Westminister Assembly (1643-1652)






Information



The Westminster Assembly (1643-1652) was both the largest parliamentary committee of the English civil war and the last of the great post-Reformation synods. The Assembly is perhaps best known as the creed-making body behind the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, documents which have guided Presbyterian and Reformed churches for centuries.
The Westminster Assembly Project exists to make the writings of the Westminster Assembly and its members available to scholars and to the general public. It is the umbrella title for several subprojects, one of which seeks to publish the minutes and papers of the Westminster Assembly. We hope that as this site develops it will prove useful for researchers focusing on Puritanism, the English civil-war, post-Reformation theology, or the history of Presbyterianism and Congregationalism.

Furthermore, the Assembly was congregated in order to help decide the issue of denominations, their legitimacy, and its relation to the Church as a whole (here denominations used to "describe a religious group...during the early years of the Evangelical Revival led by John Wesley and George Whitefield; also the opposite of sectarianism, or the belief of a true body of Church that contains all truth).
(Church History)


Denominations



Dissenting Brothers of Westminister came to the denominational theory in these truths:

  1. Due to humanity's inability of clear sight, whether it be truth or otherwise, differences of opinion are inevitable.
  2. Even though these differences are not fundamental to faith, they cannot be ignored. Christians are to believe what they believe the Bible to teach.
  3. Since, again, man's grasp of truth is incomplete and cannot ever completely grasp Divinity and its encompassments, the true Church can never be fully represented in a singular structure.
  4. Separation does not indicate schism; rather it indicates differences in opinion and yet implies a unity in Christ.

(Church History)

Portrait of Westminster Assembly
Portrait of Westminster Assembly



References



Portrait of Westminster Assembly

Church History:In Plain Language (Third Edition) by Bruce L. Shelley