Pastors' Exceptions to the Westminster Confession of Faith

In order to be a member of Providence Church, one must express complete agreement with our Statement of Faith, which is intended to distill the essentials of the Christian faith. Our church confession serves a different purpose: the confession is a description of that which the church substantially teaches. Therefore, members should be familiar with the confession and be in general agreement with it, or at least find no area in which they vehemently disagree. It is incumbent on the pastors of the church, however, to subscribe to the confession. The confession enumerates the doctrine that Providence Church teaches. This being the case, it is needful for the pastors to express their substantial disagreements with the confession. Pastors need to be up front about the exceptions they take to the confession. Pastor Stout and Pastor Bryant take only relatively minor exceptions to the Westminster Confession.

Chapter 21: Paragraph 8. We believe that along with “exercises of … worship” and “duties of necessity and mercy” we have a responsibility to rest our bodies on the Lord’s Day. We do not believe that the intention of Scripture is to exclude recreation necessarily and especially in the context of the fellowship of God’s people. Believers can be members at Providence and have differing convictions about their behavior on the Lord’s Day.

Chapter 24: Paragraph 6. Delete the last sentence, which reads, “The man may not marry any of his wife’s kindred nearer in blood than he may of his own, nor the woman of her husband's kindred nearer in blood than of her own.”

Chapter 25: Paragraph 6. We believe that the Pope of Rome is anti-Christian, we do not believe that he is the Antichrist or the Beast of Revelation, etc.

Chapter 27: Paragraph 4. The language of “minister of the Word” assumes a three-office view of church leadership (teaching elder or minister of the Word, ruling elder, deacon) and therefore asserts that only some elders may administer the Lord’s Supper. Providence Church is, by constitution, a two-office church. We believe that there is but one office of elder, in addition to the office of deacon. We function with parity among the elders. Therefore, we would choose to interpret the language of the confession as all elders being “ministers of the Word” and therefore lawfully able to administer the Supper. (This same principle applies to Chapter 28: Paragraph 2, concerning baptism and the language of “minister of the gospel”).

Chapter 28: [For commentary and positions on this paragraph see our Position Paper. The following are important highlights of that Paper.] Paragraph 3. We believe that baptism may be rightly administered not only through pouring or sprinkling but also through the immersion of the whole body in water. While immersion is not of the essence of baptism, it is a valid mode of baptism. Paragraph 4: Providence is a church composed of both paedobaptist and credobaptist families, and men who otherwise meet the qualifications for elder and who are credobaptist may become elders. Therefore, qualified men may take exception to this paragraph and still become elders, while agreeing to support the confession of the church in public and private ministry.