During the first quarter of 2025, many of Sola's publications have touched in one way or another on the theme of discipleship. C. S. Lewis once compared Christianity to a house with many rooms, which represent the various confessional traditions of faith and practice that exist within the mansion of the church. We each enter the door of salvation, but, Lewis reminds us, none of us can linger in the entryway. "It is in the rooms," he says, "not the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is a place to wait in ... not a place to live in." The rooms (the confessional traditions) are where we're engaged and nourished—in other words, where we're discipled. In the following guest essay, Caleb Clark, a pastor and writer in California, invites us to consider not just the truth and goodness but the beauty of confessional Christianity.
Brannon Ellis, Executive Editor
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“I don’t care much for all that doctrine; we really need to read the Bible and simply believe in Jesus.”
This is the theological environment that I grew up in. A deep evangelical love for Jesus and the Bible, but a hesitance to define doctrine, clarify issues, or generally speak of the Christian faith in a confessional way.
By confessional, I mean an approach to Christianity which grounds the biblical interpretation and practice of the church in confessions—particular creeds and historic articulations of doctrines adopted by communities of Christians with shared convictions. Think of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) or the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England (1571). These confessions do not replace Scripture; they aim to succinctly summarize it. In the twenty-first century, American Protestantism has continually trended away from a confessional understanding of church life. Evangelicalism has largely become a movement that holds tightly to the essentials of the faith, and the importance of the word, but distances itself from more robust creedal systems.
Generally speaking, American Protestants value the word alone. What is wrong with that? After all, Sola Scriptura is one of the building blocks of the Reformation. A brief Google search will further show that many see confessions as stiff, rigid, unhelpful, restrictive, and even antithetical to the Bible itself. This sentiment prevails within our modern climate of Evangelical Christianity.
This is a mistake. Though extremely out of fashion in our current age, historical Christian confessions are the way forward for the church in the twenty-first century. Here I want to highlight for us three ways the church (both in America and around the globe) not only benefits from but is beautified by a confessional understanding of Christianity.
1: The confessions are beautifully consistent with Scripture and church history
To the person who declares, “my only creed is Christ; give me the pure teachings of the Bible,” one simple question brings the house tumbling down: Which Christ? The idealistic concept of only wanting the plain teaching of Scripture is admirable, but it cannot stand up against real scrutiny. Movements of heresy throughout the ages have espoused a simple love for the plain teachings of the Bible, nothing added. Even love for the Bible itself raises the question, Which biblical canon are you referring to?
The Role of Creeds and Confessions in the Church
by Guy M. RichardIn this essay, Richard asks two basic questions, offering us rich and practical answers: What are creeds and confessions? and, What do creeds and confessions do?
When the person clarifies that the Jesus they speak of is the Christian Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, one of the Trinity, who died on the cross for the sins of the world, then we have stepped into the territory of a confession. Those who espouse a desire for “simply Jesus” and nothing else are often thinking in a confessional manner without realizing it.
As the Westminster Confession of Faith articulates, Christians do not love some abstract Jesus. Instead, we love “The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance and equal with the Father” (WCF 8.2).
We exalt in the fact that Jesus took “upon him man’s nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin: being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin Mary, of her substance; so that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion” (WCF 8.2). Our belief requires specificity.
This uncovers a monumental truth that, when rightly understood, undergirds healthy Christian living: we do not love Scripture itself, we love what Scripture means. If you are sharing the gospel with someone, it is not enough to simply call them to believe in “the gospel.” Why? Because that term is entirely insignificant on its own. Nobody knows what that means—and worse yet they may be left to create their own meaning for it! Calling someone to come and believe in the “gospel of Jesus” requires explanation. Without definition of the term gospel the evangelist is floating in ambiguous waters and cannot offer any true hope. As Daniel Hyde writes, “without something to confess, our faith is empty and meaningless to a world in need of Christ and the answers He gives to our lives.”
A Timeline of Creeds and Confessions
The MR editors put together this handy timeline of some of the key creeds and confessions from the early church and the era of the Reformation.
Christian confessions do not replace Scripture, they represent summarized interpretations of it and thus are necessary. The apostle Paul, in his first letter to the church of Corinth, ends by reminding the brothers of “the gospel I preached to you.” He does not leave this term unexplained but goes on to specify the exact meaning of this gospel in a creedal fashion:
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve… Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed” (1 Cor. 15:3-5, 11).
“Although my conscience accuses me that I have grievously sinned against all God’s commandments… yet God, without any merit of my own, out of mere grace, imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ. He grants these to me as if I had never had nor committed any sin, and as if I myself had accomplished all the obedience which Christ has rendered for me, if only I accept this gift with a believing heart” (Q&A 60).
This explanation of the gospel does not work against Scripture or aim to supplant the sufficiency of revelation. Instead, confessions aim to do the opposite by giving full meaning to key Christian terms through the citation and summarization of God’s word.
Decrying commitment to historic or modern Christian confessions as a violation of Protestant ethics is ironic for a number of reasons. Chief among them is the fact that the actual Reformers, the ones who championed the sufficiency of Scripture alone, were deeply committed to confessional Christianity. The dichotomy between creeds and Scripture is a false one. Subscribing to a confession declares: “The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience,” and this is what it teaches (LBC 1.1).
2: The confessions are beautifully conducive to community engagement
Not only are Christian confessions consistent with Scripture and church history, they are practically conducive to positive societal engagement. Historic confessions help ground our evangelistic method in the larger scope of church history, essentially protecting us against inventing some new doctrine, or unwittingly propagating an unbiblical idea. They root us down into orthodoxy. If the world is to be reached with the gospel, it must be the orthodox gospel, the same message that was received by Paul and the apostles many years ago.
