Tuesday, 31 March 2020

Study Resources

Confession of Faith

A Confession of Faith is important. Not just because it identifies believers with a certain denomination. (Anglicans and the 39 Articles, Baptists and the London Baptist Confession of Faith, Dutch Reform and the Three Forms of Unity, Congregationalists and the Savoy Declaration, and Presbyterians and the Westminster Confession of Faith), but because Creeds and Confessions help to guard against and protect worshipers from false doctrines and heresies.

I particularly recommend the Westminster Confession of Faith for several reasons:

One) It contains a section by section defence of Christian topics along with a comprehensive list of Christian subjects that are supported with scriptural references.

Two) It contains both the Larger and Shorter Catechisms that can be used in both corporate and family worship as part of a catechism class.

Three: It contains the whole of the divines. These are: 
1) The Epistle to the Reader.
2) The Confession.
3) The Larger and Shorter Catechisms.
4) The Sum of Saving Knowledge.
5) National Covenant.
6) Solemn League and Covenant.
7) A Solemn Acknowledgment. 
8) The Public Worship of God.
9) The Form of Presbyterian Government.
10) The Directory of Family Worship.
11) A Table.

Here is a link to all of the main Protestant Creeds and Confessions: https://reformed.org/historic-confessions/


Bible Commentary

There are many good Bible commentaries available by Reformers such as, Albert Barnes, John Calvin, and John Gill, as well Annotations and Notes by Charles Spurgeon and John Owen - but I recommend Matthew Henry's Concise Bible Commentary - as it is a single work. Most of the other books mentioned are multi-volume works, and as a result, are not easily accessible and are not as easy to transport about.

Matthew Henry's Concise Bible Commentary is not only a Bible commentary that cover and explains the whole of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, but due to the portions selected, it also serves as a devotional. 


Matthew Henry's Concise Bible Commentary (along with all the other Bible Commentaries, Annotations, and Notes mentioned above) can be found at the following website: https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/

Systematic Theology

There are several good multi-volume Systematic Theologies available, but the two that I recommend are single volume works. Theses are: 'A Systematic Theology' by John Brown and 'Systematic Theology' by Louis Berkhof. Both of these Systematic Commentaries can be either bought online or read for free in PDF form. I've recommended these particular two because they both come as a one volume work.

Here are links to the above Systematic Theologies:


John Brown's Systematic Theology: https://www.monergism.com/systematic-theology-john-brown-haddington-ebook


Louis Berkhof's Systematic Theology: https://www.biblicaltraining.org/library/systematic-theology-louis-berkhof

No comments:

Post a Comment