Table of Contents
Statement by the Church of Scotland follows:
A new Book of Confessions has been published by the Church of Scotland after a detailed seven-year review of the confessional position of the Church led by the Theological Forum.
For centuries, ministers and elders have subscribed at their ordination to the Westminster Confession of Faith. This document was approved by the Church of Scotland in 1647, and contains doctrinal statements that seek to express the common faith of the Church, and that are intended to guide the beliefs of office-holders.
These doctrinal statements emphasise among other teachings the centrality of scripture, the sovereignty of God, and salvation by God’s grace alone. However, since 1921, liberty of opinion in points not entering into the substance of the faith has meant that office-holders have not had to agree to every statement in the Westminster Confession of Faith.
At the 2018 General Assembly it was decided that the matter should be revisited.
Nathalie Mares McCallum, who is the Secretary of the Theological Forum, explained that while the Westminster Confession of Faith remains an important part of the Church of Scotland’s historical and present identity, its relevance has changed.
“It was adopted by the General Assembly of the Church in Scotland in 1647, and in time it became the touchstone for orthodoxy for ministers and elders within the church,” she said.
“However, there are a number of reasons it’s no longer seen as representative of the variety of Reformed beliefs present within the Church of Scotland today.”
“In particular, there’s been long-standing disagreement about certain doctrines in the Confession, such as predestination, which some see as limiting the scope of salvation in ways that Scripture does not support.”
She also highlighted the “polemic against Roman Catholicism” it contains, from which the Church of Scotland officially distanced itself in 1986.
The process leading towards this new Book of Confessions has involved people from across the Church, with the original overture to move in this direction brought to the General Assembly by the then Presbytery of Melrose and Peebles in 2018.
The Theological Forum has worked on the project over the intervening years with presbyteries, advisers on church law, the Principal Clerk and others, with a conference at Edinburgh University’s New College exploring the issue in 2019.
After further discussion at recent General Assemblies, the Church’s Theological Forum, which is made up of ministers, elders and academics with a range of views, has produced the new Book of Confessions, which has now been approved by presbyteries and provides a more holistic account of the Church’s faith.
As well as the original Westminster Confession it will include the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Scots Confession, and the 1992 Statement of Christian Faith.
The Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed relate to what it is to be part of the wider Christian faith, and the three confessions to what it is to be from the Reformed tradition. The Scots Confession, which was overseen by John Knox and dates from 1560, helped to establish the Church of Scotland, while the Statement of Faith from 1992 offers an accessible and more contemporary summary of the teaching of the Church.
“We are part of the one, holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, but we’re also a member of the family of Reformed churches, historically rooted in the Protestant Reformation,” Ms Mares McCallum explains.
Ms Mares McCallum added that the new published book includes “an introduction and prefaces, which explain how the statements of faith came to be written, what’s distinctive about them and what role they’ve played in the life of the church”.
There are also footnotes clarifying some of the more challenging historical contents and contexts.
From 1 January 2026 all office-holders when they are ordained will now promise to be guided by the Book of Confessions in their life and doctrine.
A new Church of Scotland Learning module is being created on the Book of Confessions which will be available in the new year and will show how what’s contained within it is relevant to everyday Christian life.
Rev Dr Liam Fraser who has been part of the process from the start said:
“I am delighted by the publication of the Book of Confessions of the Church of Scotland. After a process lasting more than seven years, the Church has clarified its beliefs for the 21st century, making it easier for office holders and for the people of Scotland to know what it stands for.
“Importantly for our relations with other denominations, in its 1700th anniversary, the Church has formally adopted the Nicene Creed, a summary of belief shared by the majority of Christians. This, along with the re-adoption the Scots Confession – the first Protestant confession in Scotland – makes it clear that we share the same basic faith as other Christians, while preserving our unique Scottish Reformed identity.”
