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Pergy,
The historic confessions, in this case the 1689 LBC, was labored on by 37 pastors and theologians representing over 100 local churches. The level of scholarship that went into the major confessions is much higher than a local church is able to produce. Most churches would not labor to produce a confession as detailed as the 1689 LBC. Now, it is not necessary for a Reformed-leaning Baptist church to adopt the 1689 LBC as their statement of faith. But the question I would ask is, "why not?" One good answer is that a church may not agree with the 1689 LBC. If that is the case then they should not adopt it as their SOF. Older is not always better, but in the case of the historic confessions, they have proven to be true to the Reformed faith (baptism notwithstanding). If a church claims to be Reformed than they should be in agreement with the historic confessions that are the standard for being Reformed. If they are neo-Reformed, as I suspect most Reformed "leaning" churches are, then they can cut, paste and jury rig a doctrinal statement that they are happy with.
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