In our previous article on the Civil Magistrate (WCF 23), we explored the original 1646 text of the Westminster Confession. While it correctly established that government is ordained by God, its third paragraph contained a glaring issue for modern readers: it granted the civil government the power to suppress heresies, reform worship, and call church synods.
In 1646 Europe, the “Establishment Principle”—the idea that a nation should have one official, state-funded church protected by the king’s sword—was universally assumed. But over the next century, Presbyterians suffered bitterly under the heavy hand of state interference. They realized that giving the government power over the church usually resulted in the corruption of the church and the persecution of true believers.
In 1788, as the United States Constitution was being ratified, American Presbyterians convened to adopt the Westminster Standards. In doing so, they made a profound and historic change: they revised Chapter 23, Section 3. Today, major conservative Presbyterian denominations, such as the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) and the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), confess this 1788 American Revision.
The 1788 revision teaches a strict separation of the powers of church and state; denying the civil magistrate any right to interfere in matters of faith, while tasking the government with the duty to protect the physical safety of all people and ensuring that no Christian denomination is given preference over another.
What Didn’t Change: The Divine Origin of Government
Before looking at the changes, it is vital to notice what the American Presbyterians kept. They did not change WCF 23.1, 23.2, or 23.4.
The American revision firmly maintains that “God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world, hath ordained civil magistrates.” It retains the belief that Christians can lawfully serve in office, that governments have the power of the sword, and that citizens must pay taxes and obey lawful commands.
The 1788 divines were not secularists. They did not believe the government was free from God’s moral law. What they changed was not the origin of the state, but the boundary line between the state and the church.
The Great Wall of Separation (WCF 23.3a)
The revised paragraph 3 begins with an absolute prohibition:
“Civil magistrates may not assume to themselves the administration of the Word and sacraments; or the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven; or, in the least, interfere in matters of faith.“
The 1646 text gave the magistrate the duty to keep the truth pure and suppress blasphemy. The 1788 text builds an impenetrable wall: the government has zero jurisdiction over special revelation. The state wields the sword to police human behavior; the church wields the keys to shepherd the human soul. A judge or a president has no authority to tell a church what to believe, who to baptize, or who to excommunicate.
The State as “Nursing Fathers” to the Church (WCF 23.3b)
If the state cannot interfere in matters of faith, what is its relationship to religion? The revision uses a beautiful biblical phrase from Isaiah 49:23: they are to act as “nursing fathers.” A nursing father provides safety, protection, and nourishment, but he does not micromanage the life of the child. It is the duty of the civil magistrate to “protect the church of our common Lord.” But how?
Crucially, the scope of this non-interference was specifically aimed at preventing discrimination between Christian groups, rather than endorsing modern secular pluralism.
- Without Preference: The state must do this “without giving the preference to any denomination of Christians above the rest.” The goal was to prevent a state-funded Church of America (such as a legally privileged Anglican or Congregational church) that oppressed other Christians.
- Free Ministry: The state must ensure that “all ecclesiastical persons whatever shall enjoy the full, free, and unquestioned liberty of discharging every part of their sacred functions, without violence or danger.”
Furthermore, because Jesus Christ has appointed a government and discipline in His church, “no law of any commonwealth should interfere with, let, or hinder, the due exercise thereof, among the voluntary members of any denomination of Christians.” If a church disciplines or excommunicates a voluntary member according to its own beliefs, the civil court has no right to overturn that spiritual discipline.
A Shield, Not a Secular Void
Modern readers often filter “separation of church and state” through a secularist lens—assuming it means the government must be entirely stripped of all religious influence and pretend God does not exist, granting unrestricted free exercise to all false, non-Christian religions. This was not the view of the 1788 American divines.
The revised Confession still maintains that the civil magistrate should want true religion to flourish. We see this in several ways:
- Acknowledging Christ: The text explicitly commands the magistrate to “protect the church of our common Lord.” The state is expected to recognize that Jesus Christ is Lord and that His church is a distinct, divinely ordained institution.
- Promoting Piety: WCF 23.2 (which the Americans left unchanged) explicitly states that magistrates “ought especially to maintain piety, justice, and peace.”
