General Councils, Their Power, Authority, and the Cause of Their Summoning
As we do not rashly condemn what good men, assembled together in general councils lawfully gathered, have set before us; so we do not receive uncritically whatever has been declared to men under the name of the general councils, for it is plain that, being human, some of them have manifestly erred, and that in matters of great weight and importance. So far then as the council confirms its decrees by the plain Word of God, so far do we reverence and embrace them. But if men, under the name of a council, pretend to forge for us new articles of faith, or to make decisions contrary to the Word of God, then we must utterly deny them as the doctrine of devils, drawing our souls from the voice of the one God to follow the doctrines and teachings of men.
The reason why the general councils met was not to make any permanent law which God had not made before, nor yet to form new articles for our belief, nor to give the Word of God authority; much less to make that to be his Word, or even the true interpretation of it, which was not expressed previously by his holy will in his Word; but the reason for councils, at least of those that deserve that name, was partly to refute heresies, and to give public confession of their faith to the generations following, which they did by the authority of God’s written Word, and not by any opinion or prerogative that they could not err by reason of their numbers. This, we judge, was the primary reason for general councils. The second was that good policy and order should be constituted and observed in the Kirk where, as in the house of God, it becomes all things to be done decently and in order. Not that we think any policy or order of ceremonies can be appointed for all ages, times, and places; for as ceremonies which men have devised are but temporal, so they may, and ought to be, changed, when they foster superstition rather than edify the Kirk.
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In other words, we all have the freedom to read and interpret Scripture. We stand together and do so in community, but the general council, or whatever governing body exists, is not infallible and cannot run afoul of Scripture and roughshod over anyone who opposes them. We have the freedom, and I would say the responsibility, to hold them accountable to the living Word of God. When they err, may we point this out, in humility and compassion, and be willing to be open and vulnerable, hoping that our common wisdom might guide us, as we are all willing to be led by the Spirit of God.
I've spoken about this before, but our political dialogue scares me right now--we are so concerned with being right, with winning the arguments, that we aren't listening to each other. I'm worried that this attitude will transfer itself to everyday life, to the church, where signs of it already exist. Are we willing to be humble, to see where we might be wrong, to be corrected by our brothers and sisters, by the Word of God? Or are we so convinced that we're right that we won't bother to listen to other voices?
May we be humble and faithful to the Word of God.
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