The Reformed and Presbyterian Churches

The churches that descend from Zurich, Geneva and Scotland: Continental Reformed and Presbyterian, bound by the Westminster Standards or the Three Forms of Unity, governed by elders in courts, and holding that God chose his people before the world began.

The Belgic Confession (1561), Christian Reformed Church in North America

The Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Christian Reformed Church in North America

The Canons of Dort (1618–19), Christian Reformed Church in North America

Our Faith, Christian Reformed Church in North America

The Westminster Confession of Faith, with the American revisions as adopted by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church

The Westminster Confession of Faith, original text (Edinburgh printing of 1647), in Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, vol. III, CCEL

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Beveridge translation), III.xxi, CCEL

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Beveridge translation), IV.xv, on baptism, CCEL

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Beveridge translation), IV.xvii, on the Supper, CCEL

Book of Church Order, Presbyterian Church in America (2026)

The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Part I: Book of Confessions (2016)

Church of Scotland Act 1921, Schedule: Articles Declaratory of the Constitution of the Church of Scotland in Matters Spiritual, legislation.gov.uk

Report of the Committee on the Baptism and Gifts of the Holy Spirit, 45th General Assembly of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (1978)

World Communion of Reformed Churches, Members

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), news of 29 June 2026 on the 2025 statistics report

Presbyterian Church in America, Statistics: Five-Year Summary (2020–2024), PCA Administrative Committee

Church of Scotland, Congregational Statistics (2025)

Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. VIII, §§10–20, the Reformation in Zurich, CCEL

Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. VIII, §§95 and 104, Calvin's return and the Ecclesiastical Ordinances, CCEL

Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. VIII, §§149–155, the arrest, trial and execution of Servetus, CCEL

David T. Myers, "The Disruption of 1843," This Day in Presbyterian History, PCA Historical Center (2018)

Huldrych Zwingli (Wikipedia)

Marburg Colloquy (Wikipedia)

John Calvin (Wikipedia)

John Knox (Wikipedia)

Westminster Assembly (Wikipedia)

Thomas Chalmers (Wikipedia)

J. Gresham Machen (Wikipedia)

Orthodox Presbyterian Church (Wikipedia)

Presbyterian Church in America (Wikipedia)

Presbyterian Church (USA) (Wikipedia)

Church of Scotland (Wikipedia)

Free Church of Scotland (since 1900) (Wikipedia)

Christian Reformed Church in North America (Wikipedia)

Reformed Church in America (Wikipedia)

Reformed Christianity (Wikipedia)

World Communion of Reformed Churches (Wikipedia)

The Reformed churches began in Switzerland in the 1520s, where Huldrych Zwingli preached through the Gospels at Zurich, and took their form at Geneva under John Calvin. From there the movement spread to Scotland under John Knox, to the Netherlands and Germany through the Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism, and to North America with the settlers. The turning points below are the confessions that bound the churches, the synods that settled their quarrels, and the divisions over who rules the church: the state, a synod, or the elders.

Zwingli in Zurich

Zwingli was chosen chief pastor of the Great Minster at Zurich in December 1518 and began by preaching straight through the Gospel of Matthew, in place of the set lessons. On 29 January 1523 the city held a public disputation on the new teaching before its councils and about six hundred people. In Holy Week of April 1525 the Mass gave way to a plain Supper in the Great Minster: the communicants gathered at long tables set in place of the altar, the bread and cup were given from wooden plates and cups, and the service was in the people's own tongue. It was to be held four times a year.

Calvin's Institutes

The first edition of John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion appeared in 1536 and the final Latin edition in 1559, in four books: God the Creator, the Redeemer in Christ, receiving the grace of Christ through the Holy Spirit, and the church. It became the textbook of the Reformed churches.

The Ecclesiastical Ordinances of Geneva

Geneva recalled Calvin in 1541, and at his first meeting with the syndics and council after his return, on 13 September, he pressed for a church order. The councils adopted his Ecclesiastical Ordinances. They named four offices, pastors, teachers, elders and deacons, and the ministers and elders were to meet each week to oversee conduct and exercise discipline. The Supper was to be served once a month in one of the city's churches, and at Easter, Pentecost and Christmas. The councils adopted a revised edition on 13 November 1561.

Servetus at Geneva

Michael Servetus, a Spanish physician who denied the Trinity and infant baptism, had been condemned at Vienne by a Catholic court and burned there in effigy. He escaped, came to Geneva, and on 13 August 1553 was recognized at church and arrested; Calvin wrote that the arrest was made "at my instigation." The city council, then led by Calvin's opponents, tried him and sent the case to the churches of Bern, Zurich, Schaffhausen and Basel, which condemned his teaching but left the penalty to the state. On 26 October the council sentenced him to be burned. Calvin asked that the sword be used instead of fire and was refused, and Servetus was burned at Champel on 27 October 1553.

The Reformation in Scotland

In August 1560 the Scottish Parliament approved the Scots Confession, drawn up by six ministers, among them John Knox. A week later it abolished the pope's jurisdiction in Scotland and forbade the Mass.

The Heidelberg Catechism

Elector Frederick III of the Palatinate asked for a catechism to teach the young, guide the preaching, and give the Protestants of his province one confession. A synod at Heidelberg approved it in January 1563. It opens with the question "What is your only comfort in life and in death?"

