Westminster Confession and Its Application to Today - Part 2

Ⅲ. Main subject ①

1. Westminster Confession of Faith

1) Significance

The Westminster conference produced outstanding works of theologians of the day, despite both internal and external conflicts. In addition to confession and doctrinal answers, church milestones, church politics, and post offices have set milestones in the Presbyterian Church, and have pursued the unity and communion of the Church without following denominationalism. The Puritans' concern at the Westminster conference was to unify the church and society without falling into the selfish spirit. On the one hand, they sought true freedom of faith beyond the control of the Anglican Church, the source of numerous persecutions, and on the other hand, they sought a true Christian society based on this belief. Many Puritans in England left England from the 1620s and headed to the Americas to practice freedom of living and living faith. It is a constant desire of true Christians to know and believe right in God's Word, the Bible. And systematically confessing that belief is also a figure of a grown believer. The Westminster Confession of Faith has a doctrinal reformist character. This confession of faith was adopted as the basic doctrine of the Presbyterian Church and requires that the presbyterian church members accept it as biblical doctrine.[2]

2) Overview of structure and contents

In the confession, the essential truths of the Bible to be preached and taught throughout life are systematically organized. It consists of a total of 33 chapters, the main contents of which are the Bible, God and the Trinity, God's eternal purpose, creation and providence, corruption and sin and punishment, free will, justification, adoption, saint's traction, sacrament and baptism, and the sacrament , The church's discipline, the sacraments and baptisms, the sacrament, the church's discipline, the resurrection and judgment of the dead, etc., and summarized the contents of the very important truths in the Bible. In particular,'believing in the Bible' at the beginning of the Westminster Confession of Faith is very important for those who want to believe according to the Bible. The first of the five principles of Reformation is the Sola Scriptura. The Medieval Catholic Church claimed that the authority to teach salvation was the Bible and the holy tradition, and the Pope was a successor to Peter and had the final authority to interpret the Bible. It has been declared.
3) Change of Westminster Confession
As mentioned earlier, the Westminster Confession is a Presbyterian Confession of Faith during the Westminster Assembly (1643.7.1. -1649.2.22.). It was created for the purpose of connection with the family, and was made in 33 chapters in 1643-1647. It was subsequently accredited in Scotland (1647) and the British Parliament (1648). This confession was heavily influenced by the Confession of Faith by the Scottish Reformer John Knox (1514-1572) and the Geneva Confession of Confession. The Presbyterian Church (USA) does not partially accept Chapters 20 and 23, and decides to revise Chapters 20 and 31 and amend the bill in 1788. Later, in 1842, the American Presbyterian Church added Chapters 34 about the Holy Spirit and Chapter 35 about the Gospel and Mission of God's Love. In 1903, the American Presbyterian Church also accepted it. This process of revision reflects the principle of sophistication, which was largely lacking when it was written in England. The Korean Church adopted the newly revised chapters 20, 23 and 31 of the Confession, and the newly attached chapters 34 and 35 from the beginning.

2. Westminster Large and Small Catechism Questionnaire

1) Significance and Purpose

Catechism, which is often translated as “doctrinal question and answer,” may be more appropriate to translate as “faith education.” The Church used several teaching methods to teach the Church members the Christian doctrine well and have them learn because all of them were called Catechism. However, because many Catechisms are in the form of educationally effective questions and answers, we naturally think of Catechism as a catechism. The ancestors of our faith wrote several confessions and catechisms. Christians and believers had to organize ‘who believes in (object)’ and ‘what they believe in (content)’ for various reasons. The Westminster Confession was also written for similar reasons. It was created to seek and declare the rigors of Christian truth, but to respect diversity in that rigor, to believe and worship rightly and to live holy. It was also built to deal more abundantly with the Christian system of truth than with previous confession of faith. Westminster v. Catechism was created to better teach and learn the content of these Westminster confessional statements in the Church. It is deeper, more accurate, and more abundant compared to other previous catechisms. It was intended to deliver the full and in-depth themes of the whole Bible, including well-organized catechisms written up to that time, but not fully covered by previous catechisms. However, the great and abundant content of the great catechism was small, making it a burden for children, adolescents, and people who just believe in to understand and learn. So, the Westminster General Assembly would write a small catechism briefly summarizing the content of the great catechism. The Great Catechism Questionnaire was completed prior to the commencement of the Small Catechism Questionnaire. The popularity of the catechism was good. In particular, the small doctrine questionnaire was greatly welcomed and made a great contribution to the spiritual and spiritual training of the Scottish people.

2) Overview of structure and contents

The following is an overview of the catechism.
a. Great catechism
Questions 1–5. People's Purpose and the Bible
〈What should a person believe in God〉
Questions 6–8. Who is God / 9–11. Trinity God /12–14. God's Plan / 15–17 questions and answers. Creation / 18–20 questions and answers. Providence / 21–23 questions and answers. Human Fall / 24–27. Sin and misery as a result of the fall / 28–29. The consequences of sin / 30–35 questions and answers. Covenant of Grace / 36–42. Jesus Christ, the mediator of the covenant of grace / 43–56 questions and answers. Working with the office of Christ / 57 questions and answers. Other benefits of the covenant of redemption and grace / 58–64. The Church Participating in Redemption / 65–90 questions and answers. The grace of the church participating in redemption
(The lyric of salvation: effective calling, justification, adoption, sanctification, traction, movies)
〈What are God's mandates for mankind〉
Questions 91–101. Man's Obedience and the Ten Commandments / 102–121. Our Duty to God (1st-4th Commandments) / 122–148. Our obligation to man (5th-10th commandment) / 149–152. The Ten Commandments and Our Limits / 153 questions and answers. External means of conveying the benefits of faith, repentance, and intercession / 154 questions and answers. Words, sacraments, prayers, external means / 155–160 questions and answers. Words / 161–164. Sacrament / 165–167 questions and answers. Baptism / 168–175 questions and answers. Holy Communion / 176–177 questions and answers. Baptism and the Eucharist / 178–185 questions and answers. Prayer / Questions 186–196. The Lord's Prayer
b. Cow catechism
Questions 1–3. People's Purpose and the Bible
〈What should a person believe in God〉
Questions 4–12. Coming to God / 13–19. Man's Fall / 20–28 questions and answers. Christ, working with the office / 29–38. The lyric of salvation with the Holy Spirit
〈What are God's mandates for mankind〉
Questions 39–84. Man's Obedience and the Ten Commandments / 85–107 questions and answers. Faith, Repentance, Word, Sacrament, Prayer

 

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