Will you be content when the pastor and/or elders teach a view in line with the Standards, a view that you don’t personally hold? I say this to our shame. Many Presbyterians take exceptions, sometimes a handful of them. I say this also to our shame. When someone says he takes no exceptions, some men challenge that, “Are you sure you don’t take any exceptions? Not even when the Confession or Catechism says…? Really?” 

Allow a little inside baseball. Here I’m talking mainly to or about ministers and elders who are on the baseball team that is Presbyterian and Reformed. The finest baseball team! I’m speaking to all those who unite with one another through the common confession, The Westminster Confession of Faith. It is this Confession that we’ve affirmed as a faithful summary of Christian teaching. If there are questions about what we believe the Bible says, we refer, fundamentally, to the Bible, but, also faithfully, to The Westminster Confession of Faith and its Larger and Shorter Catechisms (a.k.a., the Standards).

When Presbyterian and Reformed congregations search for and call a pastor, they look for a man who teaches and preaches the Bible in accordance with the denomination’s standards. When potential ministers, candidates of the gospel ministry, are examined by a presbytery (a group of teaching and ruling elders), the basis is the Bible, of course, but also as summarized in the Confession and Catechisms. It’s these documents that we collectively refer to as our doctrinal unity. Blest be this tie that binds! We affirm that we will teach, preach, counsel, and minister the Word of God in accordance with these beloved documents. All well and good.

One factor in these examinations is the conscience of the pastor or elder. What does he personally believe? That is, does he believe the Bible is accurately and precisely summarized in every particular phrase or concept as set forth in the Westminsterian documents? To ask the question is to answer it. Of course not. Not everyone affirms the exact same belief or practice as precisely written by the Westminster divines.

Enter exceptions. When a pastor or elder examines his own views in light of what these documents say, and if he finds himself not perfectly aligned, he registers an exception. He’s essentially saying, “I don’t exactly hold that view in the way it’s written here.” He offers his exception(s) in writing, and the other elders examine the view, talk with him about it, and then make a judgment on whether or not it’s an acceptable exception. By this is meant, “We agree that you do not hold precisely the view set forth in the Standards, but you can still believe it and be a member in good standing and serve in this denomination.” The two common exceptions relate to the Second and Fourth Commandments. For instance, some in the PCA will take exception to a phrase in WLC 109 about the prohibition of “mental images” of Jesus (“inwardly in our mind”). Taking this exception is truly a departure from the Standards, but this exception will not prevent someone from being ordained in the PCA. The aim in this post is not to tackle this exception. Maybe another time.

Consider the Fourth Commandment. Here’s what the WCF says about the Sabbath, or the Lord’s Day: “This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs before-hand, do not only observe an holy rest all the day from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, (Exod. 20:8, Exod. 16; 23, 25–26, 29–30, Exod. 31:15–17, Isa. 58:13, Neh. 13:15–19, 21–22) but also are taken up, the whole time, in the public and private exercises of His worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy” (WCF 21.8).

A lot has been said about this section and the parallel portions in the WLC (119) and WSC (61). Most Presbyterian and Reformed people don’t object or take exception until they come to the word “recreations.” This piece isn’t about defending the Standards’ use of the phrase. But let it be said that the men who wrote the Standards were Bible men. The words from the prophet Isaiah informed their statements. Isaiah 58:13-14 says, “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly. 

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