ROOTED AND GROUNDED:
a light modernisation of the 1689 Baptist
Confession of Faith
Edited by Jeremy Walker
EP Books. 93 pages £5.99
ISBN 978 1 783 973 170
Jeremy Walker has produced a new edition of the seminal 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith.
It is a readable edition with the Bible references as footnotes to the truths they espouse. Archaic or difficult words are followed by modern equivalents in square brackets. The original introduction and appendix are supplied with select explanatory footnotes, which puts it into context, although a historical introduction would have been helpful.
Walker has done the church a service, because the Confession is well worth reading. It really is a primer of Christian belief with Baptist convictions. The original authors encouraged readers to look up the Scripture references, following the example of the Bereans (Acts 16.10-12), and I would say that doing so helps us to see the Biblical basis of our faith expressed systematically. This often gets lost in the otherwise helpful modern approach of expository preaching. The appendix is a short and eirenic argument for believers’ baptism. It is a product of its time (would we have a chapter on oaths if we were writing it today?) but the core foundational Christian beliefs are all there.
It would be helpful for new Christians or for a whole (Baptist?) church to have a stronger grasp of systematic theology.
