The following is the Christian Confession of Faith (CCF).
https://agrammatos.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/ccf.pdf
A Confession such as this is meant to “be a blessing and a means of unity among our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world, including a means of finding others of like precious faith. We hope that true Christians will use it as a litmus test for fellowship. We hope that it will show the essence of the Christian Faith to those who are ignorant of it. And we hope that it will be another means God uses to bring His people to Himself” (CCF)
I agree in full with all the doctrines contained in the CCF; I believe they are a Scriptural summary of the Christian Faith. The making of this confession was before I knew any of its many contributors (who represented a wide variety of backgrounds and nationalities).
A leading authority on the The Wicked Westminster Confession states the following about confessions.
“Confessions are doctrinal summaries of the Bible’s teaching. They are written by the Church for the Church and the world. They are written for the world because churches with creeds and confessions are trying to be honest about themselves. These doctrinal statements announce that this is a church that has beliefs and is willing to list the most important ones for all to see. This is the very thing that cults and sects refuse to do. When they arrive at your door on Saturday mornings they discuss all things peripheral; their pamphlets hide what they believe and so do their websites.
Things are different in orthodox churches and have been so from the beginning. Not only were the Christians of the early church forced to explain themselves to governors unhappy with the exclusive claims of Christians. They also needed to explain their faith simply to new converts wanting summaries of the Bible’s teaching. Creeds and confessions serve this purpose well. They summarize what God’s word has to say about God and they state succinctly the horror of the fall and then the wonder of the gospel.
Although confessions and creeds have sometimes started as signposts to a church’s honesty or catalogues of its core beliefs, the best of them have also served as ecumenical charters of some sort. They were meant to be shared, perhaps by many churches for many centuries. That has meant that those who use a confession might not be able to shape each sentence and paragraph just as they would like. But the value of a shared confession is almost incalculable for the church that uses it, for it helps it to express the unity of the body of Christ. Shared confessions such as the Apostles’ Creed or the Westminster Confession of Faith unite the church to others which have confessed the same doctrines before. These texts remind us that Christianity was not invented last Tuesday and they affirm that we are united to all those that love and preach what we have confessed in written form. And so a good confession is not only public, but it also strikes the right balance between the pure doctrine of the church and the unity of the church. A confession should state each doctrine carefully, but also humbly. It should plainly confess what is plain in Scripture and, if it is necessary to state it at all, it should cautiously express that which is less obvious”(Chad Van Dixhoorn).
This, from the CCF Preface:
“Whereas other Confessions include extraneous and unbiblical things as well as things over which true Christians can disagree (and, in the case of some Confessions, things with which true Christians must disagree), the CCF is a document that consists of biblical doctrine to which no true Christian will be opposed. It consists of doctrine that distinguishes the Christian Faith from all other religions, including false Christian religions. The other Confessions leave room for their adherents to speak peace to those who believe false gospels; this Confession does not. For the CCF, there is no such thing as a ‘partial subscriptionist.’ If, after reading this Confession, anyone opposes any of the doctrines put forth therein, that person can rightfully be judged to be not of the Christian Faith.
We do not anticipate that the CCF will be popular, even among those professing Christians who say they believe the doctrines of grace, because true Christianity is not popular, even among those who say they believe the doctrines of grace. We do not anticipate that this will be embraced in most ‘Reformed’ or ‘Calvinist’ or ‘Sovereign Grace’ circles, since it does not allow any room for its adherents to engage in spiritual harlotry with God-haters.[e.g., Charles Hodge’s spiritual harlotry with Schleiermacher–CD] Many unregenerate people are able to hold to other Confessions in good conscience because other Confessions do not go far enough in distinguishing the true Christian religion from false Christian religions and in proclaiming that all who believe in a false gospel of salvation conditioned on the sinner, as well as all who speak peace to them, are unregenerate.”
Contrary to those giddy souls who insist on basking in the glow of a technically wrong definition, cults do not
“declare their sentiments in terms most scrupulously exact in order that no indirect subterfuges might remain to ungodly men, to whom ambiguity of expression was a kind of hiding-place” (John Calvin, Institutes, 1.13.4).
Precise and easy-to-understand statements in the CCF are not meant to snare, entangle, or catch heretics; they are meant to be a litmus test for the communion and fellowship with true saints in the Light of Truth (John 14:6; 2 Corinthians 4:1-7; Colossians 1:12). But since heretics are less than honest and forthright, the CCF does serve the purpose of excluding weaslers and repelling and deterring dishonest abusers of words (e.g., prevarication, equivocation, mental reservation, etc.).
Agrammatos 