The Reformed confessions
A confession is a church's statement, together, of the faith it has learned from Scripture. The Reformed churches receive the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dort and the Westminster Standards as standards under Scripture, and use them to teach the faith, guard it and stay united in it.
Faith on our lips
Faith lives in the heart, but it does not stay there. It speaks.
that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.
Romans 10:9-10
The verb ‘confess’ is , built from words for ‘same’ and ‘say’, and often explained as saying the same thing. To confess is to say after God what he has said, and to say it together with all who share one faith. The church has done this from the beginning in short, clear words, as when Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16).
The New Testament also tells us to hold on to sound teaching and hand it on. Paul writes to Timothy:
Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching you have heard from me, with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
2 Timothy 1:13-14
Sound teaching is a treasure entrusted to the church, kept not by its own strength but by the Spirit. Jude urges believers "to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted once for all to the saints" (Jude 1:3). Peter says, "Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15), and adds that it must be done with gentleness and respect. A confession of faith is the church's answer to these callings. Matthew Henry, on Jude, describes the spirit in which to do it: those who have received the truth "must contend for it, earnestly, not furiously" Matthew Henry.
A standard under Scripture
The Reformed churches never put their confessions on a level with the Bible. Scripture is the rule that rules every other rule; a confession is a rule that is itself ruled by Scripture, a ‘subordinate standard’. The Westminster Confession says that the supreme judge of every controversy, by whom all decrees of councils and opinions of ancient writers are to be examined, "can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture". It even says of church assemblies like the one that wrote it: "All synods or councils, since the apostles' times, whether general or particular, may err; and many have erred." They are therefore a help to faith and life, not their rule Westminster Confession 1 and 31. A confession, in other words, confesses its own limits.
So the Reformed take the Bereans as their model, who "examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true" (Acts 17:11). A confession must be tested by Scripture, and where it is found wanting it can be corrected. American Presbyterians did exactly this in the late eighteenth century, revising the Westminster Confession's articles on the powers of the civil magistrate. On the authority of Scripture itself, see the doctrine course's lesson ‘The inspiration and authority of Scripture’.
The Reformed confessions
After the Reformation the Reformed churches wrote confessions in many lands. Two groups are still widely used: the documents the continental Reformed churches call the ‘Three Forms of Unity’, and the Westminster Standards of the Presbyterian churches.
| Document | Year | Origin | In brief |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belgic Confession | 1561 | The Low Countries | 37 articles, written under persecution |
| Heidelberg Catechism | 1563 | The Palatinate, Germany | 129 questions, arranged for 52 Lord's Days |
| Canons of Dort | 1619 | The Synod of Dort | Five heads of doctrine, answering the Remonstrants |
| Westminster Confession | 1646 | The Westminster Assembly | 33 chapters, the Presbyterian confession |
| Larger and Shorter Catechisms | 1647–1648 | The same assembly | 196 and 107 questions |
Guido de Brès wrote the Belgic Confession to show the authorities that the persecuted Reformed believers were no rebels but held the faith of Scripture Belgic Confession. The Heidelberg Catechism was prepared to teach the faith in the churches and schools of the Palatinate, and its warm first question about our only comfort in life and death has made it loved far beyond Germany Heidelberg Catechism. The Canons of Dort answered the controversy over the Remonstrants Canons of Dort, and are taught in a later lesson. The Larger Catechism was written for preachers and teachers Westminster Larger Catechism; the Shorter, for everyone, opens with the question of man's chief end Westminster Shorter Catechism. Alongside these stand the Scots Confession (1560), the standard of the Church of Scotland before Westminster The Scots Confession, and Bullinger's Second Helvetic Confession (1566), received in Hungary and many other lands The Second Helvetic Confession.
None of these documents set out to create a new faith. The Heidelberg Catechism asks what a Christian must believe and answers in its twenty-third question with the whole Apostles' Creed, which it then explains article by article. The Belgic Confession, in Article 9, gladly receives the Apostles', Nicene and Athanasian Creeds. The Reformed confessions unfold, in the light of Scripture, the faith the whole church has confessed.
