The Southern Presbyterian Journal/Volume 13/Number 26/A Hard Saying
Articles on the Westminster Confession
by Gordon H. Clark
The Word of God (WCF 1)
Creeds
Knowledge and Ignorance
The Trinity (WCF 2)
A Hard Saying (WCF 3)
Providence (WCF 5)
Creation (WCF 4)
Healthy, Sick, or Dead? (WCF 6)
The Covenant (WCF 7)
Christ the Mediator (WCF 8)
Justification (WCF 11)
Sanctification (WCF 13)
Free Will (WCF 9)
Effectual Calling (WCF 10)
Adoption (WCF 12)
The Law of God (WCF 19)
Assurance (WCF 18)
Saving Faith (WCF 14)
Repentance (WCF 15)
Good Works (WCF 16)
Christian Liberty (WCF 20)
Perseverance (WCF 17)
Worship and Vows (WCF 21, 22)
The Sacraments (WCF 27)
Baptism (WCF 28)
The Church (WCF 25)
The Civil Magistrate (WCF 23)
The Lord's Supper (WCF 29)
Censures and Councils (WCF 30, 31)
Resurrection and Judgment (WCF 32, 33)
Times of great religious awakening are characterized by a zeal to understand God's word. People study the Bible. Not only are its obvious teachings scanned, but its deeper doctrines are carefully examined. However, when the love of many waxes cold, and when unbelief comes in like a flood, the discouraged faithful are satisfied to defend a few vital doctrines. Sometimes it is even said that Christians ought not to go too deeply into the Scriptures. It is presumptuous, useless, and divisive.
Such an attitude is not commended in the Scriptures themselves, nor was it the practice of the reformers and Westminster divines. The Bible says that all Scripture is profitable for doctrine, not just some. And the reformers did not draw back from the difficult passages on predestination, foreordination, and God's eternal decrees. Really, these passages are not difficult to understand, though many people find them difficult to believe. But if they are God's words, then we should study, believe, and preach them.
The Westminster Confession, summarizing the Bible, asserts in Chapter III that God from all eternity did ordain whatsoever comes to pass. Obviously, if God is omnipotent, if nothing can thwart his will, and if he decided to make a world, then all his creatures and all their actions must be according to his plan.
This is easy to understand, but many people find it difficult to believe that God planned to have sin in the world. Does Chapter III of the Confession mean that God commits sin? And even in the case of a man's doing something good, does it mean that God makes the man do the good act while the man willed to do something evil? These questions have perplexed many minds, but the first question is, What does the Bible say? If the Bible talks about foreordination, we have no right to avoid it and keep silent.
Summarizing the Scriptures, the Confession says here that God is not the author of sin; that is, God does nothing sinful. Even those Christians who are not Calvinists must admit that God in some sense is the cause of sin, for he is the sole ultimate cause of everything. But God does not commit the sinful act, nor does he approve of it and reward it. Perhaps this illustration is faulty, as most illustrations are, but consider that God is the cause of my writing this little article. Who could deny that God is the first or ultimate cause, since it was he who created mankind? But although God is the cause of this article, he is not its author. It would be much better, if he were.
Still more difficult for many people to believe is the third section. It says, "By the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death." And the next section adds that the number of each of these two classes is so certain and definite that it cannot be either increased or diminished.
Easy to understand; difficult to believe? But the main question is, Do the Scriptures teach this? If they do, as every ordained Presbyterian minister has affirmed, and as the proof-texts amply show, then the doctrine should be taught. But if the Scriptures do not teach this, and if predestination is false, what becomes of our assurance of salvation and the perserverance of the saints? If God has not from all eternity decided to preserve me in grace, do I have any spiritual power in myself to persevere to the end? And if I have such power, would not salvation be achieved through my own efforts and by my own merits, rather than by God's grace?
This doctrine of the eternal decree underlies, not only the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, but also that of effectual calling, the necessity and nature of regeneration, the gift of saving faith, and in short the whole gospel.
In the United States not much has been heard in recent years about the sovereignty of God. In England there is an association called the Sovereign Grace Union, dedicated to the purpose of proclaiming salvation by grace, one hundred per cent grace, the grace of God, apart from all human merit. No doubt loyal Presbyterians believe in sovereign grace too, after a fashion; but would it not be better if we dusted off our Confessions, used them as a guide in our Bible study, and then proclaimed the message with heavenly enthusiasm?