Three hundred and fifty years ago, the Westminster Assembly of Divines met for several years and produced six major documents:

• the Confession of Faith,

• two Catechisms (Larger and Shorter),

• the Sum of Saving Knowledge,

• the Directory for the Public Worship of God,

• and the Form of Church-Government.

Most denominations around the world make use of one or more of the first three; few bother anymore with the last three – which is a pity, as they are relatively brief documents with varied subject matter displaying all the excellencies of the more famous confession and catechisms.

But what good are the Westminster documents to us living at the end of the second millennium since Jesus Christ?

• First of all, they serve as a summary of what we should believe and how we should live. The 1,600 pages of my Bible are summarized in the few-score pages of each document (fewer still if you leave out the proof texts!). There are dangers in such an endeavor, to be sure – that something of importance might be left out, or something of little importance exaggerated, or, worst of all, that something stated is not biblical.
  
  Such brevity is healthy! Our information-rich society covets brevity over verbosity. Witness the popularity of the USA Today newspaper, political "sound bytes," and the countless newsletters produced to summarize the more substantive press. The Westminster documents help us by briefly and clearly stating what the Bible teaches.

• Second, the Westminster documents provide a standard by which to judge what is consistent with God's Word and what is not. They were the final confessional production of the Reformation churches. Thus, they are built on the materials produced in earlier generations during that age of such keen theological insight. And they were formulated during the covenanting period, when faithfulness to God's Word was perhaps higher than ever, before or since, in human history.
  
  No wonder, then, that candidates for office in the church are examined in relation to their faithfulness to these documents, and candidates for membership in the church are expected to indicate that they will abide by them. New ideas – or apparently new ideas – are tested against the wisdom that has come down to us from the past. We are not the first people to experience the Spirit of God's illumination of the text of Scripture.
  
  The Westminster documents also serve as a standard around which the people of God can rally. Watch carefully the disintegration of the so-called mainline churches; their belief in pluralism serves as a powerful centrifugal force driving them apart. Raise up a standard and the faithful rally to it. Well-worn slogans like "For Christ's Crown and Covenant" do not degenerate into meaninglessness when they have a substantive, written document to explain and apply them.

• Third, the Westminster documents are a service to the world. They expose the sin of the world and the compromise of the church, and they sort out the way of salvation. They call the governments of the world to bow in humble submission to the mediatorial Kingship of Jesus Christ. They set out God's way in belief, worship, discipline, and government for the church. They guide the family in structuring itself, learning to function effectively, and determining the roles of its members.

A few years ago, an elder in a small-town congregation gave a copy of the Westminster Shorter Catechism to a young father in his community from a Mennonite church. After perusing it, the delighted man reported to the elder, "This is just what we need to teach our young people!" No wonder, for when we pay attention to the contents of the Westminster documents, we are confronted with the very truth of God.