A.   Guidelines as to the meaning of affirming the confessions
means of the Covenant for Officebearers:
1.     The person signing the Covenant for Officebearers affirms
without reservation all the doctrines contained in the creeds and 
confessions of the church as being doctrines taught in the Word 
of God. “Without reservation” means that an officebearer does
not have a difficulty or hold a settled conviction contrary to any
of the doctrines contained in the creeds and confessions. This 
includes what synod has declared to have confessional status.
2.     The signatory does not by affirming the confessions declare that
these doctrines are all stated in the best possible manner, or that 
the standards of our church cover all that the Scriptures teach on 
the matters confessed. Nor does the signatory declare that every
teaching of the Scriptures is set forth in our confessions, or that 
every heresy is rejected and refuted by them.
3. A signatory is bound only to those doctrines that are confessed, 
and is not bound to the references, allusions, and remarks that 
are incidental to the formulation of these doctrines, nor to the 
theological deductions that some may draw from the doctrines 
set forth in the confessions. However, no one is free to decide for 
oneself or for the church what is and what is not a doctrine confessed

in the standards. In the event that such a question should 
arise, the decision of the assemblies of the church shall be sought 
and acquiesced in.