The Synod of Dort

After the death of Jacobus Arminius, his followers set out their objections to the received teaching in a Remonstrance of 1610. A national synod of the Dutch Reformed churches met at Dordrecht in 1618–19 to settle the matter, with twenty-six delegates from eight foreign countries beside the Dutch. Its answer, the Canons of Dort, is set out in five heads of doctrine.

The Westminster Assembly

The Long Parliament called an assembly of divines to Westminster, which first sat on 1 July 1643. It framed a Directory for Public Worship to replace the Book of Common Prayer, a Confession of Faith, and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. The Church of Scotland's General Assembly approved the Confession in 1647, and these Westminster Standards became the creed of the English-speaking Presbyterians.

The Disruption

On 18 May 1843, 121 ministers and 73 elders walked out of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh and formed the Free Church of Scotland, with Thomas Chalmers as its first moderator. In the end about 475 ministers, a third of the clergy, left with about a third of the members, and gave up their stipends, manses and churches. The quarrel was over patronage, the right of a wealthy patron to install a minister whatever the parish thought, and behind it whether Christ or the government is head of the church.

Machen and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church

J. Gresham Machen helped found the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions in 1933, and he and other members of the board were suspended from the ministry of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in 1935 and 1936. On 11 June 1936 they formed a new church at Philadelphia, first called the Presbyterian Church of America and later the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

The Presbyterian Church in America

In December 1973 conservative ministers and congregations of the Southern church, the Presbyterian Church in the United States, met at Birmingham, Alabama, and organized what became the Presbyterian Church in America, to reaffirm the Westminster Confession and the inerrancy of Scripture.

The PC(USA)

On 10 June 1983 the northern Presbyterian church (the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.) and the southern one (the Presbyterian Church in the United States) joined to form the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Its Book of Confessions gathers the creeds of the church in one volume, from the Nicene Creed to the Confession of 1967, the Barmen Declaration and its own Brief Statement of Faith. ECO, a conservative body, left it in 2012.

Huldrych Zwingli

Preacher at Zurich from 1519, who replaced the Mass there with a plain Supper in 1525. He died in battle at Kappel on 11 October 1531.

John Calvin

Born at Noyon in France on 10 July 1509 and died at Geneva on 27 May 1564. His Institutes gave the Reformed churches their order of doctrine, and his Ordinances of 1541 gave Geneva its church order. In 1559 he also drafted the French confession of faith, the Gallic Confession.

John Knox

Born near Haddington in Scotland and died at Edinburgh on 24 November 1572. He was one of the six ministers who drew up the Scots Confession in 1560 and the First Book of Discipline for the new Kirk.

Thomas Chalmers

Born at Anstruther in Fife on 17 March 1780. He was moderator of the first Free Church assembly after the Disruption of 1843 and had prepared a sustentation fund for the ministers who left. He died at Edinburgh on 31 May 1847.

J. Gresham Machen

Born at Baltimore on 28 July 1881, a professor of New Testament at Princeton. He founded the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions in 1933, was suspended from the ministry in 1936, and helped form the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. He died at Bismarck, North Dakota, on 1 January 1937.

Marburg, 1529. Zwingli and Martin Luther met at Marburg and could not agree on the presence of Christ in the Supper, and the Reformed and Lutheran churches went separate ways (Marburg Colloquy, Wikipedia).

Servetus. Schaff says Calvin "was responsible for this arrest, as he frankly and repeatedly acknowledged," and that the council, not the church, judged and sentenced. The Swiss churches consulted did not ask expressly for death; they left the penalty to the state. Calvin defended the sentence afterward in print. It is the best known stain on the Genevan story, and it is set down here as it happened.

Psalms and organs. Many early Calvinists sang only psalms, without instruments, though Calvin also allowed other songs of Scripture (Reformed Christianity, Wikipedia). Most Reformed churches took up instruments in the nineteenth century. The Free Church of Scotland sang only unaccompanied psalms from 1900 until November 2010, when a special assembly allowed hymns and instruments (Free Church of Scotland, Wikipedia).

The Dutch line in America. The first Dutch Reformed congregation was gathered at New Amsterdam in 1628, and the Reformed Church in America grew from it. In 1857 four churches of about 130 families left it in Michigan to found the Christian Reformed Church. The CRC decided in 1995 to ordain women, and congregations that left over it formed the United Reformed Churches in North America (CRC, Wikipedia).

The mainline now. In 2011 the PC(USA) let congregations ordain openly gay and lesbian elders and deacons, and since 2014 its ministers may perform same-sex marriages (PC(USA), Wikipedia). On 21 May 2016 the Church of Scotland's assembly voted to allow ministers in same-sex marriages (Church of Scotland, Wikipedia). The PC(USA), the Church of Scotland, the RCA and ECO belong to the World Communion of Reformed Churches, formed in 2010; the PCA and the OPC do not (WCRC, Members).

Scripture alone is the rule of faith and is complete; the confession sits below it as the church's statement of what it teaches; councils may err; and the mainline bodies hold their confessions loosely.

The Reformed churches receive the Old and New Testaments as the word of God, and teach that the Bible alone is the rule of faith and life. The Belgic Confession says everything one must believe to be saved is sufficiently taught in it. The Westminster Confession adds that the whole counsel of God is either set down in Scripture "or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture," and that nothing is to be added by new revelation or the traditions of men. Councils "may err; and many have erred," and so they are "not to be made the rule of faith, or practice; but to be used as a help in both."

