The Baptists in England had been slandered and persecuted for some time when the churches of London decided to defend their doctrines by publishing an outline of what they believed.

In a note to “the judicious and impartial reader,” the 1689 Confession of Faith reads, “It is now many years since divers of us (with other sober Christians then living and walking in the way of the Lord, that we profess), did conceive ourselves to be under necessity of publishing a Confession of our Faith, for the information and satisfaction of those that did not thoroughly understand what our principles were, or had entertained prejudices against our profession, by reason of the strange representation of them, by some men of note who had taken very wrong measures, and accordingly led others into misapprehensions of us and them: and this was first put forth in 1643, in the name of seven congregations then gathered in London.”

Forty-five years later, the seven Baptist churches in London had grown in number, and they invited more than a hundred other congregations from across England and Wales to join them in an effort to expand and clarify that statement. They met from July 3rd to July 11th. Eventually they produced the very important Confession of 1689, which is still used today as a basis for doctrinal statements of Particular Baptist congregations around the world.