The Westminster Confession Of Faith And Its Theological Foundation

The "Westminster Confession of Faith", emerging under the background of the Church of England, was written in the environment of Protestant Reformation. At the same time, the confession not only reflects the thought of Calvinism, but also retains the traces of the Lutheran Churches, and even contains some Catholic doctrines and ideas as well. Born under this situation, the "Westminster Confession of Faith" spontaneously possesses a special British feature. Through the study of the "Westminster Confession of Faith", the writer hopes to integrate the entire historical background and development process of the Church of England and the Protestant Reformation, to analyzes the theological foundation of the the Church of England and the and to further emerge the hidden connections between the Protestant Reformation and the mainstream faith of the United States.This paper starts from the historical background of the "Westminster Confession of Faith", overviews the establishment and development of the Church of England, combs the British history from the religious reformation of Henry VIII to the Westminster conference convened and clarifies the sequence of ideas of the British Protestant Reformation. Under this premise, writter analyzes the the chapters and the structure of the confession and successively expands the order of the dogmas in it, from Gods, human, the Christ, the Church to Eschatology. And it has some main features. It follows the sectional structure of modern religious doctrine theology and holds the position of the Doctrine of Bible. The theory of predestination presents a mature style. The confession focuses on Covenant Theology and makes explanations on the relationship between gods and human in the history, makes a division of the "visible church" and the "invisible Church", and gives complete denial to the domination of the Pope to all of the Christian.As a whole, the confession bases on the Bible, takes the reform thought of the early church as theology foundation, and follows the theory of the Protestant Reformation, from the beginning to the end. All these makes it not only possess the distinctive Puritan colours, but also absorb some views of the Catholic, Lutheran and other European theology, thus it becoming a recapitulative vindication of faith and presenting an all-embracing feature. By the overview of the whole "Westminster Confession of Faith" and its Catechisms, the whole confession is narrated in accordance with the logical sequence of the Bible, from the beginning of the creation of God to the end of the trial, thus affirming the accuracy and credibility of the Bible and regarding it as the guideline of all acts of human being. Simultaneously, the doctrine persists the ideology of predestination, believes in the God's holy sovereignty and his predestination, proposes the unconditional selection theory, adheres to the idea that not all people can be saved and firmly believes that only persons elected can get salvation but people without grace will come into the situation of eternal death. In addition, the confession holds the idea of Justification by Faith, believes in getting grace and salvation through the reverent belief, and stands for the view that electors stating justification and getting grace through the sincere faith, thus placing the faith on a critical position. It not only regards the faith as a prerequisite, but also making it surperimpose with the cross and become the bonds relating the Christian and Jesus Christ, considering that it is the "faith" that makes the Christian believe all demonstrated on the Bible is real, and making responses respectively to different texts in the Bible. Finally, the doctrine reflects a strong sense of grace. It thinks that God gives grace to people for nothing and people are completely passive in the face of grace, which means the grace completely stems from God and having no relation with human. The confession figures out that the grace is the covenant set up by the God and the Christ, in his inside, with all electors acting as his descendants. Confidence is a gift of God to his electors, and the grace is inside of Jesus. Beliving in Jesus and following his is the only cause to give effect to the grace.The "Westminster Confession of Faith" exerts a profound influence on the Christianity of the United Kingdom and the United States. The British Presbyterian, Congregationalists and the Baptist achieves joint and becomes Nonconformists. In the United States, the confession is also playing a noticeable role, affecting the religious structure and social life of entire American continent, and bringing to bear an indispensable function in the American political system and the formation process of the national spirit. In the meanwhile, the doctrine also brings us new inspirations in the aspect of handling the ethnic religious relations and provides us with a new all-inclusive model to realize the harmonious coexistence of the ethnic religions while maintaining their own specialties.