"Bold and Curious Searchings into God's Secrets"

             Or, What Do the Confessions Call "Sin"?

Compiled by Leslie E. Ellison, Stated Clerk, Mission Presbytery

Notes from *The Book of Confessions* showing those things which 
the confessions declare to be sin and/or persons who are sinners.

**The Nicene Creed:**  none

**The Apostles' Creed:**  none

[JDA's comment:  is it significant that "sin" is NOT an issue in 
these two basic creeds?]

**The Scots Confession:**

"conspiring against the sovereign majesty of God" (by eating the 
forbidden fruit) (3.02)

"idolatry"  (3.05)

"stubborn contempt for righteousness"  (3.05)

heresies condemned:  of Arius, Marcion, Eutyches, Nestorius; 
which deny the eternity of the Godhead, the truth of the Son's 
humanity, or which divide the Godhead and humanity (3.05)

blasphemy against "Christ's death and the everlasting atonement 
thereby purchased for us" (3.09)

stubbornness, disobedience, persecution, filthy persons, 
idolators, and all sorts of the unbelieving (3.11)

"carnal lusts" (3.11)

"murderers, oppressors, cruel persecuters, adulterers, filthy 
persons, idolators, drunkards, thieves, and all workers of 
iniquity" (3.13)

"Acts to the contrary (of good works) are sins ...." (3.14)

"not to call upon him alone when we have need, not to hear his 
Word with reverence, but to condemn and despise it, to have or 
worship idols, to maintain and defend idolatry, lightly to esteem 
the reverend name of God, to profane, abuse, or condemn the 
sacraments of Christ Jesus, to disobey or resist any whom God has 
placed in authority ..., to murder, or consent thereto, to bear 
hatred, or to let innocent blood be shed if we can prevent it." 
(3.14)

"... The breach of any other commandment of the first or second 
kind is sin ...." (3.14)

"... Any men who conspire to rebel or to overturn the civil 
powers, as duly established, are ... rebels against God's will." 
(3.24)

vanity, cruelty, filthiness, superstition, and idolatry; those 
who now serve the devil in all abominations.  (3.25)

**The Heidelberg Catechism:**

Question 87 (4.087):  "Can those who do not turn to God from 
their ungrateful, impenitent life be saved?  A.  Certainly not!  
Scripture says, 'Surely you know that the unjust will never come 
into possession of the kingdom of God.  Make no mistake:  no 
fornicator or idolater, none who are guilty either of adultery or 
homosexual perversion*, no thieves or grabbers or drunkards or 
slanderers or swindlers, will possess the kingdom of God.'"

[* JDA's comment:  The Heidelberg Catechism comes to us from 
Germany, dated 1563, three centuries before the word 
"homosexual" was coined, first in German, then in English.  
Thus, this term was not, and  could not have been, in the 
original text.  According to Christopher Elwood and Johanna W. H. 
Van Wijk-Bos of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, "In 
fact, the original editions of the Heidelberg Catechism of 1563 
make no mention of *homosexual perversion* or of same-sex 
relations *in any terms.*  Neither do any subsequent German 
editions ...."  If the confessions are to become the new legal 
code for Presbyterians, surely we need new accurate and 
authoritative translations, or, as an alternative, presbyteries 
should refer *only* to the confessions in their original 
languages and texts.]

idolatry, sorcery, enchantments or praying to saints (4.094)

picturing or drawing God (4.097)

abusing God's name; cursing (4.099)

ignoring or violating any of the ten commandments (4.092-4.115)

hating, injuring or killing a neighbor (4.105)

envy, anger, desire for revenge (4.106)

unchastity in wedlock or in single life (4.108)

"unchaste actions, gestures, words, thoughts, desires, and 
whatever may excite another person to them" (4.109)

theft, robbery, wicked tricks, schemes to cheat others, use of 
false weights and measures, deceptive advertising or 
merchandising, counterfeiting, exorbitant interest, greed, misuse 
of God's gifts (4.110)

bearing false witness against anyone, twisting someone's words, 
gossiping, slandering someone, condemning someone lightly without 
a hearing (4.112)

