Several years ago when the process of rewriting the Testimony of the Reformed Presbyterian Church began, a pastor on the committee surveyed his congregation to find how much the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Testimony were actually being used by the members. He found the percentage to be very small.

You may want to test that against your own experience, asking how often you turn to the Confession and the Testimony of the church for guidance and instruction and help in your own Christian life.

Because of the desire to make the revised Testimony a useful and usable document, the committee put a high priority on the practical nature of the Testimony. This practical nature was not in any sense to reduce the truth of the historic documents, but to seek to relate those historic documents to the issues of the world today. The Testimony was correlated with the Confession of Faith, and parallel Catechism references are noted for greater ease and usefulness.

The degree to which we have been successful in making the Testimony both useful and usable will have to wait for your evaluation and use over the next several years.

The friend who did most of the final stenographic work in preparing the Testimony for the new edition became more and more excited as she typed. At the end she was saying that the Testimony “covers all of life.” She said many people seem to think that the Testimony is something not to be read, but she found it to be readable—sometimes stopping long enough to read on ahead. She found that the Testimony addresses itself to many of the important issues in our culture today.

We would hope that the members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church across the land would also get excited about the Testimony, and we hope that you won’t have to do all of that typing to find how exciting it can be for you.

How might the newly revised Testimony be used effectively in your life and witness?

In Individual Study

First of all, get a copy yourself and begin to read it. As you do so, think about its relevance to your own situation.

For those persons with independent motivation and a good degree of personal discipline, you can undertake a study on your own. Read and study a chapter at a time. In the blank spaces write out your own thoughts and reactions. Look up the Scripture references. In most cases, the references given are only a sampling of others that might have been used. You might want to add to the list some from your own reading and study. Read the “rejections” carefully and see if you can identify persons or groups who may hold to these erroneous concepts.

As you undertake this study, seek to make it a means of strengthening your faith and life, of teaching you the basic doctrines of the Bible and the application of those teachings to some of the modern issues facing the world and the church.

In Group Study

Most persons no doubt will find it more helpful to have a group study. Suggest to your Christian education committee or to the session that there be a study of the Testimony, possibly as an adult elective in the Bible school. Such a study might use the Confession/Testimony outline and follow it through. As an alternative, one might want to select themes and study them in a special way.

Such a study will field profitable results. For example, the group might want to study for one quarter some of the issues of the day. A Christian view of economics, the family, Christian education, abortion, marriage and divorce, life after death, and others are topics that could be studied from the biblical perspective.

In your own setting, some thought might be given to a summer “adult vacation Bible school,” where for one week (or one night each week for several weeks) there can be a seminar. In such a case, it might be possible to bring in outside speakers to give a message on one particular issue, and then it could be discussed and evaluated using material in the Testimony. In many situations, you would not need outside speakers but could arrange for a speaker or panel within your own group.

Rather than some kind of adult class, you might want to suggest to your pastor that he preach a series of sermons and relate those to the material in the Testimony. Your pastor will gladly listen to such suggestions, and will be pleased if you have particular subjects to suggest. If your congregation is one where the Bible school hour follows the morning worship, it might be possible to have a discussion of the message following the service.

If your congregation has the “traditional” schedule, with the morning worship service following the Bible school, two approaches might be considered. One of these would use the Bible study/prayer service during the week as a time for a pre-study of the topic. The Bible school hour might be used in the same way. Consider including the junior high and high school students in these sessions.

In a more general vein, get into the habit of asking the question in a discussion group: What does the Testimony have to say about that? On many subjects that are likely to be discussed in a church setting, it is possible you will find more material on those subjects in the Testimony than you would have suspected.

In Your Community

In each community there arise from time to time certain issues on which Christians ought to be speaking and witnessing. As these moral issues arise in your community, turn to the Testimony to see if it will be of help to establish your own position, and to give a background for united action. Remember that the Testimony is a united Testimony—it is what the church agrees to in a united witness to the world. It would be possible to quote the Testimony on certain selected issues. In many communities, there may be opportunities for special witness in the areas of law, education, economics, sex and others.

In the Church

Not only are there community and societal issues, but there are issues being raised within the church as well. Under this heading, you may want to keep in mind the sections in chapter 1 relating to the Bible. The “inerrancy issue” is directly before the Christian church today. Other suggestions: Does the chapter on the church help you to evaluate the “electronic church” concept? What elements of the concept of the church are absent in the electronic church? Parachurch organizations are very popular and influential. How can you evaluate those and your relationship to them and the degree of cooperation between them and the church? Other issues will come to mind within the Christian community. Topics could include the charismatic movement, the place of music in worship, a study on baptism and the Lord’s supper, and the question of discipline in the church. Hopefully a study of these would strengthen your own beliefs and be a base of witness to others.

Your congregation may want to consider the possibility of using the Testimony as a base of study for church membership.

As you read the Testimony and consider it, other ways in which it can be used effectively will come to your mind. Write them down and pass them along to those persons responsible for putting some of them into action—your pastor or session or the Christian education committee, or the group responsible for a congregational retreat, etc. Would you find that the Testimony might be used effectively in a summer conference? or a young people’s retreat?

The Testimony is neither infallible nor exhaustive. Its truth depends not on itself, but on the infallible Scriptures. This means that through the years some current issues will fade and others will rise. Changes will need to be made to meet those issues. Some persons no doubt will find areas where there is question about the truthfulness of a particular point. Study it in relation to the Bible; and, if the Testimony needs to be revised to make it harmonious with the Scriptures, then help in the process to bring that about.

In any event, use the Testimony. Let it be of encouragement to you in your own growth and your Christian walk.

Do you have a personal copy of the Confession/ Testimony? Are they available in your church? If not, find out when you can get one. Then begin to put your ideas into practice.

–James D. Carson