The Counsel of the Westminster: The Trinune God

The Church of Christ cannot be creedless and live.
Especially in an age of doubt and confusion,
it is her duty to define the Christian faith and proclaim it to the world.

What Man is to Believe Concerning God
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Question VIII: Are there more Gods than one?

There is but one only, the living and true God.

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD" (Deut. 6:4).

"But to us there is but one God" (1 Cor. 8:6a).

Question IX: How many persons are there in the Godhead?

There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one true, eternal God, the same in substance.

"For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one" (1 John 5:7).

"And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:16-17).

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt. 28:19).

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen" (2 Cor. 13:14).

Man could not possibly comprehend God unless He revealed Himself; yet even despite His revelation, these finite minds cannot even comprehend what's revealed. Nevertheless, God is careful to give us at least three important truths about Himself that are not meant to be twisted by men. Most cults are formed from a twisting of one of these points:


The Three Essentials
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1. Scripture clearly teaches us that there is but one living and true God. Just as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians, for the Christian there is one God. A perversion of this will immediately cut you off from the Christ's Church. There cannot be idolatry with the people of God.

2. Scripture clearly teaches that not just the Father, but the Son and Holy Ghost are also God. Several verses speak of the divinity of Jesus Christ (John 1:1-4; John 8:58; Romans 9:5). In Matthew 1:23 He is called Immanuel which means "God with us". The Lord Jesus Christ accepts worship (John 9:38), which is something that should be done only toward God. The Holy Spirit too is equated to God Acts 5:3-4, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie against the Holy Spirit... you have not lied unto men, but to God." The Spirit is also due the same worship that belong to God (Matt. 12:31).

3. Scripture clearly teaches that these three are distinct persons, and that they are equal in power and glory. It is a mistake to unite all three persons into one; and it is a mistake to divide God into three gods. The verses used in question VIII and IX should prove that.


Blessed be our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!

The three essentials come from
G. I. Williamson, "The Westminster Shorter Catechism"

The Counsel of the Westminster: Q. VII. What is God?

The Church of Christ cannot be creedless and live.
Especially in an age of doubt and confusion,
it is her duty to define the Christian faith and proclaim it to the world.

By despising the wisdom of the past,
our generation has chosen to travel through the
same history of pain, error, and correction that men of old had already
gone through and recorded for our admonition.

What Man is to Believe Concerning God

"Preaching of the word, being the power of God unto salvation, and one of the greatest and most excellent works belonging to the ministry of the gospel, should be so performed, that the workman need not be ashamed, but may save himself, and those that hear him."

- Westminster Confession of Faith:
Of Preaching the Word

Man has been given a gift. The privilege to speak of God,
of which no one in the world has ever imagined.

Question VI: What is God?

God is a Spirit, in and of Himself infinite in being, glory, blessedness, and perfection; all - sufficient, eternal, unchangeable, incomprehensible, every where present, almighty, knowing all things, most wise, most holy, most just, most merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth.


a Spirit. "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth"
(John 4:24).


In and of Himself Infinite:

in being. "Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than heaven--what can you do? Deeper than Sheol--what can you know?"
(Job 11:7-8)

in glory. "And Stephen said: 'Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,' "
(Act 7:2)

in blessedness. "which he will display at the proper time--He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,"
(1Ti 6:15)

in perfection. "You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
(Mat 5:48)


He is:

all-sufficient. "If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine."
(Psa 50:12)


eternal. "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God."
(Psa 90:2)

unchangeable. "For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed."
(Mal 3:6)

incomprehensible. "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!"
(1Ki 8:27)

every where present. "You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?"
(Psa 139:2-7)

almighty. "And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!' "
(Rev 4:8)

knowing all things. "And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account."
(Heb 4:13)
"Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure."
(Psa 147:5)

most wise. "to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen."
(Rom 16:27)

most holy. "And one called to another and said: 'Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!' "
(Isa 6:3)
"Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed."
(Rev 15:4)

most just. "The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He."
(Deu 32:4)

most merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abounding in goodness and truth. "The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,"
(Exo 34:6)

The Counsel of the Westminster: Q VI. What does the Bible teach about God?

