*For these observations on the impact of the standards on the individual, family and society, I have leaned heavily on an old article by John Cahnon,entided, "lheInjluenceFxerted by the Westminster SymbolS upon the Individual, theFamily, andSociet:y, "which appearedinMEMORIAL VOLUME OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY, published by the Presbyterian Committee of Publication, Richmond, Va., 1897. I also quote from William Cox's article, "The InjluenGe of the Westminster SystemofDoctriite, Worship and Polit:y on CivilLibert:y and Responsible . Government" from the same volume.

THE DYNAMISM OF THE WESTMINSTER STANDARDS

The Westmlnster Confession of Faith, the Larger and Shorter catechisms, written in the late 1640's, still have the spiritual power to u;ansform individuals, families and entire cultures on the threshold of the Twenty- First Century. As no other book, outside the Bible, it has been informing, inspiring and transfOrming people and nations for over 350 years. Why? Because it takes seriously all the facts of the written Word of God and all the facts of reality and human life. It seeks to understand everything we need to know about God and the universe in the light of that Word, Psalm 36:9. It

looks at all oHife from the perspective of the God of the Bible, "for from HiIJJ. and through Him and to HiIJJ. are all thlngs," Rom. 11 :36. It is for this reason that the Westmlnstet Shortet Catechism begins with the question: "What is man's chief end?" And answers: "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever."

As far as what they were meant to be, the Westminster Standards are peerless. These s.tandards are a. summary of some of the leadingtruths which the Bible teaches, which everybody 'ought to "believe because the Bible does teach them. Therefore, these standards comprise our "confession of faith." They are, in fact, the most faithful summary of biblical teachings ever written by fallible men. They are not on par with the Bible, only a faithful summary of what the Bible teaches. As John Murray has written in his COLLECTED WORKS, (Vol. I, pg. 317): "No creed of the Christian church is comparable to that of Westminster in respect of the skill with which the fruits of fifteen centuries of Christian thought have been preserved, and at the same time examined anew and clarified in the light of that fuller understanding of God's Word which the Holy Spirit has imparted."

8 , THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon ~ June 1991

This is the reason the Westmlnster Standards still have impact on individuals, families and nationS: insofaras they are a faithful expOsition and application of the Word of God they bear the authority and power of the Spirit of God, the Author of the Word df God. They bear a transfOrming power similar to the saving power of the preaching of the whole counsel of God revealed in the Bible, I Cor. 1: 18; Acts 20:27.

THE IMPACT OF THE WESTMINSTER STANDARDS

ON THE INDIVIDUAL There is a vital relation between

faith and life, belieEand conduct, creed and character. A person lives like he lives, because he thlnks like he thinks. "As a man thlnks in his heart, so is he." What people believe they become. "Truth and goodness differ but as the seal and the print; for truth prints goodness." -Bacon. And,

. of course, the same is true of error and evil. Error in faith imprints evil in conduct and character. Therefore, it is vitally important that we guard our minds from doctrinal error and our lives from ethical evils. But we must do more. To obtain goodness of character, we muststrivediligendy to believ~ as true everything the Bible teaches, simply because the Bible, which is the Word of God, teaches it.

It can be documented from history that wherever the system of truth of the Westminster Standards has been embraced, it has produced individuals with a noble and distinct rype of character. Thomas Chalmers made this observation: "Wherever there has been most Calvinism, men have been most mora\." Consider the superior men and women of the Huguenots of France, the Protestant Dutch of Holland, the PUlitans of England, the Covenanters of Scotland, the Scotch-Irish ofUlster, etc. The distinct, pure and noble type of character developed among these people has never been surpassed in the history of the world.

This character has been marked by a STRICTNESS of life and worship, which regulates both by the Word of God. This is understandable in the light of the fact that "all excellence is marked by strictness. Strictness certainly characterizes everything which truly represents God. - Any pretended exposition of the moral nature and claims of God which is characterized by looseness, by that very fact brands itself as false." - Cannon, pg. 262.

The adherents of the Westminster Standards have also been distinguished by INTELLIGENCE. "It is a plain fact of history that Calvinism and ignorance have never dwelt together in unity. Wherever they have met, one or the other has had to quit the field. They have been men (and women) who were possessed and contra lied by convictions rather than seniments. They have believed something, and have been ready to stand for their belief against all odds."­Cannon, pg. 263.

Those molded by our confessional standards have also been marked by COURAGE. "He who believes in an Almighty Father, who has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, and who through his overruling providence is preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions, is made superior to those experiences of life which cause others to quake and fear." -Cannon, pg.264. Faith ina Sovereign God of grace makes a man a hero.

