Our God-Centred Confession (Belgic Confession 1a)
Rev. Angus Stewart
Belgic Confession 1: There Is One Only God
We all believe with the heart, and confess with the mouth, that there is one only simple and spiritual Being, which we call God; and that he is eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, immutable, infinite, almighty, perfectly wise, just, good, and the overflowing fountain of all good.
"We All Believe With the Heart, and Confess With the Mouth ..."
The very first article of our Belgic Confession begins with its the longest "we believe" statement: "We all believe with the heart, and confess with the mouth ..." These words introduce not only article 1; in a sense, they introduce the whole confession.
The Belgic Confession's opening line also makes it clear that it is indeed a confession: "We all believe with the heart and confess ..." At the start of his introductory letter appended to the Belgic Confession, Guido de Brès quotes I Peter 3:15 which calls all believers to "be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you." At the very end of his letter, de Brès cites five texts on the New Testament duty to confess the truth:
Matthew 10: Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
Mark 8 and Luke 9: Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
I Peter 3: Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.
Romans 10: With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
II Timothy 2: If we deny him, he also will deny us.
This creed is not called a "catechism" or "canons" (as are the other two documents in our Three Forms of Unity: the Heidelberg Catechism and the Canons of Dordt) but a "confession," the Belgic Confession. It is emphatically a confession of faith, because it begins, "We all believe with the heart and confess with the mouth ..." This opening line suggests Romans 10:9-10, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Thus the full title of the Belgic Confession is the Belgic Confession of Faith.
This confession of faith is a communal or ecclesiastical confession of faith. It is not "I believe with the heart ..." although this is included. It is "We all believe with the heart ..." It is called the Belgic Confession because it is the confession of all the Reformed believers in the Lowlands. In his introductory letter, de Brès affirms that the confession is that of "more than one hundred thousand men maintaining and following the [Reformed] religion." If this refers to men as opposed to women, you can double that number and add more (namely, children) to it.
It is also worth pointing out that our Belgic Confession (1561), in the decades succeeding its publication, was approved by various provincial and national synods as the confession of the Dutch Reformed churches. The Synod of Dordt (1618-1619) adopted the Belgic Confession, as well as a specific text for the document itself. Moreover, the Belgic Confession was approved by not only the Dutch theologians but also the British, German and Swiss delegates.1 The French Reformed would, no doubt, also have endorsed it (especially since the Belgic Confession was based on the French Confession), but the Roman Catholic Louis XIII refused to allow them to send a delegation to the great synod. Today, the Belgic Confession is the ecclesiastical confession of faith not only of churches in the Netherlands; it is the confession of churches in Singapore, the Philippines, N. Ireland, New Zealand, S. Africa and many more around the world. True saints and true churches today still joyfully affirm, "We all believe with the heart and confess with the mouth ..."
Part of our answer to the attack on creeds by the Anabaptists is that our confession is heart-felt or hearty: "We all believe with the heart ..." Believing with the heart includes, as de Brès states in his introductory letter, that we, Reformed Christians, are willing to die for the truth which is summed in this confession. De Brès also writes of our being persecuted for the truth's sake in the very last article of the Belgic Confession, article 37.
We do not practice, advocate or defend dead orthodoxy. We practice, promote and defend living orthodoxy. The truth makes us free, free to live unto God and serve Him (John 8:36). The words that Christ gives us—in the four gospel accounts and in the whole Bible, and which are summed in our Belgic Confession—are "spirit" and "life" (John 6:63). So the opening line of our Confession, "We all believe with the heart and confess with the mouth," is our profession of living, saving faith in the true God revealed in Jesus Christ. For our God and for His truth, summarized in our Belgic Confession, we are willing to die.
The office-bearers in a Reformed church subscribe publicly to the Belgic Confession, using the "Formula of Subscription." The members of a Reformed church affirm the Belgic Confession in the words of the "Form for Public Confession of Faith:" "Do you acknowledge the doctrines contained in the Old and New Testaments and in the Articles of the Christian faith [i.e., the Apostles' Creed as developed in the Three Forms of Unity, including the Belgic Confession] and taught here in this Christian church to be the true and complete doctrine of salvation?" This is the same "spirit of faith" that declares in the opening words of the Belgic Confession: "We all believe with the heart and confess with the mouth ..."