The churches also bind themselves to a confession. In the PCA, officers must receive the Westminster Confession and Catechisms "as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures," and in the CRC the Three Forms of Unity stand beside the ecumenical creeds. The Church of Scotland names the Westminster Confession its "principal subordinate standard" but keeps the right to declare the sense in which it holds it.

We believe that this Holy Scripture contains the will of God completely and that everything one must believe to be saved is sufficiently taught in it.

The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men.

receives the Word of God which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as its supreme rule of faith and life

The CRC: "We believe that the Old and New Testaments are the inspired Word of God, the only infallible rule for faith and life." The Church of Scotland keeps the right "to declare the sense in which it understands its Confession of Faith, to modify the forms of expression therein, or to formulate other doctrinal statements." The PC(USA)'s Confession of 1967 says the Scriptures are "nevertheless the words of men, conditioned by the language, thought forms, and literary fashions of the places and times at which they were written."

A sinner is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone; faith itself is God's gift; baptism is a sign and seal of the covenant, given to believers and to their infant children, normally by pouring or sprinkling.

The Heidelberg Catechism asks how a person is righteous before God, and answers: "Only by true faith in Jesus Christ." That faith is God's gift, worked by the Holy Spirit through the gospel. In justification God credits Christ's righteousness to the believer rather than infusing it. The Westminster Confession calls faith "the alone instrument of justification," yet says it "is no dead faith, but worketh by love."

Baptism is a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, given to those who profess faith and to "the infants of one, or both, believing parents," because the children of believers are counted within the covenant, as Israel's children were within the covenant of circumcision. Immersion is allowed but not required: dipping "is not necessary," and baptism is "rightly administered by pouring, or sprinkling water upon the person." Baptism does not regenerate of itself, and its efficacy "is not tied to that moment of time wherein it is administered."

without any merit of my own, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ

Not only those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ, but also the infants of one, or both, believing parents, are to be baptized.

Although it be a great sin to contemn or neglect this ordinance, yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it, as that no person can be regenerated, or saved, without it; or, that all that are baptized are undoubtedly regenerated.

The Heidelberg Catechism on infants (Q&A 74): "Infants as well as adults are included in God's covenant and people, and they, no less than adults, are promised deliverance from sin through Christ's blood and the Holy Spirit who produces faith." The Belgic Confession rejects "the error of the Anabaptists who … condemn the baptism of the children of believers." The Westminster Confession calls baptism "a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins."

The Supper is a sign and seal in which believers by faith spiritually feed on Christ crucified; the bread and wine stay bread and wine; it is not a sacrifice; and it is for professing believers, kept from the unworthy.

The Reformed call the Lord's Supper a sacrament in which believers are nourished and strengthened. They deny that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ, and they deny that it is a sacrifice: "Christ is not offered up to his Father; nor any real sacrifice made at all." The elements "in substance and nature … still remain truly and only bread and wine." Yet it is not a bare memorial. The worthy receiver feeds on Christ "really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally but spiritually," and the Heidelberg Catechism says that although Christ "is in heaven and we are on earth," the Holy Spirit unites believers to his body.

The table is guarded: "ignorant and ungodly persons … cannot, without great sin against Christ, while they remain such, partake of these holy mysteries." The PCA leaves it to the session to invite all who "profess the true religion, and are communicants in good standing in any evangelical church," or only those it has approved. Both bread and cup go to every communicant, and the Supper is observed "frequently," at times each session sets.

Worthy receivers, outwardly partaking of the visible elements, in this sacrament, do then also, inwardly by faith, really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally but spiritually, receive, and feed upon, Christ crucified, and all benefits of his death

In this sacrament, Christ is not offered up to his Father; nor any real sacrifice made at all, for remission of sins of the quick or dead; but only a commemoration of that one offering up of himself, by himself, upon the cross, once for all

We believe and confess that our Savior Jesus Christ has ordained and instituted the sacrament of the Holy Supper to nourish and sustain those who are already regenerated and ingrafted into his family, which is his church.

The Westminster Confession calls transubstantiation "repugnant, not to Scripture alone, but even to common sense, and reason," and rejects "the denial of the cup to the people, worshiping the elements, the lifting them up, or carrying them about, for adoration." Calvin wanted the Supper far more often than Geneva allowed: "Each week, at least, the table of the Lord ought to have been spread for the company of Christians" (Institutes IV.xvii.46).

Each church is led by a plural eldership, ministers and ruling elders with deacons, and the congregations are bound together in presbyteries and a general assembly; the PCA, the OPC and others ordain men only, while the mainline bodies, the RCA and the CRC ordain women.

The Reformed and Presbyterian churches are governed by elders. A local church is led by its pastor and ruling elders, who together make up the session (the Belgic Confession's council of the church), and deacons care for the needs of the people. The Second Helvetic Confession holds that at first "the bishops or presbyters governed the Church in common."

The churches are joined in courts. The session sits under the presbytery, which "consists of all the teaching elders and churches" of a district, and above it stands the general assembly, which in the PCA "constitutes the bond of union, peace and correspondence among all its congregations and courts." The courts have no civil power; "their authority is in all respects moral or spiritual." The PCA ordains only men: "In accord with Scripture, these offices are open to men only." The Church of Scotland has opened all its offices to women since 1968, and the PC(USA), the RCA and the CRC also ordain women.

