We're living in a day when conservative Presbyterians are calling for a return to their beloved Westminster Standards. Richard Bacon writes that, "What is needed is, indeed, a new Reformation. But when God sends that new Reformation, it is this writer's opinion that it will closely resemble the work done by the Westminster divines. We have their documents — what we lack is the boldness to put them into practice." John Robbins says that the Westminster Confession, "ought to be believed by all Christians." Brian Schwertley writes that, "Presbyterian churches must return to a strict subscription to the Westminster Standards ... Every family should own a copy of the Westminster Standards".  

These men -- Robbins, Bacon etc. -- have put forth a challenge for us to adopt the Westminster Standards as our doctrine. Now, are we to listen to them? Are we to "subscribe" to the beliefs of the Westminster "Divines"?

In order to answer this question, let's look at some of the contradictions / damnable heresies contained in these Standards. As with all false gospels, it will soon become clear that Satan has mixed truth and lies into these Standards.
 
For instance, Q98 of the Shorter Catechism contains truth.
 
Truth -- Q98: What is prayer?
A: Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and THANKFUL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF HIS MERCIES.
 
The answer to this question is correct indeed. Prayer comes out of thankfulness for the mercies of God. But, guess what? Only a few pages later, the Westminster "Divines" completely and utterly CONTRADICTED themselves, when they wrote...
 
Heresy -- Q102: What do we pray for in the second petition?
A: In the second petition (which is, Thy kingdom come) we pray ... that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, OURSELVES and others BROUGHT INTO IT...
 
That's strange!! How can someone pray that they may be brought into the kingdom of grace (i.e. be justified) but at the same time be "thankful" for God's mercies? Can you thank God for your justification, but ask to be justified? Could someone pray, "Lord, thank you for redeeming me from my sins, and giving me Christ's perfect righteousness," and then turn around and pray, "Now, please God bring me into the kingdom of grace ... please justify me and make me a child of God"? The only person who could pray this way, is someone with THE SPIRIT OF ERROR (contradiction).

If you read the Westminster Standards further, you will see the reason why ONE Catechism actually contains TWO opposite and contradictory views on prayer. The answer lies in the fact that this one confession also teaches TWO opposite and contradictory views of justification.
 
1) If you read Q33 of the Shorter Catechism, you can see the TRUE view of justification, which would lead to a true view of prayer.
 
2) On the other hand, if you read Q85 of the Shorter Catechism, you will see a FALSE view of justification, which leads to a false view of prayer.
 
Let's start with their statement professing the true view of justification. Here it is... 
 
Truth -- Q33: What is justification?
A: Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.
 
If someone really did believe the answer to this question -- that men are justified ONLY because Christ has obeyed the Law and NOT because of their works/love/commitments -- then that person would have "thankful acknowledgment for God's mercies". Sin would not undermine this person's assurance of salvation, because he would know that he is ALREADY perfectly right before God by Christ's work. He could pray and thank God for "His mercies" towards himself.

But if you read Question 85 of the same Catechism, you will see the SOURCE of the contradictory teaching on prayer. Here, the Catechism teaches that in order to be justified we must 1) believe 2) sorrow for sins 3) take the sacraments 4) pray 5) read the Bible etc etc.
 
Heresy --  Q85:  What doth God require of us, that we may escape his wrath and curse due to us for sin?
A: To escape the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin, God requireth of us faith in Jesus Christ, repentance unto life [sorrowing for sin -- Q87], with the diligent use of all the outward means [the sacraments, prayer and reading the bible] whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption.
 
Q85 says God requires diligent use of the "outward means' in order to escape His wrath. The outward means are defined in Q88 as "the word, sacraments, and prayer". In other words, we have to partake in the Lord's Supper etc. in order to appease God's wrath against us. Well, this "sacrament" (as they call it) sounds like a propitiatory sacrifice to me. Go back to Rome, you Re-formed Sacramentalists!!!!

Now, if in order to be justified (escape God's wrath), a man must 1) believe 2) sorrow for sins 3) take the sacraments 4) pray 5) read the Bible etc etc. then his prayers to God CANNOT be out of thanks for justification. After all, the man is NOT justified yet!! He still has to take the sacraments to appease God's wrath! He must keep reading the Bible to be justified! Such a man could NEVER has assurance of justification. After all, how much do you have to read the Bible in order to " escape his wrath and curse due to us for sin"? The Westminster Devils said you have to read it "diligently" in order to be escape God's wrath. I suppose that this means the Bereans were justified because of their diligent searching of the Scriptures (Acts 17:11) !! Of course not. But what damnable delusions and Satanic captivity the Presbyterian is under.
 
And this is why Presbyterians do not have the INFALLIBLE assurance of salvation of the Apostles. Instead, to quote their own Confession of Faith...

"This infallible assurance does not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties, before he be partaker of it ... True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted;" (Chapter 18)

No wonder Presbyterians lack assurance. In order to be justified, they must 1) believe 2) sorrow for sins 3) take the sacraments 4) pray 5) read the Bible etc etc. Anyone holding to this view of justification will indeed "wait long, and conflict with many difficulties" for assurance of their salvation!! 

