Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Reformed confessions of faith

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Reformed confessions of faith

Reformed confessions of faith are the confessions of faith of various Reformed churches. These documents express consensus on doctrine for the church adopting the confession. A few confessions are shared as subordinate standards (i.e. authorities subordinate to the Bible) by many denominations, which have made their choices from among the various creeds for primarily historical reasons. Some of the common Reformed confessions are (with year of writing):

Contents

Presbyterian

  • Scots Confession (1560)
  • The Westminster Standards are common among the Presbyterian churches:
  • Westminster Confession of Faith (1646)
  • Westminster Shorter Catechism (1649)
  • Westminster Larger Catechism (1649)
  • Confession of 1967
  • The Book of Confessions (1983) contains the confessional standards of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and incorporates versions of both Continental and Presbyterian Reformed confessions of faith, including the 1991 Brief Statement of Faith.
  • Congregationalist

    The Independents declined from Reformed theology on issues of the role of the magistrate, and the powers of higher church courts, but retained the Calvinist system touching many other issues.

  • Cambridge Platform (1648), Massachusetts Bay Colony, New England
  • Savoy Declaration (1658), London
  • Saybrook Platform (1708), Connecticut Colony, New England
  • Baptist

    Some of the Baptist churches came alongside the Puritan movement in England, and in doing so sought to agree as far as conscience allowed, in the Calvinistic form of doctrine which prevailed among the Presbyterians and many Congregationalists. Except for their few exceptions concerning congregational church governance and adult baptism, these "Particular" Baptists adopted the Reformed faith.

  • 1644 Baptist Confession of Faith
  • Keach's Catechism (1677)
  • 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith
  • New Hampshire Confession of Faith
  • Baptist Affirmation of Faith 1966
  • Anglican

    The Anglican church is not a confessional church in the same way that the Lutheran Church is. Anglican doctrine is most defined by Lex orandi, lex credendi ( "the law of praying [is] the law of believing"). The Thirty-Nine Articles are in the Book of Common Prayer but are not part of Anglican canon law. The Thirty-Nine Articles are, however, important in defining how the Anglican church related and relates to the reformed churches on the one hand and the Roman Catholic Church on the other.

  • Thirty-Nine Articles
  • Lambeth Articles
  • Irish Articles 1615
  • References

    Reformed confessions of faith Wikipedia