We believe that this true church ought to be governed according to the spiritual order that our Lord has taught us in his Word. There should be ministers or pastors to preach the Word of God and administer the sacraments. There should also be elders and deacons, along with the pastors, to make up the council of the church.

The ordinary and perpetual classes of office in the Church are elders and deacons. Within the class of elder are the two orders of teaching elders and ruling elders. The elders jointly have the government and spiritual oversight of the Church, including teaching.

Certainly, in the beginning, the bishops or presbyters governed the Church in common; no man lifted up himself above another, none usurped greater power or authority over his fellow-bishops.

The Westminster Confession: "The Lord Jesus, as King and Head of his church, hath therein appointed a government, in the hand of church officers, distinct from the civil magistrate." The Church of Scotland: "Its government is Presbyterian, and is exercised through Kirk-sessions, Presbyteries, Provincial Synods, and General Assemblies." The PCA's courts "can make no laws binding the conscience."

Worship is to follow what God has commanded in Scripture, and no more: the reading and preaching of the Word, prayer, singing, and the two sacraments; no images, no saints, no incense; and the Lord's Day is kept as the Christian Sabbath.

The Reformed churches teach what is called the regulative principle: God may be worshiped only in the ways he has commanded in Scripture. The acceptable way of worship "is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men." Worship is given to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit "and to him alone," prayer is made "for all sorts of men living … but not for the dead," and no worship is offered "under any visible representation."

The bodies apply the principle differently. The PCA's directory calls for "the use of musical instruments" with the singing and recommends psalms along with the hymns. Some bodies sing only psalms without instruments; the Free Church of Scotland did so from 1900 until 2010, and some of its congregations still do. The Lord's Day is kept as a Sabbath (see below).

the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture

The Bible teaches that the following are proper elements of worship service: reading of Holy Scripture, singing of psalms and hymns, the offering of prayer, the preaching of the Word, the presentation of offerings, confessing the faith and observing the Sacraments

Religious worship is to be given to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and to him alone; not to angels, saints, or any other creature

The Westminster Confession names "singing of psalms with grace in the heart" among the ordinary parts of worship; it does not say psalms only. It leaves "some circumstances concerning the worship of God" to "the light of nature, and Christian prudence." No place makes worship "more acceptable," for "God is to be worshiped everywhere, in spirit and truth."

The Spirit gives faith through the Word and confirms it by the sacraments; revelation closed with the apostles; and the conservative bodies teach that the extraordinary gifts ended with the apostolic age, though not every Reformed church binds the point.

The Reformed churches teach that the Holy Spirit works faith through the preaching of the gospel and confirms it by the sacraments, and that he testifies in the believer's heart that the Scriptures "are from God." He renews the sinner in effectual calling: man is "altogether passive therein, until, being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he is thereby enabled to answer this call."

On the extraordinary gifts, the Westminster Confession says the "former ways of God's revealing his will unto his people" are "now ceased," and the PCA's Book of Church Order says the "extraordinary officers who received extraordinary gifts of the Spirit" have no successors. An OPC committee reported in 1978 that tongues and prophecy have ceased, though the assembly only received the report and sent it to the churches for study. The Continental confessions do not speak to the question.

The Holy Spirit produces it in our hearts by the preaching of the holy gospel, and confirms it by the use of the holy sacraments.

those former ways of God’s revealing his will unto his people being now ceased

Such officers and gifts related to new revelation have no successors since God completed His revelation at the conclusion of the Apostolic Age.

The OPC report of 1978 (Gaffin, chairman) held that tongues "pass out of the life of the church along with prophecy and whatever other foundational gifts are bound up with the presence of the apostolate in the church," a conclusion it said "follows by inference." The Westminster Confession on the Spirit's work now: "we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word."

Christ will return bodily and visibly to raise the dead and judge all; souls go at death to heaven or hell, with no purgatory; and the judgment shows God's mercy to the elect and his justice to the reprobate.

The Reformed confess that Christ will come again from heaven, bodily and visibly, to judge the living and the dead. At death the souls of men "immediately return to God who gave them": the righteous are received into heaven, and the souls of the wicked "are cast into hell." "Besides these two places, for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none," so there is no purgatory and no prayer for the dead. At the last day the dead are raised "with the selfsame bodies," and every person will "receive according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil."

The day shows "the glory of his mercy, in the eternal salvation of the elect; and of his justice, in the damnation of the reprobate." The Heidelberg Catechism puts the hope as a comfort in the face of death, and the Westminster Confession does not define the thousand years of Revelation 20.

our Lord Jesus Christ will come from heaven, bodily and visibly, as he ascended, with great glory and majesty, to declare himself the judge of the living and the dead.

Besides these two places, for souls separated from their bodies, the Scripture acknowledgeth none.

Even as I already now experience in my heart the beginning of eternal joy, so after this life I will have perfect blessedness such as no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no human heart has ever imagined: a blessedness in which to praise God forever.

On infants the Westminster Confession says: "Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated, and saved by Christ, through the Spirit, who worketh when, and where, and how he pleaseth." The Canons of Dort assure believing parents that they "ought not to doubt the election and salvation of their children whom God calls out of this life in infancy." The PC(USA)'s Declaratory Statement of 1903 goes further: "We believe that all dying in infancy are included in the election of grace." Christ would "have that day unknown to men, that they may shake off all carnal security, and be always watchful."

