The White Badger Inn

Because The Brits Say It Better
Why We Have a Confession

Charles Spurgeon once remarked on the London Baptist Confession of Faith, saying: "This ancient document is the most excellent epitome of the things most surely believed among us. It is not issued as an authoritative rule or code of faith, whereby you may be fettered, but as a means of edification in righteousness. It is an excellent, though not inspired, expression of the teaching of those Holy Scriptures by which all confessions are to be measured. We hold to the humbling truths of God's sovereign grace in the salvation of lost sinners. Salvation is through Christ alone and by faith alone."

When one wonders why we should have a Confession, why we should espouse a "Faith," or "Tradition of Faith," as opposed to anything other than Scripture, we respond, not with the reply that Tradition is on equal footing with Scripture (see below article), but in the words of C.H. Spurgeon: "Be not ashamed of your faith; remember it is the ancient gospel of the martyrs, confessors, reformers, and saints. Above all, it is the truth of God, against which all the gates of Hell cannot prevail. Let your lives adorn your faith, let your example adorn your creed. Above all live in Christ Jesus, and walk in Him, giving credence to no teaching but that which is manifestly approved of Him, and owned by the Holy Spirit. Cleave fast to the Word of God which is here mapped out for you.’ This new edition of the Confession is sent out as a private venture by a small group of Baptists who are convinced that it has a message for this generation and believe its publication to be long overdue. They hope it will achieve a wide circulation among the churches, and receive the close study which they believe it will richly repay."

As my Elder likes to say: "It would be the height of arrogance to think we could learn nothing from our Fathers."