In the last post, we considered some introductory reasons for every local church to have a healthy confession of faith. In this post, I’ll give you 5 positive reasons for having a confession of faith.

First, because:

We Have a Conviction

Robert Paul Martin wrote, “An unwillingness to define with precision the faith that it professes to believe is a symptom that something is desperately wrong with a church and its leadership.”

Local churches are not Milton Bradly. We are not inventing, producing, or playing games. We have a conviction regarding the truth of God. Here we stand; We can do no other!

We aren’t looking down at the ground kicking our foot saying “Ah shucks, I guess we sort of believe this or that…” No! It is the duty of every local church to boldly proclaim, this is what the Bible says!

Churches that embrace historic confessions of faith, like the 1689 2nd London Baptist Confession, declare, “While everyone is progressing and minimalizing and moving to the shallow end of the pool, we are going to regress. We are going to go backward to our roots. We are going to maximize. We are going to go deeper and fuller and more thorough.”

No matter your church’s confession, you must, in a world that is trying to customize and personalize truth, stand on God’s truth unapologetically. 

No doubt confessions like the 1689 are thorough. But consider what Baptist B.H. Carroll wrote,

“A church with a little creed is a church with a little life. The more divine doctrines a church can agree on, the greater its power, and the wider its usefulness. The fewer its articles of faith, the fewer its bonds of union and compactness. The modern cry, ‘Less creed and more liberty,’ is a degeneration from the vertebrate to the jellyfish, and means less unity and less morality, and it means more heresy. Definitive truth does not create heresy—it only exposes and corrects. Shut off the creed and the Christian work would fill up with heresy unsuspected and uncorrected, but none the less deadly.” 

Local churches should love thorough, biblical, Baptist confessions of faith because we love the truth. Because we have real conviction.

I love the first line of the 1689 because it sets the tone for everything else:

The Holy Scriptures are the only sufficient, certain, and infallible standard of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.

This confession of faith serves the Bible. It is not equal to it. It is not above it. It’s an arrow that points to the Scriptures. If ever we find a conflict between the Bible and the Confession, we go with the Bible, since it is supreme.  

Confessions of faith are important because we have a conviction. 2ndly, because

We Have a Commission

Here is the gospel: The Son of God took on human flesh, conceived by the Holy Spirit., and was born of the Virgin Mary. He grew up in obedience to His earthly parents and His heavenly Father. He began His ministry around age 30. In everything He did He fulfilled all righteousness.

He proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God. He called sinners to repentance. He showed us the truth. He Himself is the truth.

He then died for the lawless sinners. Covenant breakers. He bore God’s wrath justly due our sins. He was buried and rose again on the 3rd day in victory. All who embrace this truth by faith and turn from their sins in repentance will be saved.

Upon His resurrection and before His ascension, Christ gave His church a commission (cf. Matt. 28:18-20). That commission is one of making disciples. We cannot make disciples apart from teaching.

Thus, a confession of faith helps the church fulfill this commission. It sets forth what we believe Jesus taught us to teach the nations. About the Bible. About God. Aboud sin. About redemption. About the church.

Because we take the Great Commission seriously, we have put down in writing what we believe so that we can teach it. A good confession of faith helps us do this rightly. It helps us form good ways to talk about the Trinity, the gospel, God’s governance of the universe, Christ, covenant theology, and the list goes on and on. All these precious truths we believe and hold so dear, we are to teach to others.

A confession of faith is useful because we have a Conviction, a Commission, 3rdly, because

We Have a Contention

The church today is the church militant. We are at war. We are contending for the faith (cf. Jude 1:3). We are contending for the truth. The world, flesh, and devil are constantly striving to minimize, change, or eradicate the truth.

New warped aphorisms are invented all the time that say things like: “Love over verses.”

You understand what that’s trying to do? Chip away at our foundation. It’s saying look past what God says in His Word and just “love” people. Ignore the Bible’s definitions and embrace a 21st century standard.

But this is where a good confession of faith comes in and helps us protect the truth. It helps us say, “Nope!” It helps us say, “Here is the faith once delivered that we are contending for.”

Individual Christians and churches are called to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. What is that faith? Someone may say, “Well, it’s what the Bible teaches!” Yes, this is true. But a lot of people say a lot of weird things about what the Bible teaches.