Living with a confession
Confessions are first of all for teaching. Many Reformed churches have preached through the Heidelberg Catechism Lord's Day by Lord's Day, and generations of Presbyterians, in Korea as elsewhere, learned the faith from the Shorter Catechism before baptism or as children. In many Presbyterian churches ministers and elders, when ordained, vow that they believe Scripture to be the word of God and receive the church's confession as containing the doctrine Scripture teaches. And confessions bind churches together across nations and generations in one public faith.
Other churches have their own confessions. Lutherans hold to the Book of Concord (1580), which gathers the Augsburg Confession, Luther's catechisms and the Formula of Concord Augsburg Confession. In the seventeenth century the English Particular Baptists took the Westminster Confession as their base and revised its teaching on baptism and the church, producing the Second London Confession, still held by a number of Baptist churches today Second London Baptist Confession.
Some Christians, among them the Churches of Christ that grew out of the American Restoration Movement and many free churches, hold to ‘no creed but the Bible’. Their concern is serious: that human documents may quietly take Scripture's place and divide believers who could be one on the Bible alone. The Reformed share the conviction behind it: Scripture alone binds the conscience. Their answer is that everyone who reads the Bible holds some understanding of what it teaches. Writing that understanding down makes it public, so it can be tested by Scripture, and it protects a congregation from the private views of any one leader. How the Korean Presbyterian churches received these confessions is the story of the next lesson.
Practice
- Practice 1 of 7
How do the Reformed churches understand the relation between Scripture and their confessions?
- Practice 2 of 7
What does the Westminster Confession say about synods and councils since the apostles' times?
- Practice 3 of 7
Which of these is not one of the continental Reformed ‘Three Forms of Unity’?
- Practice 4 of 7
What does the Heidelberg Catechism give, in its twenty-third question, as the articles a Christian must believe?
- Practice 5 of 7
In Romans 10:9-10, what two things does Paul join to salvation?
- Practice 6 of 7
What is the collection of confessional writings that Lutheran churches hold as their standard?
- Practice 7 of 7
Which statement fairly describes the ‘no creed but the Bible’ concern and the Reformed reply?
Source
- Westminster Assembly, Westminster Confession of Faith 1646 — The Presbyterian confession: Scripture, God and his decree, the covenants, salvation, the church and sacraments, and the last things, in 33 chapters. Read
- Guido de Brès, Belgic Confession 1561 — The confession of the Dutch Reformed churches: from the ways we know God (creation and Scripture) to creation, salvation, the marks of the church and the sacraments, in 37 articles. Read
- Heidelberg Catechism, Heidelberg Catechism 1563 — The German Reformed catechism (129 questions). Q1: What is your only comfort in life and in death? It teaches the Creed, the sacraments, the Commandments and the Lord's Prayer under sin, salvation and gratitude. Read
- Synod of Dort, Canons of Dort 1619 — The Reformed answer to the Remonstrants, in five heads: unconditional election, atonement for the elect, regeneration by grace, the perseverance of the saints. Read
- Westminster Assembly, Westminster Larger Catechism 1648 — A fuller catechism of 196 questions on faith and duty, written for preachers and teachers. Read
- Westminster Assembly, Westminster Shorter Catechism 1647 — The Westminster Assembly's catechism (107 questions). Q1: What is the chief end of man? It teaches God and creation, salvation, the Commandments, the sacraments and prayer. Read
- John Knox and others, The Scots Confession 1560 — The confession of the Scottish Reformation, the standard of the Church of Scotland before Westminster.
- Heinrich Bullinger, The Second Helvetic Confession 1566 — A confession received by Reformed churches in Switzerland and beyond. Ch. 1: the preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God.
- Lutheran reformers, Augsburg Confession 1530 — The basic Lutheran confession.
- English Particular Baptists, Second London Baptist Confession 1689 — Based on the Westminster Confession, but teaching baptism for those who profess faith.
Lessons from the Bible and the Reformed confessions (the Westminster Confession and Catechisms, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dort). They teach the Reformed faith and present other traditions fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.