The Independent Pulpit And The Bound Conscience: Ecclesiology And The Necessity Of Appeal

crayons school

In the late sixteenth century, as the Reformed churches sought to consolidate their confession amid the tumult of the Counter-Reformation, a central tension emerged that continues to occupy the mind of the church today: the relationship between the binding of the conscience and the liberty of the Christian. It is a tension famously navigated by the Westminster divines, who confessed that “God alone is Lord of the conscience” in Westminster Confession of Faith 20.2, yet simultaneously affirmed the church’s authority to settle controversies of faith and strictly prohibit what contradicts the Word of God. Continue reading →