So, a confession of faith essentially says, here is what the Bible teaches. Here is the faith once delivered and passed down from generation to generation. Here is the truth that we are contending for.

5thly, a confession of faith is useful because

We Have a Commemoration

1 Samuel 7:12says,: “Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, ‘Till now the LORD has helped us.’”

A healthy confession of faith is an Ebenezer. It is a rock of remembrance. It is a commemoration. It is a reminder that we have only arrived where we are today by God’s help, that He has helped generations past, and that by His sovereign grace He will help generations future.

Holding to a historical confession of faith says, we stand in a long line of godly men and women who have been anchored in the same truth. Furthermore, by God’s grace, our children and grandchildren and their grandchildren will continue to hold the line and continue to gird themselves up in truth.

We have a confession of faith because we have a conviction, a commission, a contention, a commemoration, and finally, because

We Have a Congregation

Every local church is to be a pillar and buttress of the truth (cf. 1 Tim. 3:15). We are not just a bunch of individuals, but a body and we are called to a corporate faith.

This is certainly not dismissing the necessity of an individual and personal faith in Christ. You cannot be saved by someone else’s faith. You must personally put your faith in the person and work of Christ. In His life, death, burial, and resurrection. There is no salvation without personal faith in Jesus.

But this personal faith is not a privatized faith. You confess what the church confesses because the church confesses the truth.

Ditches to Avoid

We have a conviction, commission, contention, commemoration, and congregation. This is why every local church should use a healthy and historical confession of faith. Practically, when it comes to a church using a confession of faith there are two ditches to avoid:

Hyper-confessionalism

This is when a church treats a confession of faith in word or deed as on par with the Bible. Remember, a confession of faith is under the Bible’s authority and is to serve the Bible. A local church reserves the right to amend, reword, or add to a confession of faith as necessary, though it should do so with the utmost care. Yet, we can never amend, reword, or add to the Bible!

We must avoid hyper-confessionalism. But 2ndly, we must avoid:

Nominal Confessionalism

This is when a church has a confession, like, say, the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, but no one actually knows what it says. It is literally or metaphorically stuffed back in some ancient file in a closet somewhere in the church building that no one every uses anymore.

Thus, it has become a confession of faith in name but not practice. This is why confessional churches should be committed to reading, studying, teaching their confessions. In this age of religious pluralism, of the wild west where everyone can just believe whatever they want for whatever reason they want to, in this wicked age, every faithful church should have a confession of faith. And every member of the church should strive to know what that confession teaches and why. Truth matters.

Now, this doesn’t mean there won’t be disagreements at times with members over portions of a confession of faith, and that’s okay.

At our local church, no one is required to be a 1689 scholar or in strict agreement with every single sentence to be a member of the church. Within the life of the church there is liberty of conscience on certain issues. Some people are going to look at things differently. Some are going to need to be taught better. And everyone must be seeking to mature in the faith.

However, the 1689 helps us because upfront it says, “This is what we believe.” This is how our elders are going to teach. If you desire to be divisive over issues or cannot accept the teaching, then this would not be the best place for you.

It’s one thing to disagree and be willing to learn or to disagree and be willing to strive for unity, it’s one thing to be like that and it’s a different thing to just seek to sow division among the Body.

Conclusion

The strategy of churches over the last few decades has been to be as “big tent” as possible so as to include the largest number of people possible in the church. What our world needs, though, is churches willing to be dogmatic over the truth.

We need to obey verses like Eph. 6:14. Stand firm. Gird yourselves in truth. These are not the days for minimizing truths. These are not the days for nuance and ambiguity.

It’s like those who profess to be in Christ’s army are trying to hide which side they are on. They are covering up their uniforms so as not to stick out.

But I’m saying, wear the armor of Christ boldly. Let’s take out the biggest, most visible, flag for Christ that we can and let’s plant that thing firmly and unapologetically in the ground.

This is not because we want division or brashness. It is because we know that Christ is worthy of a church that loves His truth. It is because we know the only antidote, the only hope, the only thing that will turn our communities, our homes, our nation around, is truth.

Gird up church. Let us protect. Let us proclaim. Let us perpetuate God’s truth. 

