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A
Faith to Confess: The Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 INTRODUCTION
A Faith to Confess
is designed to present a clear outline of Biblical truth to all interested
persons. Since the Bible, the fully inspired Word of God, does not change
from one age to another, the truths contained in the Confession, wholly
based as they are upon Scripture, are as relevant today as when 'the
Elders and Brethren of many congregations of Christians, baptized upon
profession of their Faith' stated them in 1677. Charles II was then upon
the British throne. It was a time of persecution. Between the years 1644 and 1648 an Assembly
of Puritan Divines of England and Scotland had drawn up the Westminster
Confession which was and is highly esteemed by believers. But its church
Order was that of Presbyterianism, and Baptists differed from it on
important matters such as the nature of the gathered church, baptism, the
Lord's supper and church government. Hence, when opportunity arose, they
drew up their own Confession of Faith, accepting the fundamental doctrines
of the Westminster Confession but making such adjustments to, and
correction of, that Confession as seemed to their minds and consciences to
be demanded by the pure Word of God. Thus a comparison of the two
Confessions will reveal many word-for-word similarities but also sundry
changes. A dozen years after the Baptist Confession
was drawn up by persecuted ministers a new era of liberty dawned, and in
1689 thirty-seven leading Baptist ministers re-issued the Confession. In
England and Wales it became the definitive Confession of the Particular or
Calvinistic churches and remained so for the next two centuries. Its
alternative title was the Old London Confession. In 1744 it was adopted by
the Calvinistic Baptists of North America, and called by them the
Philadelphia Confession of Faith. The youthful C. H. Spurgeon had been minister
of the New Park Street Chapel, London, for a few months only when, in
1855, he determined to strengthen the doctrinal foundations of that and
other churches by the re-issue of the 1689 Confession. In this way it was
given a new lease of life. The twentieth century has also witnessed to its
relevance and usefulness, for in 1958 it was again reprinted, with further
editions in 1963, 1966, 1970 and 1974. Recent decades have seen a revival
of the Reformed Faith, not least among Baptists. The revivifying of old
churches and the planting of new churches in various parts of the world
has given renewed emphasis to the need for a Confession which sets forth
fundamentals of the Faith in clear and concise language. Carey Publications Limited felt, however,
that the Confession of 1689 in its original form presented certain
difficulties. An essential of any doctrinal statement is that it should be
capable of being clearly understood by those who are invited to use it. As
far as possible its language must be that of the time of its issue;
ambiguities must be avoided; clarity must be its hallmark. After nearly
three hundred years the Confession of William III's reign no longer meets
these requirements, and Mr. S. M. Houghton of Charlbury, Oxford, was
invited by the Publishers to rewrite the Confession in a modern style,
retaining the exact sense of the original-this is guaranteed!-but
transposing phrases and changing words, to render the meaning, as far as
possible, crystal clear. It is believed that, in this new form, the
Confession will have a still greater usefulness wherever the English
language is spoken. Baptist ministers need experience no
hesitation in recommending the Confession to their members as a document
that maintains doctrinal precision with a reasonable degree of fullness.
It is not, of course, to be held as an infallible and authoritative rule.
Believers are bound by Scripture, by the whole of Scripture, and by
nothing but the Scripture. At the same time, however, it is highly
necessary and undeniably useful to have a clear statement in modern
language of the Faith we believe and practice and commend to all men. Those newly converted to the Christian Faith
are not expected at the outset either to know or understand all the great
doctrines set out in the Confession. But acquaintance with all facts of
the Faith is something to be pursued from the moment of conversion, and
the more so because there are many winds of false doctrine in the modern
world ready to blow young plants out of the ground. The modern idiom will
aid young Christians, and the texts to which they are directed will be a
guide for them in Bible study. We have not followed the method of
inserting, after every other sentence or so, a figure to guide to a
Biblical text, but have adopted the more modern practice of giving textual
references at the end of the paragraphs. Those who use the Confession are
requested to compare the statements made with the texts to which attention
is called, but at the same time to remember-and this is a very important
matter-that statements in the Confession do not hinge upon any one text,
but are keyed to 'the whole counsel of God'. While it is hoped that all members of
churches will steadfastly believe the doctrines of the Confession, it is
unlikely that they will all become expert theologians. But the Reformed
awakening of today has given renewed thrust to the Biblical teaching
concerning Elders, who are, by definition, expected to possess an aptitude
to teach and to be able by sound doctrine to exhort and to convince
gainsayers (Titus 1:9). Here, then, is a Faith for churches to be founded
upon, and a Faith for church officers to teach, defend, and hand on to
future generations (1 Tim. 3:15, 16). We call rightly claim that well-established
believers of the Baptist persuasion will find little, if any, difficulty
in giving assent to the great truths which are covered by the Confession.
Such fundamental doctrines as those of the Trinity, Providence, the Fall
of Man, the Atonement, Justification, and Repentance are the common
heritage of all who worthily bear the name of Christian. On the other
hand, there are matters to which the Confession makes reference which do
not command such universal assent, and on which, indeed, opinions are
divided. This very fact reminds us that the Confession is not acclaimed as
an infallible statement on a par with Scripture. But certainly it
expresses in up to date language the sum and substance of the ancient
Gospel of martyrs, confessors, reformers and saints, and, as Spurgeon said
of the Confession when he republished it in 1856, 'it is the truth of
God, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail'. At the same
time, however, readers will find several interpretations which are
admittedly disputed at the present day. We call attention to some of them.
