# Why do we need to have confessions?



## biblelighthouse (Jan 16, 2006)

Don't worry, I do believe that we need to have confessions, and I know a few good reasons why.

But I am looking for a really good book on this subject. 

Can anyone recommend some specific books/articles that explain why confessions are important? I would like to study this topic more deeply.

Thank you!


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## RamistThomist (Jan 16, 2006)

you're liberal!!

just kidding

this might help. 
To see the unavoidable necessity of uninspired creeds, consider the following conversation between Hans (a paleopresbyterian) and Franz (a neopresbyterian):

HANS: We're studying the Westminster Confession of Faith. Want to join us? 

FRANZ: No; I don't give heed to the words of men like you do. 

H: What do you mean? 

F: I go by the Bible. I can't rely on the words of mere uninspired men. 

H: Me, too. That's why we're studying the Confession. You should join us; it'd be very edifying. 

F: Wait a minute. I just told you that I only go by the Bible, and yet you have just equated the study of this Westminster Confession with a study of the Scriptures! 

H: And as I just said, I only go by the Bible, too. So, I'm not going to pay any attention to what you've just said. You're not inspired, after all. 

F: Of course I'm not inspired; but what I said was right because it was BIBLICAL. 

H: How could it be biblical if it was merely what you -- an uninspired man -- told me? I only listen to the inspired words of the Bible. Isn't it lording it over my conscience to tell me to accept your uninspired words as though they were the very inspired words of God? 

F: Oh, come on. I may not have quoted chapter and verse, but I was telling you what the Bible MEANS. That's why you have to pay attention to it. 

H: Are you saying the meaning of the Bible, even if explained in the uninspired words of uninspired men, is still binding -- in fact, as binding as the very words written in the Bible? 

F: Well, yes, that is what I'm saying. The meaning of the Bible, though stated in different words, has the same authority as the exact words found there. And since I'm telling you that the meaning of the Bible is not to give heed to the uninspired words of men, you still have to receive it as though those exact words I've spoken were written in the pages of Scripture. 

H: Wait a minute. How is what you've just said any different from the Westminster Confession? After all, the writers of the Confession were only putting forth what they thought was the meaning of the Bible. 

F: Well, er. . . umm. . . . 

H: I know of one difference: they were all preeminently qualified to expound the Word of God. They were recognized as having these gifts by the various churches that delegated them to sit at the Westminster Assembly. Any scholar who knows anything about Protestant history knows that these men were the "cream of the crop", and that almost certainly there has never been since that time (and maybe even up to that time, except for the apostles themselves) one body containing so many godly and learned men. I don't think you possess the same qualifications, at least not yet. 

F: Hmmm, good point. 

H: Furthermore, the Holy Spirit says in Ephesians 4 that Christ has given to the church teachers as a powerful and necessary means to building up the body of Christ into "a perfect or complete man." Obviously, these teachers do not have the gift of inspiration, and yet the Spirit didn't view this as a challenge to the sufficiency of Scripture, but rather as a necessary outgrowth of it. This is because he desires that we know the meaning of the Bible, not just the bare words. As R.L. Dabney said, "He who would consistently banish creeds must silence all preaching and reduce the teaching of the church to the recital of the exact words of Holy Scripture without note or comment." 

And, just because these men lived in the past doesn't mean that they're not a gift from God to us today. The Bible everywhere speaks of the church as one body throughout all history (Gal. 3:23-24; 4:1-3; Ps. 66:6; Hos. 12:4; Deut. 5:2-3). Therefore, the astute teachers of the past are our teachers as well, thanks to God's gracious preservation of their writings. Actually, because these men were on the crest of the waves of reformation, and not in the trough of apostasy as we are today, we ought to pay more attention to them than to contemporary teachers. This is because all of us -- including our teachers -- have been blinded by our culture's wretched and extreme departure from the Lord Jesus Christ. 

F: What time did you say you were meeting? I believe the meaning of Scripture requires that I attend! 

from:
http://www.pointsouth.com/cpc/


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## alwaysreforming (Jan 16, 2006)

There's some sort of famous quote that I'm going to butcher but it goes something like this:

Was it Luther? talking to another guy?

"So, what exactly is it that you believe then?"

"I believe the Bible!"

"But, Friend, its so many words!"


Every cult claims to take its teachings right from the Bible, that's how the JW's claim that Jesus is a lesser being than the Father, etc, etc. So, the crucial question is, "What do you believe the Bible says?"


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## biblelighthouse (Jan 16, 2006)

> _Originally posted by alwaysreforming_
> 
> Every cult claims to take its teachings right from the Bible, that's how the JW's claim that Jesus is a lesser being than the Father, etc, etc. So, the crucial question is, "What do you believe the Bible says?"



I totally agree.

I'm just looking for a really good book on the subject. Do you know of one?


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## biblelighthouse (Jan 16, 2006)

> _Originally posted by Draught Horse_
> 
> from:
> http://www.pointsouth.com/cpc/




Jacob,

That link is awesome!! Thank you for sharing.

Do you know of any good book-length works on this subject?


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## Puritanhead (Jan 16, 2006)

It's all part of a conspiracy so that the _P&R Publishing Co._ can rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits reselling copies of the _Westminster Confession of Faith_.








Actually, a Baptist pastor I know quotes from it. It is that big!


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## biblelighthouse (Jan 16, 2006)

> _Originally posted by Puritanhead_
> It's all part of a conspiracy so that the _P&R Publishing Co._ can rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits reselling copies of the _Westminster Confession of Faith_.


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## NaphtaliPress (Jan 16, 2006)

Samuel Miller's _The Utility and Importance of Creeds and Confessions_ is a classic work first published in 1824. You can find an online version probably, but available cheap in print below:
http://www.heritagebooks.org/item.asp?bookId=1038


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jan 16, 2006)

Creeds & Confessions by A.A. Hodge

The Usefulness of Creeds by Ken Gentry


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## Me Died Blue (Jan 16, 2006)

_The Practice of Confessional Subscription_ by David W. Hall


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## Rich Barcellos (Jan 16, 2006)

I second the Samuel Miller book. The version I have is Doctrinal Integrity. It includes the discussion mentioned above and "Adherence to our Doctrinal Standards".


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Feb 12, 2006)

> _Originally posted by Me Died Blue_
> _The Practice of Confessional Subscription_ by David W. Hall



Great book, and very helpful.


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## knight4christ8 (Mar 4, 2006)

> _Originally posted by biblelighthouse_
> 
> 
> > _Originally posted by Draught Horse_
> ...



Just finished a pretty easy read, but it made me appreciate the men of the assembly in such a great way that I now value the confession as provision of God to his church. To neglect its authority (fallible, but authoritative in its nature - pastor techers coming together and agreeing AFTER MUCH DISCUSSION) is to neglect one's duty to God.

Windows on Westminster by David Hall
You can get it through gcp.org (Great Commission Publications)


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