Rev Dr John McPake, acting Principal Clerk, said:
“The publication of The Book of Confessions of the Church of Scotland now gives fuller expression to the significance of the decisions made by the General Assembly, regarding the subordinate standards of the Church. These decisions may rightfully be regarded as the most significant made since 1647.
“In expanding the subordinate standards to include the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed alongside the Scots Confession and the more contemporary Statement of Christian Faith, and setting these alongside the Westminster Confession, the Book of Confessions affirms that the life of the Church is rooted in ‘the fundamental doctrines of the Catholic faith’ founded upon the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. At the same time, it affirms that it is a Church rooted in the Scottish Reformation and one called to ever-renewed task of being reformed.
“As we take up that task, the Book of Confessions reminds us of our fundamental identity as the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and resources us for the challenge of living out that identity in the nation in which we are called to bear witness to the Gospel.”
The new book of confessions will be launched on the 11 December at 7pm and is published by St Andrew Press. The launch is online and free to attend.
⚔️ A Reformed Fundamental Response to the Church of Scotland’s Book of Confessions
“All worshipping, honouring, or service invented by the brain of man in the religion of God, without his own express commandment, is idolatry.”
— John Knox, A Vindication of the Doctrine that the Mass is Idolatry (1550),
The Works of John Knox, ed. David Laing, vol. 3, p. 59
Let us speak plainly, as Knox himself would, without the pious murk of modern compromise. What the modern Church of Scotland calls “a fuller and more holistic account of the Church’s faith” is no advancement of Reformation doctrine; it is the burial of that doctrine under an ecumenical shroud. Where our church fathers confessed one faith drawn from the pure fountain of Scripture — Sola Scriptura — the Theological Forum has mingled it with lesser streams, clouding the living water with human sentiment. The new Book of Confessions is not a continuation of the Reformation, but its undoing.
The 2025 Committee on Overtures and Cases Report is pivotal because it records the mechanism by which the new “Book of Confessions” will be formally introduced, and thus provides explicit evidence that the Church of Scotland’s decision represents a confessional realignment — not a mere educational supplement.
Let’s examine it theologically, using the Church of Scotland’s own official wording to demonstrate its drift. From their 2025 committee report it shows why, by their own admission, the Church has deliberately tampered with its historic confessional foundation.
📜 1. The Only Fountain of Doctrine: Holy Scripture
“The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined… can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture.”
— Westminster Confession of Faith I.X (1647)
The original Reformers swore allegiance to one fountain only — the Word of God.
Knox’s declaration above is the cornerstone of true Reformed religion:
What God does not command, man must not invent.
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.”
— 2 Timothy 4:3 (KJV)
🕊️ 2. Predestination and the Sovereignty of God
The Forum’s complaint that predestination “limits the scope of salvation” is rebellion against divine revelation.
“He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” — Romans 9:18
“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.” — Ephesians 1:4
The Westminster Confession echoes Scripture:
“By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death.”
— WCF III.III
Samuel Rutherford warned with precision:
“To deny reprobation, or the eternal election of God’s saints, is to unmake God, and to make man his own first cause.”
— A Survey of Spiritual Antichrist (1648), Pt. II, p. 194
To reject predestination is not mercy — it is man-centered arrogance.
⛓️ 3. Against Compromise with Rome
The Forum boasts of “distancing itself from the polemic against Roman Catholicism.”
But that polemic was not hatred — it was fidelity to Scripture.
“We utterly abhor the blasphemous sacrifice of the masse… we affirm the same to be an abominable idol.”
— The Scots Confession (1560), Ch. XXI
Knox refused such compromise:
“I am assured that God’s Word is plain in the matter; and if so it be, woe unto me if I obey not.”
— John Knox, History of the Reformation in Scotland, vol. 2, p. 281
“What communion hath light with darkness? … Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord.”
— 2 Corinthians 6:14, 17 (KJV)
To mute the old warnings is to revive the old idolatry.
