Lesson 8: The Confessional Horizon
Using Rich Resources
If using historical theology is necessary for studying the Bible, how should we go about it? The answer is simple:
Deliberately use old books when studying a biblical passage.
There are two types of resources you should use, each with slightly different benefits. I call them “markers” and “mentors.” You should identify markers, and ask mentors.
Identify Markers: read and reference creeds, confessions, and catechisms
Just like signs and bright orange tags keep you on the right path during a hike, so creeds, confessions, and catechisms keep you on the path of faithful interpretation. The side paths toward the cliffs of heresy are many, and faithful believers over the centuries have erected markers to keep others from falling over the edge. They have opposed Scripture-twisters with carefully defined summaries in creeds. They have safeguarded the truth with precisely-described theology in confessions. They have passed on pure doctrines presented with simplicity in catechisms.
If you spend time reading these markers, and internalizing their language, your feet won’t stumble into well-intentioned misinterpretations of difficult texts.
Just this year, sitting in a Bible-believing church, I had a pastor teaching about the Holy Spirit. I was shocked to hear him say, “We don’t worship the Holy Spirit.” Now, he would have affirmed the deity of the Spirit; his point was that the Holy Spirit points people to Jesus and doesn’t draw attention to himself. But he didn’t seem to see that to deny that we worship the Spirit logically means that the Spirit is not God!
Several years ago, sitting in another Bible-believing church, I heard a pastor teaching about the relationship between our sinful nature and our bodies from somewhere in the book of James. He compared various Scriptures with each other, and explained his thought process as he tried to understand what the Bible was saying. But what he came up with actually would have been considered heresy in the early centuries of the church: that our physical body, our “flesh,” is actually sinful. This is called Gnosticism, and if followed fully, leads to a denial of Jesus’ real humanity and thus destroys the gospel.
How did I know that? I knew the markers! I thought to myself as I heard him, “If only he was familiar with an ancient church creed or confession, he would have known that what he is preaching is actually unbiblical, and was proved to be unbiblical centuries ago!” If he had referenced a marker or two, he could have eliminated some possible interpretations and not veered into false doctrine.
Don’t let that happen to you! Become familiar with creeds like the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Chalcedonian Creed, and then reference them in your study.
You should become familiar with confessions as well. In the Reformation era, church leaders wrote various confessions to distinguish Protestant doctrine from Catholic. Three of the most significant are the Westminster Confession of Faith (Presbyterian), the Canons of Dort (Dutch Reformed), and the Second London Baptist Confession. Depending on your denomination, you might be familiar with only one of these. I recommend reading and referencing each.
You should also get to know a catechism. These were written in question-and-answer form to teach sound doctrine to new believers. There are four related to the three confessions above: the Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechisms, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Baptist Catechism.
You should both read and reference these creeds, confessions, and catechisms. Then have them at hand while interpreting Scripture to guide and check your interpretation. As Carl Trueman put it, “more truth per square inch” resides in these resources than anywhere else outside the Bible.¹
Read
Here are a couple of ideas of how you can read them:
General: Memorize the Apostles Creed.
It is very short, but is an excellent and simple early theological summary of Scripture.
The New City Catechism has it set to music: singing it will make memorization easier!
Daily: Go through one section of a confession, also looking up and reading the Scriptures referenced there (e.g. a paragraph like that of the Second London Baptist Confession shown in the screenshot below).
You could print one out (see the Recommended Reading section) and replace 10 minutes of social media time with meditation on God’s Word.
This catechism is new, but is based on old catechisms (especially the Heidelberg Catechism). The definitions are succinct and memorable, aimed at teaching you how to read the Bible with biblical, systematic theology categories firmly in mind.
Reference
And here’s how you can reference them when studying a passage:
Creeds: Especially when studying the person and work of Jesus, read the description of his nature in the Nicene or Chalcedonian Creeds.
This will keep you from drifting into dangerous heresies about his deity or his humanity.
Confessions and catechisms: When you come across a topic of systematic theology, turn to a section of a confession or a catechism that summarizes it.
Read your passage in the light of that section, so it, not your previous ideas, will shape the way you interpret your passage. And read some of the Scriptures referenced there to help you keep the context of the whole Bible in mind.
Use Your Catechism, SillyTim Challies walks through a question about actors portraying the Father, Son, or Spirit on the silver screen, using the Bible as his authority, helped by catechisms.
Key quotation: “Because I am Protestant and hold to sola scriptura, I must insist that my answers are grounded in the Bible. But because I am Reformed Protestant, I do not need to stand alone with my Bible."
Ask Mentors: read and reference great Christian authors from the past
The second type of old resource you should use are writings that have stood the test of time: commentaries, sermons, essays. The men who wrote them will serve as mentors—trail guides along the path of faithful interpretation outlined in creeds, confessions, and catechisms. They know the path of faithful interpretation well. They will help you keep your footing with a steady arm and encouraging word. They will expose the blind spots in your thinking and augment your ability to read the Bible freshly and accurately.
As with creeds and confessions, I recommend that you both read and reference these mentors. That is, spend time reading from great historical Christian authors, and turn to them for guidance when studying a Bible passage.
For example, this year I finished reading Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion (the Ford Lewis Battles translation). It took me about two years, reading consistently from it for months, dropping it, and then starting again. But I regret none of the hours I spent: it has given me humility, seeing the greatness of Calvin’s mind compared to mine. It has given me confidence in sound doctrine, seeing it defended so well and passionately. It has deepened my affections for Jesus. It has broadened my mind.
Do I remember everything I read? Not at all! But I have highlighted hundreds of sentences and made comments in the margins, which will remind me of what I read when I open it up when studying a biblical topic.
Here’s what you can do:
- Read a few pages a day from a great work of the past.
- Reference the work when studying Scripture.
You can search for verse references and biblical themes in the index or table of contents. If you have a digital copy, this is even easier since you can perform a word search through an entire book using the search capabilities of whatever program you’re using to read it.
Many wonderful old books are available online at no cost while the reward of absorbing them is priceless.
C.S. Lewis explains why:
Most of all, perhaps, we need intimate knowledge of the past. Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present, to remind us that the basic assumptions have been quite different in different periods and that much which seems certain to the uneducated is merely temporary fashion. A man who has lived in many places is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his native village: the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age.
—C.S. Lewis, “Learning in War-Time,” The Essential C.S. Lewis, 374–375, emphasis mine.
