Notes on the Confession: Introduction

The church is the confessing and worshipping assembly of Christ's covenant people. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth. She must ever be concerned with preserving, professing, and proclaiming the truth -- not only against all error and heresy, but for the salvation and sinners and sanctification of the saints. To that end, the vitality (if not the very existence of) biblical Christianity depends upon confessing the faith. At the very least, summarizing the system of theology revealed and contained in Holy Scripture must be viewed as essential to the well-being (bene esse) of the church.

In keeping with these (and other) convictions, I subscribe to the 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith (1677/1689), as well as the three ecumenical creeds of the early church (yes, including Nicaea and its controversial descendit ad infernum). This Confession of Faith, though not exhaustive, is a faithful summary of the system of theology contained in Holy Scripture. In the weeks and months to come, it is my intention to provide a kind of running commentary, or notes, on the Confession.

When setting out to study any of the creeds, confessions, or catechisms of historic Christianity there are a number of important introductory questions that must be answered: (1) should the church confess her faith, specifically by way of written symbols such as catechisms and confessions; and (2) if yes, how does the church (or her ministers, more specifically) subscribe to these secondary theological and ecclesiastical standards? In short, (1) yes, and (2) fully (i.e., strict or full subscription).

Jim Renihan fleshes out these answers, better than I could, in a series of posts on the IRBS website. You can find those articles here:

Confessional Subscription: http://www.reformedbaptistinstitute.org/?p=78

The Scriptures and Confessions: http://www.reformedbaptistinstitute.org/?p=79

The Terms of Subscription: http://www.reformedbaptistinstitute.org/?p=80

The other articles that follow on the history of subscription amongst Baptists are also worth reading, but go beyond the scope of this post.

Two additional matters of prolegomena to this study remain: (1) the structure and substance of the Confession; and (2) the theological and historical setting of the Confession. Significant overlap obtains between these two matters.

As far as the structure and substance of the Confession are concerned, we will deal with those matters as opportunity arises (i.e., within the notes themselves).

The theological and historical setting of the Confession can be discerned if we keep in view some seven characteristics of the Confession. [Note: these characteristics are not original with me, but have been gleaned from several sources, most notably Dr. Jim Renihan's class lectures on the subject.] I will simply list these characteristics now, and return to them next week, Lord willing.

The Confession is: (1) Biblical, (2) Orthodox, (3) Protestant, (4) Calvinistic, (5) Covenantal, (6) Puritan, and (7) Independent and Baptist.

Hopefully, that whets your appetite for more to come...

Truth in Advertising

As one faithful reader reminded me recently, this is a site dedicated to confessional Reformed Baptist theology and practice.

To be faithful to that description, it is my intention in the near future to begin a series of notes on the Confession. (Just so we're clear, that's the 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1677/1689). It certainly won't be an exhaustive commentary on the Confession. Others (namely, Jim Renihan) are far more equipped for that task. My intention is far less ambitious (and far less demanding). So, I hope to devote at least one thread per week to the Confession.

Stay tuned...