Predestination and the Canons of Dort

Before the foundation of the world God chose a definite number of persons in Christ to salvation, not for anything foreseen in them, and passed by the rest; Christ died to redeem the chosen; and those chosen will persevere to the end.

This is the doctrine most often named when people speak of Calvinism. The Canons of Dort, written in answer to the Remonstrance of 1610, teach that salvation is wholly God's gift. Before the foundation of the world, "by sheer grace," God chose in Christ "a definite number of particular people," and those not chosen are passed by and left to be justly condemned for their sins. Christ's death is "of infinite value and worth, more than sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world," and the gospel is to be preached to all, but its saving effect is for "all those and only those who were chosen from eternity." Those so chosen will persevere. The Westminster Confession teaches the same, adds that God is not "the author of sin," and says the doctrine is to be handled "with special prudence and care."

Election is God's unchangeable purpose by which he did the following: Before the foundation of the world, by sheer grace, according to the free good pleasure of his will, God chose in Christ to salvation a definite number of particular people out of the entire human race

it was God's will that Christ through the blood of the cross (by which he confirmed the new covenant) should effectively redeem from every people, tribe, nation, and language all those and only those who were chosen from eternity to salvation

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.

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love: having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith: but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling;

This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth.

and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.

Scripture does teach election, and the Reformed are right that salvation begins with God and leaves no room to boast: he "chose us in him before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4). But the choice is "in him," and Paul tells the same readers how they came to be in him: "having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" (Ephesians 1:13). Romans 9, the chapter the Reformed lean on most, ends with Paul's own answer to why the Gentiles attained righteousness and Israel did not: "Because they sought it not by faith" (Romans 9:32). God chose a people in Christ and set the condition, faith; he did not fix before birth which persons would believe, for he "would have all men to be saved" (1 Timothy 2:4), and Christ is the propitiation "for the whole world" (1 John 2:2). To bind on every minister a decree that passes by the rest is to bind what the apostles never preached.

Romans 9. The Reformed read "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" (Romans 9:13) as the choice of one man to life and another to death before either was born. But Paul quotes texts about nations and their place in history: "Two nations are in thy womb" and "the elder shall serve the younger" (Genesis 25:23), and Malachi, written long after both men died, of the people of Esau whose God "made his mountains a desolation" (Malachi 1:3). The potter's right is God's right to choose the line of promise and set its terms, and Paul names the terms before the chapter ends. In Romans 11 branches were broken off "by their unbelief" (Romans 11:20) and "if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in" (Romans 11:23): an election one can fall from and return to is not a decree fixed apart from faith.

The call. God "chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:13), and Peter tells the elect to "give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure" (2 Peter 1:10). Reformed preaching calls everyone to come, but the system holds that the call saves only those already chosen. The apostles told sinners, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation" (Acts 2:40).

Covenant theology

God deals with man by covenants: a covenant of works made with Adam, and a covenant of grace made through Christ with believers and their children, one in substance in the Old Testament and the New.

The Reformed read the whole Bible through covenants. The Westminster Confession teaches that the first was "a covenant of works," promising life to Adam on condition of perfect obedience, and that after the fall God made "a second, commonly called the covenant of grace." There is one covenant of grace, "differently administered in the time of the law, and in the time of the gospel": "There are not therefore two covenants of grace, differing in substance, but one and the same, under various dispensations."

The covenant is the ground of Reformed infant baptism: the Belgic Confession says the children of believers share "the same promises" as the circumcised children of Israel. It also shapes Reformed family life, and the PCA's directory asks that "covenant children" be present at public worship so far as possible.

The first covenant made with man was a covenant of works, wherein life was promised to Adam; and in him to his posterity, upon condition of perfect and personal obedience.

the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace; wherein he freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ; requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved

We believe our children ought to be baptized and sealed with the sign of the covenant, as little children were circumcised in Israel on the basis of the same promises made to our children.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, And on their heart also will I write them: And I will be to them a God, And they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, And every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: For all shall know me, From the least to the greatest of them.

in whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him.

That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed.

The Reformed are right that there is one people of God and one promise: those who belong to Christ are "Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise" (Galatians 3:29). But the new covenant is not entered by birth. Its members "shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, And every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: For all shall know me" (Hebrews 8:11), and "it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God" (Romans 9:8). The circumcision of the new covenant is "not made with hands" (Colossians 2:11), and Paul places it in a baptism in which they were raised "through faith in the working of God" (Colossians 2:12), so its counterpart is a new heart, not water given to an infant. Peter's promise "to your children" is bounded in the same breath, "even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him" (Acts 2:39), and the next verses show how it was taken up: "They then that received his word were baptized" (Acts 2:41).

Reformed writers also point to the households baptized in Acts. But at Philippi the word was spoken "with all that were in his house" (Acts 16:32) before "he and all his" were baptized (Acts 16:33), and no text names an infant. Infant baptism is drawn by what the Westminster Confession calls "good and necessary consequence," from Israel's circumcised sons to the children of the church, an inference the New Testament declines when it says "they that are of faith, the same are sons of Abraham" (Galatians 3:7).

