The Westminster Confession of Faith
The Westminster Larger Catechism
The Westminster Shorter Catechism
The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith
(OFFSITE)
The Abstract of Principles
The Augsburg Confession
(OFFSITE)
The Belgic Confession
The Canons of Dort
The Heidelberg Catechism
(OFFSITE)
The New Hampshire Confession of Faith
The Philadelphia Confession of Faith
The Second Helvetic Confession
The Thirty-Nine Articles
Dr. Carl R. Trueman in his volume, Crisis of Confidence, speaks “On the Usefulness of Creeds and Confessions” and well articulates the reason The Alliance holds to confessionality so firmly. Dr. Trueman’s primary points are:
- All Churches and All Christians have Creeds and Confessions
- Confessions Delimit the Power of the Church
- Creeds and Confessions Offer Succinct and Through Summaries of the Faith
- A Through Confession Provides Moral Guidance in an Age of Moral Confusion
- Creeds and Confessions Allow for Appropriate Discrimination between Members and Office-Bearers
- Creeds and Confessions Reflect the Ministerial Authority of the Church
- Creeds and Confessions Represent the Maximum Doctrinal Competence that can be Expected from a Congregation
- Creeds and Confessions Relativize the Present
- Creeds and Confessions Help to Define One Church in Relation to Another
- Creeds and Confessions Are Necessary for Maintaining Corporate Unity
Carl concludes by with “the above points [are] grounded in the apostle Paul’s concern for the health of the church through her careful stewardship of God’s truth, the handling of that down from generation to generation, and the constant rejoicing in the same, which is meant to characterize the Christian life both at a corporate level and for the individual.”