In publicly affirming our Belgic Confession, we are saying two things. First, we believe that this confession is true, that is, we have read it, compared it with Scripture and believe that this is indeed what the Bible teaches. Second, we promise that we will be true to this confession. On an honest confession of the truth of the part of her office-bearers and members, much of the church's fellowship, peace and joy depends. Heretical and dishonest office-bearers and members, in forsaking the truth and undermining the church's faithful confession (all the while seeking to cover up their departure), make shipwreck of the faith and selfishly inflict misery upon the whole congregation and denomination.
Different Views on the Centre of the Faith
The subject of the Belgic Confession's first article is God. This is significant and deliberate, for the Reformed faith is God-centred. The two main groups that the Belgic Confession opposes, the Romanists and the Anabaptists, were not, and are not, God-centred.
What is the centre of Roman Catholicism? The church is central for Rome. The Pope is at the top of that church's hierarchy. Through its seven sacraments—not two!—that false church claims to save its devotees so that they do not have to spend too long in purgatory. Roman Catholics are taught to believe Rome's doctrines not because they are in the Bible, but because the Roman church says so. In short, Rome is church-centred, in a false and destructive way, for the church essentially takes the place of God in their system.
What would you say is the central, key, distinctive feature of Anabaptism? Individualism and church independency are definitely traits of the Anabaptists. They, typically, oppose written, doctrinal creeds. In my studies on sixteenth-century Anabaptism, I have yet to find a single Anabaptist who believes in sovereign grace. They are all ardent free-willers. Calvin, at the end of the introduction to his Brief Instruction for Arming All the Good Faithful Against the Errors of the Common Sect of the Anabaptists, says that the Anabaptists "agree closely with the papists, holding a view directly repugnant to all the holy Scripture" on "several principle points of Christianity," namely, "free will, predestination, and the cause of our salvation."2
Ironically, the Anabaptists saw themselves as the true Reformers. They reckoned that Luther, Zwingli and Calvin were only half-baked Reformers. Our Reformation worthies, according to Anabaptist historiography, only started to reform the church but then pulled back; it was the Anabaptists who really recovered the truth!
I believe that a good case can be made for practical and moralistic issues being central in the Anabaptist movement. Contrary to the claims of some, the Anabaptists were without great theologians and lacked deep works of theology. Nor did the Anabaptists practice expository preaching or produce solid biblical commentaries. Anabaptism had its own distinctive ideas, but it was not a doctrinal movement and you could even say it was impatient with doctrine. It was characterized by world-flight; its strain was moralistic and legalistic.
The Schleitheim Confession adopted by some Swiss Anabaptists near the German border in 1527, is a good example. The first article is on baptism, for the individualistic rejection of covenant or family baptism was a key tenet for them. Hence their name, Anabaptists or rebaptizers. The rest of the Schleitheim Confession's seven articles are on the ban, the Lord's Supper, separation from the abomination (which is both the Roman Catholics and the Protestants!), pastors, the sword and the oath. The Anabaptists would say, "Yes, we believe in the Trinity and we believe in Jesus Christ and that salvation is in Him," and so on, but the articles in this confession are revealing. They are all practical and moral issues: the subjects of baptism, the Lord's Supper, excommunication, separation from the abomination, the support of pastors, the sword (never to be used by Anabaptists) and the oath (no Anabaptist is to take any vows).3
If Rome is church-centred and the greatest concern of the Anabaptists are practical, moralistic issues, what about other groups? Some groups are Christocentric, but in an unhealthy and incomplete way, such as much of Lutheranism (though not Luther!). The emphasis of Fundamentalism is on Christ and man's salvation in Him, but largely to the exclusion of the Triune God, in whose perfections and Persons they have little interest. In Fundamentalism, the preaching is largely about man's need. It starts with man and man's salvation and leads to Christ as the way of man's deliverance and that is where it usually ends—often with a long appeal playing on emotions and pressurizing people for a "decision for Jesus." In this milieu, Sunday-evening gospel services and messages in song are the order of the day. Such practices typically arise out of, and lead ever more deeply into, Arminianism.4
What about even more obviously man-centred "forms" of Christianity? Liberalism is thoroughly man-centred, devoted to (usually, left-wing) socio-political action and running with the latest fad of the world in a vain effort to appear relevant. After all, liberalism needs some sort of a message, for it has lost the gospel of Christ revealed in infallible holy Scripture, being deceived by "higher criticism" of God's Word. Evolutionism is embraced in such churches for their wisdom does not come from the crucified and exalted Son of God but from men who believe they are evolved apes. Those who supposedly developed out of invertebrates over millions of years have lost their theological spine bowing down to rationalistic scientism. The world is now clamouring about environmentalism so the liberal churches jump on the band wagon. Homosexuality is increasingly promoted as normal and virtuous, a lifestyle and behaviour that is to be cherished by all and vigorously defended and promoted by corrupt Western governments and civil law, so the liberal churches deny the Word of God against sodomy and lesbianism (Rom. 1:26-27) and "call evil good, and good evil" (Isa. 5:20). The new sin of "homophobia" is dreamt up—one of the few "sins" such false churches take seriously—in an attempt to silence those who believe Scripture's teaching on marriage and human sexuality. The agenda in liberal churches (which blend in with the radical world around them) is an amalgam of various colours, especially red (socialism), green (environmentalism) and pink (LGBT).
