12 The Talmud and the Confessions

The Talmud and the Confessions

Since we are tracing the roots of Calvinism to its source in Judaism, we must take a look at what Judaism teaches-or perhaps we should say, what it taught in Augustine’s day.

If a person would learn about Judaism, there are any number of books available. Perhaps the best known authors are Flavius Josephus and Alfred Edersheim. There are any number of others, most of them written by devout Jews in defense of Judaism. But it is not necessary to go to the bookstores to learn about the nature of Judaism, and it is not necessary to wade through the Talmud. The Babylonian Talmud alone runs to 22 huge volumes. That is far too much to read just to learn a few simple facts. Much of the New Testament is given over to recording the persecution, and crucifixion, of Christ by the Jews-by the devotees of Judaism. And in doing so, it gives a sufficient account of what they believed.

1. First, they had a kind of reverence for the scriptures bordering on superstition. They were sure that was where they got eternal life. The Lord corrected that notion. He told them it was the role of the scriptures to talk about him. “Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me” (John 6:39). Their scribes were, like Apollos, mighty in the scriptures (Acts 18:24). They numbered every word and every letter. They bathed themselves before they would sit down to transcribe any part of the text. They would not correct more than the tiniest number of typos in their work. If they made more than the smallest number of mistakes, they did not correct them; they destroyed the work and started over. Of all the charges the Lord made against them, he never once charged them with corrupting the manuscripts. But with such a superstitious regard for the scriptures, they were still convinced the scriptures by themselves were not enough. They had a huge body of oral traditions which they taught alongside of, and sometimes in opposition to, the Law. The Lord said they taught for doctrine the command-ments of men (Matthew 15:9). They consider the Talmud to be equal to, if not superior to, the Torah (their name for the law).

Like Judaism, Augustine recognized the Bible as an authority, but he also recognized the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils. The Nicene (325 A.D.) and the Constantinople Councils (381 A.D.), had already met in his day. Catholics regard the decisions of the first four Ecumenical Councils as inspired and infallible.

One thousand years later, Calvinists would prepare such documents as the Westminster, Savoy and Belgic Confessions, and the Canons of Dort as their secondary authorities to supplement the Bible, and they still require their ministers to swear their allegiance to those confessions. In that, Calvinism with itsConfessions of Faith and Decisions of Councilsis very much like Judaism.

Baptists have never seen the need for supplements to the Bible. For that reason they have never adopted confessions of faith in the manner the Reformers have. But in the 1600’s and 1700’s they put out a spate of confessions.

Those confessions of faith were totally different from the Protestant confessions. They were never intended to be supplements to the Bible, and they were not intended to be standards of doctrine. They were purely a defensive measure. In order to justify their treatment of the Baptists, the Reformers made the most outrageous charges against them. They accused them of baptizing people naked, devil worship, conniving at human sacrifice, plurality of wives, plotting to overthrow the government, etc. They used every means available to inflame the masses against them. The Baptists hoped that by issuing a clear statement of what they believed, and how they worshiped God, they could get the Reformers to stop torturing and killing them. They enjoyed very little success; the Reformers already knew what they believed. It was their existence they resented.

There are those in our day who imagine those Baptists put out their confessions voluntarily, but we have their word for it, they would never have put out a confession if they had not been forced to do so. In the preface to the second volume of his four volume history, Thomas Crosby tells us, “And the rather, because they declare, ‘they areforcedagainst their whole minds to publish it, for the clearing of their innocency in such things.’” Notice that he quotes them as saying they were “forcedagainst their whole mindsto publish it.”

Crosby lived during the time those confessions were being issued. His father in law, Benjamin Keach, was one of the three leading Baptists in England. The other two were Hansard Knollys and William Kiffin. All three of them signed the Second London Confession. It seems reasonable to think the signatories of those confessions were better aware of their own motives than those who try to second guess them in this day.

They issued those confessions, because their very lives, and the safety of their families, depended on it. They did it in an effort to get the Protestants to stop tormenting them. They intended for them to be defensive measures; they did not intend for them to be any kind ofsecondary standards.

2. The second doctrine the Calvinists borrowed from Judaism was theAuthority to changewhatever they did not like about the Bible standard. That was one of the charges the Lord made against the religious leaders of his day.

One of the commandments is “honor thy father and thy mother.” It is our place to respect and provide for our parents. Their tradition set that commandment aside, and pretended that anything they did for their parents was simply a gift; it was not necessary for them to do it. But the Lord said, “Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; And honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition” (Matthew 15:3-6).

Augustine claimed the same right to make such changes as he thought necessary. He substituted the baptism of babies for the baptism of believers. Calvin and the Reformers would continue that tradition. They claimed the right to change sprinkling for immersion where immersion was not convenient, because of weather, etc.

Augustine and the Catholic party finally prevailed, but it was only after they had closed literally thousands of Donatist churches, killed many of their preachers, and confiscated their meeting houses.