Irish Worthies
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        • The Goodwill of God
        • Keeping the Heart in Temptation
        • The Establishment Principle – Part 2
        • The Garden of Nuts
        • The Son of Man Lifted up
        • Obituary – The late John Angus MacLeod
        • A Deputy’s Visit to Africa – Kenya
        • Book Review – Faith and Justification
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        • “Just with God”
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        • Christ Set up from Everlasting
        • Stevenson on the Offices of Christ – Christ as Priest
        • W S Plumer- Part 2
        • Obituary – The late Rev Alexander McPherson, Perth
        • Pastoral Letter – Rev Alexander McPherson
        • Joseph MacKay
        • Book Review – Forerunner of the Great Awakening
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        • Blessedness
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        • Christ Coming for His people’s Help – Part 1
        • Who Belong to the Visible Church?
        • The Establishment Principle – Part 3
        • Religion in the Highlands After 1688 – Part 3
        • Raising Questions Against Darwinism
        • Eastern Europe News
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      • July 2001
        • Cry Aloud Spare Not
        • Christ Coming for His people’s Help – Part 2
        • Stevenson on the Offices of Christ
        • Our African Missions – an Update
        • Church of Scotland General Assembly
        • Spring Visit to Ukraine
        • Trinitarian Bible Society Report
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        • Looking Forward
        • Book Review – The Government of the Church
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
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        • Faith, Its Nature, Origin and Effects
        • Thomas Halyburton and How God May Be Known
        • The Divinity of Christ
        • Religion in the Highlands after 1688 – Part 1
        • Keep a good conscience
        • God’s True Family
        • What is the Object of Faith?
        • Communion in Singapore
      • February 2001
        • Calling the Sabbath a Delight
        • Notes and Comments
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        • Christ Set up from Everlasting
        • Stevenson on the Offices of Christ – Christ as Prophet
        • Religion in the Highlands after 1688 – Part 2
        • Book Review – Daily Prayer and Praise by Henry Law
        • Psalm 122 – Henry Law
        • The enemies of the Christian
        • African Mission News
        • Protestant View
      • December 2001
        • Protestant View
        • African Mission News
        • Eastern Europe News
        • Book Review – Tell it to the Generation Following
        • The Westminster Confession of Faith – Usefulness on the Personal Level
        • The Impossibility of Neutrality
        • “Christian”Entertainment
        • Attaining a Knowledge of Our Sins
        • Church Information
        • Notes and Comments
        • A View From Zimbabwe
      • August 2001
        • “There They Preached the Gospel”
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • “He Will Bless Us”
        • Stevenson on the Offices of Christ
        • “He Delighteth in Mercy”
        • “The Voice of Christianity in Scotland”
        • Obituary – The late Mr Ian M MacLeod, Elder, Dingwall
        • Obituary – The late Mrs Catherine MacKenzie, Stornoway
        • Book Review – Southern Presbyterian Leaders 1683-1911
        • Book Review – The Westminster Confession of Faith, Milestone, Millstone or Manifesto?
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        • Sowing the Seed
        • The Duty of Nations to the Church
        • The Establishment Principle – Part 1
        • “The Finger of God”
        • Obituary – The late Miss Peggy Nicolson, Inverness
        • A Deputy’s Visit to Africa – Zimbabwe
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        • The Resurrection of Christ
        • Church Information
        • Reading the Scriptures Profitably
        • The believer is to put those sins… into the hands of Christ
        • The Puritans and the Ministry
        • Christ Glorifying God
        • Blessed Are They That Mourn
        • The Nature of Vital Piety (2)
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • October 2000
        • The Fear of God
        • Church Information
        • Reading the Scriptures Profitably (2)
        • He indeed is rich in grace whose graces are not hindered by his riches
        • The Puritans and the Ministry (2)
        • James Stewart
        • Christ Healing a Leper
        • Visits To Eastern Europe
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • November 2000
        • “What Are They Among so Many?”
