PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (U.S.A.) PART I BOOK OF …

1 THE CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ( ) PART I book OF confessions THE CONSTITUTION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ( ) PART I book OF confessions PUBLISHED BY THE OFFICE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 100 Witherspoon Street Louisville, KY 40202-1396 Copyright 2016 by the Office of the General Assembly PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ( ) No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanically, photocopy-ing, recording, or otherwise (brief quotations used in magazine or newspaper re-views excepted), without the prior permission of the publisher.

2 The sessions, presbyteries, and synods of the PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ( ) may use sections of this publication without receiving prior written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 978-0-9837536-8-1 Printed in the United States of America Additional copies available at $ each from PRESBYTERIAN Distribution Services (PDS), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY 40202-1396, or by calling 1-800-524-2612 (PDS). Please specify PDS order #OGA-16-017 CONTENTS Reference Page Numbers

3 Numbers Notes on the Paging and the Indexing .. i Preface .. iii Confessional Nature of the CHURCH Report .. v The Assessment of Proposed Amendments to the book of confessions .. xxvi confessions 1. The Nicene Creed .. 1 3 2. The Apostles Creed .. 5 7 3. The Scots Confession .. 9 26 4.

4 The Heidelberg Catechism .. 27 73 5. The Second Helvetic Confession .. 75 143 6. The Westminster Confession of Faith .. 145 202 7. The Shorter Catechism .. 203 221 8. The Larger Catechism .. 223 278 9. The Theological Declaration of Barmen .. 279 284 10. The Confession of 1967 .. 285 297 11. The Confession of 299 306 12.

5 A Brief Statement of Faith PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ( ) .. 307 318 Index .. 319 435 i NOTES ON THE PAGING AND THE INDEXING The book of confessions contains eleven confessional statements commencing with the Nicene Creed on page numbered 3. The boldface marginal references indicate the confession number to the left of the decimal and the paragraph numbers to the right of the decimal. The Apostles Creed is on page numbered .3. The Scots Confession begins on page numbered .03. On this numbered page are found Chapters I through III.

6 The boldface marginal references indicate the confession number to the left of the decimal and the chapter numbers to the right of the decimal. The Heidelberg Catechism begins on page numbered .002. The boldface marginal references indicate the confession number to the left of the decimal and the question numbers to the right of the decimal. The Second Helvetic Confession begins on page numbered .004. The boldface marginal references indicate the confession number to the left of the deci-mal and the paragraph numbers to the right of the decimal.

7 The Westminster Confession of Faith begins on page numbered .002. The boldface marginal references indicate the confession number to the left of the decimal and the paragraph numbers to the right of the decimal. The Shorter Catechism begins on page numbered .012. The boldface marginal references indicate the confession number to the left of the decimal and the question numbers to the right of the decimal. The Larger Catechism begins on page numbered .119. The boldface marginal references indicate the confession number to the left of the decimal and the question numbers to the right of the decimal.

8 The Theological Declaration of Barmen begins on page numbered .04. The boldface marginal references indicate the confession number to the left of the decimal and the paragraph numbers to the right of the decimal. The Confession of 1967 begins on page numbered .07. The boldface mar-ginal references indicate the confession number to the left of the decimal and the paragraph numbers to the right of the decimal. The Confession of Belhar begins on page number .3. The boldface marginal references indicate the confession number to the left of the decimal and the para-graph numbers to the right of the decimal.

9 book OF confessions ii The Brief Statement of Faith begins on page numbered .3. The boldface marginal references indicate the confession number to the left of the decimal and the paragraph numbers to the right of the decimal. The index references refer to the marginal numbers and page numbers. For ex-ample, the references to Image of God are , , , , , , , , , (pages 11, 32, 68, 86, 154, 205, 208, 226, 235, 311). The references are to Chapter III of the Scots Confession, Questions 6 and 115 of the Heidelberg Catechism, paragraph 34 of the Second Helvetic Confession of Faith, Questions 10 and 35 of the Shorter Catechism, Questions 17 and 75 of the Larger Catechism, and Line 30 of A Brief Statement of Faith.

10 Iii PREFACE The Constitution of the PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ( ) consists of two vol-umes. Part I of the Constitution is the book of confessions , which contains the official texts of the confessional documents. Part II of the Constitution, the book of Order, is published separately and consists of four sections: The Foundations of PRESBYTERIAN Polity, the Form of Government, the Directory for Worship, and the Rules of Discipline. Chapter Two of The Foundations of PRESBYTERIAN Polity The CHURCH and Its confessions sets forth the CHURCH s understanding of the role and function of the confessions in the life of the CHURCH .