The importance of a good* Confession of Faith

Let me start this article off by saying that I have no hard feelings against the writers of he Baptist Faith and Message or to those who hold to the BFM.  As a mater of fact, I'm really excited to see Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr. at this years Expositor's Conference in Mobile, AL.  Which is being held at an SBC church that affirms the BFM. http://www.cfbcmobile.org/site/default.asp?sec_id=3078
I know I'm not a pastor, but they let me in last year, so I'm hoping they let me attend again.

For many years I attended an SBC church, 10 years as a false convert, and then almost 5 years as a born-again Christian.    In my years there as a true Christian who was seeking to grow in my walk and my faith, I started looking into what the SBC believed.  This lead me to the Baptist Faith and Message. 
http://www.sbc.net/bfm/bfm2000.asp
At first I was happy to have something to hang my hat on when it came to finding out what the Southern Baptist believed on a certain doctrinal or theological topic, but that happiness soon turned into frustration.  Many of the topics that are covered; The Scriptures, God, Man, Salvation, etc., are covered in a very surface level way that leaves a ton wiggle room.  My hopes of finding a document that helped answer my questions just led to more questions.  ****I have to explain some of the background to my feelings here.  I was attending Liberty University and taking Bible and Theology classes.  Of course, a lot of bad theology can be found on Seminary college discussion boards.  Many of these, budding bad theologians (Rob Bell's) claimed to belong to the SBC.  Hence my interest into finding out exactly where the SBC stood on these topics.****
Most of the definitions and explanations in the BFM had tons of wiggle room for anyone in the SBC to fit their theology into it.  (Although I doubt that most people in SBC churches have ever read the document let alone been asked to affirm it before membership)  I freely admit that this might be a good Confession if the leadership of the SBC churches would at least cover it in their teaching and preaching.  What is unfortunate, is that even though the confession is slim on theology and doctrine compared to some of the larger confessions of the past, it would greatly multiply the theology that normally comes from the pulpits on Sunday morning if they would at least read it to the congregation. 

Look, I'm not saying that a Confession of Faith has to spell out every nuance of theology that there is, but for someone who was looking for a deeper understanding of what the denomination believed, I felt like the BFM left me hanging.  This is just another symptom of the SBC going further down their "doctrine lite" path.  To quote an old pastor of mine, They SBC is "not really big on theology, so they're is a lot of room for different beliefs on certain doctrine."



Now contrast the BFM with the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689.  http://www.founders.org/library/bcf/bcf-26.html
There is a big difference in the amount of information that is given in this confession compared to the BFM.  For someone who was looking for a little bit of substance, I feel like I found a ton in this document.

You can get a feeling of what I'm talking about by just looking at the chapter titles.

Here is the BFM of 2000

	Preamble
	The Scriptures
	God
	Man
	Salvation
	God's Purpose of Grace
	The Church
	Baptism and the Lord's Supper
	The Lord's Day
	The Kingdom
	Last Things
	Evangelism and Missions
	Education
	Stewardship
	Cooperation
	The Christian and the Social Order
	Peace and War
	Religious Liberty
	Family

Here are the chapters of the London Baptist Confession of 1689
1. Of the Holy Scriptures
2. Of God and the Holy Trinity
3. Of God's Decree
4. Of Creation
5. Of Divine Providence
6. Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and of the Punishment thereof
7. Of God's Covenant
8. Of Christ the Mediator
9. Of Free Will
10. Of Effectual Calling
11. Of Justification
12. Of Adoption
13. Of Sanctification
14. Of Saving Faith
15. Of Repentance unto Life and Salvation
16. Of Good Works
17. Of the Perseverance of the Saints
18. Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation
19. Of the Law of God
20. Of the Gospel and the Extent of Grace thereof
21. Of Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience
22. Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath Day
23. Of Lawful Oaths and Vows
24. Of the Civil Magistrate
25. Of Marriage
26. Of the Church
27. Of the Communion of Saints
28. Of Baptism and the Lord's Supper
29. Of Baptism
30. Of the Lord's Supper
31. Of the State of Man after Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead
32. Of the Last Judgment

I appreciate brief and pithy, to the point statements, of the BFM but I don't think that we can be to clear when it comes to the doctrine and theology that the church claims to hold.

To try and compare one part of one confession to the other would just be a lesson in futility.  They are almost completely different in their purposes.  One of them, the 1689, seems to be purposefully as specific as it can be on almost all of the topics that it addresses.  While the other, the BFM, tends to still be orthodox while trying to avoid drawing any really distinct lines.  The feeling that there is a lot of wiggle room on Theology in the SBC could be why it's not so black and white.
Could this be why one of the most common descriptors for SBC churches today is that they are a mile wide and an inch deep, or is the BFM just a symptom of what is happening to the church as a whole?  For my part, I think it is the later.

Brian

*I know that good is usually a term defined by the writer or person speaking, but all good things come from God (James 1:17) so if our confessions are to be "good" then we need to make sure that they conform to God's word.