# How To Personally, and Practically, Use a Confession of Faith?



## Username3000 (Jan 8, 2018)

In your day-to-day, personal life (not in your church), how do you make use of your preferred Confession of Faith?


----------



## TrustGzus (Jan 9, 2018)

I was converted to Calvinism via reading Sproul in February 2014 after being Evangelical for 28 years. I’ve been attending an OPC for just about 3 years now and became a member late summer 2017.

At this point I am still what I would consider an early or young learner of Reformed Confessions.

So what I am currently doing is every day I read a portion from each of the three parts of the Westminster Standards and from each of the Three Forms Of Unity. Completing all 6 monthly in my attempt to familiarize myself with them.

I also, to help my children and nephews from my sister-in-law’s family, record daily a portion of one of the six so that each month they hear one of those six completely and over a year they can hear each of those twice.

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## Dachaser (Jan 9, 2018)

E.R. CROSS said:


> In your day-to-day, personal life (not in your church), how do you make use of your preferred Confession of Faith?


I hold to the 1689 Confession, and have been trying to read a section and study it, by looking up the scripture listed as references. The version am using is a modernized language version.

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## jwithnell (Jan 9, 2018)

First, I always must say that the WCF is a way to summarize and organize the doctrines found in scripture. It also serves as an agreed-upon standard within my church and family. I'm currently working with my kids in the Shorter Catechism. Day to day, the WCF is a great reference, and I've used it as a backbone of studies for myself and my kids in high school. If I'm questioning something in the church, I'll consult the standards first, and nine times out if 10 I'll say: oh, I see how they reached that conclusion.


----------



## Jack K (Jan 9, 2018)

- I have used them to teach my kids.
- Some of them are quite good as devotional material; I've used them that way.
- And I use them as a reference, to check myself for accuracy in how I think and write and to see what wording has been preferred through the ages. (This might be more of a church/work use, but sometimes I do it as a part of personal study as well.)


----------



## Ask Mr. Religion (Jan 9, 2018)

Dachaser said:


> I hold to the 1689 Confession, and have been trying to read a section and study it, by looking up the scripture listed as references. The version am using is a modernized language version.


You might want to accompany your readings therein with a good exposition of the same:
https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Exposition-Baptist-Confession-Faith/dp/0852349173

http://www.thecalvinist.net/ (an interesting commentary by a modern fellow)

For the WCF:
http://www.reformed.org/documents/shaw/
https://www.monergism.com/westminster-confession-commentary-ebook

Comparisons:
http://www.proginosko.com/docs/wcf_lbcf.html
http://www.proginosko.com/docs/wcf_sdfo_lbcf.html


----------



## GulfCoast Presbyterian (Jan 9, 2018)

I think of the Westminster Standards as a "fence." It tells me how to express what we believe to be found in the truth of scripture. Having a good fence keeps the sheep IN the fold, safe from wandering out, and it keeps the wolves OUT of the fold, away from the sheep. When I have a question on an issue, or want to be sure I understand an issue, or to study with specificity, I ask myself: Where is the boundary set by "the fence?" How does it tell me we express what we believe in this way, on this issue......


----------



## KMK (Jan 9, 2018)

jwithnell said:


> It also serves as an agreed-upon standard within my church and family.



As usual, Jean nails it. 

"Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set." Pro 22:28

Boundaries are necessary and helpful in our growth in the unity of the faith. Husbands and wives, pastors and congregants, and fellow laborers of every stripe need to be able to trust each other not to drift into left field without some serious soul searching. 

Having no ancient landmarks to provide a framework for our labors, is like trying to play Monopoly with people who keep changing the rules about Free Parking.

(That last analogy is a freebie by the way.)

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## Dachaser (Jan 9, 2018)

Ask Mr. Religion said:


> You might want to accompany your readings therein with a good exposition of the same:
> https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Exposition-Baptist-Confession-Faith/dp/0852349173
> 
> http://www.thecalvinist.net/ (an interesting commentary by a modern fellow)
> ...


The Calvinist net one looks interesting, will avail myself of that site now.

Reactions: Like 1


----------



## TrustGzus (Jan 9, 2018)

The Sam Waldron book is good as he’s a good writer to read. When I first came to agree with the doctrines of grace and started attending a Reformed Baptist Church my wife bought that for me for Christmas off my Amazon wishlist a few years ago.


----------



## Username3000 (Jan 9, 2018)

My thanks to you all for your contributions. I just got my copy of the 1689 that I formatted, designed, and self-published at lulu.com for cheap, so I am hoping to start to use it. If anyone wants the link to get a copy, they can message me. 

If that is okay with the moderators.


----------



## RBachman (Jan 10, 2018)

Like many, I read one section of the WCF daily. I tried to learn the shorter catechism years ago, but gave up around 25. I will tackle it again...someday. I really like have a confession for the reasons noted, but one in particular that helped me as I left the fundamentalist independent baptist/Armenian camps: I am no longer dependent upon one man's ideas of what is right, namely the pastor.

I found that often I was thinking about what my pastor would think or say, rather than what the scripture was saying. The confession depersonalizes this a bit, and lets all of us look at the confession as our agreed guide to scripture, and not on a "strongman's" personal view [_I use this term because that is what the culture was like in independent churches I have been a part of]_.
Randy


----------