Man-centred religion in the last several decades has become increasingly woman-centred. Worldly churchmen, lacking the fear of God, have permitted women office-bearers contrary to the Word of Christ (I Tim. 2:11-15; I Cor. 14:34). Effeminate worship, with sentimental hymnody, shallow preaching and spurious emotionalism, softened the church up and aggressive feminism did the rest. Man-centred religion has increasingly jettisoned the Word of God for the words of higher-critical, evolutionist, environmentalist, pro-homosexual, feminist men and women. "The fear of man [and woman] bringeth a snare" (Prov. 29:25).
What the secularist state says goes, what the ungodly media says goes, what political correctness says goes, but what God says goes out the window. Those liberal churches may in their history have held a Reformation creed concerned with God and His glory, but it is not a functioning creed. It is just a paper record of what that church once believed … in the past.
Pentecostalism and Charismaticism claim that they make the Holy Spirit central. To those who are grounded in the Scriptures, this is a give-away, for, even if it were true, it would still be a grievous error since the Holy Spirit speaks of Christ and glorifies Christ (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7-15) and Christ glorifies the Father, the Triune God (John 17:1-8).
Their Pentecostal or Charismatic "spirit" is disinterested in the (spiritual) health-giving teaching of the Bible (I Tim. 1:10; 4:6; II Tim. 1:13; 4:3). This spirit gives spurious "gifts," such as speaking gibberish (wrongly identified with "tongues" or languages in the Bible), and makes people seek their own emotional gratification. The worship they claim as very spiritual is more and more evident as an imitation of worldly pop music. The "health and wealth gospel" is merely baptized covetousness, which reckons "gain is godliness;" from such, Christians are commanded to "withdraw" (I Tim. 6:5). In its quest for "experiences," its focus on self, its love of entertainment, its pandering to the young people and its gimmickry, Pentecostalism reveals itself as man-centred and so governed by "another spirit" (II Cor. 11:4). Generally, the Pentecostal or Charismatic churches that supposedly are "most filled with the Spirit" are most off-the-wall (contra I Cor. 14:33, 40; II Tim. 1:7) and have the most in attendance!
The Reformed Faith Is God-Centred
Over against all of that, the Reformed faith, and the Reformed faith alone, is God-centred. Read John Calvin or Francis Turretin or Herman Bavinck (though his common grace led him astray in some areas) or Herman Hoeksema. B. B. Warfield, in his writings, is particularly clear on the distinctive God-centredness of the Reformed faith.
If you wanted to prove that the Bible is indeed about God, centrally about God, how would you prove it? The first line of inspired Scripture, "In the beginning God …" (Gen. 1:1), is a good place to start! If you were to say to a number of professing Christians, "We are going to have some sermons about the perfections of God," most would see that as a turn-off. They would think, "I can't warm to that! That sounds dry!" Something about political action or the end times or the latest Christian rock band might get them interested, but they have little or no interest in God. "That is too hard or boring," they think. You see, they do not love Him! They do not want to learn about the great Creator of the universe, who upholds all things by the powerful speech of His Son, who fills heaven and earth and yet is above time and space, and who is coming in Jesus Christ at the end of the age to judge the world at last day. They like "worship services," with clapping and swaying, but they do not want to know about the true and living God, the One they supposedly worship! That one point alone is enough to prove total depravity!
"In the beginning God ..." (Gen. 1:1) is not only how the Bible starts. This is how exegesis of the Scriptures and preaching must start. Prof. Herman Hanko would make this point frequently in his seminary classes: Whenever he is developing biblical concepts, the minister must tell the people about God, not merely about puny man. This is how the Christian's thinking and loving must start: God first! "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" is what our Saviour teaches His disciples (Matt. 6:33).
