The American Presbyterian Revision (1788)

The revision of the Westminster Confession adopted by the first American Presbyterian General Assembly. The 1788 revision rewrote WCF XX.4, XXIII.3, and XXXI.2 to align with American disestablishment: the magistrate protects the church but does not prefer one denomination, suppress heresy, or call synods. The Pope-as-Antichrist identification in XXV.6 was also softened. The rest of the Confession — doctrine, soteriology, law, sacraments, polity — remained verbatim. The 1788 text is confessional for the PCA, OPC, and most American Presbyterian bodies. The major confessional fracture of the Westminster tradition.