In short, basing evangelism and societal engagement upon a creedal foundation helps protect us from gospel-shift. Good confessions tether us to ancient truth that is eternally applicable and teach us to resist changing the message of the Bible to placate our modern culture. After all, if the world is to be drawn in by the teachings of Jesus, they will be enticed not by how familiar or palatable his words are, but by their otherworldly and divine nature.
The church must also excel at engaging with the ideas of the world while remaining rooted in its own differentiated identity. Robust confessions help make this possible. Supplying believers with a solid foundation of what the Bible teaches enables constructive dialogue in a unique way. Imagine a believer enters into a secular conversation about the meaning of life. If this Christian is not entirely sure what the meaning of life is, or how exactly the Bible speaks to that question they will undoubtedly grow quiet, concerned, or feel threatened and put on the defensive. They are essentially floating about, unmoored in the midst of a raging ocean.
Creeds and Confessions
by Justin HolcombIn this essay, Holcomb reflects on what creeds and confessions are, what they were written for, and how we can and should benefit from them as individuals and churches today.
On the other hand, a robust understanding of how Scripture answers this question, or at the very least having access to a document that can help summarize Scripture on this point, allows for entrance into that foreign conversation with an entirely different attitude. Confessionally grounded Christians have succinct answers that harmonize with the history of the church. They can join in with the saints and declare that “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever” (WSC Q&A 1). When someone is searching the deep things of life, we can joyfully assert that man was created “that he might truly know God his Creator, love Him with all his heart, and live with Him in eternal happiness” (HC Q&A 6). Further still, we are able to summarize the ultimate purpose or end of life on earth, namely that:
“The faithful and elect shall be crowned with glory and honor; the Son of God will confess their names before God His Father and His elect angels; all tears shall be wiped from their eyes; and their cause, at present condemned as heretical and evil by many judges and civil officers, will be acknowledged as the cause of the Son of God” (Belgic Confession, Article 37).
Knowing where they stand, Christians are capable of listening to counter-perspectives without being swayed themselves. Confessions help anchor us down into solid truth so that as we take on water we are not afraid of drowning.
3: The confessions offer a beautifully deep ecclesiological unity
Finally, confessions and creeds stimulate deep unity within a local church body. When an entire body of Christians rally around a unifying statement of beliefs, the sense of community and oneness increases.
I will never forget a text I received shortly after our church published its finished confessional statements. One of our dear sisters in Christ reached out to let me know that reading through our documents had been an encouraging experience for her, and that she had never felt so connected to a church in her life. Reading about her own beliefs and being able to identify those beliefs with the other Christians she called “family” was deeply moving.
A congregation where everyone is on the same page concerning the meaning of baptism, communion, the sovereignty of God, and the ethos of worship possesses greater spiritual strength than one in which there is discord and disagreement concerning these things. The founding president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, B. H. Carroll puts it this way:
“A church with a little creed is a church with a little life. The more divine doctrines a church can agree on, the greater its power, and the wider its usefulness. The fewer its articles of faith, the fewer its bonds of union and compactness.”
Many deride confessions as “missing the point” by focusing too much on non-essential issues of the faith. This can happen, of course. Confessionalism can easily wander into unhealthy legalism, sectarianism, or a “holier than thou” attitude towards people who adopt other systems of belief. Confessions can be pitted against one another in destructive ways. However, it is an error to assume that these things surface because of confessions themselves. The truth is, these malformations appear as the result of sin and imperfection.
Confessional
by Michael S. HortonIn this essay, Horton offers an impassioned plea for not just acknowledging our confessions, but embracing them as we seek to live lives of faith and service sharing in the communion of saints through the ages.
Inversely, some see the value of confessional standards, but only when they pertain to the essentials of the faith. However, when Paul commands Timothy to “watch your life and doctrine closely” he is charging him to zealously consider his entire set of his beliefs, not just the essentials (1 Tim. 4:16). It is a mistake to assume that because some doctrinal issues are not necessarily matters of salvation that they are therefore unimportant. Each and every issue is worth considering.
B. H. Carroll finished the statement previously referenced making this very point:
“The modern cry, ‘Less creed and more liberty,’ is a degeneration from the vertebrate to the jellyfish, and means less unity and less morality, and it means more heresy. Definitive truth does not create heresy—it only exposes and corrects. Shut off the creed and the Christian work would fill up with heresy unsuspected and uncorrected, but none the less deadly.”
It is admirable to keep the main things the main things, but not at the expense of truth, or the disregard of Scripture. Confessions help foster deep ecclesiological unity by bringing a common affirmation of the Bible’s teaching to the forefront of Christian fellowship so that “all persons throughout the world, professing the faith of the gospel, are bound to maintain a holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God” (LBC 26.2).
Consider the Beauty of Confessional Christianity
When we tether ourselves to the orthodox confessions of church history, we do ourselves a service in many regards. With such an anchor we affirm the meaning of Scripture, declaring that the Bible alone is our authority, and that we value what the word means. This foundation creates a home base for the believer to venture out into the world with confidence and gives him the tools to critically engage with foreign conversations in a calm, confident, non-defensive manner. Finally, these standards foster unity within the local church body as each believer, individually and with brothers and sisters in Christ, affirms and embodies the confessed vision of the universal church. Such considerations display confessional Christianity as not just true and good, but beautiful.
The statement “my only creed is the Bible” can be suitably rephrased. Perhaps it is better to affirm “my only authority is the Bible.” Then when you are asked, What does the Bible teach? you may humbly reference your confession and say with the apostle Paul that this is what we believe “in accordance with the Scriptures.”
