Historic Confessions

The church has always confessed her faith. These are the documents that defined Protestant and Reformed orthodoxy, produced under pressure, debated at councils, and carried across centuries. They are not Scripture, but they are the church’s best attempt to say what Scripture teaches.

Particular Baptist · 1689

1689 London Baptist Confession

The confession this site is anchored to. Particular Baptists adapted the Westminster and Savoy documents, replacing paedobaptism with credobaptism and adjusting ecclesiology for congregational polity. Thirty-two chapters.

Presbyterian · 1646

Westminster Confession of Faith

The most influential Reformed confession in the English language. Produced by the Westminster Assembly during the English Civil War. The direct source document behind both the Savoy Declaration and the 1689 LBC.

Congregationalist · 1658

Savoy Declaration

Westminster revised for Congregationalist polity by Thomas Goodwin, John Owen, and Philip Nye. The direct intermediary between Westminster and the 1689. Retains Westminster’s soteriology wholesale.

Dutch Reformed · 1561

Belgic Confession

Written by Guido de Brès under threat of execution from Spanish authorities. Thirty-seven articles covering all major loci. One of the Three Forms of Unity of the Dutch and German Reformed churches.

German Reformed · 1563

Heidelberg Catechism

The warmest and most pastoral of all the Reformed standards. One hundred twenty-nine questions organized around guilt, deliverance, and gratitude. Its opening question, “What is your only comfort?”, is among the most beautiful in all of Christian literature.

Continental Reformed · 1619

Canons of Dort

Produced by an international synod convened to answer Arminianism. The five heads of doctrine, election, atonement, depravity, calling, perseverance, are the most precise confessional treatment of the doctrines of grace ever written.

Lutheran · 1530

Augsburg Confession

The foundational Lutheran confession, presented by Philip Melanchthon to Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg. Twenty-eight articles defining Lutheran theology against Rome. Sola fide and sola scriptura are firmly in place; sacramentology and soteriology differ from Reformed standards.

Anglican · 1571

Thirty-Nine Articles

The confessional standard of the Church of England under Elizabeth I. Reformed in its articles on grace and sin, deliberately broad in others. The settlement document of the English Reformation, a theological tent large enough to hold Calvinist and moderate Lutheran alike.