Brief and Untechnical

A digest of B.B. Warfields essay "A Brief and Untechnical Statement of the Reformed Faith"

In this short essay Warfield simply recaps the essence of the "reformed faith" by stating a series of beliefs which generally follow the systems of the Westminster confession of faith or the Westminster catechisms. Which may be summed up like: "God's creation reveals - but not enough, we need Scripture, where in we find how to live and serve the one true God. This scripture was brought about supernaturally and completed. The God that created and revealed himself is triune and truly God, having all the attributes of "divine" - and he is such a God that is both transcendent and imminent - which is clear in that He predestined all that comes to pass, yet He also sustains all that is. He created man to worship Him, but man disobeyed and thrust the whole of creation into rebellion. Thus all mind kind are children of wrath in their natural condition, but God in His mercy chose a (great) people for Himself. God redeemed these elect through Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God - who was both man and God by the incarnation. This redemption was by virtue of Christ being a substitution for the sins of His people. Now this substitution frees us to walk according to the Spirit and fashions us according to Christ - who was righteous not sinful. Thus creating an assembly of redeemed "the church" which is "one an the same in all ages" display the riches of the grace of God to the world. This church may be broken into smaller parts (denominations) but it is not destroyed. This Church is not for the government of this world but for the purpose of redemption of His people, and thus should not be mixed or confused with the state. And that Christ will come again and receive all His church for an eternity".

So I suppose this serves as my summary of Warfields summary of Westminsters summary of what the "Faith" is. Enjoy.