        • Vain Religion
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • The Desired Haven
        • God may bear long with the wicked, but…
        • Thomas Halyburton
        • James Stewart (2)
        • The Temptation of Christ
        • Book Review
      • May 2000
        • The Church of God From Age to Age
        • Jesus of Nazareth passeth by
        • Rev Lachlan MacLeod (1918-1998) – Obituary
        • “So let him give”
        • The Solemn League and Covenant
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • African Mission News
        • Church Information
      • June 2000
        • The Example of the Church in Smyrna
        • Eastern Europe – Spring 2000 Report
        • Church Information
        • The Nature of the New Birth
        • This is Indeed the Christ
        • Obituary The late Mr Alasdair Gillies, M.A., Elder, Dingwall
        • Report of Mbuma Zending Meeting – 29th April 2000
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Ma Donsa One of the Pilgrims at Ingwenya
        • African Mission News
      • March 2000
        • Two Free Churches
        • Sermon The Gracious Invitation of Christ
        • The Rev John Sinclair of Bruan (1801-43)
        • Princeton Theology – the Scottish Connection
        • Regeneration Regulating the Affections
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • July 2000
        • The Church of Scotland General Assembly
        • Church Information
        • Lift up a Standard for the People
        • At the Westminster Assembly
        • The Earth Corrupt before God
        • The Trinitarian Bible Society Report
        • Obituary – The late Mr Kenneth Gillies, Elder, Raasay
        • The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland Synod
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • February 2000
        • The Rev. Christopher Munro (1817-85)
        • African Mission News
        • Church Information
        • “Come unto me”
        • Joy and Peace in Believing
        • Princeton Theology – the Scottish Connection
        • Negotiations in London
        • Obituary
        • Trinitarian Bible Society Scottish Day Conference
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • January 2000
        • Another Millennium
        • Notes of a Sermon The Earth Filled with His Glory
        • The Second Coming of Christ – Three Main Views
        • The Latter Day Glory
        • Building up the Church of God
        • Princeton Seminary – The Majestic Testimony by David Calhoun.
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
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      • December 2000
        • The Divine Saviour
        • A Sermon by John Kennedy
        • Thomas Halyburton
        • The Late Roderick Macleod,
        • The Aberdeen Church
        • Book Reviews
        • Book Reviews
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      • August 2000
        • Where Are We Now?
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • Christ Given in His Fulness
        • Alexander Henderson
        • I cannot always come to Christ
        • Obedience to Christ
        • The Nature of Vital Piety
        • The Puritans for Today
        • Protestant View
      • April 2000
        • The Family Under Attack
        • Sermon
        • Princeton Theology – the Scottish Connection
        • The King in Scotland
        • Comments on Psalm 51
        • Unsettling the Settlement
        • The pope’s visit to the Holy Land
        • Notes and Comments
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      • October 1999
        • Declaring All the Counsel of God
        • Church Information
        • God so Loved the World
        • The Rev. James S. Sinclair
        • The Glasgow Assembly
        • Calvin’s View of the Millennium
        • Book Review
        • Trinitarian Bible Society Annual General Meeting
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • September 1999
        • Old Testament Types
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        • Christ Seeing of the Travail of His Soul
        • Alexander Stewart of Cromarty
        • The Intercession of Christ
        • Resolved to Abolish Episcopacy
        • “And the sun was darkened”
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • November 1999
        • Morality and Politics
        • Church Information
        • Sermon
        • Rev Alexander Morrison (1925-1999) – Obituary
        • The Charismatic Movement – The Gifts have Ceased
        • Casting down the Walls of Jericho
        • A Visit to Singapore
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
      • May 1999
        • “Upon this rock I will build my church”
        • The Blessed Poor
        • Rev Angus Mackay
        • Is Christ our High Priest?
        • Signs of Religious Declension
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • March 1999
        • Heaven-provoking Legislation
        • Church Information
        • The Drawing Power of the Cross
        • The Alpha Course Examined
        • Teaching Christianity in Scottish Schools
        • The late Mrs Margaret Tallach, Glasgow
        • Letter by John Love, D.D.
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • African Mission News
      • June 1999
        • Made a Faithful Shepherd
        • Notes and Comments
        • How May Sanctification Be Attained?
