I. The Location II. The Question III. The Speculation IV. The Confession V. The Prohibition
Confessions: 1. Confession of God 2. Confession of Sin 3. Confessions of Faith A. A Public Affirmation of The Truth & A Defence Of The Faith B. A Church's Standard For Fellowship & Discipline
The Necessity of Confessions for the Church Today (from Ian Hamilton's "The Erosion of Calvinist Orthodoxy: Drifting From the Truth in Confessional Scottish Churches") 1. A Confession is an appropriate instrument for identifying the Church as such in the world. It tells the world what it is, and what it stands for. To '... expresses and safeguard the unity and purity of the Christian faith against inroads of heresy'. 2. A Confession makes known succinctly to the the Church, as well as to the world, "the faith once for all delivered to the saints". It is both an Apologetic (directed against error outside the Church) and a Polemic (directed against deception within the professing Church). 3. A Confession of Faith serves the ecumenical unity of the Church. Far from being engines of division, creeds and confessions serve the cause of true ecumenism by honestly exemplifying what different denominations understand by the 'faith once for all delivered to the saints'. 4. A Confession of Faith serves to maintain ecclesiastical harmony. This fact necessitates the inclusion of of a number of doctrines, which in themselves do not belong to the substance of the faith, e.g., polity. 5. Confessions assist the Church in maintaining internal discipline. 6. A Confession of Faith has the capacity to register the ecumenical theological attainments of the Church, e.g., the Trinity.
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Hamp Linehan is pastor of Reformed Baptist Church of Ft. Worth, Texas, where he has ministered since 1999. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of North Texas and a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has pursued...