**The Second Helvetic Confession**

Heresies are condemned.  The Jews and Mohammedans; "all who 
blaspheme that sacred and adorable Trinity." (5.019)

making an image of God (5.020)

praying to a saint (5.025)

adoring or revering relics of saints (5.027)

swearing by the name of a strange god (5.028)

Epicureans are condemned; they deny the providence of God. 
(5.030)

Manichaeans and Marcionites are condemned; they believe in two 
gods, one good and one evil. (5.032)

Any who cast doubt on the immortality of souls (5.035)

"Sin:  By sin we understand that innate corruption of man which 
has been derived or propagated in us from our first parents, by 
which we are immersed in perverse desires and averse to all good, 
are inclined to all evil.  Full of all wickedness, distrust, 
contempt and hatred of God, we are unable to do or even to think 
anything good of ourselves.  Moreover, even as we grow older, so 
by wicked thoughts, words and deeds committed against God's law, 
we bring forth corrupt fruit worthy of an evil tree (Matt. 12:33 
ff.).  For this reason by our own deserts, being subject to the 
wrath of God, we are liable to just punishment, so that all of us 
would have been cast away by God if Christ, the Deliverer, had 
not brought us back."  (5.037)

"... Sins are not equal ... some are more serious than others."  
(5.039)

Adultery (5.101)

Defrauding people (5.101)

"surfeiting, drunkenness, and all kinds of lust and intemperance" 
(5.227)

gluttony; commerce with spirits of the dead (5.239)

In marriage:  quarrels, dissensions, lust and adultery (5.247)

For single people:  impurity, lusts, fornication (5.250)

lies, superstition, impiety, idolatry (5.253)

Malefaction, sedition, theft, murder, blasphemy, perjury, heresy 
which blasphemes the majesty of God (5.255)

**The Westminster Confession of Faith:**

Eating forbidden fruit (applies to our first parents) (6.031)

Sin = "a transgression of the righteous law of God" (6.036)

Sin = to reject the dispensation of the gospel.  "... They who 
reject its merciful offer are not only without excuse, but are 
also guilty of resisting the Holy Spirit." (6.052)

Sin = failing to follow the moral law, the ten commandments 
(6.102)

"... to swear vainly or rashly by that glorious and dreadful 
name, or to swear at all by any other thing, is sinful, and to be 
abhorred." (6.121)

"Yet it is a sin to refuse an oath touching anything that is good 
and just, being imposed by lawful authority." (6.122)

Sin = vow of poverty, etc.  "... Monastical vows of perpetual 
single life, professed poverty, and regular obedience, are so far 
from being degrees of higher perfection, that they are 
superstitious and sinful snares, in which no Christian may 
entangle himself." (6.126)

[JDA's comment:  That's my favorite! -- "vows of perpetual single 
life"!  That's one sin Rafael and I have not committed, having 
been a couple for 25 years!!]

Sin = to contemn or neglect Baptism (6.158)

Sin = wickedness, disobedience (6.181)

**The Shorter Catechism**

"Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law 
of God." (question 14, 7.014)

Sin for our first parents = eating the forbidden fruit. (7.015)

Sin = "the denying, or not worshiping and glorifying, the true 
God as God, and our God; and the giving of that worship and glory 
to any other which is due to him alone." (7.047)

Sin = "the worshiping of God by images, or any other way not 
appointed in his Word." (7.051)

Sin = "all profaning or abusing of anything whereby God maketh 
himself known." (7.055)

Sin = "the omission, or careless performance, of the duties 
required, and the profaning the day [**the Sabbath**] by 
idleness, or doing that which is itself sinful, or by unnecessary 
thoughts, words, or works, about our worldly employments or 
recreations." (7.061)

Sin = "the neglecting of, or doing anything against, the honor 
and duty which belongeth to everyone in their several places and 
relations." (7.065)

Sin = "the taking away of our own life, or the life of our 
neighbor unjustly, or whatsoever tendeth thereunto." (7.069)

Sin = "all unchaste thoughts, words, and actions." (7.072)

Sin = "whatsoever doth, or may, unjustly hinder our own, or our 
neighbor's wealth or outward estate." (7.075)

Sin = "whatsoever is prejudicial to truth, or injurious to our 
own or our neighbor's good name." (7.078)

