Misusing the Westminster Confession

Misusing the Westminster Confession by James Jordan "Along these lines, the continual use of the Standards over a long period of time has not infrequently had a bad effect. The writers of the Standards were men of breadth and depth, who were primarily interested in the Bible, the whole Bible, and what God says in and through the Bible to humanity. Continual focus on the Standards, however, often leads over the course of time to a narrower and shallower religion. It can lead to sectarianism and even to a kind of functional idolatry in which the Standards become practically more important than the Bible. Preachers and teachers can go round and round inside the Standards, assuming that all that is really important is found there, and virtually ignoring everything else the Bible has to say. The issues that were primarily in focus in the 1640s are assumed to be the major issues in the Bible itself. (After all, while the doctrines of predestination occupy the Standards to a considerable extent, how often does the Bible touch on this matter in any kind of direct way?) Over time, the limited concerns of the Standards are pressed into every part of the Bible, while the actual teaching of many parts of the Bible goes unnoticed."