What are "Creeds and Confessions?"

"We have no creed but Christ!" This is a common slogan from the lips of many professing Christians in our day and place in history. The irony is that even this statement is a creed and confession of faith. We all have creeds and confessions, therefore, whether they are written or not Any time we are asked what we believe and we respond "I believe Jesus is...," or "the Bible says we are saved by..." we are making a confession of our faith. Our English word "creed" comes from the Latin word credo, which means, "I believe." As individuals and as a congregation what we believe and confess the Bible teaches is clearly stated in our statements of belief. Simply, creeds and confessions are written expressions of the faith that lives in our hearts.

The practice of writing and confessing creeds is as old as the Church itself. We find in both Testaments of the holy Scriptures summary statements of the faith of God's covenant people. The primary Old Testament confession is the Shema, found in Deuteronomy 6:4: "Hear, 0 Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!" The people of God testified to the nations that Yahweh alone was God, and the "gods" of the nations were man-made idols. The primary New Testament confession is found upon the lips of St. Peter: "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God" (Mt 16:16). He confessed Jesus to be the promised Messiah, the Savior of His people, the very Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity. As well, the Apostles continued to give the Churches short creedall statements such as "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor 15:3-4); "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in all" (Eph 4:4-6); "And confessedly great is the mystery of piety: who was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory" (1 Tim 3:16; authors' own translation).

As the Church progressed in evangelism two urgent needs confronted her. First, these new converts had to be catechized, or orally instructed in the faith, and second, many heresies had arisen which needed to be confronted. Thus the Churches gathered to write ecumenical ("general/universal") creeds in order to instruct pagan converts and to protect the Church from error. They are called "ecumenical" creeds because nearly all the Churches of Christendom accepted them.

Our particular Church confesses the main creeds from the ancient Church, the Apostles', Nicene, Athanasian, and Chaceldonian Creeds, as well as the "Three Forms of Unity" of the Reformation, the Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession, and Canons of Dort.

Why Do We Believe and Confess These Documents?

1) They are the basis for our fellowship. The Church is not a divided collection of individuals, but a doctrinally unity body:

Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like- minded toward one anothe.z. according to Christ Jesus that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 15:5-6)

Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. (Php 1:27)

2) They are teaching aids. The people of God are being "turned aside to fables" (2 Tim 4:4), "tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine" (Eph 4:14) in our day rather than holding onto the "pattern of sound words" (2 Tim 1:13), the "form of doctrine.. .once for all delivered to the saints" (Rom 6:17; Jude 3), the "whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27). It is our responsibility as ministers and elders to heed our Lord's words:

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. (Mt 28:19-20)

3) They protect the flock from heresy. In these "latter times" (1 Tim 4:1) we are to "test the spirits, whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 Jn 4:1). We do this not by the results they get in their teacher nor by how charismatic their personality is, but by examining their doctrinal confession (1 Jn 4:1-3; 1 Tim 4). Many "savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock...speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples" (Acts 20:29-30). By believing and confessing a clear, systematic, and comprehensively system of truth, we are less likely to see our sheep drawn away, and the more able the elders will be to warn and protect them. Thus, elders are to

hold fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict. (Titus 1:9)

4) They provide a public standard for Church discipline. If one from among us should stray from the truth, we will need to be able to objectively identify his error and, for the welfare of the entire flock, to hold him accountable. Church discipline is not a case of the pastor versus someone teaching contrary doctrine in the Church, but a clear delineation between truth and error:

Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. (Rom 16:17)

5) They provide a standard to evaluate teaching. How can a member of the church identify error in the pulpit? By comparing what he is being taught to the official teaching of the church. A pastor must be careful to teach and preach only the apostolic doctrine that has been handed down to him:

And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. (2 Tim 2:2)

6) They witness to the truth to those outside the Church. Just as our creeds serves to define the gospel of salvation for a fallen world, it also spells out the eternal punishment to be suffered by those who reject it Jesus called the church "the light of the world" (Mt 5:14). But we can only function as light if we continue in the truth. We live in an age in which the truths of the Bible have been dimmed and perverted by many groups claiming to be Churches. This has compromised the uncompromising and urgent message of Scripture. When an unbeliever asks the church, "What do you believe,?" it is not enough to say, "We believe the Bible." In order to be a faithful and effective witness in a time of shifting doctrinal tides, we must say, "We have written out exactly what we believe the Bible teaches."

What About Sola Scriptura?

But do creeds and confessions contradict the Protestant belief in "Scripture alone?" We do not believe they do for these reasons: first, sola Scriptura means that Scripture alone in the only God-given rule for faith and life - including our confessions; second, sola Scriptura does not mean "me and my Bible." God has also given pastors and teachers throughout the history of the Church to expound and interpret the meaning of Scripture to the Church; and third, our creeds and confessions are not inspired nor do we make this claim. Their authority and doctrinal purity comes from the inspired source of sacred Scripture alone. Thus, we believe that they are correct because they agree with the Word of God.

The creeds and confessions of the Church are lost treasures, diamonds in the rough, in our time, and may we stand with the faith of our fathers in confessing their truth and humbling our pride to these great summaries of the Christian Faith.

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