     Then there are those who believe the True Gospel. In the Gospel of Paul, John, Isaiah etc, there is NOTHING required for justification. No thoughts, no commitments and no love is required to merit God's favour.

"Abraham believed God and His faith was imputed to him unto righteousness". Abraham was justified by the One he believed in, Christ. The Bible often refers to Christ as "The faith", so God is saying " Christ was imputed" to Abraham "unto righteousness". And Abraham was justified -- declared righteous -- based on the obedience of Christ in His account. But this righteousness was NOT IN Abraham. It was wholly EXTERNAL. Isaiah refers to being "clothed with the garments of salvation" and "covered with the robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10). What saved Isaiah was outside him. He was covered and clothed with righteousness, NOT infused with it (like the wedding guests in the parable). Similarly, the sins of sheep were imputed to Christ on the cross. Intellectually and judicially the sins of the Elect became Christ's (like a debt of $50 can be charged to someone else's account, and the debt becomes theirs intellectually and judicially, even though they never contracted the debt - so Christ never sinned himself). In Psalm 38:4 Christ calls the Elect's sins "my iniquities". We know that Psalm 34 is talking about Christ and NOT David, because v20 of it is applied to Christ in John 19:36. (In fact, the New Testament NEVER says the Psalms are about David at all!). So there are two imputations. Christ took the Elect's sin (#1) and gives Him their righteousness (#2). And they're completely passive in earning Heaven. Instead, "this is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Only the finished work of Christ can satisfy God's demand for absolute obedience to the Eternal Law. And that's the gospel.

Sadly, unlike Abraham -- who was "fully persuaded" of God's promises --most Protestants do NOT base their assurance of salvation on a bare belief of the bare truth. They look to their own works. In doing so, they show a complete failure to understand sanctification. God commands us to "walk worth as children of God." Now, how can you walk as a son of God, unless you know you are a child of God? And can someone pray, "Abba, Father" without the knowledge that he has elected them to salvation by Christ's work?

So believers ARE required to 1) believe 2) sorrow for sins 3) partake in the ordinances 4) pray 5) read the Bible etc etc. but NOT in order to be justified. The problem with the Presbyterian view is that they have things BACK-to-FRONT. They are saying that IN ORDER to "escape the curse of God" and "penalty of sin", we must do X, Y and Z. This is reading the New Testament backwards. Believers pray and love God BECAUSE they know they are ALREADY justified. Yet, so much of the Presbyterian confusion is a FAULTY and heretical view of faith. In the Bible, b elief is just a passive conviction / intellectual understanding / a conviction of the mind. "If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater." Believing in God is just the same as believing in everyday things ( e.g. I believe the bus is going to the city). Of course, unlike bus-drivers, God never lies. Therefore, the believer has an INFALLIBLE ASSURANCE that God is true. In this sense, the belief amounts to an ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY. "He that believes God has the witness in himself". And who is "the witness"? Christ refers to him as the "well of water springing up into everlasting life" who causes believers to "never thirst." He's the Holy Spirit that witnesses to the hearts of believers that Jesus is the Christ and that they are children of God. Here God is MANIFESTED in their conscience, and he "sets" their hearts with "a seal, that God is true."

Prior to their conversion, the believer had known NOTHING of God. They had been saying in their hearts "there is no God". But at their conversion believers have for the first time, God manifested in their conscience. And they have his INFALLIBLE promise that "everyone believing in this One is justified from all things." Like a criminal in a court when the judge says, "NOT GUILTY", God Himself tells believers by His Word, "Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness of ALL who believe." This means that all believers have UNDOUBTED ASSURANCE of their salvation, based on God's BARE TESTIMONY in the Scripture. And out of this knowledge of their redemption come forth love, obedience, etc.   

It's not like you do good works in order to "find out" whether or not you're saved. In order for a work to be good, it must be out of love. And can some love God, unless they know He has loved them with everlasting love? No. John says believers "love him because He first" love them. It's the INFALLIBLE ASSURANCE that God has justified me by Christ's righteous and redeemed me by His blood that brings forth all my obedience. "For as much as YOU KNOW, that you were redeemed not with corruptible things ... but with the blood of Christ, pass the time of your sojourning in fear." I pass the time sojourning, because I KNOW I WAS REDEEMED BY CHRIST'S BLOOD.

How could a believer ever doubt his salvation? He can't. With God manifesting Himself in their consciences, WITNESSING and TESTIFYING to the truthfulness of the gospel, there is no wavering or wondering. And God has declared that "everyone believing in this One IS JUSTIFIED", "IS born of God", "HAS everlasting life", and "will NOT come into Judgment". God does not leave His promises unknown to believers. The Apostle John says, "The one believing in the Son of God has the witness IN HIMSELF." And what is the witness? "And this is the witness: that God gave us everlasting life..." Furthermore, Christ says, that "the one receiving His testimony has SEALED that God is true" and that "whoever may drink of the water which I will give him will not thirst, NEVER! But the water which I will give to him will become a fountain of water in him, springing up into everlasting life."

From these passages it is clear that ALL believers have the WITNESS that THEY have everlasting life. How could a man have "the witness in himself ... that God has given us everlasting life" and DOUBT that he is saved ??

