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Many times in Equip we have discussed the importance
of teaching doctrine in the discipling, educating process of the Christian
faith. People cannot weather the storms of life without a solid doctrinal
foundation. Though we have also advocated the importance of being careful how
we teach doctrine and taking pains to help students understand how biblical
doctrine relates to everyday life, we cannot be faithful disciplers without
teaching and modeling biblical doctrine.
Reformed Confessions provides us with an excellent
tool for teaching doctrine. It harmonizes seven of the most famous creeds
associated with the Protestant Reformation: The Belgic Confession (1561), The
Heidelberg Catechism (1563), The Second Helvetica Confession (1566), The Canons
of Ort (1619), The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), The Westminster
Shorter Catechism (1647), and the Westminster Larger Catechism (1648).
In addition to placing these Reformed documents at your
fingertips to illustrate how various wordings of the same doctrines were
developed, the editors include a summary which presents each document in its
historical context. The creeds reflect the history of an important period in the
life of the Christian Church. The book arranges the doctrines in the
traditional loci of Reformed dogmatics or systematics, which makes it easy to
use in teaching those doctrines.
Pastors and teachers will appreciate the annotated
bibliography of reformed doctrinal works. Though the bibliography contains only
English works, it is one of the best compilations I’ve seen. The bibliography
for each doctrinal topic also suggests where to begin reading in that area.
Other books harmonize some of these creeds and confessions,
but having all seven in quick reference columns will make our teaching and
preaching easier, and hopefully encourage us to draw from the good content.
- Charles Dunahoo, CEP Coordinator
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