Title: The 1689 Handbook
Sub-title: How a historic confession shapes what we believe and how we live
Many Reformed Baptist churches worldwide and across the generations have adopted The 1689 Baptist Confession as an expression of their beliefs about what the Bible teaches.
The Confession summarises what the Bible says about the core topics of the Christian faith: Scripture, God, Christ, humanity, sin and salvation, the Church and the end times. Across history it has proven itself to be an effective way for churches to make known what they believe, to instruct their membership on the essentials of the faith and to guard against error. These benefits continue to be enjoyed by churches across cultures today.
Written with doctrinal insight, pastoral experience and a teacher's heart, The 1689 Handbook mines the Confession's riches, bringing its key teachings home to the reader with clarity and helpful application for both individual Christians and local churches. The unity and coherence of the Confession are emphasised throughout the book, helping the reader to enjoy it as an organic whole and to see how each doctrine fits together. Study questions enable the book to be used in small groups and in wider church settings.
With the fine precision of a theologian, the clear perception of a teacher, and the warm affection of a pastor, Robert Strivens walks us quickly but carefully through the landscape of confessional conviction. He plainly sets out the principles of Reformed Baptist faith and life, and pointedly identifies the related practices of righteousness. He has laboured to be clear and simple without being careless or shallow. The result is an accessible volume which will help any Christian, especially those confessional Baptists who wish to know better 'the things most surely believed among us.'
Jeremy Walker, Pastor of Maidenbower Baptist Church, editor of Rooted and Grounded: a light modernisation of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith
You have in your hands a lucid and concise exposition of the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith. It will serve as an invaluable primer, an introduction to historic biblical Christianity. Robert Strivens consistently drives home the importance and relevance of these doctrines both for churches and for individual Christians. Here is truth to live by.
Austin Walker, Retired pastor, author of The Excellent Benjamin Keach
