Confessions & Scripture

Historic Christianity, in its Reformational stream, is a confessional tradition. Its theology is not held privately by individuals but corporately by the church, committed to public standards that define doctrine, worship, and discipline. The Westminster Standards (1646–48), the Three Forms of Unity (Belgic Confession, Heidelberg Catechism, Canons of Dort), and the 1689 London Baptist Confession are the principal Reformed confessions — each articulating the same substance of faith with different emphasis.

Underlying all of them is sola Scriptura: Scripture alone is the inerrant, infallible, sufficient rule of faith and life. The confessions are subordinate standards, authoritative because they faithfully summarize what Scripture teaches. They are not a substitute for the Bible but a safeguard against private eccentricity.

These questions treat the major Reformed confessions themselves, the Five Solas of the Reformation, Scripture's relation to tradition, the formation and inerrancy of the canon, and the principles of Reformed hermeneutics (including typology). Knowing these documents is not an academic luxury — it is the ordinary way Reformed Christians hear the creed of their tradition summarized clearly.