"A Creed,
or Rule of Faith, or Symbol is a confession of faith for public
use, or a form of words setting forth with authority certain articles
of belief, which are regarded by the framers as necessary for
salvation, or at least for the well-being of the Christian Church."-
Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom
Generally,
a creed is always the direct result of dogmatic controversy, and
more or less directly or indirectly polemical against opposing
error.
What
is the difference between polemics and apologetics?
What is a
confession of faith in relation to a creed? Matt. 10:32,33; Romans
10:9,10; Matt. 16 (the first Christian confession or creed). Where
there is faith, there is also a profession of that faith.
A confession
or creed can come from Scriptural study without any individual
authorship (such as the Apostle's Creed); or from an ecumenical
council (such as the Nicene or Chalcedon); or from the Synod of
a particular church (such as the decrees of the Council of Trent;
the Articles of Dort; the Westminster Confession and Catechisms);
or from a number of divines specifically commissioned for such
work by ecclesiastical authority (such as the Thirty-nine Articles
of the Church of England; the Heidelberg Catechism; the Form of
Concord); or from an individual (such as the Augsburg Confession
by Philip Melanchthon; the Catechisms of Luther; the second Helvetic
Confession by Bullinger).
In Protestantism
the authority of creeds must be submitted to the light and revelation
of Scripture. The Scripture is the only infallible rule of the
Christian faith and practice. The value of creeds depends upon
the measure of their agreement with the Scriptures. In contrast,
the Greek Church holds that from the Council of Nicea (325AD)_
to the Second Nicea (787AD), these councils were infallible. Rome
extends the same claim to the Council of Trent (1546-1564) and
the Second Vatican Council (1962). Both these claims cannot logically
be true, since both of these "infallible" Councils contradict
each other on important points, especially the authority of the
Pope.
What
is the theologia archetypa? What is the theologia ectypa?
What is the theologia viatorum (ante-lapsum and post-lapsum)?
Creeds and
Confessions, when submitted to Scriptural authority are the summaries
of the doctrines of the Bible. They are standards and guards against
false doctrine and practice.
The
importance of Catechetical instruction to children:
Those groups
opposed to creeds: Socinians, Quakers, Unitarians and Rationalists.
They objected because they feared that creeds obstruct free interpretation
of the Bible and interfere with liberty of conscience and the
right of private judgment; they produce division, dogmatic indifferencetism,
skepticism, and infidelity. History teaches that those sects which
reject creeds are as much under the authority of a traditional
system or of certain favorite writers, and as much exposed to
controversy, division and change as churches with formal creeds.
What
is the Reformed teaching on private interpretation and the perspicuity
of Scripture?
The Creeds
of Christendom are divided into four classes: (1) The Ecumenical
Councils of the Ancient Catholic (Universal) Church (the orthodox
doctrine of God and of Christ and the fundamental dogmas of the
Holy Trinity and the Incarnation); (2) The Symbols of the Greek
or Oriental Church (the Greek faith is set forth in distinction
from Roman Catholic and the Evangelical Protestant Churches. They
differ from Roman Creeds in the doctrines of the procession of
the Holy Spirit and the papacy. They are in agreement over the
rules of faith such as justification by faith, the church and
the sacraments, worship of saints and relics, and the hierarchy
and the monastic system; (3) The Creeds of the Roman Catholic
Church (the distinctive doctrines of Romanism which were opposed
by the Reformers are from the Council of Trent to the Vatican
Council in 1870); (4) The Creeds of the Evangelical Protestant
Churches (Most of them date from the Reformation and agree with
the Ancient Catholic creeds but ingraft the Augustinian doctrines
of sin and grace, and several doctrines in anthropology and soteriology
(justification and atonement) which had never been previously
settled by the Church in an exclusive way).
The Protestant
Creeds are either Lutheran or Reformed. The Lutheran were all
made in Germany from AD 1530 to 1577, the Reformed arose in different
countries: Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland, Hungary, Poland,
England, Scotland and wherever the influence of Calvin and Zwingli
extended. They both agree almost entirely in their theology, christology,
anthropology, soteriology, and eschatology, but they differ in
the doctrines of divine decrees and of the nature and efficacy
of the sacraments, especially the mode of Christ's presence in
the Lord's Supper.
Later Evangelical
denominations: Congregationalists, Baptists, Quakers, Arminians
and Methodists acknowledge the leading doctrines of the Reformation,
but differ from Lutheranism and Calvinism in a number of articles
such as anthropology, the Church, the sacraments, and especially
on Church polity and discipline. Their creeds are modifications
and abridgments rather than enlargements of the old Protestant,
Reformed Creeds. Many Churches today have only the creed of the
particular pastor in the pulpit.
The Progression
of the Creeds are much like the revealed Systematic Theology of
the Scriptures. There is a building pattern to the way the truths
of Scripture are laid upon the foundation of the Apostles and
the Prophets.
