Don’t Be Caught without a Confession

Christians have always written and cherished summaries of their beliefs. The Bible records the earliest of these confessions of faith (1 Tim 3:16). Then, the early post-Apostolic church produced definitive statements of essential Christian belief, such as the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, still considered benchmarks of orthodoxy. In the centuries that have followed, Christians have continued to produce confessions: the Augsburg Confession (1530), the Thirty-Nine Articles (1562), the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), the London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689), and so on. The church has never been without a confession or creed. Read More

It is the 1571 version of the Articles of Religion that Anglicans have historically accepted as their confession of faith, not the 1562 version. Elizabeth I was involved in the negotiation of a marriage alliance with one of the Lutheran German princes at the time that the 1562 version of the Articles was drafted. The 1562 version does not contain the language of the 1571 version that maintains a vital faith is necessary to receive the benefits of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper and consequently was friendlier to a Lutheran understanding of the sacrament. The 1571 version adopts a Reformed view of the sacrament.