Ian Shaw reviews The 1689 Handbook by Robert Strivens.
The increase in numbers of Reformed Baptist churches, due initially to the ministry of Martyn Lloyd-Jones and the emergence of associational bodies outside of theologically liberal denominations, has encouraged a return to the confessional legacy of the 1689 Baptist Confession.
Robert Strivens writes out of a concern over many years to apply the challenges and lessons of Baptist history to the present. His approach in this book, like that of the authors of the original Confession, is to highlight wherever possible the wide areas of agreement between Baptists, Presbyterians (the Westminster Confession) and Congregationalists (the Savoy Declaration).
For example, Baptists who wonder if covenant theology is a weak area of their ecclesiology, will find Strivens helpful. After an introduction to the historical context, he concisely expounds the Confession, chapter by chapter, adding study questions and linked reading. Each chapter conclusion also includes a verse of a hymn. The study questions are especially valuable: they are skilfully drafted, always discouraging spiritually monochrome answers.
Strivens’ pastoral intent is apparent in the occasional applications to the reader, and also when he expands discussion of points where there is debate among Christians today. This sometimes is on theological matters (e.g. God being “without passions”) and elsewhere on areas where misapprehensions exist, such as on questions of church order (for example, quoting the Confession’s recognition that “the purest churches under heaven are subject to mixture and error”). Elsewhere in the book he is helpful when he counsels the reader on how (and how not) to persuade the unbeliever that they can trust the Bible as God’s word.
The author may not agree, but I think the book could be used selectively, because he almost always reminds the reader of the wider context within the Confession. His love for the Confession is transparent, and his wholehearted conviction of the importance of associational fellowship between Baptist churches is unmistakable. The book will be particularly helpful for churches who are considering adopting the Confession.
THE 1689 HANDBOOK: A Chapter by Chapter Introduction to the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith By Robert Strivens
Grace Publications. 226 pages. £14.99