The Lord's Day as the Christian Sabbath

The fourth commandment binds all men in all ages; since the resurrection the day is the first day of the week, to be kept holy all day in rest and in the worship of God.

The Westminster Confession teaches that God has "by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages" appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath. From the beginning to the resurrection that day was the last day of the week, and from the resurrection it was changed to the first day, "the Lord’s day," to be kept "as the Christian Sabbath" to the end of the world. The day is kept holy by resting "all the day, from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations," and by spending it in public and private worship and "the duties of necessity and mercy." The PCA's directory quotes the Shorter Catechism that the fourth commandment requires "expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy sabbath to himself."

he hath particularly appointed one day in seven, for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him: which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which, in Scripture, is called the Lord’s day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath

God commanded His Old Testament people to keep holy the last day of the week, but He sanctified the first day as the Sabbath by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead.

And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight.

Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day: which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ’s.

There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from his.

The Reformed deserve credit for keeping the first day: the disciples gathered "upon the first day of the week … to break bread" (Acts 20:7), and John was "in the Spirit on the Lord’s day" (Revelation 1:10). But the Sabbath was given to Israel as "a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever" (Exodus 31:17), made known to them "by Moses thy servant" (Nehemiah 9:14), and no apostle commands a Christian to keep it or says it was moved to Sunday. Paul says the opposite: "Let no man therefore judge you … in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day: which are a shadow of the things to come" (Colossians 2:16-17). The rest that remains for God's people is the rest of those who have "rested from his works, as God did from his" (Hebrews 4:10), not a day of the week. The Confession binds a law of rest from "works, words, and thoughts" about recreation on a "change" no verse records; the gathering belongs to Scripture, and the Sabbath law does not.

The Reformed ground the day in creation and in the Ten Commandments, and they point to the Lord's words, "The sabbath was made for man" (Mark 2:27). But Moses says of the covenant of the ten words, "Jehovah made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us" (Deuteronomy 5:3), and when the apostles set down what Gentile believers must keep (Acts 15), the Sabbath is not among them.

Church discipline and the keys

Christ has given his church a government whose officers hold the keys of the kingdom and exercise discipline by admonition, suspension from the Supper and excommunication; discipline is one of the marks of the true church.

The Belgic Confession names three marks of the true church: pure preaching of the gospel, pure administration of the sacraments, and the practice of "church discipline for correcting faults." The Westminster Confession says Christ has appointed a government in the hand of church officers, "distinct from the civil magistrate," to whom the keys of the kingdom are committed, to shut it against the impenitent and open it to the penitent. Censures are needed "for the reclaiming and gaining of offending brethren," for deterring others, and for purging the leaven that might infect the whole lump. The steps are admonition, suspension from the Lord's Supper for a season, and excommunication.

it practices church discipline for correcting faults

To these officers the keys of the kingdom of heaven are committed; by virtue whereof, they have power, respectively, to retain, and remit sins; to shut that kingdom against the impenitent, both by the Word, and censures; and to open it unto penitent sinners, by the ministry of the gospel; and by absolution from censures, as occasion shall require.

the officers of the church are to proceed by admonition; suspension from the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper for a season; and by excommunication from the church

And if thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault between thee and him alone: if he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established. And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the church: and if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican.

in the name of our Lord Jesus, ye being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

For what have I to do with judging them that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.

A factious man after a first and second admonition refuse;

The Reformed stand nearer the New Testament here than most churches do. The Lord said of the brother who will not listen, "tell it unto the church: and if he refuse to hear the church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican" (Matthew 18:17), and Paul commanded, "Put away the wicked man from among yourselves" (1 Corinthians 5:13). A church that practices this, aiming at restoration, follows the apostles. But in the text the act belongs to the church, "ye being gathered together" (1 Corinthians 5:4), while the Reformed commit the keys to the officers and let a session or a higher court pass sentence. Elders lead the flock in it; the New Testament gives no court above the congregation the power to bind or loose for it.

The church and the civil magistrate

The church and the state are two governments; the original Westminster Confession made the magistrate responsible for suppressing heresy, but the American revision and the bodies that hold it deny him any power in matters of faith.

The churches of Zurich, Geneva and Scotland grew up under city councils and parliaments, and their first confessions gave the ruler a duty to guard the true church. The original Westminster Confession said the magistrate may not preach or hold the keys, yet must see "that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed." The American revision of 1788 rewrote the chapter, and the text the OPC holds forbids him to "interfere in matters of faith." The PCA's courts "have no jurisdiction in political or civil affairs." The Church of Scotland keeps its "historic testimony to the duty of the nation acting in its corporate capacity to render homage to God."

he hath authority, and it is his duty to take order, that unity and peace be preserved in the Church, that the truth of God be kept pure and entire, that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed

Civil magistrates may not assume to themselves the administration of the Word and sacraments; or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven; or, in the least, interfere in matters of faith.

They have no power to inflict temporal pains and penalties, but their authority is in all respects moral or spiritual.

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we bid fire to come down from heaven, and consume them? But he turned, and rebuked them. And they went to another village.

But he saith, Nay; lest haply while ye gather up the tares, ye root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.