🏛️ 4. Beware the False “Reformation” of the Age
“The prophets prophesy falsely… and my people love to have it so.”
— Jeremiah 5:31 (KJV)
The Reformers acted by faith, not by committee.
Today’s academics, gathered at New College, have rebuilt Babel — verbose, vain, and faithless.
Andrew Melville’s defiance before King James VI remains the gold standard of courage:
“There are two kings and two kingdoms in Scotland. There is Christ Jesus the King, and his Kingdom the Kirk, whose subject King James VI is, and of whose kingdom not a king, nor a lord, nor a head, but a member.”
— David Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland, vol. VI, p. 307
Refashioning confession by bureaucratic vote is not Reformation — it is self-deification.
✝️ 5. The True and Enduring Confession
Only one confession has withstood fire, scaffold, and prison: the one forged by Knox, Melville, and Rutherford, perfected at Westminster, and sealed by martyrdom.
“Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein.”
— Jeremiah 6:16 (KJV)
The Westminster Confession of Faith needs no supplement.
The Book of Confessions may fill shelves, but it will empty pulpits and hearts.
Let every minister of Christ stand upon the old foundation:
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
— Psalm 119:105 (KJV)
⚖️ 6. The Overtures and the Legal Shift — The Church Admits Its Departure
The pivot point of this entire enterprise lies not in theology but in committee process.
According to the 2025 Report of the Committee on Overtures and Cases, the Confessions of Faith Overture and its related Acts alter the basis of ministerial subscription itself.
From the report presented to the General Assembly of May 2025, the Church officially states:
“Should the Confessions of Faith Overture be approved by the General Assembly, the changes to the Ordination and Induction vows, Formula of Subscription and Preamble would identify the location of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith in both the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds.”
— Report of the Committee on Overtures and Cases (2025), p. 5, Church of Scotland, General Assembly Records.
This sentence is devastating in its candour. For nearly four centuries the Church of Scotland traced “the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith” to one standard — the Word of God as expounded in the Westminster Confession of Faith. Now, the foundational authority has been relocated to the Creeds — broad, pre‑Reformation documents shared with Rome herself.
The same report asserts that approval of the new Book:
“…would mark an important chapter in the history of our Church…”
Indeed it does — but not as progress. It marks the first time since 1647 that the Church of Scotland has relocated its doctrinal center of gravity away from Westminster’s explicitly Calvinist system and toward ecumenical inclusivity. The administrative phrasing hides a theological earthquake.
📖 Scriptural and Historical Rebuttal
“Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.” — Proverbs 22:28 (KJV)
Those who signed the National Covenant (1638) swore to uphold “the true worship of God and the religion presently professed within this realm.” The modern Assembly’s action undoes that vow by substituting the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds — documents venerable but pre‑Reformation — for the richly Scriptural, anti‑idolatrous, and sovereign‑God theology of Westminster.
As Knox thundered when Rome claimed catholic continuity:
“You shall learn nothing of me but that which the Scriptures teach, and by them shall you try all doctrine, whether it be of God or not.”
— Works of John Knox, vol. 4, p. 289.
Now the Church of Scotland asks its ministers to “be guided by” a Book of Confessions — plural — meaning no single standard, no absolute test of doctrine, no fixed plumb‑line. Such “guidance” is the language of relativism, not of faith.
🔥 The Reality Behind the Bureaucracy
By its own documentation, the 2025 General Assembly has enacted:
- A redefinition of subordinate standards to include the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Scots Confession, the Westminster Confession, and a 1992 Statement of Faith.
- A rewriting of ordination vows to require alignment mainly with Creeds, not with Westminster.
- A shifting of theological authority from Scriptural exposition to institutional consensus.
This shift is defended in the report as ecumenical progress, but in biblical terms it is apostasy by gradual amendment.
