{Book Review} The Westminster Confession of Faith: A Study Guide for the 21st Century

Rowland Ward is the author of The Westminster Confession of Faith: A Study Guide for the 21st Century. This book is published by Tulip Publishing. 

This post may contain affiliate links. At no extra cost to you, we may receive a small commission if you purchase through our links. Thank you for supporting this ministry!

The Westminster Confession of Faith: A Study Guide for the 21st Century

This is one of those books that I personally wish every Christian would own, read, study, and apply. Rowland Ward blesses the church with a book that summarizes the Westminster Confession of Faith, paragraph by paragraph. Not familiar with the Westminster Standards? No problem! Ward provides a very concise and yet informative explanation of what the Confession is and where it came from.

I really appreciate the dates and events that are included in the beginning of the book. It’s a nice timeline to help the reader understand the history of the Standards. Following that helpful timeline is a short, yet powerful, section on the relationship between Scripture and the Confession. This is a very important part of this book, especially considering the amount of Christians that aren’t creedal and confessional today. For some, the idea of a confession spits in the face of Sola Scriptura and the sufficiency of Scripture. This is very unfortunate, and Ward helps the reader to understand the grand importance of confessions. 

The majority of the book is Ward’s commentary on the 33 chapters of the Westminster Confession of Faith. Each chapter begins with an analysis at the top of the page so that the reader knows what to expect in that particular chapter. Ward then includes each paragraph of the confession’s chapter, and you can easily locate the text of the confession by its gray background. This makes it very easy to differentiate between Ward’s words and the Confession itself. After the Confessional material is provided, Ward then goes on to comment and clarify what is being said by the Confession. Sometimes his words are few (like one paragraph) while other times he spends many pages unfolding the meaning behind the Confession. Ward writes as a man that has been studying the Confession for many, many years. He certainly shows himself to be competent to write such a book! If this was all that was included in this book (i.e. Ward’s commentary), that in itself would make for a fantastic book! But it gets even better with the following additions. 

At the end of each chapter, Ward includes a section on “Thoughts from Other Minds” in which he quotes other men that are dealing with the material in that specific chapter. Sometimes these are men that have gone home to be with the Lord (like the Reformers and Puritans, or men such Robert Murray M’Cheyne or John Murray), and other times they are quotes from contemporary men like O. Palmer Robertson, Sinclair Ferguson, and Carl Trueman. These sections were very edifying and encouraging. 

After that section, there is a “For Discussion” section that has a handful of questions that, honestly, are worthy of consideration. These weren’t questions that were just slapped together for the sake of having a section of questions, but they were actually good, thoughtful questions that the reader will benefit from. 

The content of this book is phenomenal! The Westminster Confession of Faith is a beautiful articulation of biblical truth, and this format is surely an excellent way to study theology. At the end of the book, there is a very fascinating chapter on subscription to the confession, something that pastors and leaders in the church may be interested in (I know that I was!). And don’t forget the back of the book! There’s an index to the Confession and the Larger Catechism that is very helpful in studying these documents. 

I can’t recommend this excellent resource highly enough! As I mentioned above, I hope that many Christians will avail themselves of this blessing! Tolle lege, take up and read! 

Disclaimer: My thanks to Tulip Publishing for providing me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. The opinions expressed are my own.