Theology / Creeds and Confessions

  • The Value of Confessions by Douglas Kelly

    FROM TABLETALK | January 2013

    To this day, Christian Churches, especially in the Reformation tradition, use a powerful tool for “maintaining the form of sound words” and for spreading the gospel to the world—their confessional documents. The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century represented …Read More

  • Scripture Alone by Michael Kruger

    FROM TABLETALK | November 2012

    We live in a world filled with competing truth claims. Every day, we are bombarded with declarations that something is true and that something else is false. We are told what to believe and what not to believe. We are …Read More

  • Who Draws the Line? by Sean Michael Lucas

    FROM TABLETALK | July 2012

    As Jesus ascended into heaven, He delegated His authority to the Apostles to make disciples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit …Read More

  • Drawing the Line: Why Doctrine Matters by R. Scott Clark

    FROM TABLETALK | July 2012

    Imagine Mike. He’s an unusual mechanic. Where other mechanics find natural laws (such as gravity) unavoidable and even useful, he suspects them to be arbitrary, invoked in order to stifle his creativity. We can imagine how the story ends …Read More

  • Where and How Do We Draw the Line? by Kevin DeYoung

    FROM TABLETALK | July 2012

    “In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity.” Sounds nice, but which are which? Everyone wants to be unified in what really matters, to agree to disagree on what isn’t as important, and to exercise love in …Read More

  • Why Do We Draw the Line? by Carl Trueman

    FROM TABLETALK | July 2012

    In recent years, talk of uniting around the center has been very popular in conservative evangelical quarters. One obvious reason for this is that many regard such a center as reflecting the fact that there is a solid core of …Read More

  • Minutes and Years: The Westminster Assembly Project by Chad Van Dixhoorn

    FROM TABLETALK | March 2011

    TT: You’ve spent more than a decade studying the Westminster assembly. How did it all start? CVD: I first encountered a text by the Westminster assembly while my family was on holiday in northern Ontario. We were visiting the …Read More

  • The Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647) by Various

    Q1: What is the chief end of man? A1: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever. Read More

  • The Westminster Larger Catechism (1648) by Various

    Question 1: What is the chief and highest end of man? Answer: Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever. Read More

  • The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) by Various

    The original text of 1646, from the manuscript of Cornelius Burges, Assessor to the Westminster Assembly, with the Assembly’s proof texts, as published in the modern critical edition of 1937 by S. W. Carruthers. Read More

  • The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) by Various

    1. What is thy only comfort in life and in death? That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood …Read More

  • Canons and Decrees of the Synod of Dordt (1619) by Various

    The Judgment Concerning Divine Predestination Which the Synod Declares to Be in Agreement with the Word of God and Accepted Till Now in the Reformed Churches, Set Forth in Several Articles.Read More

  • The Belgic Confession (1561) by Various

    1. That there is One Only God We all believe with the heart, and confess with the mouth, that there is one only simple and spiritual Being, which we call God; and that he is eternal, incomprehensible invisible, immutable, infinite …Read More

  • Deeds Over Creeds by Gary L. W. Johnson

    FROM TABLETALK | September 2009

      The English Reformer Hugh Latimer once remarked, “We ought never to regard unity so much that we would or should forsake God’s Word for her sake.” Wise words from a man who went to the stake, rather than compromise …Read More

  • Protestants and Creeds by Kim Riddlebarger

    FROM TABLETALK | January 2009

    Q. What is then necessary for a Christian to believe?  A. All that is promised us in the gospel, which the articles of our catholic, undoubted Christian faith teach us in sum. 
    (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 22)     I’ll never …Read More