The Church of Christ cannot be creedless and live.
Especially in an age of doubt and confusion,
it is her duty to define the Christian faith and proclaim it to the world.

Thanks for the encouragement to continue the blog. I did stop for quite a while, but lordwilling I will stay fervent in this study of the Westminster.

What Man is to Believe Concerning God

Question VI: What do the scriptures make known of God?
The scriptures make known what God is, the persons of the Godhead, His decrees, and the execution of His decrees.

"what God is". Hebrews 11:6 ~ "He that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

"the Godhead". 1 John 5:17 ~ "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one."

"His decrees". Acts 15:14-18 ~ "Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, "'After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord - who makes these things known from of old.' "

"the execution of His decrees". Acts 4:27-28 ~ "For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place."

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To know God is life (John 17:3). Most of us are college students, and I'd bet that we've all run into that horrible problem that unbelievers (specifically agnostics) come around to: "Even if there was a god, how do we know him?" Faithless man has only one tool he can use to understand reality around him - science. God, in His wisdom, has chosen to never allow man to discover Him with the power of science. "For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom." If this is the case, then how will a man ever reach God? Depraved man cannot hope to ascend to the heights of heaven. Also, he cannot hope to descend to Sheol to find God either. Salvation, then, only happens when God chooses to reach to us. Everything we know of God is because He chose to reveal it to us, and He has chosen to leave some things hidden (Deut. 29:29). Not through science, but through God-ordained preaching, "it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe" (1 Cor. 1:21).

As Christians, we hold by faith that the Bible contains what we are to believe concerning God: His essence, His trinitarian nature, His will, and His power in executing His will. The hidden knowledge of God will be in our hearts if we have faith. We don't have to go to heaven to bring it down, nor go to hell to bring it up; that's why Paul writes,

"But the righteousness based on faith says,
'Do not say in your heart,
"Who will ascend into heaven?"' (that is, to bring Christ down) or
'"Who will descend into the abyss?"' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
But what does it say?
'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart'
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);
because, if you confess with your mouth
that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved."

(Rom 10:6-9)

The Counsel of the Westminster: Q. V

The Church of Christ cannot be creedless and live.
Especially in an age of doubt and confusion,
it is her duty to define the Christian faith and proclaim it to the world.

What do the scriptures principally teach?

The scriptures principally teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.


Hold fast to the form of sound words, which you have heard from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 1:13).


This has been a very helpful question and answer for me. How important for the Christian to have a structured answer for what the Bible principally teaches. The Westminster claims it teaches who God is, and what He commands us to do.

Let's think about some of the things that would apply under these two catagories:

What we are to believe about God: Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Holiness, Justice, Grace, Wrath, Mercy, God's relationships and covenants with mankind, God's decrees, God's heart.

What we are to believe about what God requires of us: keeping the law, faithfulness, repentance toward God, faith in Jesus Christ, holiness.

All the great things can be put under these two categories. Considering the historical books of the Bible (Kings, Chronicles, Ezra...etc), the confession is claiming that God is teaching us who He is and what He requires of us - which is why I went on a spill about Christians desperately needing to read the whole Bible my last post. It's easy to assume we understand God, but God is too big. Mankind (Christian or not) cannot possibly just naturally learn these things, who God is and what He requires of us, through personal feelings and life's experiences. We, as Christians, are to carefully search and submit to all that we find in His Word. Anything outside of the Word of God will only lead to confusion, danger, and in the end, death.

The Counsel of the Westminster: Q. III & IV

The Church of Christ cannot be creedless and live.
Especially in an age of doubt and confusion,
it is her duty to define the Christian faith and proclaim it to the world.

