What is a Reformed Baptist? - Being Confessional

Aug 31

What is a Reformed Baptist Series: part 1 - Being Confessional

Before I do my best to explain what it is to be confessional; I’d like to start this blog post by asking a few questions.

Question 1: Have you ever heard some say,” I’m not big on theology, just give me Jesus and my Bible.”

Question 2: Have you ever met someone that professes to be a Christian and you have somewhat of a spiritual significant conversation with them, however you are left thinking there is something different about what that individual believes, I just can’t pinpoint it?

Question 3: My last question, have you ever visited a church or looked them up on-line to better understand their beliefs and found it still unclear as to where they stand on key theological distinctions?

Like many of you, I have experienced quite a few situations like these over the years. Allow me to me break these down a bit as we build up towards what it is to be confessional and why it is important.

1) I don’t need Theology just give me Jesus and my Bible

While yes, faith in Christ alone is all we need for Salvation and yes, God’s word alone is all we need as our source of authority. However, the reality is, all believers are theologians, it’s just a matter of if they are good ones or not. As taught by Burk Parsons: “Every believer has a creed and/or holds to a confession. This is true because everyone believes in something, more specifically in this case, in God. So, if we all believe in God, the next question would be: What do we believe about God? When we answer this question, we are in fact confessing, or declaring our creed. “Whether formal or informal, written or verbal, in one way or another we all have a creed that details our beliefs. Some of us have a formal, written creed we adhere to, while others have an informal, unwritten creed that can easily change and perhaps often does change.”

2) Not clear on what a fellow professing Christian believes regarding doctrinal matters

The reality is a lot of professing believers unfortunately are not clear themselves on what they believe on specific doctrinal matters. Often, they’ve done theology à la carte for many years. One’s collection of beliefs is like their plate of food at their favorite buffet. Sample some from here, some from there. Oh, that sounds nice! I believe that, or I heard a preacher teach it this way, I like that. Come to find years later in our walk we are holding a doggy bag of mixed theology and in desperate need of sound biblical discipleship. While many in this situation do in fact love Jesus and trust in Him alone for their salvation, their “creed” may be missing key components, a little off or just plain wrong.

3) Unclear regarding key theological distinctions of a local church

Just like every Christian has a creed or confession. The truth is every church also has one. You will typically find some form of “what we believe” or “mission statement” on-line or in a pamphlet at the church. With that said, just like what we talked about regarding every believer being a theologian, the same goes for every church being “confessional.” Once again, it’s just a matter if they are a sound one or not.

Let’s look at two examples of this

A church holding to a statement of faith or a “what we believe” located on their website or physically at the church building. This can sometimes be sound and robust, written by godly leaders of a local church. Other times it could be anemic at best put together by “Pastor Phil” at his kitchen table and vulnerable to change at any time.
A church holding to a historic written document of beliefs (confession), put together by many godly minds, deliberating over a long period, reviewed, and accepted by a group of churches and proven to stand the test of time.

After going through each of these questions and breaking them down a bit, I’d like to now focus on our attention on what being Confessional means to a Reformed Baptist and why it is important.

1) What it is to be Confessional as a Reformed Baptist

Simply put, we hold to a historic, written confession of faith that clearly states what we believe the Scriptures teach.
At Christ the King Reformed Baptist Church, we gladly affirm and hold to the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith
- The majority of historic Reformed Baptists held to the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 because they believed it is a compendium of theology that best summarizes the teaching of Scripture in small compass.
A historic confession such as the 1689 promotes Scripture as our final authority. Let’s confirm this together by reviewing what it says in Chapter 1 – The Holy Scriptures: The Holy Scriptures are the only sufficient, certain, and infallible standard of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. 2 Timothy 3:15-17, Isaiah 8:20, Luke 16:29, Ephesians 2:20.
We believe that Bible is the infallible Word of God and our final authority. The confession we subscribe to is not equal to or above the Scriptures but is a helpful tool that accurately expresses the doctrines taught in Scripture in a clear, systematic way.

2) Why it is important to be Confessional

It is especially important that we as believers have a correct understanding of the God of the Bible and ascribe to a sound theology (study of God). The knowledge of and the study of God is part of the make-up of every Christian. We believe it is important that the Christian is thoroughly equipped for every good work. A confession is a tried-and-true teaching tool that protects against doctrinal confusion and serves as a standard by which teaching in the church can be measured. We do not want to neglect such rich and helpful compliments to God’s word that the historic creeds and confessions provide. While we do not esteem them higher or equal to the Bible (Sola Scriptura), we do appreciate them as helpful tools that point us to the doctrinal truth’s found in Scripture that we hold to so dearly.
We are not bare “biblicists.” Biblicists deny words and doctrines not explicitly stated in Scripture, and they deny that the church’s historic teaching about the Bible has any secondary authority in biblical interpretation. Think “guy in his basement with only his Bible” type of theology. This results in quoting chapter and verse in isolation. This type of interpretation often neglects the broader context within even the same chapter. It also fails to consider redemptive history, or the Bible as a whole.
Standing on a historic confession serves as a protection for our church and members. Let’s look at the full armor of God in Ephesians 6:10-18. You may think what does the armor of God have to do with theology or being confessional? Verse 14 tells us to Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth. I really like how in the ESV we are told to fasten on the belt of truth. This is best understood as the full truth of God that wraps around our hearts and minds. It protects us from lies. It’s our Christian doctrine and theology taken from the Word of God. The enemy loves to mislead and counterfeit truth, to subtlety distort God’s word and convince believers it’s ok to veer ever so slightly from what Scripture states. By girdling our loins with the belt of truth we are strapped up with the correct knowledge of God (sound theology) and equipped with the only sure defense against theological error.

Let’s bring this to a close by taking a minute to reflect on the three questions I opened this blog post with. Let’s put ourselves back in those three scenarios but this time as a confessional believer, who holds to a formal, written creed such as the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith. We learned that we are all in fact theologians; we all hold to a creed of some kind and every church has some form of confession. I don’t know about you, but in a day of doctrinal vagueness, error, and confusion I am very thankful to be a confessional, Reformed Baptist. My prayer and desire for the members of our church is that we can rightly handle the word (2 Timothy 2:15), stand firm, fastened with the belt of truth (Ephesians 6:14) and able to teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2 and Titus 2:3-4). My prayer continues to the elders, that we must be able to give instruction in sound doctrine (Titus 1:9). A confession gives us a helpful tool to be able evaluate our understanding and teaching of God’s Word in summary form.

Many Christians today think they are to read the Bible independently and come to one’s own private understanding of what the text means. This is a misguided and unhelpful. We learn in 1 Timothy 3:15 that the church is a “pillar and support of the truth.” The church as a whole is charged with interpreting the Bible, and God has authorized teachers in the church throughout history. While yes, every Christian (with the help of the Holy Spirit) is responsible for studying and understanding the Bible, no Christian should study the Bible without any regard for what the great teachers of the past taught about the Bible.

Additional Resources:

The Elders and Members of Christ the King Reformed Baptist Church affirm the following Creeds:

We also utilize these helpful catechisms to strengthen our faith and provide clear, concise answers to what we believe and why: