06 July 2011

Historic Baptist Documents--Link with Early and Modern Confessions of Faith

I grew up in a Baptist Church, and I have attended Baptist churches for most of my life.  I am very much interested in Baptist history.  Because of this interest, I'm a member of the Baptist History & Heritage Society.  Because of this interest, I took a course in Baptist history as part of my (unfortunately uncompleted) seminary studies.  Because of this interest, much of my historical research has involved the study of Baptists on one level or another, either in the study of an individual or in the study of a local church.

My interest in Baptist history causes me to wonder what Baptists have believed over their history.  Beginning in the seventeenth century (sixteenth if one holds to an Anabaptist spiritual kinship view of Baptist history, which I personally find fairly plausible), Baptists began recording their beliefs in their confessions of faith.  Baptist Associations on both sides of the Atlantic wrote down systematic articles that described their beliefs, generally backing them up with specific biblical passages.  Many of these historic Baptist confessions are available online

I have not perused all of the website in question, so I cannot say that I would definitely agree with all that is posted in the link provided above.  However, I would argue that the posting of these historic documents is a valuable service to Baptists interested in their heritage.  I would urge anyone interested in Baptist history specifically or church history in general to check out these documents.  What you learn may surprise you in some ways.

No comments:

Post a Comment