The First Woman Archbishop of Canterbury
At her Confirmation of Election on 28 January 2026, Sarah Mullally will (legally) become the first woman Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the Church of England and the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Jesus Christ explicitly forbids females from church office: “I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence” (I Tim. 2:12; cf. I Cor. 14:34-35). Thus Mrs. Mullally and the Church of England are in clear opposition to the sole King and Head of the church. As with all female pastors, elders and deacons, Sarah Mullally is not called by God but is an impostor, a usurper of ecclesiastical office.
There have been Anglican primates before who have been “ravening wolves” (Matt. 7:15), such as William Laud (1573-1645), who sought to undo the Reformation by promoting Arminianism and popish ceremonies, undermining the Lord’s day, etc. But after 105 male archbishops of Canterbury over more than fourteen centuries, this is the first time that the devil has managed to corrupt the Anglican Church so obviously that it defies the Word of God by approving a woman as “Primate of All England.”
Earlier archbishops of Canterbury would have been utterly appalled. Indeed, Anglicanism’s Thirty-Nine Articles (1562/3) even state, “It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public preaching or ministering the sacraments in the congregation, before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same” (Article 23).
Sarah Mullally even supports the murder of unborn babies, euphemistically referred to as abortion (Ps. 139:14-16); the “vile affections” of sodomy and lesbianism (Rom. 1:26-27); and transgenderism, which is contrary to God’s creation of human beings as “male and female” (Gen. 1:27; 5:2; Matt. 19:4; Mark 10:6).
Former Anglican primates were giants of theology, such as Anselm (1033/4-1109), who, in his Why God Became a Man, taught the necessity of Christ’s atonement, for the eternal Son of God had to become a man in order to satisfy for our sins (cf. Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Days 5-6). Over two centuries later, Thomas Bradwardine (c.1300-1349) wrote In Defence of God Against the Pelagians, proclaiming the sovereignty of divine grace, including double predestination. After another 200 years, we come to Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), the Reformation martyr and the principal author of the Thirty-Nine Articles. But now the next Archbishop of Canterbury is to be a woman minister who cannot even see through anti-Christian LGBT propaganda!
But how has the Church of England descended to such depths of foolishness and depravity? It did not happen overnight. It is the result of many generations of apostasy through unbelieving higher criticism of God’s inspired and infallible Word (John 10:35; 17:17; II Tim. 3:16-17; II Pet. 1:21), and liberal and modernist theology. Scripture’s own warning is fulfilled in the Anglican Church: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (II Tim. 4:3-4). Rev. Stewart
Faith and Assurance
This issue’s question is: “Could a contributor to the News write something on the nature of faith? Specifically, is faith assent alone (as Gordon Clark taught)? Is assurance part of the essence of faith? Or are faith and assurance separate things, as the Westminster Standards seem to teach?”
That faith and assurance are separate things in the Westminster Confession of Faith is not how I read articles 2 and 3 of chapter 14, entitled “Of Saving Faith.” These articles read:
2. By this faith, a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the word, for the authority of God himself speaking therein; and acteth differently upon that which each particular passage thereof containeth; yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life and that which is to come. But the principal acts of saving faith are, accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace.
3. This faith is different in degrees, weak or strong; may be often and many ways assailed and weakened, but gets the victory; growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance through Christ, who is both the author and finisher of our faith.
This is the Reformed and Presbyterian and biblical view of faith as both knowledge (assent) and assurance, but this spiritual knowledge and assurance are not equally strong in everybody and at all times.
The traditional Reformed view of faith is that faith is understanding and assent (these two very closely related), and trust or assurance. The Westminster Confession does not deviate from this in teaching that the principal acts of saving faith are “accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone.” Its teaching that there are different degrees of faith does not contradict this either, and the Three Forms of Unity (the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession and the Canons of Dordt) all teach much the same thing.
