What is Only True Things?
Only True Things is a confessionally Reformed apologetics and discipleship ministry that aims to confess truth, expose error, and exalt Christ by proclaiming God’s Word to a skeptical world and by equipping believers to do the same. Only True Things does this in a number of different ways, but primarily through resources (written, video, and audio), Equip Classes (scheduled and hosted by local churches), and regional conferences (hosted by us at varying locations). Essentially, we’re hoping to be a one-stop shop for anyone looking for consistent and reliable apologetics and theology teaching and training from a confessionally Reformed perspective.
What this means in a tangible way is this: every author (on our blog or featured by us), every teacher that teaches an Equip Class, and every speaker at our regional conferences confesses one of the historic Reformed confessions, affirms the ecumenical creeds, and is a member of a confessionally Reformed church at the time of authorship, teaching, or speaking.
Why is it such a big deal that we’re all confessional?
You might hear our emphasis on confessional Christianity and wonder why it matters at all—why can’t I just be a Christian and not affirm any of the confessions or creeds? Or, you might hear us emphasize confessional Christianity and think—why are they making such a big deal about confessional Christianity? Why can’t they just be a non-confessional Christian entity? Let me answer those questions in two parts:
Confessional Christianity matters because it sets guideposts
Much like any other religious belief system, there is what is called folk religious beliefs—essentially, you have what the religion officially teaches and what the average person affirming that religious system believes. The issue in non-confessional Christianity is that it is very easy to fall into folk Christian beliefs simply because there are no guideposts delineating between orthodox views and non-orthodox views. What confessional Christianity does is it provides guideposts to prevent Christians from falling into non-Christian and often heretical beliefs. In addition, confessional Christianity provides a comprehensive understanding of what the person actually believes—if someone claims to be a Christian and affirms the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689), anyone can look up the 1689, read it, and check to see if that individual actually affirms it in word and deed. However, if someone claims to be a Christian, but doesn’t have a confession, you can’t actually check to see what that person believes without asking about every single belief—and what you often find is that their beliefs aren’t always in line with orthodox Christianity even though they think it aligns.
While it is technically possible to be a Christian and not affirm any confession or ecumenical creed, without a confession and without the creeds, it’s rather easy to fall into false teaching and heresy without even recognizing the false teaching and heresy. Confessional Christianity provides safety while still offering robust theology that avoids novelty.
Confessional Christianity provides clarity
Considering the many different Christian denominations, it is important to have confessions and ecumenical creeds simply to provide clarity. Again, if someone says they affirm the 1689, it’s pretty easy to read what they believe. Likewise, if they affirm the Westminster Confession of Faith or the Three Forms of Unity, it’s relatively easy to read what they believe. If a church or an individual is operating from a completely non-confessional standpoint, you can’t know for sure what they believe without asking for them to explain their various beliefs about any idea—i.e., without them affirming each part of Systematic Theology separately. Of course, the average Christian isn’t going to have answers for all those questions nor will the average Christian know what questions to even ask.
With a ministry like Only True Things, you know exactly what we believe because we believe what historical Reformed theology teaches. You can search for our doctrinal standards and read them for yourself and you can keep us accountable to only teach within the bounds of our confessions.
Does confessionalism matter concerning apologetics?
Only True Things has a two-fold ministry—one concerning theology and the other concerning apologetics. Most apologists today are not confessional in their public persona (most stay within the bounds of broadly based evangelicalism). While not being confessional can be beneficial for some aspects of apologetics, it is the assertion of Only True Things that the best apologists (and thus, the best apologetics) need to start with a robust theology that informs their robust apologetics.[1] Thus, Only True Things teaches both a robust theology and a robust apologetic rooted in the Reformed tradition for the purpose of confessing truth, exposing error, and exalting Christ in every part of life.
We hope that you will partner with us in prayer as we seek to build up the church through sound theology and faithful apologetics.
[1] It is worth noting that while this statement seems to imply a presuppositional apologetic method, Only True Things is not a presuppositional-only ministry. In fact, our founder encourages an eclectic approach to apologetics—one that utilizes the best of every apologetic method instead of firmly only using one.
