The Reformed Faith and the Westminster Confession, by Dr. Gordon H. Clark

According to Dr. Gordon H. Clark, what set the Westminster Confession of Faith apart from other Reformation era confessions is that it starts out with the doctrine of Scripture rather than the doctrine of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  This is significant because it asserts that God cannot be known apart from special revelation in the inscripturated Word of God.  General revelation in nature is insufficient for saving knowledge or for saving faith (Romans 1:18-21).  As Dr. Clark put it:

One day I stood beside a small lake in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming. Water flowed out of the lake from both ends. The water that flowed out one end descended into stifling canyons and blistering deserts of Utah and Arizona; the water that flowed out the other end of this lake went through the fertile fields of the Midwest. I was standing on the great continental divide.

Metaphorically the first chapter of the Westminster Confession is a continental divide. Although the written Word of God has been the touchstone of pure doctrine in all ages, the twentieth century shows still more clearly that this chapter forms the great divide between two types of religion, or to make it of broader application, between two types of philosophy. Perhaps it would be plainer to say that the acceptance of the Bible as God’s written revelation separates true Christianity from all other types of thought.

- See more at:  The Reformed Faith and the Westminster Confession