Today I'm adding The Baptist Confession of Faith 1689 by Peter Masters to the Master Reading List under the category of Advanced Theology (Available from Amazon or free here).
To get a good understanding of Reformed theology, then you must read one of the historic confessions of the Reformed tradition. The Westminster Confession is the usual first port of call, but if you're a Baptist then you can read the Baptist version and if you're Congregationalist then you have the Savoy Declaration. The differences between them is nicely given here if you're really keen.
What does the confession teach? Advanced systematic theology. All the major doctrines of the Bible are present and accounted for with proof texts.
Why is this an 'advanced' theological document? It was shaped by some of the greatest theologians who ever lived and every word of it is carefully chosen. This is not a document you skim read, but one you read carefully and meditatively. Thus, it is truly 'advanced' reading.
Is it for everyone? If you claim to come from the Reformed tradition I would recommend you try reading through it at least once. Firstly, to expose yourself to first class teaching even if you don't understand it all. Secondly, to give yourself some awareness of historical theology. Not everything in the document is supported by all those who call themselves Reformed today. Nevertheless it is good to see where your forebears stood on something like children dying in infancy and whether we are warned against the pope in Scripture.
Why the Peter Masters' edition? The theology is hard enough without the additional struggle of reading older English. So this edition helpfully updates the Confession by making it more accessible to modern readers. Masters writes: 'In this edition the Confession has been updated so that archaic, antiquated words (and word endings) have been replaced with their modern equivalents. The punctuation has also been updated, and difficult-to-follow sentences have been reconstructed, but as little as possible to ensure faithful reproduction of the original sense. Where further explanation was felt to be necessary, or where much more modern words were called for, these have been inserted additionally in italic brackets.'
You may not get a Masters of Divinity by reading the writings of these doctors, but no doubt you will learn a thing or two and bring benefit to your soul.
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