Welcome to five minutes in church history hosted by Dr Stephen Nichols, where we take a little

break from the present to go exploring the past. Travel back in time as we look at the people, events, and even the places that have shaped the story of Christianity.

This is our story, our family history. Let's get started.

Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history. On this

episode we're going to continue a conversation that we started last week.

Last week we were talking about five things everyone should know about Westminster Abbey.

And we ended that conversation by mentioning the Jerusalem Chamber.

The Jerusalem Chamber is the place in Westminster Abbey where the Westminster Assembly met during the 1640s. What they produced during that

decade of the 1640s is called the Westminster Standards. The

Westminster Standards actually consists of four documents,

the Westminster Confession of Faith,

the Westminster Shorter Catechism,

the larger Catechism,

and the fourth document is the directory for public worship.

These were all written there by the gathering of the Westminster Assembly

and the 1640s in the Jerusalem chamber.

This week, we're going to look at five things everyone

should know about the Westminster standards. So here we go. The first thing we

should know about the Westminster standards is what drove the assembly?

What drove them to meet?

Why did they meet in the first place?

Well they were actually called by Parliament and they were called to meet to discuss

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