(for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds),

The text the OPC holds today stands where the New Testament stands: the magistrate may not "interfere in matters of faith," and the PCA's courts have no power to inflict "temporal pains and penalties." That is the Lord's own word: "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36). But the churches did not begin there. Calvin had Servetus arrested, the Genevan council burned him with Calvin's approval, and the original Westminster Confession made it the magistrate's duty to see "that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed." The Lord rebuked disciples who would call down fire (Luke 9:54-56), said of the tares, "Let both grow together until the harvest" (Matthew 13:30), and gave his church weapons "not of the flesh" (2 Corinthians 10:4); the correction came late, in the American revision, and it is the right one.

The plumb line is the New Testament: what the apostles commanded, and what the churches practiced with their approval. Each position above is set against it, and the wall below shows how far each one stands from it; choose a course to read the Scripture and the reason. The Reformed carried the Reformation further toward the written word than the Lutherans did, and on several courses they stand near.

Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.

Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes; that in us ye might learn not to go beyond the things which are written; that no one of you be puffed up for the one against the other.

But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men.

The Reformed hold the rule Scripture asks for: inspired Scripture makes the man of God "complete, furnished completely unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:17), and the Westminster Confession says plainly that councils "may err; and many have erred." On this course they stand far nearer than Rome or the Eastern churches. But they bind a confession on every officer as "the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures," and with it what is drawn out "by good and necessary consequence," so that election, covenant baptism and the Sabbath become terms of office. Paul's rule was "not to go beyond the things which are written" (1 Corinthians 4:6), and a summary that binds more than the text says has gone beyond it. The mainline bodies have loosened the confession without going back to the text, and when the PC(USA) calls the Scriptures "nevertheless the words of men," it weakens the rule it began with.

The Reformed answer that the confession is only a summary, open to correction from Scripture, and the PCA lets a candidate state where he differs from it. That is honest, and it makes these churches far less bound than Rome. But the court decides which differences it will allow, so the confession still sets the bounds of the ministry.

for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory.

And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.

Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

The Reformed are right that salvation is "by grace … through faith; and that not of yourselves" (Ephesians 2:8), and right that the water does not save of itself. But they make faith "the alone instrument" of justification, where James says "by works a man is justified, and not only by faith" (James 2:24). Peter told those who asked what to do, "Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins" (Acts 2:38), and the Reformed make baptism a sign and seal of what faith has already received. They give it to infants who cannot repent, and by pouring or sprinkling, though Paul says the baptized were "buried therefore with him through baptism into death" (Romans 6:4). Calvin himself granted that "the term baptise means to immerse, and that this was the form used by the primitive Church."

Faith alone. The Reformed read James as speaking of faith shown to be real before men, and Paul of justification before God. But James quotes the verse Paul does, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness" (James 2:23), and says it was fulfilled when "by works was faith made perfect" (James 2:22). His question is salvation, not reputation: "can that faith save him?" (James 2:14). The works Paul shuts out are "the works of the law" (Romans 3:28), works that earn a reward "as of debt" (Romans 4:4), not the obedience of faith; Christ is "unto all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation" (Hebrews 5:9). The Confession itself grants that justifying faith is "not alone in the person justified," and the one place Scripture sets faith and "only" side by side, it says "not only by faith" (James 2:24).

The mode. Calvin held it "not of the least consequence" whether one is immersed or sprinkled (Institutes IV.xv.19). Scripture does not treat it so: it calls baptism a burial, and Philip and the eunuch "both went down into the water" (Acts 8:38). The covenant argument for infants is weighed below.

For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.

But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh judgment unto himself, if he discern not the body.

but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; henceforth expecting till his enemies be made the footstool of his feet. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

On this course the Reformed stand near the line. The Supper is "in remembrance" of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:24), the bread and the cup both go to every communicant, the elements "remain truly and only bread and wine," and the Mass is rejected because Christ "offered one sacrifice for sins for ever" (Hebrews 10:12). Calvin himself wrote that the Lord's table "ought to have been spread" each week, as the disciples gathered "upon the first day of the week … to break bread" (Acts 20:7). But the standards leave the day to each session, to be kept only "frequently," and the founding churches set it far less often: Zurich four times a year, Geneva once a month. The session also decides who may come, where Paul says "let a man prove himself, and so let him eat" (1 Corinthians 11:28).

The Reformed also speak of feeding on Christ's body "really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally but spiritually," by the Spirit's uniting the believer to Christ in heaven. Paul calls the bread "a communion of the body of Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:16) and says the eating proclaims "the Lord’s death till he come" (1 Corinthians 11:26), without saying more. That account goes a little past the text, but it keeps the bread as bread and the Supper as a memorial, which is why the course stands near.

And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave thee charge; if any man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children that believe, who are not accused of riot or unruly. For the bishop must be blameless, as God’s steward; not self-willed, not soon angry, no brawler, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre;

Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood.

The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.

The Reformed recovered what Rome and the East had lost, and they deserve the credit. The New Testament knows one office with two names, elders and bishops, plural in each church: Paul "appointed for them elders in every church" (Acts 14:23) and told the elders of Ephesus that the Spirit "hath made you bishops" (Acts 20:28), and the Reformed have no bishop over the elders and no pope. The PCA and the OPC also keep the qualification that an elder be "the husband of one wife" (Titus 1:6). The line is crossed in the courts: sessions are bound to presbyteries, synods and a general assembly with power over the congregations, where Peter tells elders to tend "the flock of God which is among you" (1 Peter 5:2). The Church of Scotland, the PC(USA), the RCA and the CRC have gone further off the line by opening the eldership to women, against that same qualification.

