In a fallen world, there is no guarantee that theological and ethical faithfulness always leads to numeric growth. But it always glorifies God, which is what is most important. Furthermore, doctrinal drift always leads to spiritual declension. Confessions of faith don’t solve every theological debate, of course. But in an age of growing confusion and compromise, confessional fidelity is one of the most important ways that denominations can maintain faithfulness.

This summer, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is celebrating the centennial of the Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M), the denomination’s confessional statement. When the SBC was formed in 1845, the Convention didn’t adopt a confession of faith. This was not because most Southern Baptists rejected confessions. In fact, all 293 of the delegates, as they were then called, were members of churches or associations that had adopted a version of the Second London Confession, an English Baptist confession that dated to 1677. The SBC didn’t adopt a confession at its inception because the Convention’s scope was limited to foreign and domestic mission work, and all the cooperating churches were of substantially similar faith and practice. Furthermore, most congregations were part of local associations that were decidedly confessional.

By 1925, the situation had changed. The Convention had grown to include three seminaries (all of which had confessions of faith), a Sunday School Board, and a recently formed Executive Committee. Southern Baptist churches were now found all over the South and Southwest and much of the Midwest, and they were beginning to expand into other regions even further from the Convention’s traditional territory.

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