Why Christians Should Be Confessional
Confessionalism is the practice of a church holding to a confessional statement of faith. These statements of faith are generally thorough documents that state the doctrines a particular church(s) or denomination(s) hold to. There are a few confessions listed on our About page.
Unity
One of the benefits of confessionalism is unity. Since confessions are documents that clarify the doctrinal positions of a local church, those who attend the local church agree that these are the doctrines that are taught and practiced.
A criticism of confessionalism may be that it is too restrictive to Christians who do not agree with what is said in them. But there are two problems with this criticism. First, every church already has confessions, even if they are not written down. For example, a church may not have a confession, but they practice baptism only for believers. If that is the case, then those who would want their babies to be baptized may feel like they could not attend that church even without a confession. Secondly, the Christian religion is built on confessing. Christians are bound to proclaim their faith (Matt. 28:16-20) and are charged not to compromise with that faith (James 4:4). So, Christians must say what they believe.
The skeptic may retort in saying that Christians are only to confess what is essential- the gospel. But this is too reductionistic. The scriptures are full of doctrine and proclamation about who God is and what he has set out for his people. Yes, everything points to Christ, but HOW does everything point to Christ? For example, I would go so far as to say our understanding of church government influences our understanding of Christ. When men debate over doctrine for the right reasons, they do it because they love the Lord Christ. Confessions are summary statements of the doctrines that the church proclaims to be true from the word of God. If the entirety of the Bible points to Christ, we can say that confessions are supposed to do the same if they summarize the Bible.1
Accountability
Unfortunately, in Church history, there have been times when the church has fallen into error. May that error be moral or doctrinal, Confessional statements work somewhat like guardrails. They are an extra preventative measure to ensure the church stays within moral and doctrinal limits.2 This is not to say that confessionalism will protect the church from error 100% of the time. Numerous New Testament passages warn the church about false teachers, and those warnings are still true for the church to this day (e.g., Matt 7:15-20; 2 Pet. 2; 1 John 4:1, etc.).3 Confessions may be used to show brothers and pastors, within a local assembly, the doctrines that have been agreed upon to confess.4
Critique
Confessions are also formed to show where disagreement may lie amongst the brethren who may disagree. For example, the Second London Baptist Confession, otherwise known as the 1689 Baptist Confession, is a modified confession of both the Savoy and Westminster confessions. The Savoy confession is a Congregational confession. The Westminster confession is a Presbyterian confession. Since these three documents are published and recognized as standards that these denominations adhere to, this allows for formal criticism.
Criticism benefits the church because we are all trying to get closer to the true meaning of God's word. If we have publicly proclaimed something, it can then be scrutinized by those who may disagree. This is quite common in church history.
One may be reading this and ask, “Didn’t you say unity at the beginning of this article? Why are all these confessions divided into denominations?” My response to this preemptive question is that the church should always be reforming. A fully reformed church should be a unified church.
Unity is the goal. There is a Latin term that has been loudly proclaimed amongst protestants since the 17th century: semper reformanda, which means always reforming. The goal of the church is to always reform where there has been error. In other words, the church always repents of bad practices and doctrines. Since man is fallen, and is always prone to error, we must constantly be on guard for error in the church. The hope is that criticism amongst one another will lead to reforming the doctrine necessary so that we may unify under true doctrine.
Furthermore, those who uphold a certain sound confession generally confirm that those who adhere to another sound confession are true Christians. These documents contain all the essential doctrines of the Christian faith but also communicate places of disagreement where fellowship must be broken. These disagreements are not minor enough to be ignored but can be set aside in the right context. For example, a paedobaptist would be insistent that the credobaptism brethren are sinning by not baptizing their infant child. A credobaptist would be insistent that the paedobaptist is sinning by falsely administering baptism to their infant child. Nevertheless, both parties recognize that they will spend eternity in heaven together. We may even visit one another’s churches, but the difference would hurt long-time fellowship. Codifying these differences in belief formalizes those differences to be critiqued by those who may disagree. How could one party critique the other if there was no way of proving what they believed? It would be merely speculative.
1 This is NOT to say that confessions are equal to the Bible. Confessions point to Christ insofar as they rightly summarize the word of God. Since confessions are not the Bible, they are still prone to error, whereas the Bible cannot err.
2 the Church has been doing this as early as the Apostles Creed, which was most likely formulated as early as the second century. Within its contents is a summary of the gospel. Anyone who does not agree with the apostle’s creed is outside of orthodoxy and should not be seen as Christian by anyone in history or today. See: https://www.crcna.org/welcome/beliefs/creeds/apostles-creed
3 A good example of this would be a historical observation of American Presbyterianism. Unfortunately, despite having a strong confessional heritage, American Presbyterians have had many divisions due to theological liberalism infiltrating their denominations. I write this not to critique my Presbyterian brethren but to emphasize that spiritual warfare is always present- even within our confessionally reformed churches. We should not let our guard down against the enemy because we believe our confessions will protect us. Confessions are a tool, not the rock on which we stand. May our confessions guide us back to that rock, so we can stand firm on the word of God (Psalm 18:2; Matt 7:24, Eph. 2:20).
4 to my knowledge, most confessional churches do not force their congregants to fully subscribe to a confession. However, the confession is usually the standard of doctrine for the assembly. This means that the standard to hold to most (if not all) confessions is meant to be held by the elders of the congregation.