Ah yes. The so-called "Baptist Faith & Message Fellowship" of the 1970s and 1980s named themselves after that confession.
Their supposed devotion to it ebbed, however, once their goal of retaking the SBC succeeded, as they closed up shop and their camp produced a document of their own (BFM2000).
Yes, and "most" Baptists ignore them at best, and hate them, at worst. Only a very small percentage of Baptists (and the baptistic) are confessional. That's my point.
A lot of the members here are indeed unenthusiastic about or opposed to confessions. On the other hand, a fair number are well-versed in confessions (and not only Baptist ones) and willing to discuss them.
An Orthodox Confession (General Baptist) is an interesting one because it explicitly adopts the Nicene, Athanasian and Apostles creeds in an attempt to 1) place the Generals within Orthodox Protestantism and 2) decelerate the trend of the Generals' increasingly unorthodox Christology. (In the latter it failed and so many of the Generals were swept into Unitarianism that the movement barely survived.)
I happily fit into the "very small percentage" category. The 1689 Second London Baptist Confession, while a man-made document, is a faithful summary of the major biblical doctrines and associated practices. Benjamin Keach wrote an excellent catechism to help teach the Confession.
I do too, which is why I know how small a percentage confessional Baptists are. Even among Calvinistic Baptists (and baptistic groups), those who are confessional are a minority, in my experience.
Wrong on two counts. As much as I complain about muddled Baptist soteriology, I have not found many (actually, any) Pelagians in our congregations. Maybe that's just me, but I doubt it.
The reaction against confessions has nothing (or at least little) to do with Catholicism. The early English/American Baptists produced several confessions. Baptists who rejected confessions/statements of faith were rejecting hierarchy of all forms, whether Catholic, magisterial or Anglican, sometimes with good reason and sometimes in worship of the cult of individualism.
Then I suggest that you're posting in the wrong forum. There is nothing as central to Baptist identity than credobaptism and all that that flows from it.
Baptists span a broader range than your congregation. Also, people don't label themselves Pelagian. Just listen to them and they will reveal that's their position. You don't need to spend more than 5 minutes on BB to that.
I understand that Baptists have and use confessions. What I said was that only a small minority use them today. You obviously don't have a broad range of experience in different Baptist churches as I do.
If I've missed the text that says, "believer's baptism", please help point me in the right direction.
Any assertion that I think "my congregation" is either normative or regulative is laughable (feel free to look up my many posts on Baptist identity and variations of belief) but you seem to have set yourself up as the ultimate authority on Baptists, so I defer to your infinite wisdom.
I've spent more than five minutes on the BB and cannot think of a real Pelagian posting in the Baptist-only forums. There may have been a few (maybe even one now), but the board is not rife with Pelagianism. Unless, of course, you define Pelagianism as "anyone who disagrees with me."
Since the topic of this thread is confessions, please feel to point out a Baptist confession that does not hold to credobaptism.
Question for you. Do you agree with this statement (including scripture proofs) from the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith?
Chapter 29: Of Baptism
2._____ Those who do actually profess repentance towards God, faith in, and obedience to, our Lord Jesus Christ, are the only proper subjects of this ordinance.
( Mark 16:16; Acts 8:36, 37;Acts 2:41;Acts 8:12;Acts 18:8 )