Our Standards
The Primary Standard for the Church of the King is found in the 66 books of the Holy Scriptures. As the inspired, inerrant, infallible, and comprehensive rule of faith and life for the Christian, the Scriptures are recognized by Church of the King as the unchallengeable authority and supreme judge to which all religious controversies or creeds, as well as all opinions and regulations of men, must be subordinate.
We affirm as Secondary Standards the ecumenical creeds of the church: the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the definition of Chalcedon . We also hold in high regard the secondary standards of the historic Reformation Churches: the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), the Belgic Confession (1561), the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms (1647), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), and the Canons of Dort (1619).
Below we have listed links to many of these historic documents for further study and edification:
American Westminster Confession of Faith (1936)
This text of the Westminster Confession of Faith is is derived from a 1646 manuscript edited by S. W. Carruthers. Revisions were introduced into Confession of Faith in 1789 when the Presbyterian Church in the USA was originally constituted. Some additional revisions were made in 1936 when the Confession of Faith was adopted by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The identical version was adopted by the Presbyterian Church in America in 1973.
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Westminster Confession of Faith (1646)
Since its first publication in 1646, this has remained unsurpassed as an accurate and concise statement of Christian doctrine. Among all the shifting sands of theological opinion here is solid truth, for it has its foundation in Scripture.
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Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms
T he Westminster Assembly of Divines, convened by the English Parliament in 1643, completed the Confession of Faith, Shorter Catechism and Larger Catechism in 1647. These documents have served as the doctrinal standards, subordinate to the word of God, for Presbyterian and other churches around the world. The text of the Confession is that adopted by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 1936. It is derived from a 1646 manuscript edited by S. W. Carruthers and incorporates revisions adopted by American Presbyterian churches as early as 1788.
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Belgic Confession (1561)
This Reformed confession was prepared in 1561 by Guy de Bres (c.1523-1567), who was later martyred, and others, and then slightly revised by Francis Junius (1545-1602) of Bourges. First written in French, it was soon translated into Dutch and Latin. The Synod of Dort (1618-1619) made a revision but did not change the doctrine. It covers the spectrum of theological topics.
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Heidelberg Catechism (1563)
The Heidelberg Catechism was written in Heidelberg at the request of Elector Frederick III, ruler of the most influential German province, the Palatinate, from 1559 to 1576. This pious Christian prince commissioned Zacharius Ursinus, twenty-eight years of age and professor of theology at the Heidelberg University, and Caspar Olevianus, twenty-six years old and Frederick's court preacher, to prepare a catechism for instructing the youth and for guiding pastors and teachers.
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Canons of Dort (1619)
The Decision of the Synod of Dordt on the Five Main Points of Doctrine in Dispute in the Netherlands is popularly known as the Canons of Dordt. It consists of statements of doctrine adopted by the great Synod of Dordt which met in the city of Dordrecht in 1618-19. Although this was a national synod of the Reformed churches of the Netherlands, it had an international character, since it was composed not only of Dutch delegates but also of twenty-six delegates from eight foreign countries.
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The London Baptist Confession (1689)
This ancient document is the most excellent epitome of the things most surely believed among us. It is not issued as an authoritative rule or code of faith, whereby you may be fettered, but as a means of edification in righteousness. It is an excellent, though not inspired, expression of the teaching of those Holy Scriptures by which all confessions are to be measured. We hold to the humbling truths of God's sovereign grace in the salvation of lost sinners. Salvation is through Christ alone and by faith alone."
C. H. Spurgeon
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The Savoy Declaration (1658)
In 1658, just two years before the restoration of the monarchy, about 200 delegates from the Congregational churches of England gathered in the Savoy palace in London to compose a revision of the Confession in which the principles of congregational independence and legal toleration would replace the established Presbyterianism implicit in the Confession's statements touching Church government and discipline. This revision, known as The Savoy Declaration , prefixed a lengthy Preface, substantially altered chapters 25 and 26, deleted chapters 30 and 31, inserted a new chapter, "Of the Gospel," and added a platform of Congregational polity titled "Of the Institution of Churches, and the Order Appointed in them by Jesus Christ.
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The Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy
This was the statement that launched the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, an interdenominational joint effort by hundreds of evangelical scholars and leaders to defend biblical inerrancy against the trend toward liberal and neo-orthodox conceptions of Scripture.
The Statement was produced at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare in Chicago in the fall of 1978, during an international summit conference of concerned evangelical leaders. It was signed by nearly 300 noted evangelical scholars, including Boice, Norman L. Geisler, John Gerstner, Carl F. H. Henry, Kenneth Kantzer, Harold Lindsell, John Warwick Montgomery, Roger Nicole, J.I. Packer, Robert Preus, Earl Radmacher, Francis Schaeffer, R.C. Sproul, and John Wenham.
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