Topic: Puritan Movement and Westminster Confession of Faith

Topic: Puritan Movement and Westminster Confession of Faith Let’s look around the Puritan movement and the Westminster Confession of Faith. From 1570 to 1643, the Puritan movement developed into an influential movement in England. The Westminster Confession of Faith can be said to be the result of that influence. The Puritan movement arose under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and during the reigns of her successors James I and Charles I, its influence expanded remarkably despite persecution. A battle broke out between the Parliamentarians and Royalists under the rule of Charles I, and the Parliamentarians won with the support of the Scottish army. When the Scottish Covenanter army received support, the Westminster Conference was held as promised, and the Westminster Confession of Faith was presented at the Westminster Conference, which was ratified by the Scottish Parliament in 1647. In order to better understand this historical background, we need to look more closely at the background of the time. First of all we must understand the conflict between Charles I and Parliament, which sought to return England to a Roman Catholic state.  Conflict between Charles I and the English Parliament Charles I, who succeeded James I to the throne in 1625, inherited his father's policies and attempted to strengthen the royal family's strong centralization. Because he opposed Puritanism and parliamentarism at the same time, he naturally came into conflict with the Puritans and parliament, which led to the dissolution of parliament three times. Charles I began persecuting Puritan clergy through William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, appointed in 1633. For this, Laud was the right person. Because he was a theological Arminian, he did not like the English Puritans who had Calvinist beliefs. His repression was very harsh. Some Puritans were tortured on the scaffold or suffered the indignity of having their ears cut off. William Prynne even had the letter SL, an abbreviation for the title Sedifious Lebeller, tattooed on his cheek. Prine was a very devout Puritan leader who had already had been his ear cut off three years earlier for criticizing the Queen's participation in theater and plays. Under these circumstances, the king asked Laud to become the overseer not only England but also Scotland. Laud attempted to achieve religious unification by forcing the same form of worship as the Church of England and imposing the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer on Scotland. But the result was quite the opposite. Charles and Laud's religious policies brought about religious infighting and further pushed the government into a corner. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, which had a distinct Calvinist flavor, rebelled against England's religious policies. A strong resistance movement broke out in Edinburgh in July 1637, and in December 1638, the Scottish General Assembly held in Glasgow rejected the royal order, abolished the episcopal system, and decided to reorganize the Church of Scotland according to Presbyterian principles. In February 1638, the Scots drew up a document known as the National Treaty supporting traditional religious and political freedoms, to which the majority of Scots pledged. This was a direct challenge to the authority of Charles I. Charles' interference in internal affairs actually led to a rebellion.  Parliamentary victory and Westminster conference In the battle between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists, the Parliamentarians win, and the Westminster Conference is held. Charles I was faced with the choice of either seeking compromise with the Scots or using coercive policies. However, Charles I leaned toward the latter in June 1638 and ordered the mobilization of troops to suppress the Scottish people. However, because there were not enough funds to wage an effective war against the Scots, the king called a parliament in April 1640 in order to make funds. However, the parliament convened in April was not interested in war expenses issues and only complained about the king's political and religious policies, so Charles I dissolved parliament after two weeks. This was the parliament known in history as the short-term parliament. Charles I's army suffered a major defeat in battle against the Scottish Covenanter army. When the Scottish army invaded England, Charles I ended the war on the condition that the Scottish army's demands be met. So their demand was to convene the British Parliament, and the King had to convene it again in November. As a result, one of the most important long-term parliaments in history began in 1640. The Parliament, many of whom were Presbyterian Puritans, had already moved to prosecute the King, as their hearts had turned away from him. In 1641, the Parliament passed a law stating that the king could not unilaterally dissolve the Parliament without their consent, while removing those who opposed the Puritans from the Parliament and recruiting soldiers directly under the Parliament. For a long time, parliament was at odds with the king, and in 1642 it was divided into royalists and parliamentary factions, leading to a seven-year civil war. Now that conflict between the king and parliament was inevitable, the conflict between the king and parliament eventually led to civil war, and the British people were naturally forced to support one or the other. The nobility supported the king and the people supported the parliament. Neighboring countries were also forced to clearly state their position on Britain's civil war. Scotland, which was politically Presbyterian in church, supported Parliament, and Ireland, which was Catholic, supported the King. In these difficult times, when war broke out between Parliament and the King in 1642, John Pym, a Puritan, rallied the Parliamentarians. In September 1643, the Solemn Alliance and Covenant was signed between the Parliamentarians and the Scottish Covenanters, and according to this covenant, the Scottish army entered the war to help the Parliament. The Scottish army's participation in the war was made under the condition that the Church of England pursue a bold reform toward becoming a Presbyterian Church like the Church of Scotland. In the end, the Parliamentarians won the battle against the Royalists, and the Parliament boldly attempted to reform the church and requested Charles I to convene a general meeting of the clergy for reform. However, the king refuses five times. So, with the consent of the House of Lords, it was decided to hold the Westminster General Assembly at Westminster Abbey's Henry VII Chapel.  