Adherents to the Westminster Standards have also had a HIGH REGARD FOR THE NEEDS AND DUTIES OF MANKIND. "Honesty, integrity, and all social and domestic virtues have been developed among them to a degree that is rarely seen in this selfish and grasping world. 'Men may talk as much as they please: says Mr. Beecher, 'against the Calvinists, Puritans, and Presbyterians, but you will find that when they want to make an investment they have no objection to Calvinism, PUritanism, or Presbyterianism. They know that where these systems prevail their capital may be safely invested."­Cannon, pg. 264.

"The Calvinistic standard of human character is a high one, so

high, indeed, as to be recognized at once as impossible of attainment in this life and under present conditions. But it challenges to an unending struggle with the selfish and lawless IIppetites and professions of our fallen natures, and affords the strongest possible incentives to strenuous endeavor after moral excellence. It is not too much to claim that the Calvinistic peoples have been marked by a love of truth and justice, a devotion to duty, an unswerving

allegiance to right, a personal uprightness and purity of character, not surpassed by the adherents of any other creed or system. We may with confidence maintain that the world has never known a higher type of stalwart manhood, nor a gentler, purer, or more lovable womanhood than have prevailed among those peoples into whose hearts and life has entered this Calvinistic Creed, with its commingled elements of granitic strength and stability, and of supreme,

because divine, tenderness and grace."-Cox, pg. 280.

THE IMPACT OF THE WESTMINSTER STANDARDS

ON THE FAMILY the Westminster Standards have

had a particularly powerful influence on marriage and family life. One historian has written: "'Home, as we conceive it, was the creation of the Puritan.' Certain it is that the ideal Christian home has been most nearly realized in those places where the influence of the Westminster Symbols has been most dominant. - '".inall the history of the Puritans there is not an example of divorce .... -Cannon, pg. 265. The Reformed Faith has constantly emphasized that the

June 1991 '" THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon * 9

Christian family is our first defense organization, political unit, school, judicial system, church and factory. Two important ,books' on the influence of the Reformed Faith on the family are: (1). WHEN FATHERS RULED: FAMILY LIFE IN REFORMATION EUROPE by Steven Ozmont, Harvard University Press, 1983; and , (2) . THE PURITAN FAMILYby Edmund Morgan, Harper and Row, NY, 1966.

These "Westminster Christians" perceived more clearly 'than others the biblicaltruths:that the family, rather than the individual is the basic unit upon which church and society are built; that the family of the believer is included in the provisions and promises of God's gracious covenant; ,that the children of believing parents have a place in the church, covenant and kingdom of God. ,They have never "been content to offer life and salvation to the individual hearer, but (have) always included in (their) offer the children whom God has Siven him. No smaller gospel can adequately express the exceeding riches of redeeming grace; no smaller gospel can perfectly satisfy the need of the human soul. - That deep yearning of the soul the gospel answers with the assurance that as we confidently commit OUrselves, so may we commit our children, into the arms of redeeming love. This precious feature of our holy religion the Westminster Standards clearly expound, and I am not sure but it is theirmost distinctive glory." -Cannon, pg.266 '

Wherever the Reformed Faith as expressed in the Westminster Standards has prevailed, homes and families have been characterized'by two features: FAMILY DISCIPUNE AND FAMILY WORSHIP. Such features are "indigenous to Presbyterian soil; and if our beloved old church ever loses her glory, it will

bewhenthefiresgooutonherfamUy Scotland the Netherlands of the altars." cCannon, pg. 267. sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

THE IMPACT OF THE VVESTMUNSTERSTANDARDS

ON SOCIETY "Wherever Presbyterianism has

been planted, and has been true to herdoctrinalStandards,shehasmade a distinct impression upon the face of society. She has never failed to bless the state under whose aegis (shield)

she has' dwelt." -Cannon, pg. 267. Along with her emphasis on self­government, family government and church government, she has emphasized the ' , necessity for representative, limited, consti­tutional, Christian republicanism as essentialfor liberty and justice for all. "The freest people in the world today must trace their institutions back through England, Scotland, the Netherlands, of the 'sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ,to the Geneva of Cal~; and the England, the

were to their heart's core intensely Calvinistic. They won civil liberty and established responsible governments because Calvinism had made them desire to be free, and had fitted them to achieve and enjoy freedom."-Cox, pg. 281.