It's been a while! Sorry about that, I just got really busy (at least emotionally-busy) trying to get set up for school again and many other things.

Let's take the next two questions since they are very closely related.

What is the word of God?
The holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the word of God, the only rule of faith and obedience.

How does it appear that the Scriptures manifest themselves to be the word of God?
The scriptures manifest themselves to be the word of God, by their majesty and purity, by the consent of all the parts, and the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God; by their light and power to convince and convert sinners, to comfort and build up believers unto salvation: but the Spirit of God bearing witness by and with the scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to persuade it that they are the very word of God.

2 Tim. 3:16
All scripture is given by inspiration of God.

2 Peter 1:19
We also have a more sure word of prophecy; where you would do well to take heed of, as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day of dawn, and the daystar arises in your hearts.

(the Westminster quotes a few pages worth of verses for these two questions. Hehe, if you wanted to look it up, feel free too, but I don't think I'll type them all up!)

If there's one thing I would say that myself and my Christian brothers and sisters desperately need, perhaps it would be this: We must be convinced that the Bible is the Word of God and it all still applies or relates to us one way or another! And we become convinced, not by the testimony of other men, but by our own knowing of it and experiencing it in our life through faith.

Are you so convinced? This question doesn't require a verbal answer, but an action. If it is your bread, then eat it. And eat it will all diligence, fear, and reverence that you have within your soul. My generation is a New Testament generation, and to their shame. I would say the bigger mistake this generation has made is in the very moment they ignored the Old Testament and all that it teaches, they lost the context the New Testament was written in. Why else is there such an unexplainable lack of depth and understanding of God's character and how He relates to mankind? The golden phrase of this generation is "God wouldn't do that", when God had already done that in history past and promises to do that in the future.

Churches and pastors are moving away from holiness, because they don't pay attention that God's name is Holy (something defined hard and clear in the OT) - and that will never change. There is big problem in the church today were men divide the times of history up into dispensations, to the effect of basically teaching that the character traits of God in the Old Testament don't apply to us in the New Testament because He deals with us a different way now. And great magnificant truths that were laid out clearly in the Old, like the fear of God, are still applicable today. God's character has not changed at all. The God who is a God of love in the New Testament (1 John 4:8) is a God of love in the Old Testament (Deut. 7:9), and the God who is a God of wrath in the Old Testament (Nah. 1:2) is still a God of wrath in the New Testament (John 3:36; Eph. 5:6).

This generation finds the Old Testament dry and boring. But whoever reads this, please don't let what God said to the hypocrites be true of you, "I have written to him the great things of My law, but they were counted as strange things" (Hosea 8:12).

The Counsel of the Westminster: Question II

The Church of Christ cannot be creedless and live.
Especially in an age of doubt and confusion,
it is her duty to define the Christian faith and proclaim it to the world.

Question 2
How does it appear that there is a God?
The very light of nature in man, and the works of God, declare plainly that there is a God; but only His word and Spirit sufficiently and effectually reveal Him unto men for their salvation.

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:19-20)

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament teaches His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night teaches knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. (Psalms 19:1-2)

Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for those who love Him. (1 Cor. 2:9)

...The holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (2 Tim. 3:15)


Christian, do you believe people when they say you can't know there's a God? Do you ever wonder in your own spirit how you can know it to be true? But if you are to trust your eternal soul to God you need desperately to be convinced that He exists. This question askes "can mankind know there is a God?" In other words, is there a single soul that can deny to his fullest being God's reality?

Of course not. But people "suppress the truth in unrighteousness" as Romans 1:18 says. People know there is a God, but they don't know His character or will to any saving decree by natural revelation. But through the special revelation of the Bible through the Spirit people come to know the danger they are in, and how to be reconciled to God.

The Counsel of the Westminster. Question I.

The Church of Christ cannot be creedless and live.
Especially in an age of doubt and confusion,
it is her duty to define the Christian faith and proclaim it to the world.

