Confessing the Faith in 1644 and 1689

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CONFESSING THE FAITH IN 1644 AND 1689

Pastor James M. Renihan

Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies at Westminster Seminary in California
Reformed Baptist Church of North San Diego County, Escondido, CA

Confessing the Faith in 1644 and 1689

Introduction

Try to imagine a situation like this: You live in a large city, the capital of your country. You are a member of one of a handful of churches, just beginning to grow and be noticed in the city. But it is illegal for you to meet with your brothers and sisters. For as long as anyone living can remember, there has been only one legal religion, and every attempt to disagree with that one religion has met with opposition and persecution.

As your churches grow, rumors begin to spread. A hundred years before, some people with beliefs that were marginally similar to your own had been involved in a terrible rebellion in another country relatively close by, and rumors were beginning to spread that your churches would do the same kinds of things. What would you do?

That is something of the situation facing the members of seven Calvinistic Baptist churches in London in 1644. In the space of a few short years, their numbers had grown, and people were beginning to take notice of their presence in London. But it was often not a friendly notice. In 1642, an anonymous pamphlet entitled A Warning for England, especially for London; in the famous History of the frantick Anabaptists, their wild Preachings and Practices in Germany was published. It is an amazing piece of work. The author, in 9 double sized pages, described the sad events of Munster, Germany. Rebellion, sedition, theft, murder are all charged to the “anabaptists.” Throughout, there is no mention of anything but these events from another time and place—until the very last sentence of the pamphlet which stated “So, let all the factious and seditious enemies of the church and state perish; but, upon the head of king Charles, let the crown flourish! Amen.” The warning was in one sense subtle, but in another brilliantly powerful: beware! What was done in Germany by the anabaptists may well happen again in London, if these people are allowed to spread their doctrines.

So what did the Baptists do? The situation was potentially explosive. They knew that it was essential to demonstrate that they were not radicals, subversively undermining the fabric of society. To the contrary, they were law-abiding citizens, who were being misrepresented and misunderstood by many around them. They wanted and needed to demonstrate that they were quite orthodox in their theological beliefs, and that they had no agenda beyond a faithful and conscientious commitment to God and His Word.

As the Baptists faced these circumstances, they decided that they needed to take action to relieve the fears and misinformation spreading. God had blessed their efforts thus far, and they did not want to see those efforts frustrated by the rumor and innuendo of their enemies. So they adopted a practice frequently used by others in the last 150 years—they issued a confession of faith so that anyone interested in them might be able to obtain an accurate understanding of their beliefs and practices. Continue reading →

David Wood’s Conversion Story

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In viewing this video below, “A powerful argument for the Gospel. How?

1) David had nothing to bring to God. No self-righteousness. He was worthy of God’s wrath in its fullest, and he knew it. He had to look away from himself, cling to another (“we who have fled for refuge…”).

2) David was not looking for God. He was destroying himself in every way possible. Yet, God sustained him, kept him alive despite so many possibilities of death, and at the time of God’s choice, not David’s, drew him to Christ.

3) David has been healed. Some might argue even the imago Dei had been wiped from David’s experience at a horribly early age. But though it was horribly defaced, it was not wiped out. And God has, in fulfillment of Scripture, taken out that heart of stone and given him a heart of flesh.

4) David’s story shocks many people. If it shocks you as a comfortable Christian, you probably don’t realize that as horrific as David’s actions were—your sins were, and are, just as heinous in God’s sight as his. God only saves broken people. Those who think they are whole are the most lost of all.

Thank you David, for posting this. (Well done on every level—well made, well planned, well executed). We could not have more different backgrounds. Our paths to the cross were utterly and completely separate. Except for one thing: the cross was the only place to go, the only place to find peace, the only thing to cling to.”