# OPC History - 1903 additions



## Pergamum (May 5, 2009)

FROM ANOTHER THREAD:

"The OPC did not accept the 1903 additions "Of the Holy Spirit" and "Of the Love of God and Missions" and a Declaratory Statement softening the Confession's position on Election."


Can I have some history on this?

What was wrong with these documents, and are there links to these documents?


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## toddpedlar (May 5, 2009)

Here are the additions:



> Chapter 34. Of the Holy Spirit.
> 
> 1. The Holy Spirit, the third Person in the Trinity, proceeding from the Father and the Son, of the same substance and equal in power and glory, is, together with the Father and Son, to be believed in, loved, obeyed, and worshipped throughout all ages.a
> 
> ...



Also important in 1903 was the addition of the following Declaratory statement, which quite literally eviscerates some key portions of the WCF's teaching on election and God's sovereignty:



> The following statement was also added to the Confession by the PCUSA in the year 1903,(156) and is included in the Confession as adopted and published by the UPCUSA in 1958 and the PC(USA) in 1983.
> 
> Declaratory Statement.
> 
> ...


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## toddpedlar (May 5, 2009)

Here are comments by D. G. Hart and John Muether on these additions:



> Turning Points in American Presbyterian History
> Part 8: Confessional Revision in 1903
> D. G. Hart and John R. Muether
> 
> ...


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## yeutter (May 5, 2009)

As a result of these changes to the confession of faith of the Presbyterian Church USA union with the majority of the white Cumberland Church was achieved. This further weakened the Reformed character of the Presbyterian Church USA.


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## NaphtaliPress (May 5, 2009)

Murray and Stonehouse on the 1903 changes:
Articles on the 1903 Revisions of the Confession of Faith by Murray and Stonehouse - The PuritanBoard


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## jwithnell (May 5, 2009)

These changes are still part of the confessions used by the mainline church -- confessions plural because in the late 1960s, it adopted a pantheon of confessions from which members and clergy may choose; pick a confession, any confession.


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## Scott1 (May 5, 2009)

> Westminster Confession of Faith
> 
> Chapter XVI
> Of Good Works
> ...






> Revision
> 
> The revised form as adopted by the Presbyterian Church, in the U.S.A. reads: “Works done by unregenerate men, although for the matter of them they may be things which God commands, and in themselves praiseworthy and useful, and although the neglect of such things is sinful and displeasing unto God; yet, because they proceed not from a heart purified by faith; nor are done in a right manner, according to His Word.; nor to a right end, the glory of God; they come short of what God requires, and do not make any man meet to receive the grace of God.”



Mr Murray's summary of the purpose in revision (link post#5):


> The revision says that the works done by unregenerate men come short of what God requires, yet that the neglect of them is sinful and displeasing to God. But it refrains from saying what is really the central point of the indictment urged by the original Confession, namely, that they are sinful and cannot please God, and therefore that the neglect of them is not simply sinful, but “more sinful and displeasing unto God.” *The purpose and effect of this revision is to elevate the works of unregenerate men to a position not accorded them in Scripture,* or at least to refrain from bringing to bear upon them the full measure of the divine condemnation. *So there has been successfully eliminated from the Confession at least one emphatic assertion of the doctrine of total depravity,*



So, one of these changes was to "water down" or bring ambiguity, and thus invite subjectivity, to the doctrine of total depravity.

Yet Scripture calls us to have it definitively settle what we are to believe and what is true (I Timothy 3:16), to have faith (and ask for it) that it is true (Hebrews 11:6), to seek clarity and order (I Corinthians 14:33), and to ask God for understanding (James 1:5).

This is one of the effects of "modernism," whether understood completely by its adherents or not, it tends to bring ambiguity, subjectivity and confusion either because they do not understand the doctrine in the first place, do not believe it, or somehow believe it a virtue not to definitively believe it.

It's a difficult doctrine of Scripture to accept that works that seem "good" to us outwardly are in fact "evil" if not done with an inward heart of obeying and loving our God. The reformers called these outward good deeds, works of "civil virtue."

Our fallen nature wants to assign intrinsic value and thus at least imply some merit toward salvation in doing them, reasoning that our assessment of the outward working of the "good" work should count. But the Confession is summarizing doctrine of scripture, and the spiritual nature of good works.

One might ask, are ambiguity, subjectivity and confusion qualities to be sought for God's people?


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