Our Belgic Confession begins with God in the first article. It confesses that there is one, only God and it lists many of His glorious perfections. Article 2 sets forth the two ways in which He is known, while articles 3-7 explain the truth concerning Holy Scripture, God's wonderful revelation of Himself. Next comes the beautiful doctrine of the Holy Trinity (articles 8-11). The truth that God is one in essence and three in Persons is stated in article 8 and proved in article 9. Articles 10 and 11, respectively, set forth the deity and eternal generation of the Son, and the deity and eternal procession of the Holy Spirit. God created and governs the world (articles 12-13). Man, whom God created good, is fallen and cannot will or do any good (article 14); through Adam's fall, we all partake of original sin (article 15). Article 16 explains that the God who is merciful and just has eternally elected some in Jesus Christ. God recovers elect mankind through sending the seed of the woman to crush Satan's head (article 17). This leads us to the incarnation of Jesus Christ (article 18) and His two natures (God and man) in one divine Person (article 19) as the manifestation of God's justice and mercy (article 20), and so forth to the end of our great confession. The Belgic Confession is about God! This is its hallmark as authentic Christianity. Belgic Confession 2-37 proceed in the same way as its opening article which is entitled, "There Is One, Only God." De Brès was a faithful servant of the living God, a man taught by the Spirit in the Holy Scriptures and a faithful pupil of John Calvin, whose own Institutes of the Christian Religion is also all about God.
The Reformed faith in its treatment of God particularly emphasizes that part of the divine blessedness which is most attacked, that the Most High is absolutely sovereign. What is the greatest creedal statement of the absolute sovereignty of God? The Canons of Dordt. The Pope and all his minions could never have written it; Rome hates it as abominable heresy. The Canons could never have been written in Lutheran northern Germany. The Anabaptists would not have dreamt of it because they disagree with every article of it. The Canons were produced in the Reformed churches because there the knowledge of the independent, eternal and sovereign God came most clearly into its own.
Are you familiar with the five solas or "alones" of the Reformation?5 The five solas are Scripture alone, Christ alone, grace alone, faith alone and the glory of God alone. The five solas are not all on a plane; they are not all equally ultimate. Scripture alone teaches the other four solas. Faith alone is over against man working for his own salvation. The same is true with grace alone which excludes any and every lie that teaches that God does His bit to save us and that man also does his bit. The truth of Christ alone rules out Mary, ourselves and the saints as co-saviours. To sum it all up: the Word of God alone declares that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone and all of this is to the glory of God alone (soli Deo gloria). This last sola is served by the other four solas.
This is the genius of the Reformation. Where people and religious groups oppose Scripture alone or Christ alone or grace alone or faith alone, it shows that they are not supremely concerned with the glory of God alone. Not only are they teaching false doctrine, but they are fundamentally opposed to Jehovah's glory.
What do we do to promote the God-centred nature of the Christian faith? In what ways does our church show that God's glory is first? One way is by believing, holding to and preaching the truth summarised in our Belgic Confession! The CPRC in N. Ireland made it very clear that the glory of God is the chief thing about our Reformed faith. The plaque in the hall of our church building states, "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen" (Rom. 11:36). All things are out of God as their source; all things exist through Him as providential governor; all things are to Him as the goal of the universe (Rev. 4:11). "For in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28).
We promote Jehovah's glory by singing the God-centred, God-breathed Psalms. Lutheranism does not maintain the regulative principle of worship, worship governed by the Word of God. Likewise, the Anabaptists did not relish Psalm-singing. The Christian religion, as they interpreted it, with the subjects and themes they emphasized, was reflected in the hymns they wrote and sang. Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf of the Moravians wrote hymns to be sung to Christ rather than to the Triune God through Christ. The Methodists wrote and sung hymns to attack God's sovereignty in salvation and promote free-willism and perfectionism.6 Fundamentalists sing hymns which emphasize the Christological aspects of the faith and man's salvation, usually drawing from the filthy sewers of Arminianism, including the hymns of Charles and John Wesley.
A church's theology and view of what is central in the faith will reflect itself in its songs. The Reformed, who teach and practise soli Deo gloria, sing the Psalms that God inspired and which glorify Him but which carnal man reckons too deep and judges as dry as dust. Carnal man does not want the songs that the Holy Spirit breathed (II Sam. 23:2), wrongly thinking that Isaac Watts, with his erroneous views on the Trinity, and others can do better than the Holy Ghost.
