The Book of Confessions - The Presbyterian Leader

other evil; also two beginnings and two gods contrary to each other, a good and an evil one.
OF ANGELS AND THE DEVIL. Among all creatures, angels and men are most
excellent. Concerning angels, Holy Scripture declares: "Who makest the winds thy messengers,
fire and flame thy ministers" (Ps. 104:4). Also it says: "Are they not all ministering spirits sent
forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation?" (Heb. 1:14). Concerning the
devil, the Lord Jesus himself testifies: "He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to
do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own
nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44). Consequently we teach that some angels
persisted in obedience and were appointed for faithful service to God and men, but others fell of
their own free will and were cast into destruction, becoming enemies of all good and of the
faithful, etc.
OF MAN. Now concerning man, Scripture says that in the beginning he was made good
according to the image and likeness of God: (10) that God placed him in Paradise and made all
things subject to him (Gen., ch. 2). This is what David magnificently sets forth in Psalm 8.
Moreover, God gave him a wife and blessed them. We also affirm that man consists of two
different substances in one person: an immortal soul which, when separated from the body, neither
sleeps nor dies, and a mortal body which will nevertheless be raised up from the dead at the last
judgment, in order that then the whole man, either in life or in death, abide forever.
THE SECTS. We condemn all who ridicule or by subtle arguments cast doubt upon the
immortality of souls, or who say that the soul sleeps or is a part of God. In short, we condemn all
opinions of all men, however many, that depart from what has been delivered unto us by the Holy
Scriptures in the apostolic Church of Christ concerning creation, angels, and demons, and man.
CHAPTER VIII - Of Man's Fall, Sin and the Cause of Sin
THE FALL OF MAN. In the beginning, man was made according to the image of God, in
righteousness and true holiness, good and upright. But when at the instigation of the serpent and
by his own fault he abandoned goodness and righteousness, he became subject to sin, death and
various calamities. And what he became by the fall, that is, subject to sin, death and various
calamities, so are all those who have descended from him.
SIN. By sin we understand that innate corruption of man which has been derived or
propagated in us all from our first parents, by which we, 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.
Copyright © 1996 by the Office of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (USA)