It was not a general kind of the Reformed Faith that had such an

impact upon states and nations, it was specifically Presbyterianism which had such an impact. "It furnished the pe'ople in their ecCleSiastical affairs a pure type of repreSentative republicanism, It habituated them to self-government. It trained them to self-restraint. It taught them independence and self­reliance. It developed among them a capacity for leadership, and a power of command which served them equally well when applied to affairs of state. It furnished a system equally

10 ~ THE COUNSEL ofChalcedon ~ June 1991

as well adapted to the state as to the church. Itstimulated in them a desire for civil liberty. No people accustomed to govern themselves in one sphere could ever become reconciled to an unmixed despotism in the other."-Cox, pg. 28lf.

This Christian republicanism in a church, governed by elders, elected by the people to represent the law of Christ, the head of the church also served as the pattern for civil government, with its democratically elected representatives, whose duty it was to administer the nation's constitu tional law, under the headship of Christ, "the ruler of the kings of the earth," Rev. 1:5. In the last century, Bancroft, the historian of the United States, was able to say that Calvinism is "the system which for a century and a half assumed the guardianship of liberty for the English-speaking world." -quoted by Cox, pg. 297.

"Westminster Christians" have always stood against all forms of totalitarianism in church or state. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, these Reformed Christians "stood practically alone in teaching that tyrants were usurpers and were to be resisted and deposed." -Cox, pg. 285. The Westminster Standards were written to put down ecclesiastical tyranny as represented in Bishop Laud and high Anglicanism, with its move toward Rome, and civil tyranny as represented in Charles I of England, withhis theory of the divine right of kings. Between 1640 and 1649, "the Presbyterians had done their work. They had overthrown the monarchy, never, in the sense in which Charles understood the word, to rise again in England."-Henry White, "Social and Political Condition of Britain at the Time of the Calling of the Westminster Assembly," MEMORIAL VOLUME, pg. 28.

It is not an exaggeration to say that it was the adherents to and principles of the Westminster Standards which gave birth to the American War ofIndependence and this American Republic. "Here the political principles of Calvinism have been most fully wrought out, and their beneficent effects most fully realized." -Cox, pg. 294. (At least, that was true in 1897.) "The Scottish settlers in the province of Ulster, Ireland, bore the seeds of that principle, (i.e., Christian republicanism), to our own Appalachianridgesandfoothills. The open Bible, the Westminster Confession, and the Shorter Catechism taught them the principle of resistance to kings, and they formed the bone and sinew of the revolutionary party that wrought out the independence of the American colonies."-White, pg. 29.

THE IMPACT OF THE WESTMINSTER STANDARDS

IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY'

We live in an age of anti­christianity, an age of intensiJ}ring hostility toward Reformed Christianity. The apostasy, and bankruptcy of the American culture deepens everyday. Western society is affluent, highly speCialized, undisciplined and Godless. It is a society becoming more and more hostile to all theclairns ofJesus Christ. To such a society the Westminster Standards are symbolic of all that is obscure, irrelevant, primitive, and unworthy of modem man.

What are we to do? Modify our Standards to suit the objections of the modem, humanistic world? No! "What we can do is to confess Christ clearly and relevantly to this increasingly hostile society. Our confession of Christ must be clear! We cannot afford to allow society to

misunderstand the claims of Christ with which we are to confront it. And our confession of Christ must be RELEVANT-relevant to the specific needs of twentieth-century, (and twenty-first century) man." -F.N . Lee , pg. 2. Nothing clarifies our confession of Christ more effectively and relevantly than the careful exposition and application of the doctrines, principles, laws, and worldview of the Westminster Standards. As an honest study of these standards will show, the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms are sufficiently relevant in their content and emphasis to the special problems of men and women in the Twenty-First Century.

"Our confession of Christinmodem society must, without in any way compromising the unchangeable truths of Christianity, also take account of these characteristics of our society. Our affluent society must be confronted with the greateraffiuence of (Reformed) Christianity to make it realize its own relative poverty; our society's over­specialization must be challenged by (Reformed) Christianity's even greater capacity for detail yet overriding and unified life and worldview; we must confrontsociety'sincreasingdecaywith the benevolent discipline yet perfect freedom of (Reformed) Christianity; and by this rich and relevant manner of confussingChrist, wemustshowsociety the irrelevantpovertyofitsown Godless smugness."-F.N.Lee, pg. 4.

*Based on F. Nigel Lee's booklet, The Westminster ConfeSSion And Modern Society, Scottish Reformed Fellowship, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1972. Q

June 1991 ~ THE COUNSEL of Chalcedon ~ 11