In one sense, it can certainly be thought monotonous to write more about the state of the Southern Baptist Convention. Yet, those of us who believe in the importance of conservative institutions, and are committed to the authority, sufficiency, clarity, and necessity of the Scriptures feel compelled to continue to carry on this battle if you will for the heart and soul of the SBC. This brings us to today’s post.
Numerous individuals have sounded the alarm over the past few years about the SBC’s departure from the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. Still, two main groups have undoubtedly championed the cause as of late: Founders Ministries and the Conservative Baptist Network. I don’t mean to suggest these groups have “rediscovered” the Bible, but I cannot help but draw an analogy from the life of King Josiah.
The Story
I am sure you are aware of the story. During the 7th Century B.C., young King Josiah became ruler of Judah. During the 18th year of his reign, as he was repairing the Temple, his men rediscovered the Book of the Law of Yahweh. Commentators argue that this was either the Pentateuch or perhaps only the Book of Deuteronomy.[1]
Regardless, Shaphan, the king’s secretary, read the contents of this Book before Josiah. The words of Yahweh cut the king deeply, and he tore his clothes in humble repentance. Additionally, Josiah gathered the people of Judah, both great and small. He had them hear from the words of this Book and led the people in a renovation of worship and service to God according to the standards of the Book.
The Significance
There is a lot that the people of God as a whole and the Southern Baptist Convention particularly can learn from the story of King Josiah in 2 Chronicles 34. Not the least of which is the reality that God wrote a Book.
While we may not be sure if this rediscovered Book was the entire Pentateuch or just a portion of it, it is still significant to note that the word “Book” is used 10x in 2 Chronicles 34.
No, this wasn’t a leather-bound copy of the 1611 KJV. Most likely, this was less of a “Book” as we think of the term and more of a scroll. But still, here’s the truth: Yahweh divinely breathed through holy men to put ink on paper in such a way that what they wrote is not “their” Book, but His.
Our Triune God used men to write us a Book that we may feast our eyes on His infallible Words; that we might hear His Words so that our hearts might be changed. We are held accountable for knowing this Book, and great things can happen in the lives of God’s people when they get in this Book both individually and corporately.
Charles Simeon once said, “It is scarcely to be conceived how great a benefit has arisen to the Christian cause from the invention of printing. The Word of God is that whereby the work of salvation is principally carried on in the souls of men: and the multiplying of copies of Holy Scriptures, in such a form as to be conveniently portable, and at such a price as to be within the reach of the poor, has tended more than any other thing to keep alive the interests of religion, both in the hearts of individuals and in the community at large…”
Oh, how sad to have lived in the 7th Century BC! Not everyone can read, and there are no copies of God’s Word to be found. And then one day, while repairing the Temple, there it is. How precious and wonderful! God’s breathed out Word that the people of Judah could take up and read. And read it, they did. And heed it they did.
But in another sense, what a travesty to live in the 21st Century A.D.! There is, basically, unhindered, unrestricted access to God’s Word in America. It’s in stores, on phones, online…But it is not prized.
It is as though the Bible is hiding from us in plain sight. It is God’s Book. And yet, in too many homes, it lies closed. Husbands and wives do not read it together. Parents do not read it to their children. For many, it is simply not read daily.
It’s not that people in America and even our churches can’t read or don’t have time. It’s that they don’t want to. This describes evangelicalism at large. But this has also crept into our beloved SBC.
I do not know who is and who is not reading the Bible. But I do know that we seem far more concerned as whole that the world is watching us rather than the fact that God wrote a Book for us to trust, obey, learn from, and follow.
Bible Power for Bible People
Another thing we learn from the life of Josiah: When God’s people take God’s Book seriously, great things happen. This gives me great hope and excitement in preaching the Word – not because there is power in me or any other preacher. Rather, there is power in the Word of God.
3 things we see in 2 Chronicles 34 when God’s people take God’s Book seriously:
Repentance
First, we see repentance (see 2 Chronicles 34:19, 26-27). Why do Southern Baptists need to return to the Book? Because we need to rend our hearts before God. Because when we read the Book with intent on seeking God, He will be found.
And through His Book, God will expose our laziness. Our pride. Our excuses. Our idolatry. Our captivation with the world. Our lust to be loved by the world. Our need for loving our church family more. Our need for loving the lost more. And God will lead us in repentance through the very words of His Book
Reformation
Secondly, we see reformation in 2 Chronicles 34:29-33. How do you know if repentance is genuine? When repentance is real, reformation will follow. 2 Chronicles 34:31–32 says,
31 And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this Book. 32 Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin join in it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
Josiah determined to live according to the Book. There was a reformation in life. God’s Word bears the highest authority over how we are to live before Him. Further, it gives us a sufficient word on living a life well-pleasing to Him. There is nothing we need to know about God that is not found in His Book. There is nothing we need to know about living in faithful service to Him that is not in His Book. Praise God for His sufficient Word!
There was also a reformation in worship. Josiah saw in God’s Word the importance of the Passover. He, therefore, did what was necessary to worship God according to God’s standards and 2 Chronicles 35:18 says, “No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, and the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”
God’s Word carries the highest authority for how we are to worship Him. Further, it gives us a sufficient word on how to worship Him! That is, all that we need to know about worshiping God rightly in spirit and in truth is found in His Book.
Revival
Finally, following repentance and reformation, we see revival in Judah in 2 Chronicles 34. What I mean by revival is that God moved in a special way through Holy Spirit through His Word to bring Judah back to Himself. God used one young king to lead an awakening among His people and all by means of rediscovering His Book.
The Passover, if you remember, was the great reminder of God’s deliverance of His people in the Exodus. There was revival in Judah because the people hungered for God.
It’s not my point to create a formula here, but this truth cannot be denied: Our hope for revival is tied to how seriously we take God’s Book.
Not every king of Judah responded like Josiah when confronted with God’s Word. In Part 2, we will examine the response of Josiah’s son, Jehoiakim, and consider more pointedly the choice before Southern Baptists at this hour.