Westminster Confession of Faith and its influence What were the consequences of the writing of the Westminster Confession of Faith and its impact? Representatives from England and Scotland gathered at Westminster Abbey in London to hold the Westminster Conference. In 1643, in order to abolish the episcopal system and resolve the church and its politics and problems, Parliament held a meeting on July 1 with 10 senators, 20 members of the House of Representatives, 121 clergy, and 151 commissioners, and the Church of Scotland also had been dispatched 5 pastors and 3 elders, that is, So 8 representatives. In order to secure Scotland's cooperation, it was decided to abolish the episcopal system, uphold the elder system, and achieve maximum religious unity between England, Scotland, and Ireland. The first meeting was held on July 1, 1643, and the last meeting was held on February 22, 1649. This conference was held for 5 years and 6 months and had 1,163 meetings. The Westminster Assembly prepared these standard Presbyterian documents, such as the Directory for Worship (1645), the Political Rules of the Presbyterian Church (1645,), the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), and the Shorter Catechism (1648), and the documents were submitted to the National Assembly. This confession of faith was ratified by the Scottish General Assembly on August 27, 1647, and became the framework of the Scottish American Presbyterian Church and the British Parliament also slightly modified this confession and partially approved it in June 1648. In 1646, the General Assembly of Westminster asked the British Parliament to ratify the Confession of Faith, but the British Parliament delayed ratification by requiring a Bible verse to be submitted for each article of the Confession. In contrast, the Scottish Parliament ratified the Confession of Faith without any conditions in 1647. Eventually, the British Parliament partially ratified it in 1648, and then in 1690, under the reigns of William III and Mary II, who ascended to the throne through the Glorious Revolution, the British Parliament also ratified the Westminster Confession of Faith. The Westminster Confession of Faith later influenced many churches in the United States and England. The ‘Cambridge Articles’ of 1648, the Congregationalists’ ‘Savoy Declaration’ of 1658, the Baptist Confession of 1689, and the slightly revised Philadelphia Confession of Faith of 1742 are all rooted in the Westminster Confession of Faith. And the 1789 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States decided to ratify this confession of faith. However, it was accepted with modifications and deletion of the parts related to the church and government and the part that defined the Pope as the Antichrist.  Significance of the Westminster Confession of Faith Now, I would like to summarize the significance of the Westminster Confession of Faith in church history. The Westminster Confession of Faith consists of 33 articles. This confession of faith is famous for being the best interpretation of Calvinist doctrine. This confession of faith is eval‎uated as a great achievement achieved by the Reformed community 30 years after the Creed of Dort written in 1618-1619. Richard Baxter, a famous Puritan leader who taught this, emphatically said that since the apostolic era there had been no more holy meeting than the Council of Dort and the Council of Westminster. This confession of faith follows Calvin in its view of the Bible, stipulating that the original text of the Bible is the word of God without error, and specifically emphasizing the inspiration of the Bible and its inerrancy. In terms of predestination, the Westminster Confession of Faith did not follow the Dort Confess of post-fall predestination (infralapsarianism) but accepted pre-fall predestination (supralapsarianism). Another characteristic of this confession of faith is the article on double predestination.  The theory of double predestination is specified in detail in eight points, which say that some people were predestined for salvation and others for destruction. This theory of predestination was a form of predestination that had been emphasized as reformist orthodoxy by reformed orthodoxists since Beza. Also, unlike Luther, this confession of faith does not view the law and the gospel from a dualistic perspective, but includes them both in the covenant of grace. This is eval‎uated as a direct reflection of Calvin's thoughts. That is why covenant theology appears strongly in the Westminster Confession of Faith. These are the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. The former is that God made a clear promise to Adam, the representative of mankind, but because of his sin, he and his descendants lost all the promised blessings, so God implemented the covenant of grace through Christ instead of the covenant of works that humans failed. The original origins of covenant theology can be found in Zwingli. However, it can be said that the people who established it theologically were Zwingli's disciples Bullinger and Brnecker, and Johann Coxeus (1603-1669) of Leiden University. Coxeus lived from 1603 to 1669 and can be said to be the greatest authority on Reformed covenant theology, having compiled Reformed theology by writing “The Doctrine of the Covenant of God” in 1648. General conclusion In conclusion, the Westminster Confession of Faith was the fruit of the Puritan movement, and this Confession of Faith became the standard document of the Presbyterian Church around the world. This confession of faith had a great influence not only on the Presbyterian Church, but also on the Calvinistic Congregational Church and the Calvinistic Baptist Church. If the German Reformed Church's Heidelberg Catechism, the Dutch Calvinist Dort Creed, and the French Reformed Church's Belgic Confession of Faith are the three major confessions of the Reformed Church, the Westminster Confession of Faith can be said to be the only standard document of the Presbyterian Church. In addition, the Westminster Confession of Faith has been passed down as a standard document for Presbyterian churches throughout the world, including the United Kingdom and the United States. Most Presbyterian churches in Korea also accept this confession of faith as a standard document.