(1)
In chapter 26, paragraph 4, the Pope of Rome is declared to be 'the
antichrist', 'the man of sin', 'the son of perdition'. This view, held by the Reformers and
Puritans, is not universally held today, not because believers do not
deplore the errors of Romanism (and of modern Protestantism for that
matter), but on exegetical grounds. Some Christians are prepared to
believe and say that the primary reference of 'the little apocalypse', as
2 Thessalonians 2:2-9 is called, is to the Pope; some speak and write
otherwise. The various commentaries show that there are reasonable grounds
for proposing alternative interpretations, and, in the absence of
unanimity, no attempt can rightly be made to demand an obligatory belief
of any one line of interpretation. In the area of prophecy (eschatology)
it is particularly needful to be cautious, for only in the consummation of
all things will the precise meaning of apocalyptic passages of the Word be
made clear. In other words, we are not prepared to claim that the
prophetical interpretations made by the Reformers of the sixteenth century
and the Puritans of the seventeenth century stand on the same level as
their doctrinal affirmations.
When we look at chapter twenty as a whole it
seems as if the compilers recognized the need for a definition of the
gospel as sent out into the world. The first paragraph contains a statement of
the necessity of God's grace followed in the second paragraph by an
affirmation of the absolute necessity of gospel preaching, designed to
emphasize the fact that the gospel is revealed nowhere but in the Bible.
Paragraph three shows that the actual sending of the gospel is in the
hands of God. Although the precept of Scripture directs Christians to
preach the gospel to every creature, the sovereign will and good pleasure
of God alone determine the particular nations and individuals to whom the
gospel actually comes. The final paragraph of chapter twenty is a
re-affirmation of the doctrine of effectual calling with a reminder that
the gospel preacher, in declaring the truth, is fulfilling his duty. The force of the Great Commission was plainly
felt by the compilers and they sought to draw attention to the absolute
distinction between 'the church' and 'the world'. Before the days of
Constantine the Church could be seen to be a community of people called
out of the world. Their separateness was their strength for they were
saved from their sin and they called on their fellows to be partakers of
the same salvation. In their zeal the believers fulfilled the Great
Commission and the Lord added many to their number. Under Constantine,
however, Christianity became the official religion of the Empire, having
the protection of the State. The distinction between the Church and the
world disappeared and a 'church' consisted of everyone in a particular
locality and not of a group of people called out of and spiritually
separate from the world. At the time of the Reformation, the
conception of the Church which dated from the reign of Constantine and
prevailed during the Middle Ages was inherited substantially by the
Reformers, most of whom thought in terms of Christian countries, states or
cities. Anabaptists on the Continent saw clearly that
the church must be a separate community taken out of the world and thus
the Reformers became their bitter enemies, calling them 'purists' and
'perfectionists'. In the seventeenth century the Presbyterians
who compiled the Westminster Confession still believed in Christianity in
a territorial sense and so they still thought of the church as being
supported by the magistrate. Only gradually did the Baptists begin to
oppose the idea of a state church with its mixture of believers and
unbelievers, and to see themselves as a gathered-out community. Gradually
they began to have a view of themselves in their relationship with the
world which led them to reject the whole idea of the church being linked
in Presbyterian or Anglican fashion with the State. This progress towards
a correct view of the church in the world is the distinctive feature of
chapter twenty of the 1689 Confession of Faith. (3)
It has been suggested that the Confession is out of date and inadequate in
respect of the inerrancy of Scripture. Forces hostile to the gospel have attacked
unceasingly the authority of the Word of God. Obviously the writers of the
Confession could not anticipate the controversies of our day. The
Confession declares the divine origin, the perfect nature, the absolute
authority and the complete sufficiency of the holy Scriptures. In recent
times the authority of Scripture has been undermined in a subtle way by
what is termed 'the new hermeneutic', the idea that the Scriptures were
relevant for the apostolic times but now require new principles of
interpretation for our modern epoch. For instance, it is claimed that we
are now in a more enlightened era concerning the question of the man/
woman relationship and therefore the prohibitions of 1 Timothy 2:12 and 1
Corinthians 14:34,35 are no longer applicable. In many other ways the
notion of irrelevance can be used to undermine the authority of Scripture.
It Is important therefore to assert that the Scriptures are timeless in
their relevance and application. For example, all the ramifications of the
personal fall in time and space of our first parents, Adam and Eve,
described in Genesis 3 apply equally now as in any previous age. A further challenge to the supreme authority
of Scripture is the claim that prophecies continue today, prophecies that
are a mixture of good and bad and not on a par with the original
Scripture. These claims are derogatory in two ways. Firstly to support the
claim it is suggested that mixed type prophecy good and bad (only
partially reliable) existed in the New Testament, that of Agabus being an
example. [Victor Budgen writing in the magazine Reformation Today issues
101 and 102 defends the prophecy of Agabus.] Secondly the notion that
further prophecy is needed implies the inadequacy of Scripture. It is
necessary therefore to emphasize the divine origin of Scripture. All
Scripture is God-breathed and therefore wholly free of error and
infallible (incapable of teaching error). The divine inspiration of
Scripture is plenary, that is it extends to all parts alike. Finally it is
needful to assert the unique nature of Scripture as the source of truth
and the means by which the Church is to be guided and fed to the end of
time, no prophecies of any kind being required to ameliorate or assist the
Scriptures in that unique function. (4)
In the interests of clarity the word 'elect' has been inserted at the
opening of paragraph 3 in Chapter 10. This is based on three considerations:
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