Sin = "all discontentment with our own estate, envying or 
grieving at the good of our neighbor, and all inordinate motions 
and affections to anything that is his." (7.081)

**The Larger Catechism**

Sin = "any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, any law 
of God, given as a rule to the reasonable creature." (7.134)

Sin = atheism, idolatry; "ignorance, forgetfulness, 
misapprehensions, false opinions, unworthy and wicked thoughts 
of" God; "bold and curious searchings into God's secrets"*; 
"profaneness, hatred of God, self-love, self-seeking, and all 
other inordinate and immoderate setting of our mind, will or 
affections upon other things, and taking them off from him in 
whole or in part"; "vain credulity, unbelief, heresy, misbelief, 
distrust, despair, incorrigibleness, and insensibleness under 
judgments, hardness of heart, pride, presumption, carnal 
security, tempting of God"; "using unlawful means, and trusting 
in lawful means"; "carnal delights and joys, corrupt, blind, and 
indiscreet zeal"; "lukewarmness, and deadness in the things of 
God"; "estranging ourselves, and apostatizing from God"; "praying 
or giving any religious worship to saints, angels, or any other 
creatures"; "all compacts and consulting with the devil, and 
hearkening to his suggestions"; "making men the lords of our 
faith and conscience"; "slighting and despising God, and his 
commands"; "resisting and grieving of his Spirit, discontent and 
impatience at his dispensations, charging him foolishly for the 
evils he inflicts upon us; and ascribing the praise of any good, 
we either are, have, or can do, to fortune, idols, ourselves, or 
any other creature."  (7.215)

[*JDA's comment: "bold and curious searchings into God's secrets" 
-- Hey, does this mean that all scholars, especially scientists, 
are automatically suspect??!!]

Sin = "all devising, counseling, commanding, using, and any wise 
approving any religious worship not instituted by God himself; 
the making any representation of God, of all, or of any of the 
three Persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly in any 
kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever; all 
worshiping of it, or God in it or by it; the making of any 
representation of feigned deities, and worship of them, or 
service belonging to them; all superstitious devices, corrupting 
the worship of God, adding to it, or taking from it, whether 
invented and taken up of ourselves, or received by tradition from 
others, though under the title of antiquity, custom, devotion, 
good intent, or any other pretense whatsoever; simony, sacrilege; 
all neglect, contempt, hindering, and opposing the worship and 
ordinances which God hath appointed." (7.219)

Sin = "the not using of God's name as is required; and the abuse 
of it in an ignorant, vain, irreverent, profane, superstitious, 
or wicked mentioning or otherwise using the titles, attributes, 
ordinances, or works; by blasphemy; perjury; all sinful cursing, 
oaths, vows, and lots; violating our oaths and vows, if lawful; 
and fulfilling them, if of things unlawful; murmuring and 
quarreling at, curious prying into, and misapplying of God's 
decrees and providence; misinterpreting, misapplying, or any way 
perverting the Word, or any part of it, to profane jests, curious 
and unprofitable questions, vain janglings, or the maintaining of 
false doctrines; abusing it, the creatures, or anything contained 
under the name of God, to charms, or sinful lusts and practices; 
the maligning, scorning, reviling, or any way opposing of God's 
truth, grace, and ways; making profession of religion in 
hypocrisy, or for sinister ends; being ashamed of it, or a shame 
to it, by uncomfortable, unwise, unfruitful, and offensive 
walking or backsliding from it." (7.223)

"The sins in the Fourth Commandment are:  all omissions of the 
duties required, all careless, negligent, and unprofitable 
performing of them, and being weary of them; all profaning the 
day by idleness, and doing that which is in itself sinful; and by 
all needless works, words, and thoughts about our worldly 
employments and recreations."  (7.229)

"The sins of inferiors against their superiors are:  all neglect 
of the duties required toward them; envying at, contempt of, and 
rebellion against their persons and places, in their lawful 
counsels, commands and corrections; cursing, mocking, and all 
such refractory and scandalous carriage, as proves a shame and 
dishonor to them and their government." (7.238)

"The sins of superiors are, besides the neglect of the duties 
required of them, an inordinate seeking of themselves, their own 
glory, ease, profit, or pleasure; commanding things unlawful, or 
not in the power of inferiors to perf