Presbyterians: Changing the Confession

For the first time in three centuries.

Presbyterians are substantially altering their confession of faith. A new creed has been drawn up by a committee of United Presbyterian pastors and theologians, headed by Princeton Theological Seminary's Professor Edward A. Dowey Jr.

The proposed 5,000-word "Confession of 1967" does not have to deal with predestination, the historic preoccupation of Presbyterians; an amendment to the Westminster Confession way back in 1903 effectively modified the Calvinist doctrine that some men are predestined for salvation while others are damned to hell. It challenges the "inerrancy" of the literal Bible by asserting that while Scripture...