“A confession of faith is a public declaration before God and all the world of what the church believes.” Such statements are not a modern invention, nor are they relics of the past. The New Testament has the simplest of creeds in the assertion “Jesus Christ is Lord,” and from the early Church we have the statements known as the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. These and many formulations since that time are, in the words of the introduction to the study guide of the former Presbyterian Church in the United States (the southern Presbyterians), “public declarations before God and all the world of what the church believes.”
When the Presbyterian Record appears in my mailbox I read the column by Laurence DeWolfe first thing, and read with interest and pleasure. It was so when I read his attack on Living Faith. I enjoyed his article even though I disagree with him. He likes confessions of faith to be political documents like the Canons of the Synod of Dort, where the ultra-Calvinists condemned their opponents and then cut off their heads. Confessions of faith do not have to be war documents. Some were the forerunners and some the aftermath of war. The Barmen Declaration of 1933 preceded World War II and our Statement of Faith Concerning Church and Nation followed that conflict. The Heidelberg Catechism and the American Confession of 1967 were documents of peace.
Dr. DeWolfe acknowledges that Living Faith is “useful” and “acceptable.” I would add the word “necessary.” Dr. Garth Wilson, who shared the drafting of the document, and chaired the Doctrine Committee, noted “it is necessary to affirm our faith from time to time,” and that the work was a matter of urgency. Here is the document that affirms that all positions in the church may be filled by women as well as men. This was accepted after a lengthy struggle in the 1960s, but in Living Faith it became part of the constitution of The Presbyterian Church in Canada. Living Faith also states that we reject fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible. These were both necessary statements in 1984 and 1998. One affirmation in Living Faith, which must be unique among Reformed confessions notes that destruction of the resources and habitat of the earth is sinful. Perhaps that was a statement made for the 21st century!
The articles made no reference to Foi Vivante, the French version of Living Faith. It was also approved by the General Assembly and included as a subordinate standard. It thus became the first official document of our church in a language other than English. The translation was the work of Jean Porret with the assistance of G. Chassagne, Claire Bradbury and Michel Despland. Its appearance was recognition by the church of the bicultural character of Canada, and distinguished the life of our church from that of American, Scottish, Irish, and other kindred churches. The adoption of an official Korean version of the document carries this farther. We make a declaration before God and the whole world concerning our faith, and in Canada today this declaration must be made in many of the languages of our people. The Korean version is the work of David Won, Byung Keunk Kim, and Sunny Choi, with a final edit by Wally Hong, Victor Kim and Eun-Ju Chung, all under the direction of Cheol Soon Park. Where are the plans for the next translation?
Like every document Living Faith is dated. It carries in the title and the text its own DNA. In a new age a new confession may be needed. Dr. DeWolfe notes that Living Faith speaks of the prospect of nuclear war as a threat of the 1980s. The current international concern about Iran shows that President Obama does not think that this threat has passed away. Preachers are at liberty to enlarge upon this theme with whatever current information and wisdom they may possess. On this and other topics Living Faith expresses the common faith of our church at the end of the 20th century and the turn of the 21st. It is the function of confessions to exhibit existing faith and to serve as bonds of agreement and adherence. This function should not be dismissed as “creed by consensus.” The bold claim that we make is that in the twenty-first century we can believe what the church has always believed, and that we can state this belief in the language of today.
I had the privilege to present both Living Faith and Foi Vivante to General Assemblies in 1984 and 1986; I also wrote the Introductions to the documents. The intention was to speak to people within our church and also to the wider public. We rehearsed the themes of the older confessions of the Reformed Churches, and set them forth with a series of reflections for men and women of our day. Living Faith was meant to restate the ancient faith of the church in terms which speak to the mood and questions of our own time. In doing this we did not solve all the problems of the world, nor quell all the arguments of theology. There is always more to be said. Walter Bryden commented that the Westminster Confession did not resound with praise, and did not reflect the humility which Christian faith requires. Living Faith does resound with praise, and this is evident whenever it is read in church as part of worship. Living Faith is also a humble document, and this was noted in the Introduction. There are no proof texts, only tables of reference to Scripture and other Reformed confessions. I think that Living Faith is a sturdy document which is quite capable of enduring abuse. It will take more than Dr. DeWolfe’s assault to dislodge it from our pews and from our studies. A copy of Living Faith should be in every home, and copies in every church. The new Korean version will help make that a possibility.