 
We also see from those passages the unchanging and continual nature of the infallible assurance of the believer. He will NEVER thirst. And Christ is emphatic about this -- He uses the illustration of a fountain of water -- which in everyday life run continuously (unless they dry up: and who will dare say the Holy Spirit's witness "dries up").
 
Those passages give a quick summary of the PERPETUAL nature of the believer's infallible assurance.
 
Now, here are some passages that describe the spiritual state of doubters. James wrote, "For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, being driven by wind and being tossed; for do NOT let that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord." John testified that, "The one not believing God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness which God has witnessed concerning His Son." And Paul asks, "do you not yourselves perceive that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are disapproved?" 
 
I mentioned earlier that all believers have "the witness in himself ... that God has given us everlasting life". So what about those who doubt they have everlasting life (the witness)? They are calling God a liar. As Paul said, they cannot perceive Christ in them, so they are DISAPPROVED ( i.e. lost). Elsewhere, James stated that doubters can expect nothing from God. And since salvation is something from God, can they expect that? No. They do not have the witness, the witness is the Holy Spirit testifying to the Word, and those without the Holy Spirit are lost.
 
To conclude, I want to briefly remind you about the difference between believers and unbelievers.

1) Naturally, men know nothing of God. Their consciences "are seared as with a hot iron" and they say in their hearts "there is no God." We are born as Atheists, and naturally live "without Christ ... without faith, without God in the world." Calling good evil, and evil good, men have no understanding or any light of truth in their consciences. The "light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." Even unconverted Paul (Saul) who was "home-schooled" (so to speak) with the oracles of God, did not know or understand that murdering Christians was evil. "Being ignorant I did it in unbelief." (1 Tim1:13). 

 
2) Conversion from this state is a change of mind. For the first time, God manifests Himself in a person's conscience, convicting their minds that Jesus is the Christ. "Because it is God who said, "Out of darkness Light shall shine," who shone in our hearts to give the brightness of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face [person] of Jesus Christ." The truth comes totally unexpected and totally unsought after. "I have been found, not by those who sought Me." (Isa 65:1). And faith is merely the crediting of God's testimony. Nothing more, nothing less. The Apostle John says that belief in God is the same as belief in men, only that it is greater. "If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater." (1 Jn 5). Furthermore, faith is PASSIVE. believers are as PASSIVE in receiving the truth, as the blind receiving sight. "God who said, Out of darkness shall shine, who shone in our hearts to [give the] brightness of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6). For anyone who denies that faith is a bare belief of the bare truth, please read 2 Corinthians 4:3-4. Here, Paul says, "But also if our gospel is being hidden, it has been hidden in those being lost, in whom the god of this age has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving…" Notice that it's a failure to have the correct THOUGHTS about Christ that indicates someone is unregenerate. True thoughts of Christ would include these words, "Not to us, O Jehovah, not to us, but to Your name give glory; on account of Your mercy, on account of Your truth." (Psa 115:1). It's nothing in a sinner that saves them. God gets all the glory, which means it's only Christ's righteousness (obedience to the Law) that can justify a man. 
 
In Genesis 15:3, it says Abraham "believed in Jehovah." Believing in and believing on something are precisely the same thing. "Abraham believed God" (Rom 4:3), "believed in Jehovah" etc. They simply mean that he had a bare belief of the bare truth. Also, Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?" Saving Faith is believing the report about Christ. Nothing more, nothing less.

3) Now can someone who believes God's testimony, not know they are a believer? The Bible says if you have a bare belief of the bare truth, you are saved. How can a believer doubt they are saved? Why would they call God a liar? He is The Amen, The Faithful, and True. "Is He a son of man that he should repent?" He does not lie. And he says, "if you confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, YOU WILL BE SAVED."    
 
Yes, God does convicts my conscience of sin and death. I know that "the soul that sins shall die." But how do I know this? By the Word. Well, doesn't the Word ALSO say, "EVERYONE believing in this one IS JUSTIFIED"? I must be EQUALLY certain that I am a sinner, as that I am justified. God has said both. And remember what I said earlier -- the unregenerate know and understand NOTHING about God. It's not like a bare belief of the bare truth is a common thing. Actually, it's rare. It's a privilege of the regenerate ALONE. "The natural man cannot receive the things of the spirit" only the regenerate man ever has or ever will.   There is no grounds for saying that I might have a temporary or historical faith. These so-called "faiths" are the ideas of unregenerate "theologians". There is only ONE FAITH.   You either believe the gospel or you don't. You're either completely ignorant or fully in the light. And can someone be in the light and doubt it for a moment?
 
I challenge every doubter on the face of the earth to show me a SINGLE believer in the Bible -- Paul, John, Isaiah, Jeremiah, David, etc etc -- doubting their salvation. You will not find one. Why? Because they DID NOT CALL GOD A LIAR. God has declared that "everyone believing in this One IS JUSTIFIED", "IS born of God", "HAS everlasting life", and "will NOT come into Judgment". If you are not certain of these facts you are calling God a liar.
 
Full assurance is the privilege of every believer.