"What is a Christian Confession?

A Christian confession is what you believe as a Christian. If I were to ask you what you believe, you might reply, "Why, I believe the Bible, of course." If you replied that way you would not have answered the question at all. Many people and groups believe the Bible who also hold to very different interpretations. If I were to then ask you what the Bible teaches, you might think about that for a while then begin telling me what you believe about God and maybe how one may enter heaven. That, my friend, is your confession. It is what you say you believe. It is your credo (I believe).

As groups of churches organized around a common set of beliefs, they worked to compose a common confession of faith. They produced statements of their beliefs -- a kind of definition of who they were and what they believed.

Many of the great confessions of faith were written during the age of confessions. The Marburg Articles were an attempt to unite the German Lutheran Churches with the Swiss churches under the leaderships of Luther and Zwingli, respectively. The Augsburg Confession became the uniting statement of faith for the Lutherans. The Belgic Confession, written by Guido de Bras, became the confession for the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands. The Thirty-Nine Articles defined the faith of the Church of England. The Westminister Confession of the Faith, completed in 1646, was an attempt to unite the churches of all Great Britain and Scotland. The purpose was to make all the churches in these lands one church -- presybterian and reformed. Its failure to accomplish that is a fascinating story. It only became the confession of faith for the churches of Scotland and, subsequently, all presbyterian churches.

So ended the age of the great Christian confessions. The quality and impact of those great confessions was so great, they remain the confessions of many churches to this day. They should be studied and valued as human documents that form the teachings of the Bible into concise and logical statements of faith -- expressions of faithful and Godly people who, in many cases, died for their faith.

These confessions have served churches and believers for many years. However, they have served their purpose for their time and for the few centuries that followed. These great confessions no longer are practical tools in training new converts in the Christian faith. Their language is too archaic and esoteric for people in the postmodern age. There is a crying need to form a new confession in the language people speak -- a confession that addresses the issues believers face in this their lives today, a confession that can unite more believers, a confession that uninformed seekers can read, understand and which will help them receive the claims of Christ in his Word.

The teachings are not archaic. The teachings need to be restated in the language of our time. This is a principle we understand and apply to modern translations of the Bible. Why not apply this to the expressions of what we believe the Bible teaches?

Religion and Government

The ethics and values of a government can never stray very far from the ethics and values of the community. The various branches of government reflect the values of the community.
The Christian mission unavoidably shapes the community. The Christian missions operates on a very personal, day to day, grass roots level. People are reached, influenced and led by genuine love and grace, not by law. People are changed by persuasion or by an event disruptive to their lives.

Our mission is not to force people to bow the knee to Christ. Our mission is to preach the gospel and see people enter into an enjoyable relationship with the God of the universe and the Savior of the world. Personal change come from knowing and following Jesus Christ.