... Respecting the teaching of the Confession and Catechisms on the question of the Sabbath, please allow me a few observations. When the [subscription] formula refers to the system of doctrine taught in the holy Scriptures and to the Confession and Catechisms as containing this system, it will surely be granted that the system includes ethics as well as what is sometimes, more specifically, called doctrine. The space devoted to ethics in the subordinate standards, especially in the Catechisms, would permit no other conclusion. And, of course, to exclude ethics from the system of doctrine taught in Scripture would be preposterous. Now, on the assumption that the formula involves subscription to the system of doctrine contained in the Confession and Catechisms, an assumption not in question in the articles that have appeared in The Presbyterian Guardian, I submit that the teaching respecting the Sabbath and its continuing obligation belongs integrally to the system of doctrine set forth in these documents. More specifically, this teaching belongs to the ethic of these standards.
Sabbath Question
This appears, first of all, in the Confession, Chapter XIX, Section II. The implications for the Sabbath are set forth in Chapter XXI, Sections VII and VIII. In the Catechisms this position is more fully expanded (1. C. QQ. 116-121; S. C. QQ. 58-62). To maintain that this sustained and explicit block of teaching is outwith the scope of the ordination pledge in Question 2 of the formula is surely to renounce what is involved in receiving and adopting the Confession and Catechisms even on the most restricted interpretation of the intent of the Question concerned. The gravest ethical issues are here at stake. A confessional creed is a bond of fellowship as well as an instrument of witness. It is one thing to question obiter dicta of which Dr. Clair Davis gave an example in the April issue (p. 48, col. 3). It is another to diverge from a principial position woven into the texture of confessional documents and belonging to the system formulated....
The Presbyterian Guardian, June 1969, Letter to the Editor, from John Murray, Badbea, Scotland.Sabbath Question
This appears, first of all, in the Confession, Chapter XIX, Section II. The implications for the Sabbath are set forth in Chapter XXI, Sections VII and VIII. In the Catechisms this position is more fully expanded (1. C. QQ. 116-121; S. C. QQ. 58-62). To maintain that this sustained and explicit block of teaching is outwith the scope of the ordination pledge in Question 2 of the formula is surely to renounce what is involved in receiving and adopting the Confession and Catechisms even on the most restricted interpretation of the intent of the Question concerned. The gravest ethical issues are here at stake. A confessional creed is a bond of fellowship as well as an instrument of witness. It is one thing to question obiter dicta of which Dr. Clair Davis gave an example in the April issue (p. 48, col. 3). It is another to diverge from a principial position woven into the texture of confessional documents and belonging to the system formulated....