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Question 1

What is the chief and highest end of man?
Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and to fully enjoy Him forever.

For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things; to whom be glory forever. Amen. (Rom. 11:36)

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
(1 Cor. 10:31)

Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. (Psalm 73:25)

Man's purpose - his highest quality of life. Every single human being born needs to know what his ultimate purpose is; apathy on purpose will lead to apathy on every other thing in life. In the book of Ecclesiasties, King Solomon searched for the answer to life. He, being rich and powerful, tried everything that a rich and powerful man could do under the sun. He built gardens, hired musicians, drank wine, built houses, learned, and much more. But in the ends of his search, he wrote,

Of the making of many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome. So let us hear the end of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

It is no different for you, Christian. You're highest aim in life is to fear God and keep His commandments. Jesus Christ never came to abolish this solid foundational truth.

The Counsel of the Westminster.

The Church of Christ cannot be creedless and live. Especially in an age of doubt and confusion, it is her duty to define the Christian faith and proclaim it to the world.

Well. After thinking about it for a while, I decided continue the Order of Salvation series in another way. It would be great education for me to not simply write about what's already in my heart, but to learn and study what men older than me have written about these things of God. So we'll still cover the order of salvation... it's just going to take a lot longer, haha - because I really want to go through the Westminster Larger Catechism. A catechism is a written document instructing men in the form of question and answer. I've been reading the Larger Catechism and I'm just too eager to sit down and dissect it. If you wish to follow along, as always I'll record my ventures on this blog. My blog posts will be just as much for me as it is for you.

But to make a clear point right away: The Westminster Catechism is not Scripture. It is, though, a summary of Scripture, and it scripturally defends every single sentence contained within. So it would not be correct to think of this study as a study of the Catechism itself; no, this is a study of the Word of God with the help of the Westminster divines' writings. I'm not interested in what these divines had to say about God; I'm interested in what God has to say about Himself, and these men dedicated their life in organizing the Scripture into very nice categories.

And something interesting to think about before we start. Yes, the Westminster Confession and Catechism is the confession of the Reformed Presbyterian Church; but you might not know that it was also adopted by the Baptist denomination as well. Truly, the churches who claim to be Baptist are suppost to teach and agree with this confession (except on the few things that the Baptist denomination changed whenever it adopted it, namely, a change in the area of worship of God and a change in the area of baptism. But appart from that, it is idenitcal). But most Baptist churches today don't even acknolwedge that this is a part of their confession - which is half the reason I quoted the first sentence in this blog.

The Westminster Catechism is divided into three parts:

I. An Introduction to the Scriptures
II. Questions about What Man is to Believe Concerning God
III. Questions about What is the Duty that God Requires of Men

An Introduction to the Scriptures
God tells us to always be ready to answer those who ask for the reason of the hope within us (1 Pet. 3:15). The catechism starts with five wonderful questions that every Christian is commanded by God to be able to answer. These questions and answers are:

Q1. What is the chief and highest end of man?
A1. Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and to fully enjoy Him forever.

Q2. How does it appear that there is a God?
A2. The very light of nature in man, and the works of God, declare plainly that there is a God; but only His word and Spirit sufficiently and effectually reveal Him unto men for their salvation.

Q3. What is the word of God?
A3. The holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the word of God, the only rule of faith and obedience.

Q4. How does it appear that the Scriptures manifest themselves to be the word of God?
A4. The scriptures manifest themselves to be the word of God, by their majesty and purity, by the consent of all the parts, and the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God; by their light and power to convince and convert sinners, to comfort and build up believers unto salvation: but the Spirit of God bearing witness by and with the scriptures in the heart of man, is able fully to persuade it that they are the very word of God.

Q5. What do the scriptures principally teach?
A5. The scriptures principally teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.


I hope you look forward to testing and proving these statements with scripture in time to come. Lordwilling, I'll type up a concise post for each question as the weeks go by.