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As a young boy and through my teen years, I was reared in a church that was part of the  Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) denomination.  The actual congregation my family was a part of, Lebanon Presbyterian Church, was founded in 1775 with Scots Irish roots that connected her well to a system of doctrine often termed ‘Reformed.’  Today, many Presbyterian denominations have drifted into gross liberalism, but the PCA has remained fairly ‘conservative’ as the descriptor goes.

With the rich history and proud heritage of the Scots Irish Presbyterians, I was taught inculcated with the belief that the best and only reasonable understanding of Scripture was based on the Westminster Confession of Faith, a doctrinal statement forged by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster between 1643 and 1647.  To question, or disagree with that document was tantamount to heresy.  It was/is regarded as THE proper distillation of Scripture and departure from it potentially endangered the soul.

In my early 30’s, the Father reigned in my Jonah trip through the military and the business world bringing me to seminary and eventually a pastoral position in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, another Scots Irish denomination with a long and storied history that adheres to the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF).  My own denomination viewed my seminary credentials with some distrust, as they did for most any candidate who attended a seminary that was not ‘confessional.’  I attended a very conservative seminary that had students and professors from a very broad base of doctrinal positions, but the exposure to other thought processes was considered to be potentially problematic.  While my peers would disagree with my assessment, the questioning of belief structure is always more intense around pastoral candidates who ventured outside the chosen lines of ‘doctrinal purity.’

While I could go into much more detail with this explanation and give multiple examples, I offer this much to say,

Within Reformed denominations, Scripture is read through the filter of the Westminster Confession of Faith.  More precisely, the Westminster Confession of Faith is a man-made document that governs the Reformed understanding of Scripture and thereby is held as a judge over the Word of God.

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