The History of the Westminster Assembly

A conference with Dr. Wayne Spear
April 3-5, 2009

The Southfield Reformed Presbyterian Church celebrates its 175th year in 2009, and it has stood on the truth that the word of God is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy God. The Lord has used the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms as a summary of Scripture to unite and guide this congregation throughout its history. As part of a yearlong celebration of the Lord’s faithfulness to us, Dr. Wayne Spear spoke on April 3-5, 2009 on the history of the Westminster Assembly.

Dr. Spear brings to life the story of this great body of men in this lecture series. His depth of insight on the historical background of that era made his class on the history of the Assembly a favorite class of many students at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where Dr. Spear served as a professor of systematic theology for thirty-five years. Our conference celebrated God’s working in the past without regarding the Assembly’s labor and era as being either out-of-date or as some glorious highpoint to which we must return.

Even if you have studied deeply the theology of Westminster, we trust you will deepen your theological moorings by better understanding the life and times of the commissioners of the Assembly. You will better grasp the theological and political movements of that day, the deep thought and debate that refined each word in the materials they produced, and you may even be entertained by the quirks and quips of these saints of old!

We trust that you will be encouraged in your own walk with God and growth in theological understanding today as we all look to the past to recount His mighty acts and look to the future for many more years of service to the Lord in our communities.

The Westminster Assembly met from 1643-1649 at Westminster Abbey in London, England. It consolidated the theological fruit of the reformation God worked in Europe through the previous 150 years and provided a great guide to future generations. This diverse group of Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Independents labored together over the word of God, despite their varied backgrounds and vast differences, to produce one of the most thorough summaries of the Christian faith ever written in the Westminster Confession of Faith. This Confession serves as the common confession of many Presbyterians around the world and has influenced countless other Baptists, Anglicans, and Independent Churches over the centuries, including in our own time. In addition to the Confession, this body penned the following documents that have shaped the theology and practice of the church around the world:

• The Larger Catechism
• The Shorter Catechism
• The Directory for the Public Worship of God
• The Form of Presbyterial Church Government
• The Directory of Church Government
• The Metrical Psalter

Dr. Wayne Spear is professor emeritus of systematic theology at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, having served for thirty-five years as an active faculty member. His doctoral dissertation was on The Form of Presbyterial Church Government, and he has become a recognized expert on the Assembly and the Confession. Dr. Spear currently serves as a ruling elder in his local church. He and his wife of fifty years, Mary, have five children and twenty-six grandchildren.

Conference Recordings

Use the controls below to listen to the recordings of the conference sessions:

The whole series on SermonAudio

Handout for the conference (covering the first 5 sessions)

Other Online Resources

• The Westminster Assembly Project
• The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646)