[1] See, for example, Richard L. Pratt Jr., 1 and 2 Chronicles: A Mentor Commentary, Mentor Commentaries (Fearn, Tain, Ross-shire, Great Britain: Mentor, 2006), 676–677.

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Christian brotherhood depends on Christian faith. The New Testament often sets forth “the faith” as central to the apostolic mission, the pastor’s task, the Christian’s grasp of truth that is saving and sanctifying, and the true test of unity in the Christian profession. The first use of this phrase as a specific body of truth is in Acts 6:7, where it is written, “and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.” This involved a clear adoption of truth connected with the apostolic “teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (5:42). Had they not embraced that body of truth, there would be no evidence of faith. 

The word “faith” is used when the internal disposition of trust in the person and work of Christ is in view: “purifying their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9); “a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (Romans 3:28); “so then faith comes by hearing, and hearing  by the word of God” (Romans 10:17); “the just shall live by faith” (Galatians 3:11); “through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Philippians 3:9). This “faith” is generated by the Holy Spirit in the mind and heart of a sinner upon an effectual application of “the faith” to both mind and heart. 

“The faith” is the revealed body of truth according to which true saving faith is defined. The Gentile churches were strengthened in “the faith, and increased in number daily” by the ruling of apostles and elders concerning ceremonial law. One outstanding element that testified to the genuine conversion of Saul was that he “preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy;” that faith consisted of “the gospel … [that] came through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:11, 12, 23). Paul defined his mission in terms of “obedience to the faith among all nations” (Romans 1:5) and “the faith of God’s elect, even the acknowledgement of the truth” (Titus 1:1). Paul warned Timothy against those who “resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith” (2 Timothy 3:8). Instead, he insisted on Timothy’s following “my doctrine, … faith.” One element of Paul’s confidence in his reception of the “crown of righteousness” was that he had “kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7, 8). Christian fraternity was defined by this when he wrote, “Greet those who love us in the faith” (Titus 3:15).

We see with profundity the interaction between “the faith” and “faith” when Paul wrote, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raise him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9, 10). The word “confess,” we see in this strategic passage, is vitally (in the arena of true life), connected with both personal trust and revealed doctrinal truth. John affirms this in saying, “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.” Conversely, he continued, “Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God” (1 John 4:2, 3). An understanding of the incarnation of the Son of God, his true humanity and his eternal deity in one person, who came in such a way out of the necessities of redeeming a fallen humanity is implicit in this confession. Paul also, again, united the open confession of truth with the church’s position as the depository of truth, saving truth, in this fallen world. He gives a six-article statement concerning the vital and saving point of the incarnation, Christ’s righteousness, the preaching of this truth, the belief connected with it, and Christ’s ascension by introducing it with a word that means, “This is a matter of necessary and certain confession” (1 Timothy 3:15, 16). 

