content/12/20.md
---
pagetitle: Of synods and councils, part 2
date: February 19, 2020
prev_url: /westminster-daily/12/19/
prev_date: Dec 19
this_url: /westminster-daily/12/20/
short_date: "1220"
this_date: Dec 20
next_url: /westminster-daily/12/21/
next_date: Dec 21
---
#### Confession of Faith
##### Chapter 31: Of Synods and Councils
It belongeth to synods and councils, ministerially to determine controversies of faith, and cases of conscience; to set down rules and directions for the better ordering of the public worship of God, and government of his church; to receive complaints in cases of maladministration, and authoritatively to determine the same: which decrees and determinations, if consonant to the Word of God, are to be received with reverence and submission; not only for their agreement with the Word, but also for the power whereby they are made, as being an ordinance of God appointed thereunto in his Word.[^fnref:wcf1]
[^fnref:wcf1]: <div class="esv"><h5>Acts 15:15</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p44015015.01-1">And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,</p> </div><h5>Acts 15:19</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p class="same-paragraph" id="p44015019.01-2">Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God,</p> </div><h5>Acts 15:24</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p44015024.01-3">Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions,</p> </div><h5>Acts 15:27-31</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p44015027.01-4">We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”</p> <p id="p44015030.01-4">So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. And when they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement.</p> </div><h5>Acts 16:4</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p44016004.01-5">As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.</p> </div><h5>Matthew 18:17-20</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p40018017.01-6"><span class="woc">If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.</span> <span class="woc">Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.</span> <span class="woc">Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.</span> <span class="woc">For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”</span> (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div>