Presbyterian Questions for the Future

A question for the future: Will the Bible remain the final court of appeal or will Presbyterians be tossed about by innovative theological winds that blow?

Building upon a foundational commitment to the authority of Scripture, Calvin and the other Reformers tended to emphasize the core elements of catholic faith. Creeds and confessions were of vital importance to Calvin, especially the Apostles' Creed but he also saw the place for larger Confessions, writing the 'French Confession' ("Gallican Confession") in 1559 to provide a statement of faith for the persecuted Huguenots. The Dutch, German, and Swiss Reformed Churches, along with the Scottish Presbyterians and English Puritans, all wrote their confessions and catechisms. Reformed churches have always believed that doctrinal truth matters and Christian unity is founded in the truth.

Colonial Presbyterians adopted the 'Westminster Confession and Catechisms' of the seventeenth-century Puritans. In the preamble to the 1729 Adopting Acts, the Americans stated why it was necessary to adopt a formal creed: "We are undoubtedly obliged to take care that the faith once delivered to the saints be kept pure and uncorrupt among us, and so handed down to our posterity." . . . Will Presbyterians pass on the authentic faith to the next generation, or will revisionist Christianities gain the hearts and minds of the young?

—S. Donal Fortson III, 'The Presbyterian Story: Origins & Progress of a Reformed Tradition', 207–208