This combination of apostolic mission, revealed truth, and saving faith makes Rick Warren’s assertion about the Southern Baptist Convention puzzling, and, if taken seriously, destructive of the very mission he seeks to affirm: “From the start, our unity has always been based on a common mission, not a common confession. For the first 80 years of the SBC, we did not even have a confession because the founders were adamantly opposed to having one!” The serious fidelity called for to a confessional article on the nature of Christian ministry, Pastor Warren contends is the “death of the basis for cooperation upon which this body was founded.” Again he asserts, “That basis – a common mission, not a confession – was the founding genius that made the SBC great.” Forceful verbiage but quite wide of historical truth and the biblical standard of true Christianity. Warren’s open letter invites Southern Baptists to a missiological souffle. At least these four fallacies render his deep concern a destructive blunder.

Fallacy #1— A Confessionless Denomination

He wants a Confessionless Denomination. It is impossible. The very thing that defined Baptists from the seventeenth-century to the present is the rigor with which they set forth confessions to unite them with other Christians and distinguish them within the rank of Dissenters from Puritans and Separatists. We love our Presbyterian brethren, but could never consent to their confessional proposition, “infants descending from parents, either both, or but one of them, professing faith in Christ, and obedience to him, are in that respect within the covenant and to be baptized.” Upon examining their prooftexts and the way they developed a coherent argument in favor of infant baptism, Baptists came to a different conclusion and stated their view confessionally. The Second London Confession, in the context of a longer discussion of the church, the communion of saints and the ordinances stated, “Those who do actually profess repentance towards God, faith in, and obedience to our Lord Jesus, are the only proper subjects of this ordinance {baptism].” John Smyth’s “Short Confession” (1610) stated, “baptism is the external sign of the remission of sins, of dying and of being made alive, and therefore does not belong to infants.” John Spilsbery, the first Particular Baptist pastor viewed a confession of faith as one of the “constituting causes” of the church for a confession of faith declares the “fitnes of the matter for the forme.”  That is, believers in the gospel of Christ may unite to form a church. The power of the Gospel “shining into the heart of man” so convinces the sinner of its truth that its leaven “seasons and sweetens the whole man.”  The Word operates like a fire that “breaks forth and discovers itself” with such clarity in “such as have it,” that they delineate specific truths from that Word.  A confession of faith consisting of particular doctrines naturally develops so that others so prepared “come to one and the same minde and judgement in it.” Having agreed on the articles of faith, such believers may unite with each other in a church estate through the baptism of those who so believe. The confession of faith of the Tuscaloosa Association, Alabama, says, “We believe that baptism and the Lord’s supper are Ordinances of Jesus Christ, and that true believers are the only subjects of Baptism, and that by immersion is the Apostolic mode.” The confession of faith of the Mississippi Baptist Association states, “We believe that baptism, by immersion, is the only scriptural mode, and that believers are the only proper subjects” (1791). The confession of the Louisiana Baptists (1814) said that the church is constituted of those “who upon profession of their faith have been baptized by immersion in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost” (1814). Given the variety of confessional traditions already in existence when Baptists emerged, Baptists as a denomination would not exist apart from a clearly stated confession highlighting the distinctives that Baptists distilled from the Bible in contradistinction from other denominations. 

Fallacy #2— A Confessionless Unity

He wants a Confessionless Unity. In a fallen world and in the multiplicity of Christian confessions, unity without confession is a delusion. Our common domination by error calls for a reconstruction of worldview and truth-claims on the basis of divine revelation. A commitment to the coherence of divinely revealed truth mean the construction of doctrine on any subject set forth in Scripture—creation, providence, God, humanity, sin, salvation, the church, how it is formed, how it is taught, the end of this present order, judgment, eternity. Other subjects could be named, but you get the point. A confession simply is the organization of revealed truth into its related parts so that our minds will be conformed both in individual and corporate conduct according to its principles. A so-called common mission without common confession gives no standard by which conversions may be discerned and no goal for the growing conformity of believers into the perfection of Christ. God gave the pastor-teacher as a gift to men so that his church would “attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God” (Ephesians 4:13). Not only is faith the common experiential factor in forming the church, but the faith is the instrument by which we attain to the “measure of the stature that belongs to the fulness of Christ.” A confession witnesses to our corporate confidence in the unified nature of Scripture and guides the church, under God and his revealed truth, into greater corporate unity and focus on mission. The greater unity churches have in confession, the more profound and univocal in the “Amen” is their mission.