- The Light of Nature and Moral Law: The civil magistrate governs according to the Moral Law, which is accessible to all humanity via the “light of nature” (general revelation). Because this natural law reveals that there is a sovereign God who ought to be honored, the state can enact policies that promote basic monotheism and discourage public polytheism, just as it enacts policies that promote honesty and discourage perjury. It enforces the Moral Law for the public good, while leaving the spiritual mysteries of the Gospel to the church.
- The Historical Context: The men who adopted the 1788 revision still firmly believed in the validity of Sabbath laws, public days of prayer and fasting called by the government, and the requirement of taking legal oaths on the Bible. Furthermore, early American laws frequently prohibited and punished public blasphemy.
The primary shift between 1646 and 1788 was not whether the magistrate should promote true religion, but how. The 1646 divines believed the magistrate should use the sword to actively root out and punish all false religion. The 1788 divines recognized that while the government cannot compel someone to worship truly, it can and should encourage true piety and discourage public impiety according to the light of nature. By officially recognizing “our common Lord,” upholding the moral law in civil codes, and protecting the Sabbath, the state indirectly discourages false religion.
The magistrate acts as a shield—protecting the Christian church from violence, ensuring Christians have “unquestioned liberty,” and preventing the state from usurping the spiritual keys.
Protection from Violence for All (WCF 23.3c)
While the robust liberties of unhindered ministry were specifically promised to Christian denominations, the American Presbyterians did extend a baseline of civil protection to the broader society.
It is the duty of the government to protect the person and good name of all people, ensuring that no one is suffered to offer violence or abuse to anyone else “either upon pretense of religion or of infidelity.”
Notice the inclusion of the word infidelity (unbelief). In 1646, an open heretic or atheist might be imprisoned or banished. In 1788, the Presbyterians declared that a person’s unbelief does not forfeit their right to physical safety. The government must protect the atheist from the violent religious zealot, just as it must protect the Christian assembly from the violent anti-religious mob. The state must “take order, that all religious and ecclesiastical assemblies be held without molestation or disturbance.”
Protecting a person from physical violence, however, is not the same as granting moral endorsement or unrestricted public exercise to false non-Christian religions. The magistrate’s goal was to secure civil peace, not to equate false religions with the true Church.
Religious Liberty Serves Christian Liberty
To fully appreciate this American revision, we must connect it back to the Confession’s teaching on Christian Liberty (Chapter 20). Recall that true Christian liberty is not the freedom to do whatever we please; rather, it is the freedom to act righteously, having been delivered from the bondage of sin and the unbiblical traditions of men.
Crucially, Reformed theology has never taught that a person has a moral “right” before God to worship falsely—that is a direct violation of the First Commandment. Civil religious liberty is not a moral endorsement of false religion. Rather, the 1788 divines understood that civil religious liberty exists to serve and protect spiritual Christian liberty.
The state cannot save a soul, nor can it force a man to believe the Gospel. However, by acting as a shield, the civil magistrate maintains the outward peace and order necessary for Christians to exercise their inward freedom. When the state refrains from dictating theology (which would improperly bind the conscience to the commandments of men) and instead protects the physical safety of the church, it creates the ideal environment for the Word of God to do its converting work, allowing believers to freely, safely, and joyfully pursue righteous obedience.
Conclusion
The 1788 revision of the Westminster Confession is a masterpiece of Christian political theology. It protects the Church from the tyranny of the State, ensuring that Jesus Christ alone rules His spiritual kingdom without government preference among denominations. Simultaneously, it protects the State from the tyranny of the Church, ensuring that civil rulers are not weaponized to enforce religious dogma by the sword. By recognizing that God is Lord of both spheres, it secures a society where true faith can flourish freely, guided by the Spirit rather than the sword.
Key Terms
- The American Revision (1788): The adoption and revision of the Westminster Standards by the Presbyterian Church in the USA, adapting the confession to reflect biblical principles of religious liberty and the separation of church and state.
- Erastianism: The historical error (which the 1788 revision firmly rejected) that places the church under the authority and supremacy of the state.
- Nursing Fathers: A concept drawn from Isaiah 49:23, describing the civil magistrate’s duty to protect the physical safety and liberty of the church without interfering in its spiritual governance or theology.
- Christian Denominations: The specific focus of the 1788 religious liberty clauses, ensuring that the state does not show preference to one Christian group over another, nor interfere in their internal spiritual discipline.
- Light of Nature: The general revelation of God’s existence and moral law (including duties to God and man) visible in creation and human conscience, which serves as the foundational standard for civil governance.