1689 London Baptist Confession
1. God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty and power
of acting upon choice, that it is neither forced, nor by any necessity of nature
determined to do good or evil.
( Matthew
17:12; James
1:14; Deuteronomy
30:19 )
2. Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom and power to will and to do that which was
good and well-pleasing to God, but yet was unstable, so that he might fall from it.
( Ecclesiastes
7:29; Genesis
3:6 )
3. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any
spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from
that good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to convert himself, or to
prepare himself thereunto.
( Romans
5:6; Romans
8:7; Ephesians
2:1, 5; Titus
3:3-5; John
6:44 )
4. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, he freeth him
from his natural bondage under sin, and by his grace alone enables him freely to will and
to do that which is spiritually good; yet so as that by reason of his remaining
corruptions, he doth not perfectly, nor only will, that which is good, but doth also will
that which is evil.
( Colossians
1:13; John
8:36; Philippians
2:13; Romans
7:15, 18, 19, 21, 23 )
5. This will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone in the state of
glory only.
( Ephesians
4:13 )
For further study:
"Baptist Roots in America: The Historical Background of Reformed Baptists in America", Samuel E. Waldron, Simpson Publishing Co. (1991)
"A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith", Samuel E. Waldron, Evangelical Press, 1989
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