⌛ Civil & Last Things

Overview

WCF XXIII–XXIV (the magistrate; marriage and divorce) and WCF XXXII–XXXIII (the state of man after death and the resurrection of the dead; the last judgment) frame the Standards' civil and eschatological commitments. The magistrate chapter is the locus of the Standards' great internal evolution: the 1646 British text gave the magistrate broad authority over the visible church (calling synods, suppressing heresies); the 1788 American revision excised these clauses in favour of non-establishment. The marriage chapter (XXIV) limits divorce to adultery and willful desertion. The intermediate-state chapter (XXXII) teaches the conscious existence of the souls of the just with God and of the wicked under judgment — against soul-sleep (mortalism). The judgment chapter (XXXIII) teaches a single final judgment of men and angels by Christ, with eternal life for the just and eternal punishment for the wicked.

Philosophical significance

The civil chapters carry an unresolved tension. The establishment language of 1646 reflects the Solemn League and Covenant's project of a united Reformed Britain — a magistrate as *custos utriusque tabulae* (keeper of both tables of the Decalogue). The 1788 American revision anticipates the disestablishment that became one of the Constitutional Convention's settlements. Both texts remain in confessional use; the Reformed Presbyterian tradition retains the 1646 language, the mainline American Presbyterians follow the 1788. On eschatology the Standards are unusually compressed — two short chapters — and leave the millennial question entirely open. The papal-antichrist identification at XXV.6 is the Standards' one direct eschatological identification.

Scriptural ground

Magistrate: Romans 13:1–7; 1 Timothy 2:1–2; Psalm 2; 1 Peter 2:13–17. Marriage: Genesis 2:18, 24; Matthew 19:4–9; 1 Corinthians 7:15; Ephesians 5:22–33. Intermediate state: Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 5:1, 6, 8; Philippians 1:23; Hebrews 12:23; Revelation 6:9–11. Resurrection and judgment: 1 Corinthians 15:42–44; John 5:28–29; Acts 17:31; Matthew 25:31–46; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 2 Peter 3:7–13.

Key controversies

• Custos utriusque tabulae? — WCF XXIII.3 (1646) gives the civil magistrate authority to call synods, to be present at them, and to provide that whatsoever is transacted in them be according to the mind of God; XX.4 makes the magistrate the punisher of the publishers of 'opinions and maintainers of such practices' destructive to the church. The 1788 American revision rewrote both clauses to align with the Federal disestablishment settlement: the magistrate's duty is to protect, not to direct or coerce, religion.
• Divorce — adultery, desertion, and after — WCF XXIV.5–6 lists two scriptural grounds for divorce: adultery and 'wilful desertion as can no way be remedied by the church or civil magistrate.' This is more permissive than the strictest Catholic and Anglican readings (which limited remarriage even after adultery) and stricter than the Erasmian and most later Protestant readings (which permitted additional grounds).
• Antichrist — WCF XXV.6: 'There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God.' The 1788 American revision excised the explicit identification of the Pope as Antichrist; the original Scottish text retained it.
• Soul-sleep vs immediate conscious state — WCF XXXII.1: 'The bodies of men, after death, return to dust, and see corruption: but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them.' This is a direct rejection of Christian mortalism (soul-sleep) — Milton's later position — and of the Roman *limbus* and purgatorial scheme.