How does soli Deo gloria relate to the major areas of theology? What about anthropology? "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever," declares the Westminster Shorter Catechism (A. 1). This is our purpose and goal, as human beings: to glorify God! Not glorifying God is living as a rebel in God's universe. Unless Jehovah is our chief end, all we do is vanity.
Moving to Christology, Jesus Christ is to be honoured as "the only Redeemer of God's elect" (Westminster Shorter Catechism, A. 21). As our mediator, the Lord Jesus does not simply bring us to Himself that we might remain with Him; Christ brings us to the Triune God. God Himself speaks to us through Jesus Christ and we come to God through Christ. Christ performs His work when He brings us to the Father. This is our Trinitarian salvation! The Holy Spirit glorifies Christ and brings us to Christ, and Christ is the way, the truth and the life who alone brings us to the Father, the Triune God (John 14:6). Salvation comes from the Triune God to us and we, in turn, are brought back to the Triune God. In short, Jesus is our Saviour through whom God Himself makes us His covenant friends.
The truth of salvation (soteriology) is that the Triune God alone saves us completely, from beginning to end—not man, even in the tiniest part. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:8-10). Scripture identifies salvation or eternal life with the knowledge of the Triune God through the mediator: "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3).
The church (ecclesiology) serves the glory of God. Jehovah proclaims, "This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise" (Isa. 43:21). This is why God saves His church, that we may worship and extol Him. I Peter 2:9 explains, "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." This is why He calls and gathers the church together as the body of Jesus Christ under pastors, elders and deacons with the preaching of the Word, the sacraments and our mutual communion, so that we build one another up, edify one another and serve each other's salvation, so that God is glorified. If this is not a church's goal, calling, prayer and activity, it is just another social club and it would be better to disband and close down.
What about the last things (eschatology)? Jehovah will bring this world to an end when all of His elect are are effectually called (II Peter 3:9; Belgic Confession 37). Then He will gather together all the men, women and children who have ever lived, and all the elect angels and all the demons, to the judgment seat of Christ for the great theodicy, the vindication of God. Then God will say, "Everything I did from creation through the entire history of the world, including My sending My Son; every unjust thing you think happened to you; every time you raised your fist against Me; each and every one of your sins—I am going to show you that I was just and holy and wise and true in it all." Then everyone will be on their knees, for all will bow and "confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:11). The truth of God which has been denied and buried by fallen, sinful, depraved mankind for thousands of years will be openly and undeniably manifested to all men and angels. All the lies of Satan and the world will be exposed and condemned by the righteous judge. The living God, whom the ungodly reckon to be non-existent or irrelevant or boring or unjust or a spoil-sport who denies man his sinful pleasures, will be glorified, and the unbelieving will be cast into hell. God will reign forever and His name will be one (Zech. 14:9). This is why Scripture teaches us that there will be a judgment day: the glory of God demands it!
After going through these major doctrinal topics, from anthropology to eschatology, and seeing that they are all subservient to the glory of God, it is clear that all of Christian teaching is theology, the truth about God. Even when we talk about man, we are always talking about the God who decreed and governs man for His own glory. How different from the apostate, liberal church, for even when they claim to be talking about God, they are really only talking about man. This is Jehovah's condemnation of foolish man: "thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself" (Ps. 50:21)! Those who reckon that God is just like themselves (v. 21) and refuse to praise and glorify Him (v. 23), He will display all their sins (v. 21) and tear them in pieces (v. 22)!
Now, in the light of the true Reformed teaching of soli Deo gloria, we are in a position to understand Christian ethics and practice. Good works are only those done to the glory of God (Heidelberg Catechism, Q. & A. 91). Such good works we must promote and practise! This is not in opposition to solid theology which honours the Lord; this is how God would have us use the knowledge He graciously gives us of Himself, for biblical and Reformed teaching is "the doctrine which is according to godliness" (I Tim. 6:3). The Spirit uses the truth to work piety in us (John 17:17). Those people do good works with the most sincere spirit who truly seek God's glory. This is the spirit of gratitude for God's grace to us in Jesus Christ. This thankfulness enables us to keep Jehovah's law and seek His face in prayer, as the third part of our Heidelberg Catechism rightly teaches. This is God-centred, Reformed and biblical and it motivates us a lot more than mere moral codes!