Confessional sources for the nine traditions
Confessional sources for the nine traditions
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Only classic formulations are used. Modern revisions and liberalised positions are not. Status labels follow the conventions: verified means the wording was checked against the online text linked here; to verify means the wording is not yet checked and the item carries less weight.
| Tradition | Standards used | Text checked against |
|---|---|---|
| Catholic | Trent; earlier councils | (see category files) |
| Orthodox | Confession of Dositheus (1672); the seven councils | (see category files) |
| Oriental Orthodox | Severus of Antioch; Timothy Aelurus; Coptic, Syriac, Armenian and Ethiopian liturgies; Armenian sources | Thin. No single confession exists. Checked so far: Severus, Select Letters (Brooks’s translation), Timothy Aelurus testimonia, the Armenian Badarak, and Nerses Shnorhali, I Confess with Faith. The Coptic liturgy rests on secondary sources only. Cells not covered by these texts remain to verify. |
| Lutheran | Book of Concord (1580) | (see category files) |
| Anglican | Thirty-Nine Articles (1571); 1662 Book of Common Prayer; the Homilies | Articles, 1662 Catechism, 1662 Burial |
| Presbyterian | Westminster Confession (1646); Larger and Shorter Catechisms | WCF, WLC, WSC |
| Reformed Baptist | Second London Baptist Confession (1689) | 1689 (chapters 1, 3, 6, 8–11, 17, 18, 21, 22, 26, 28–32 checked) |
| General Baptist | Standard Confession (1660); An Orthodox Creed (1679, Thomas Monck) | Standard Confession; Orthodox Creed in the 1679 printing, using the archive’s OCR, which is rough and partial |
| Anabaptist | Schleitheim (1527); Dordrecht (1632); Menno Simons | Schleitheim, Dordrecht. Menno Simons, Foundation book (baptism and Supper chapters checked) |
Authority: verified texts
- Presbyterian. WSC Q. 2: the Word of God “is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him”. WCF I.10 makes the Spirit speaking in Scripture the supreme judge of “all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers” (verified).
- Reformed Baptist. 1689 1.1: “The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience” (verified).
- General Baptist. Orthodox Creed art. 37 (checked against the OCR): “The Authority of the holy Scripture, dependeth not upon the Authority of any Man, but only upon the Authority of God”, and whatever is not read in it “nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required”. Standard Confession art. 23: “the holy Scriptures is the rule whereby Saints both in matters of Faith, and conversation are to be regulated” (verified). Orthodox Creed art. 38: the Nicene, Athanasian and Apostles’ Creeds “ought throughly to be received, and believed. For we believe, they may be proved, by most undoubted authority of holy Scripture”. This wording comes from a secondary transcription and is to verify against the 1679 printing. It makes the Orthodox Creed the only Baptist confession that embeds the three creeds.
- Anglican. Art. VI: “Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man”. Art. XXI: General Councils “may err, and sometimes have erred”. Art. VIII receives the three creeds (all verified).
- Anabaptist. Schleitheim and Dordrecht ground every article in Scripture. Dordrecht V: the New Testament may not be altered, added to or taken from by “angel nor man” (verified). There is no formal doctrine of tradition.
- Oriental Orthodox. Scripture is read within the tradition of the first three councils (Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus) and of the fathers, especially Cyril of Alexandria, as received by Severus and Timothy Aelurus. To verify: no primary text was checked in this pass.
Presbyterian, Reformed Baptist and General Baptist compared
They agree on:
- justification by faith alone. WCF XI.1 and 1689 11.1 are nearly word for word the same, and the Standard Confession art. 6 says faith is “accounted unto them for righteousness”.
- substitutionary atonement (Q, A3–A4).
- Scripture as the rule (see above).
- rejection of the Mass as a sacrifice: 1689 30.2 says “nor any real sacrifice made at all”.
- rejection of purgatory, of the veneration of relics and images, and of prayer for the dead: 1689 22.4 says prayer is made “not for the dead”.
They differ on:
| Point | Presbyterian (WCF) | Reformed Baptist (1689) | General Baptist (1660/1679) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baptism: subjects | Infants of believers (WCF XXVIII.4) | “Those who do actually profess repentance” (29.2) | Believers only: infant sprinkling is “that Scriptureless thing … (falsly called Baptisme)” (SC art. 11) |
| Baptism: mode | “Dipping … is not necessary” (XXVIII.3) | “Immersion, or dipping … is necessary” (29.4) | “Baptise (that is in English to Dip)” (SC art. 11); Orthodox Creed 28: “by Immersion or Dipping” (checked against the OCR) |
| Ecclesiology | Presbyterian church government by synods and councils (WCF XXXI); visible church includes believers’ children | Gathered congregations of “visible saints” (26.2); each congregation self-governing | Gathered congregations ordained “by Fasting, Prayer, and Laying on of Hands” (SC art. 5); laying on of hands for all the baptised (SC art. 12); messengers between churches |
| Atonement extent | Particular (WCF VIII.5, 8) | Particular (1689 8.8) | General: Christ “gave himself a ransome for all … tasting death for every man” (SC art. 3) |
| Predestination | Double decree: others “foreordained to everlasting death” (WCF III.3) | Softer wording: “others being left to act in their sin to their just condemnation” (3.3) | Election of “such as believe”, yet “not … from fore-seen faith” (SC art. 8); reprobation of the ungodly “considered as such” (art. 9) |
| Perseverance | Saints “can neither totally nor finally fall away” (XVII.1) | Same (17.1) The two standards differ. SC art. 18: true believers “may nevertheless for want of watchfulness, swerve and turn aside … and become as withered Branches”. Orthodox Creed art. 36: the elect “shall certainly persevere unto Eternal Life”, and art. 29: the invisible church “can never fall away” (both checked against the OCR) | |
| Infants dying | Elect infants saved (WCF X.3) | Same (10.3) | All dying infants saved, “only subject to the first death” (SC art. 10) |
WCF clause numbers not quoted above (XXVIII.4, XXXI, VIII.5, 8, X.3) and 1689 8.8 and 10.3 come from the standard numbering and were not rechecked in this pass. They are to verify.
Note on the Oriental Orthodox sources
The non-Chalcedonian churches (Coptic, Armenian, Ethiopian, Syriac) have no early-modern confession comparable to Trent or Westminster. Their positions are inferred from the liturgies and from Severus of Antioch and Timothy Aelurus. Those positions are broadly the same as Eastern Orthodox ones on the sacraments, relics and the afterlife, with two differences. They did not receive Chalcedon (451) or Nicaea II (787). And the Armenian church had a historical strand wary of images: Vrtanes Kertogh defended images against it around 600 (to verify). Now verified:
- the real presence and sacrifice in the Armenian Badarak: “holy and precious body and blood … propitiation and remission of sins”; “Son of God, Who art sacrificed to the Father for reconciliation”
- prayer for the departed: “grant rest to the souls of us that are fallen asleep”
- the procession of the Spirit “from the Father alone” and the Eucharist as “the Holy Sacrifice” (Nerses)
- Severus’s one-nature Christology, his rejection of “Leo’s impious letter”, and his preaching on “the commemoration of the martyrs”
Other Oriental Orthodox cells, for example on images, purgatory and free will, remain to verify. The high score against the fathers is still partly inferred.