The Reformed point to the council at Jerusalem. But there "it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church" (Acts 15:22): apostles sat in it, the whole church shared the decision, and the New Testament records no standing court above the churches. Nor does "the elders that rule well" (1 Timothy 5:17) make two orders of elder; it marks a difference of labor among them.

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, do ye subject yourselves to ordinances, Handle not, nor taste, nor touch (all which things are to perish with the using), after the precepts and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.

speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

The Reformed stand near the line on worship and have earned the credit. The regulative principle, that God may be worshiped only as he has commanded, is the principle of Jesus: "in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men" (Matthew 15:9). On it they took out the images, the saints, the incense and the priestly ceremony that the text does not give, and their worship is plain and centered on the Word. They are held off the line by their own rule: the New Testament names singing, "singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19), and the PCA's directory calls for "the use of musical instruments" as well. The early Reformed churches sang without instruments for generations, and some still do; the principle applied as they first applied it would remove the instruments again.

The Reformed answer that the principle leaves "some circumstances" of worship to Christian prudence. That is true of the hour and the room, but an instrument is part of the praise itself, not its setting. Some of the strictest bodies also sing only the Psalms. That narrows what Paul names, "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" (Colossians 3:16), and the principle does not require it; the instrument is the point at which the principle and the practice part.

Now when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money,

how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard; God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will.

being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone;

Here the Reformed stand near the line. They tie the Spirit's work to the Word, add no new revelation, and teach that the extraordinary gifts belonged to the apostolic age, with "no successors since God completed His revelation." Scripture agrees: such gifts came "through the laying on of the apostles’ hands" (Acts 8:18) to confirm the word first "spoken through the Lord" (Hebrews 2:3), and the church is "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets" (Ephesians 2:20), a foundation laid once. Where they step off is the order of the Spirit's saving work. The Westminster Confession says the sinner is "altogether passive" until the Spirit renews him, and that renewing is given only to the elect, where Peter tells sinners to repent and be baptized and then promises, "ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38).

Not every Reformed body binds the cessation of the gifts: the OPC's assembly of 1978 only received its committee's report "for study," and the Continental confessions are silent. Where it is held, it rests on the right ground, that revelation was finished with the apostles and the signs went with them (2 Corinthians 12:12).

who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven.

Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.

And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment;

But Jesus said, Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for to such belongeth the kingdom of heaven.

The Reformed stand near the line on the last things. They confess that Christ "shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven" (Acts 1:11), one resurrection of the good and the evil (John 5:28-29), and one judgment after death (Hebrews 9:27), and they reject purgatory and prayer for the dead. The Westminster Confession binds no view of the thousand years, but the Second Helvetic Confession condemns as "Jewish dreams" the view "that there will be a golden age on earth before the Day of Judgment," and so binds as an article one reading of an order of events that Scripture does not settle. The other step off the line is where the decree reaches the cradle: the Westminster Confession speaks of "Elect infants, dying in infancy," which leaves the others unspoken for, and Dort assures only believing parents. The Lord said of little children without distinction, "to such belongeth the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 19:14), and "the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father" (Ezekiel 18:20).

Many Reformed teachers hold that every child who dies in infancy is saved, and the PC(USA)'s Declaratory Statement of 1903 says so outright. The conservative bodies keep the Confession's original wording. On the thousand years. The Second Helvetic Confession (ch. 11) stands in the PC(USA)'s Book of Confessions. The view it condemns may well be wrong, and the plain texts lean against an age between the resurrections (John 5:28-29), but a confession that condemns a view of the order as error binds an unsettled point as surely as one that requires a view. The placement already rested on the infants; this is a second, lesser reason for it.

Much that the Reformed churches confess, Scripture also teaches, and it should be said plainly. They confess one God in three persons; Christ truly God and truly man, born of a virgin, crucified, risen and coming again; the inspiration of Scripture; and heaven and hell. They hold that Scripture alone is the rule of faith, that councils may err, and that revelation closed with the apostles. They teach salvation by grace and not by merit, and reject purgatory, the Mass, the invocation of saints and images in worship. They govern each church by plural elders with no bishop over them, practice discipline, give both bread and cup to every communicant, and gather on the Lord's day around the Word.

Measured by the New Testament alone, the Reformed and Presbyterian churches stand nearer the pattern than Rome or the Eastern churches, and still short of it on the points the Reformation left in place. Their rule of faith is Scripture, but they bind a confession and its inferences beside it. They preach salvation by grace, but they teach justification by faith alone and an election fixed before the world began, and they give baptism to infants, by sprinkling, as a sign of what faith has already received. Their Supper is a memorial with both bread and cup, but it is not spread every first day. Their elders are plural, but they sit in courts set over the congregations. Their worship is plain, but their own principle would remove the instruments they have let in.

None of this is contempt for them. The Reformed have kept Scripture, plain worship and the discipline of the church when many others let them go, and many of their members love Christ and his word with real devotion. The answer to them is to bring that devotion to the Scriptures alone, and do what the converts in Acts did: hear the word, believe, repent, confess Jesus as Lord, and be buried with him in baptism for the remission of sins. Then worship as the churches of the New Testament did, under their own elders, at the Lord's table on the first day of every week.

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