The Heidelberg Catechism (citing Matthew 9:2; 16:17; John 3:5; 6:69; 17:3; Acts 16:14; Romans 1:16; 4:16, 20-21; 10:14, 17; I Corinthians 1:21; Ephesians 3:12; Hebrews 11:1, 3, 6) defines faith as “not only a certain knowledge, whereby I hold for truth all that God has revealed to us in His Word, but also an assured confidence, which the Holy Ghost works by the gospel in my heart” (A. 21), clearly making assurance an essential part of faith. This is not contradicted by Canons I:12: “The elect in due time, though in various degrees and in different measures, attain the assurance of this their eternal and unchangeable election, not by inquisitively prying into the secret and deep things of God, but by observing in themselves, with a spiritual joy and holy pleasure, the infallible fruits of election pointed out in the Word of God—such as a true faith in Christ, filial fear, a godly sorrow for sin, a hungering and thirsting after righteousness, etc.”
That assurance belongs to saving faith is confessed at the very start of the Heidelberg Catechism: my “only comfort in life and death” is that “I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with His precious blood, hath fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from the power of the devil,” and who “by His Holy Spirit … assures me of eternal life” (Q. & A. 1).
There are serious problems with the view of Gordon Clark that faith is assent only. That view comes very close to the old error of Sandemanianism and leads, we believe, to what is known as “dead orthodoxy.” A faith that is merely assent to the truth is little or no different from the “faith” of demons regarding which James speaks: “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble” (2:19). In traditional Reformed theology, this is known as “historical faith,” a faith that is not saving and which differs from true faith in lacking “assured confidence” in Jehovah as the God of our salvation.
But what does Scripture teach? Among the passages cited in the Heidelberg Catechism three stand out. First, John 6:69: “And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.” Here belief and being sure are the same thing. Second, Ephesians 3:12: “In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him,” where confidence is clearly part of “the faith of him,” that is, the faith that comes from Christ or the faith of which He is object. Third, Romans 4:20-21: “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” It is notable that this passage not only teaches that being persuaded is part of saving faith but it also suggests that that faith may be stronger or weaker.
To these passages we would add II Timothy 1:12: “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” Also Colossians 2:2 speaks of the “assurance of understanding,” which is unto “the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.”
The following Scriptures show that faith in God’s people differs in degree:
Matthew 6:30: “Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?”
Matthew 8:10: “When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”
Mark 9:24: “And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”
Luke 22:31-32: “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.”
Hebrews 6:11-12: “And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
Hebrews 10:22: “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”
This is our experience as well. Our faith is sometimes strong and sometimes weak. Sometimes it burns brightly and stands strong, but sometimes it is like a “smoking flax” and a “bruised reed” (Isa. 42:3; Matt. 12:20), so that we cry out like the man in Mark 9:24, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” Even at his lowest ebb, however, the believer knows this at least, that there is no one else to go to but Christ and no hope of salvation except in His name.
Even the believer’s struggles when he is weakest are proof of God’s work in him, though he does not always see that clearly. Without the gift of faith and the beginning of living faith that receives and rests in Christ, the believer would be no different from the ungodly and would not care even one whit that he feels far from God, overwhelmed by his sins, and so weak and struggling.
The weakness of his faith and assurance is the believer’s own fault, never God’s, and it must be confessed as sin and repented of. It is to such that Christ calls, that is, those who are labouring and heavy laden: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). The unsaved, the ungodly, are never labouring and heavy laden over their sins against God and the neighbour. They are content to be lost but those in whom God has begun His work are different. If they know nothing else, they know that without Christ they perish and they cannot bear the thought of it. Even their struggling faith, therefore, was purchased by the blood of the Son of God shed on the cross. Saints should be confident that there will be a season of richer grace for those who persevere in prayer and submission to God.
And how do we (and how do we not) receive this gracious assurance? “This assurance, however, is not produced by any peculiar revelation contrary to, or independent of the Word of God, but springs from faith in God’s promises, which He has most abundantly revealed in His Word for our comfort; from the testimony of the Holy Spirit, witnessing with our spirit, that we are children and heirs of God (Rom. 8:16); and lastly, from a serious and holy desire to preserve a good conscience and to perform good works. And if the elect of God were deprived of this solid comfort, that they shall finally obtain the victory, and of this infallible pledge or earnest of eternal glory, they would be of all men the most miserable” (Canons V:10). Rev. Ron Hanko
