Westminster Confession

Westminster Confession, confession of faith of English-speaking Presbyterians. It was produced by the Westminster Assembly, which was called together by the Long Parliament in 1643, during the English Civil War, and met regularly in Westminster Abbey until 1649. The confession was completed in 1646 and presented to Parliament, which approved it after some revisions in June 1648. When the English monarchy was restored in 1660, the episcopal form of church government was reinstated, and the Presbyterian confession lost its official status in England. It was adopted by the Church of Scotland in 1647, by various American and English Presbyterian bodies (with some modifications), and by some Congregationalists and Baptists.

Patterned after the Irish Articles of Religion (1615), it also drew heavily upon the Reformed tradition of the European continent and the creedal heritage of the early Christian Church. In effect a theological consensus of international Calvinism in classic formulation, it consists of 33 chapters, closely reasoned and grave in style, and it provides some latitude among points of view recognized within the orthodoxy of the time. It states that the sole doctrinal authority is Scripture, and it agrees with and restates the doctrines of the Trinity and of Christ from the creeds of the early church. Reformed views of the sacraments, the ministry, and the two covenants of works and grace are given. According to the confession, the doctrine of the eternal decree (predestination) is that “some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death,” and yet “neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of creatures.”