# WCF -- what's been revised?



## nwink (Aug 6, 2011)

What issues have been revised/edited in the American version of the WCF from the original WCF? I know the part about the pope being the Antichrist was taken out, but what else was affected?


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## NaphtaliPress (Aug 6, 2011)

Revised by whom? There are revisions by the PCUSA, some retained in the PCA/OPC. There is another stream in the ARP and RPCNA and in other now defunct denominations.


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## rbcbob (Aug 6, 2011)

CHAPTER 23

3. The civil magistrate may not assume to himself the administration of the Word and sacraments, or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven: _yet he hath authority, and it is his duty, to take order, that unity and peace be preserved in the Church, that the truth of God be kept pure and entire; that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed; all corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline prevented or reformed; and all the ordinances of God duly settled, administered, and observed. For the better effecting whereof, he hath power to call synods, to be present at them, and to provide that whatsoever is transacted in them be according to the mind of God._

American version:
3. Civil magistrates may not assume to themselves the administration of the Word and sacraments; or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven; or, in the least, interfere in matters of faith. Yet, as nursing fathers, it is the duty of civil magistrates to protect the church of our common Lord, without giving the preference to any denomination of Christians above the rest, in such a manner that all ecclesiastical persons whatever shall enjoy the full, free, and unquestioned liberty of discharging every part of their sacred functions, without violence or danger. And, as Jesus Christ hath appointed a regular government and discipline in his church, no law of any commonwealth should interfere with, let, or hinder, the due exercise thereof, among the voluntary members of any denomination of Christians, according to their own profession and belief. It is the duty of civil magistrates to protect the person and good name of all their people, in such an effectual manner as that no person be suffered, either upon pretense of religion or of infidelity, to offer any indignity, violence, abuse, or injury to any other person whatsoever: and to take order, that all religious and ecclesiastical assemblies be held without molestation or disturbance.


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## nwink (Aug 6, 2011)

NaphtaliPress said:


> Revised by whom? There are revisions by the PCUSA, some retained in the PCA/OPC. There is another stream in the ARP and RPCNA and in other now defunct denominations.



In the RPCNA's "Testimony," they have the their doctrinal statement side-by-side with the WCF (their Testimony elaborates on similar points to the WCF). So there was some edited version of the WCF in the "Testimony" that I thought was just the American-edited version of the WCF -- I didn't think it was a specific-to-the-RPCNA version. In my OP, I was mostly curious what the conservative American Presbyterian churches generally leave out (or change) of the original WCF.


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## NaphtaliPress (Aug 6, 2011)

I don't recall direct quotations; what places in the Testimony do you think are simply repeating the words of a changed version? As for the text of their confession, the RPCNA adopted the Carruthers' critical text in 1949.


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## nwink (Aug 6, 2011)

NaphtaliPress said:


> I don't recall direct quotations; what places in the Testimony do you think are simply repeating the words of a changed version? As for the text of their confession, the RPCNA adopted the Carruthers' critical text in 1949.



What's the difference between the Carruthers' critical text and the original text?


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## NaphtaliPress (Aug 6, 2011)

The text has been corrupted over the centuries with so many printings (I doubt any confessional standard has been printed as often). Carruthers sought to recoup the original text by collating the earliest authoritative printings (ones authorized by Parliament). Carruthers father had begun the same kind of work and this was to improve over that. The perponderence of problems are punctuation variants; but there are some textual as well. 


nwink said:


> NaphtaliPress said:
> 
> 
> > I don't recall direct quotations; what places in the Testimony do you think are simply repeating the words of a changed version? As for the text of their confession, the RPCNA adopted the Carruthers' critical text in 1949.
> ...


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## Phil D. (Aug 6, 2011)

Here are two helpful summaries showing the American revisions (1647 vs 1788) and the PCUSA revisions (1788 to 1958)


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## Alan D. Strange (Aug 6, 2011)

As Chris Coldwell has noted, the question "what revisions" depends upon which Presbyterian tradition one has in mind. In American Presbyterianism, there are largely two streams, the one in which the OPC/BPS/PCA (all coming out of the PCUSA) is and the other containing the various Covenanter and Seceder Churches . 

Here is a link to the OPC website containing the Preface that Dr. Jim Scott wrote for us a few years back detailing all the changes (Orthodox Presbyterian Church). This is the same form that the PCA has and has published with our permission. I link this because I see that some of the changes (WCF 24.4, e.g.) are not noted in the list of revisions cited above. For the OPC/PCA tradition this is a full and complete summary of the changes.


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