The Prophet Jeremiah foresaw exactly this manoeuvre of polite drift:
“My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” — Jeremiah 2:13 (KJV)
🩸 The True Confession Still Stands
The Church of Scotland’s bureaucrats — their Overture passed, their book printed — may imagine they have modernised the faith. But neither a deliverance nor a PDF can annul the everlasting covenant of the Lord. The Scripture, the Westminster Confession, and the Scots martyrs still cry out in agreement:
“The Law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul.” — Psalm 19:7 (KJV)
No overture can supersede that perfection.
No committee report can improve it.
The confessional integrity of the Church of Scotland is not being reformed in 2025 — it is being deformed by those ashamed of the offence of the Cross.
And it shall ever be said of this era:
“They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” — Jeremiah 6:14 (KJV)
The Reformation was not a committee but a conquest of truth over tradition.
If the Church of Scotland wishes to renew anything, let it renew her first vows — to proclaim Christ’s crown and covenant without apology, and to let Scripture judge the Church, not the Church rewrite Scripture.
📚 Sources Cited
Primary Reformation Sources
- John Knox. A Vindication of the Doctrine that the Mass is Idolatry. 1550.
In The Works of John Knox, ed. David Laing, vol. 3. Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, 1848.
— “All worshipping, honouring, or service invented by the brain of man in the religion of God, without His own express commandment, is idolatry.” - John Knox. The History of the Reformation in Scotland.
In The Works of John Knox, ed. David Laing, vol. 2. Edinburgh: Wodrow Society, 1846.
— “I am assured that God’s Word is plain in the matter; and if so it be, woe unto me if I obey not.” - Samuel Rutherford. A Survey of Spiritual Antichrist. London: Andrew Crook, 1648. Part II, p. 194.
— “To deny reprobation, or the eternal election of God’s saints, is to unmake God, and to make man his own first cause.” - The Scots Confession. 1560. Chapter XXI.
— “We utterly abhor the blasphemous sacrifice of the masse… we affirm the same to be an abominable idol.” - Westminster Confession of Faith. 1647. Sections I.X and III.III.
— “The supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined…” /
— “By the decree of God… some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death.” - Andrew Melville. Quoted in David Calderwood, History of the Kirk of Scotland, vol. VI. Edinburgh, 1845, p. 307.
— “There are two kings and two kingdoms in Scotland…” - The Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized 1611).
Scriptures quoted: Psalm 19:7; Psalm 119:105; Jeremiah 2:13; Jeremiah 5:31; Jeremiah 6:14; Jeremiah 6:16; Proverbs 22:28; Romans 9:18; Ephesians 1:4; 2 Timothy 4:3; 2 Corinthians 6:14–17.
Modern Church of Scotland Governance Documents
- Church of Scotland. Report of the Committee on Overtures and Cases: Confessions of Faith Overture. General Assembly 2025.
[PDF: https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/133434/4.-Committee-on-Overtures-and-Cases.pdf]
— “Should the Confessions of Faith Overture be approved by the General Assembly, the changes to the Ordination and Induction vows, Formula of Subscription and Preamble would identify the location of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith in both the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds.”
— “If the General Assembly were to approve this year’s Confessions of Faith Overture, it would mark an important chapter in the history of our Church.” - Church of Scotland. Report of the Theological Forum. General Assembly 2025. PDF publication (1 April 2025).
— Confirms that the Theological Forum worked with presbyteries and legal advisers to produce the Book of Confessions and to draft the confessional reforms. - Church of Scotland. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 2025: Volume of Reports. Assembly Business Committee (29 April 2025). ISBN 9781800830653.
— Official compilation referencing the Overtures and deliverances passed concerning the Book of Confessions.
Historical Context Sources (Background)
- Finlay A. J. Macdonald. “The Westminster Confession: Unfinished Business.” Theology in Scotland (University of St Andrews Press).
— Provides historical overview of 20th‑century Church of Scotland debates regarding the Westminster Confession’s standing, showing the long institutional desire to dilute its authority.
