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Bible Question: A
friend has mentioned something called the Eighteen Articles
of Faith. What are they?
Bible Answer: The
eighteen articles of faith that your friend is referring
to appears to be the historic "New Hampshire Baptist
Confession" of 1833. There are a number of historic
statements of faith. The best known ones are the Apostle's
Creed (200-300 A.D.), Nicene Creed (325 and 381 A.D.),
Athanasian (300-400 A.D.), Chalcedonian (451 A.D.), Augsburg
Confession (1530 A.D.), Thirty-nine Articles (1571 A.D.),
Formula of Concord (1576 A.D.), Westminster Confession
of Faith (1643 A.D.), New Hampshire Baptist Confession
(1833), Baptist Faith and Practice (1925 and 1963 A.D.),
and the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978
A.D.). Each of these are significant confessions of faith.
Background.
The New Hampshire Baptist Confession was drafted in 1833
by Rev. John Newton Brown, an influential Baptist leader.
The confession was adopted by the New Hampshire Convention
and was widely supported. In 1933, the General Association
of Regular Baptists (GARB), a group of conservative churches,
adopted a revised version of the confession. The original
version included eighteen articles. Here are the topics:
| |
New
Hampshire Baptist Confession (1833) |
|
Article |
Declaration
of Faith |
|
1 |
of
the Scriptures |
|
2 |
of
the True God |
|
3 |
of
the Fall of Man |
|
4 |
of
the Way of Salvation |
|
5 |
of
Justification |
|
6 |
of
the Freeness of Salvation |
|
7 |
of
the Grace In Regeneration |
|
8 |
of
Repentance and Faith |
|
9 |
of
God's Purpose of Grace |
|
10 |
of
Sanctification |
|
11 |
of
the Preservation of Saints |
|
12 |
of
the Harmony of the Law and the Gospel |
|
13 |
of
a Gospel Church |
|
14 |
of
Baptism and the Lord's Supper |
|
15 |
of
the Christian Sabbath |
|
16 |
of
Civil Government |
|
17 |
of
the Righteous and the Wicked |
|
18 |
of
the World to Come |
Modification. The
GARB modified the confession to reflect a premillennial
view of the future. Typically this means the person believes
that Jesus Christ returns for all Christians before the
Tribulation starts and that after the Tribulation, Jesus
sets up His kingdom on earth (Rev. 20:1-10). After the
judgment of the wicked occurs, eternal life either with
God or in the lake of fire follows (Rev. 20:11-15).
Conclusion: Statements
of faith are great since they quickly give one an idea about what the church, the pastor and most
of the people in a church believe. |
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