Fallacy #3— A Confessionless Mission

He wants a Confessionless Mission.  Pastor Warren sees the ideal of missionary passion as a corporate “NO to becoming a creedal denomination … and instead [a reaffirmation] that it is the Great Commission that draws us together, not doctrinal uniformity in every jot and tittle.” Set aside the obvious fallacy of a false dichotomy and the irony that the “jot and tittle” concern in support of fuzzy adherence to a confession arose from the words of Jesus; other implications are disturbing. These words were, in fact, Jesus’ assertion of the absolute necessity of the fulfillment of the Law—even heaven and earth would not endure beyond the importance of the conformity of his incarnational life and the lives of his disciples to every item of revealed truth (Matthew 5:18). Yes, the rhetoric is clumsy, but in its substance it is worse. The impact of mission is diminished, not increased, by a mixed message. Warren opines, “that our unity is to be based on giving total submission to Christ in our deeds and NOT based on mental submission to man-made creeds.” It is eerily similar to the call of one of the leading Modernists ninety-nine years ago (1924). Shailer Mathews in the Faith of Modernism wrote, “Orthodox Christians are now working for the world’s transformation. But the striking fact is that in so doing they are not stressing theological fundamentals. They do not deny them but they ignore them as moral and social motives. … The true watch-word of Christianity is not truth, but faith vitalized by love. … Creative minds care less for their father’s beliefs than for a faith that respects their increased knowledge and stimulates their will to serve” (12, 13, 14). Deeds not creeds bind together Warren and Mathews.Mathews did write a statement of “affirmations.” Mathews said, “While by its very nature the Modernist movement will never have a creed or authoritative confession, it does have its beliefs” (179). As Northern Baptists (now ABCUSA) embraced the social emphases of Mathews, their confessionless missions cared less for eternal salvation and more for present modernization.

Fallacy #4— A Confessionless Soteriology

Warren is inviting Southern Baptists to a Confessionless Soteriology. He does not do this with sinister motive or as a clandestine liberal, but by minimizing the importance of carefully stated propositions of saving truth. It is one of the purposes of a confession to give such a clear statement of gospel truth that we may discern whether the gospel preached is true or another gospel. Paul saw how quickly his churches could be led from the purity of his gospel into the falsehoods of the Judaizers. John saw how subtle were the heresies of proto-gnostics concerning the person of Christ and the devastating result such teaching would have on the nature of true “belief.” James saw how empty so-called faith was that did not involve a robust love of righteousness and good works. The writer of Hebrews saw the danger of failing to see that Jesus was the final sacrifice, the final priest, the reigning king, and the final prophet and that salvation depended without reservation on his completed work—“When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). A confession of faith gathers all of these New Testament arguments together to present clear biblical definitions of Christ’s person, repentance, faith, atonement, justification, adoption, sanctification, preservation, perseverance to serve as rails to remind us of the infinite importance of care and accuracy in our presentation of the gospel. The confession does not replace Scripture; the writers seek to present the biblical gospel taking into account all relevant passages to give a full, while concise, presentation of the biblical details that we might consistently be called to care and faithfulness in this most heavenly of all earthly activities, proclaiming the gospel that is worthy of all acceptation. The confession helps us obey the Pauline command, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5). A confessionless soteriology can begin to omit vital truths and soon become another gospel.

I do not doubt the right intent of Pastor Warren’s zeal for seeing the mission given by Christ finally executed in every country of the world. Nor do I doubt that same desire in those who have a deeply-held confessional conviction about the biblical passages stating the clear qualifications of those that Christ gives to the church of pastor-teachers. When a Christian finds that his mind disagrees with a clearly-stated confessional article and his conscience forbids operating in accord with it, the world is open to him. That person, so constrained in mind and conscience, may look for another place to minister more satisfying to his calling. Certainly it is not fitting to seek to convince others that their confessional concerns are trivial, unworthy of fidelity, or easily compromised for the sake of a more inclusive body.