        • Protestant View
        • Mbuma Zending Meeting Report
        • Address to Mbuma Zending Meeting
        • Spiritual Pride in Man
        • Church Information
        • Preaching the Unsearchable Riches of Christ
        • The Free Church and the World
      • January 1999
        • When the Enemy Shall Come in Like a Flood
        • Church Information
        • Let me see thy countenance
        • The Religion of the Highlands
        • Personal Creed and Resolutions
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • African Mission News
        • Eastern Europe Mission
      • July 1999
        • The Church of Scotland General Assembly
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
        • The Pre-eminence of Christ
        • A Man Who Wished to Live Obscurely
        • The Nature of Saving Faith
        • The Light of the World
        • God is: therefore God is to be Worshipped
        • Book Review
        • The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland Synod
        • Protestant View
      • February 1999
        • The Purposes of the Lord’s Supper
        • The Trinitarian Bible Society – Appointments
        • The Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God
        • Holy Importunity in Prayer
        • A Heavenly Eternal Crown of Glory
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • African Mission News
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      • December 1999
        • The End of a Millennium
        • African Mission News
        • Church Information
        • Until the Day Break
        • The Charismatic Movement – The Gifts have Ceased
        • The Rev. Donald Macfarlane of Dingwall
        • The Pagan Origin of Christmas A Reminder
        • Ministers Prepared by Temptation
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
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      • August 1999
        • The Advance of Rome under Hume
        • Notes and Comments
        • Eastern Europe Mission
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        • The Marks of a Time of Revival, and the Means of Bringing it About
        • The Free Church of Scotland General Assembly
        • Thy Kingdom Come
        • The National Covenant
        • Work of the Trinitarian Bible Society in 1998
        • Unsettled and Discouraged?
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
      • April 1999
        • The Observance of Easter
        • The Smitten Shepherd and His Flock
        • The Prince of Highland Preachers
        • The Inter-Faith Movement
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Church Information
      • September 1998
        • The Golden Key of Prayer
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        • Weighed in the Balances
        • Christ, the Way
        • Praying as Beggars
        • Book Reviews
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Our African Mission
        • Patrick Mzamo – A sketch of an African elder and lay-preacher
      • October 1998
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        • Christ Liveth in me *
        • God’s Way of Bringing Sinners to Christ
        • The Effects of Television Violence
        • Sin and Sanctification
        • Book Review
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        • Philemon Ndebele
      • November 1998
        • Faithfulness or Vilification
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        • The Best Security in Evil Times
        • Pentecostal Dialogue with Rome
        • The Prayers of the Aged
        • The Religion of the Highlands – The Persecution of a Highland Laird
        • Book Review
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      • May 1998
        • The Mode of Baptism – A Defence
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • A Vessel Meet for the Master’s Use
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        • Serving the Lord with Humility
        • The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland on the Internet
        • Booklet Reviews
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        • The Story of Mamlotshwa
      • March 1998
        • A Minister of God
        • “I will yet for this be inquired of”
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        • African Mission News
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • Private Prayer and Public Profession
        • Truth and Life
        • The Free Church, Psalms and Hymns
      • June 1998
        • Family Worship
        • Notes and Comments
        • Ma Ngwenya – Mother of the late Rev. B. B. Dube
        • Church Information
        • The Lord is Risen Indeed
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • The Pastoral Epistles
        • The Church of Scotland and the Bible
        • Mbuma-Zending Meeting – 1998
        • Three Characteristics of True Faith
        • Book Reviews
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      • July 1998
        • The General Assemblies
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        • The Scriptural Warrant for Creedal Subscription
        • The Pastoral Epistles
        • The Trinitarian Bible Society Report
        • A Cambuslang Case of Conversion
        • Booklet Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland Synod
      • January 1998
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • MaHlabangana
        • Winter Visit to Eastern Europe
        • THE NEW YEAR
        • The Church Built and Kept by the Lord
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • The Fruits of the Declaratory Act In the Free Church of Scotland
        • Redeeming the Time
        • African Mission News
      • February 1998
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • Book Review
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • A Mission Day of Prayer
        • Church Information
        • Leaning Upon her Beloved
        • Brought Home to Heaven
        • Observing the Sabbath
        • Church Deputy’s Visit to North America
        • African Mission News
        • A Faithful Ambassador is Health
      • December 1998
        • When the Enemy Shall Come in Like a Flood
        • “My grace is sufficient for thee”
        • The People of the Great Faith
        • Sudden Conversions
        • A Good Soldier of Jesus Christ
        • “Give ye them to eat”
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
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      • August 1998
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        • Sermon – The House of Many Mansions
        • Lessons From the Doctrine of Divine Justice
        • Book Notice
        • Protestant View
        • Notes and Comments
        • Paul Magaya – Lay Preacher in Shangani
        • Church Information
      • April 1998
        • Outlines of Lectures on the Bible
        • The Mode of Baptism – A Defence
        • Notes and Comments
        • Protestant View
        • The Manner of Coming to Christ
        • Book Notice
        • A Lily from the Ukraine
        • Eastern Europe Mission
        • Church Information
        • Called of God
        • Threats to our Religious Liberties
        • Mazwabo’s Amazing Transformation
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