Christ on the Throne of the Church

The Westminster Confession tells, "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" (XXV:6). This assertion is based on, for example, Ephesians 4:15-16: "We are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, [who] makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." And in Colossians 1:18: "He is the head of the body, the church."

The reason the Confession teaches that His headship precludes the Pope (as well as all of the papist offices, such as priest and bishop) is based on Ephesians 4:11-13, in which Christ, as Head of the Church, "gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, [and] to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ..." As the Head of His Church, Christ gave her the officers and government that would best lead her to develop as He desired.

One thing that the Confession does not say, because it was taken as self-evident, is that the headship of Christ is an absolute monarchy. He decrees, and the church obeys. She is never left to decide her government, mission, or worship for herself. As Presbyterian theologian James Henley Thornwell wrote, "Existing in Christ, by Christ, and for Christ, she has no other law but His will. She can only speak the words which He puts in her mouth. Founded upon divine revelation and not in human nature, she has a divine faith, but no human opinion, and the only argument by which she authenticates either her doctrines or her precepts is, 'Thus saith the Lord.' Her province is not to reason, but to testify" ("Theology as a Life in Individuals and in the Church").