Sunday School : 1689 Confession – 4

Before we actually begin the study of the confession from next week onwards, here is one last introductory study of the confession. Dr. Michael Haykin of Southern Seminary, will introduce the confession by tracking the history of the men who drew this confession. He first draws the historical context of and need for drawing such a confession of faith. He then sketches briefly the lives and ministries of the some of the key men behind the confession. It is a rich study on the history of our Particular Baptist forefathers and their drawing of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith.  

The 1689 Confession: The Men  Listen | Download

Sunday School : 1689 Confession – 3

Theoblogy is continuing our study through the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith in its Sunday School. Pastor Arden Hodgins will be our teacher through out its course. Hodgins pastors Trinity Reformed Baptist church, in California. Hodgins begins his series with a two part introduction that seeks to answer some of the main questions raised by people who are opposed to the use of confessions and creeds in the church.  These questions relate to the objections to, biblical warrant of and the benefit of confessions of faith.

Hodgins has classified these questions into three major ones and this forms the outline of his introduction. The first of which was: What are the objections to holding to a confession of faith?, which he answered in the first part of this introduction.  In his second part of his introduction, Hodgins answers the next two questions namely :  2. What is our Biblical warrant for holding to our confession of faith? 3. Why is a confession of faith so needful and helpful to the local church?

Introduction to the 1689 Confession  - 2   Listen |  Download

Sunday School : 1689 Confession – 1

Theoblogy is beginning a new series in our weekly postings: Sunday School. Every Lord’s day we will study at the Sunday School, pertinent topics for being a biblically informed and transformed believer. To do this, we will be studying through the 1689 London Baptist Confession. 

There are two reasons why we have chosen this Particular Baptist document for our Sunday School. First, we are committed Calvinistic Baptists and would like to make known the doctrines we believe in a systematic way as is described in the 1689 Confession. This confession was held dearly by our Baptist forefathers like William Kiffin, Nehemiah Cox., Benjamin Keach, John Bunyan, Charles Spurgeon etc and we want to follow in their footsteps in affirming this confession as ours. Secondly, many a Christian lacks any systematic understanding of doctrines in the Bible and we hope that this study would help them to thoroughly learn what they believe. A great majority of the doctrines we would be studying from the confession are believed not only by Particular Baptists, but by all who claim to be Evangelical Christians, in the best sense of that term.  It is indeed a sad thing that today many believers carry around an atomistic understanding of the teachings of the Bible and thereby are susceptible to all kinds of deceptive teachings. Only when we gain a holistic understanding of the Bible can we sharpen our discernment and deepen our growth in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To begin with, here is Dr. Michael Haykin, Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who will introduce the origins of the Confession in its historical context and then deal with the place of Scriptures in the confession.

A Spirituality of the Word : Scriptures in 1689 Confession  Listen | Download