IMPORTANCE and USE OF CREEDS The word “creed” comes from the Latin credo, which simply means “Ibelieve.” Thus, a creed is a statement of belief. It is synonymous to aConfession. Every Christian and every church has a creed, whether it is writtenor not. Those who say, “We have no creed but the Bible,” are in fact making aone-statement-creed by that statement. Moreover, if you were to ask them iftheir Bible contains 66 or 81 books, and whether the Christ they worship is thesame as the Christ of the Mormons (who use the Authorised Version too), youshall soon discover that they indeed have a much larger creed, though notwritten down. And because it is not written down, not only will there be a lackof theological precision in the church, but there can hardly be any doctrinalunity. Moreover, the pastor or the most influential elder will then be lookedupon as a kind of Protestant pope—whose decisions and interpretations arefinal. A written creed is designed to solve these difficulties. It serves to expressthe doctrines revealed in the Scripture systematically, provides a means ofunity among members of the church, and make available the opinion of aspirit-filled cloud of witnesses as to the meaning of Scripture. G.I.Williamson expresses these benefits of creeds most succinctly and persuasivelyin his introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism: The Bible contains a great wealth ofinformation. It isn’t easy to master it all—in fact, no one has ever masteredit completely. It would therefore be foolish for us to try to do it on our own,starting from scratch. We would be ignoring all the study of the Word of Godthat other people have done down through the centuries. That is exactly why wehave creeds. They are the product of many centuries of Bible study by a greatcompany of believers. They are a kind of spiritual “road map” of the teachingof the Bible, already worked out and proved by others before us. And, afterall, isn’t this exactly what Jesus promised? When He was about to finish Hiswork on earth, He made this promise to His disciples: “When he, the Spiritof truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth” (Jn 16:13). And Christkept His promise. When the Day of Pentecost came, He sent His Spirit to dwellin His people. The Holy Spirit was poured out—not on individuals, each byhimself, but on the whole body of Christian believers together (Acts 2). Andfrom that time until this, He has been giving His Church an understanding ofthe Scriptures. It is no wonder that the Church expressed itself from veryearly times through creeds.… one of the most important things about a creedthat is true to the Bible [is that] it remains true down through the ages. Itdoes not need to be changed again and again, with each generation, because itdeals with the things which are unchanging. Thus, an accurate creed binds thegenerations together. It reminds us that the Church of Jesus Christ is notconfined to one age, just as it is not confined to any one place. In otherwords, there is a unity in what Christians have believed, right down throughthe ages (The Heidelberg Catechism: A Study Guide, P&R, 2–3). In this day of theological declension, it is often thought that creedal orconfessional churches are sectarian and isolationistic churches. This is farfrom the truth. The confessional church is, in fact, seeking to be one indoctrine with the great number of churches which hold to the same Confession.It is true that there are few such churches today, though there were many morein the past age when there was much more theological purity and pious learning.But is it right to define sectarianism with respect to the churches of thepresent age of individualism and independent spirit when the church “consistsof the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gatheredinto one under Christ the Head thereof” (WCF 25.1)? Indeed, when wetake away the factor of time, it is those churches,—no matter how big,—whichuse no historical creed whether in practice or by profession, that aresectarian and are guilty of having independent spirits. Such is the timelesssignificance of the creeds. But what are the immediate uses of the creeds in individual churches that dosubscribe to them? Let me highlight three: Constitutional or Unifying Use Firstly, creeds have a constitutional or unifying use.It is the banner of truth that David speaks about in Psalm 60:4. As a summaryof the doctrine contained in the Word of God, it is a banner raised to rallytogether all who hold similar convictions. This is why the creed of the DutchReformed churches is called theThree Forms of Unity (comprisingof Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confessionand Canonof Dort). And there is such a surprisingconsensus between theWestminster Standards and the ThreeForms of Unity that I can only think of few places where they differ,and that only in relatively minor matters. For this reason, among the Reformedconfessional churches that adhere to their confessions, there is a great dealof agreement and unity in doctrine and practices. Now, does this use of the creeds mean that every member of a particularcongregation must subscribe to every point of the church creed or be deniedmembership? No. “God alone is the Lord of the conscience” (WCF 20.2).The creed is not intended to bind every member to conformity. Rather, it statesthe ‘official’ position of the church and therefore is the doctrinal schemathat will form the basis of unity within the communion. It is a placard thatsays, “Within this communion, we will not openly disagree or contend with thedoctrines taught therein.” In other words, a person can be a member even if hedisagrees with some of the tenets of the creed, provided he agrees not todisturb the peace and unity of the church by being contentious on these issues.Naturally, however, those who are in teaching positions within the church oughtto subscribe fully to the creed of the church. It is no doubt possible forsomeone who differs significantly to be appointed a teacher if he wouldconsciously avoid teaching his views when they are contrary to the creed of thechurch. But it will be extremely difficult to do so. Juridical Use The second use of creeds, which is closely related to the first use, isits juridicaluse. Briefly, this refers to the use of the creed insettling and avoiding disputes. It does so as a subordinate standard of thechurch with authority derived from theScriptures. Should a dispute on doctrine addressed in the creed arise, thecreed not only brings together the teachings of the Scripture on the doctrine,but it also provides the basis for dissolving the dispute. It does so bysetting forth what the particular communion and its predecessors hold to be theconsensus doctrine and interpretation of the Scripture on the matter. Thus,suppose, a member of PCC desires to marry a Roman Catholic,and he insists that other churches allow it, and that even the well-known DrSo-and-so allows it. Then, our elders may appeal to our Confession,particularly WCF 24.3 (cf. 1 Cor 7:39; 2 Cor 6:14) to assertour belief that the Lord forbids such a union. And if he insists on going ahead withhis plans, then the church will have to discipline him.
A creed serves to avoid disputes, moreover, by setting forth what the churchconsiders to be the things that are important. It says, “Let us not argue aboutminor matters and things that gender strives” (cf. 2 Tim 2:23). How does thecreed do so, seeing that it would be impossible to enumerate all the “minormatters.” The creed does so by leaving these matters out of it! Thus the WCF,for example, tacitly ‘says,’ “Let us not argue whether the bread in the Lord’sSupper should be leavened or unleavened”; “Let us not argue on whether thepastor should preach extemporaneously or with a prepared text”; “Let us notargue whether an individual may use a different Bible version in his ownstudy”; and “Let us not argue about how the minister should dress on the Lord’sDay.” Catechetical Use The final use of creeds, which I would like to highlight, is the catechetical use.This refers to the use of the creed as a teaching tool for the church. It is theoretically possible to teach “all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27) bypreaching and teaching through the Bible, chapter by chapter, book by book. Butthis is practically impossible. It will take more than a lifetime, and by thetime you end, new converts would have been added to the church and old convertswould have forgotten what you first taught. Moreover, you would have repeatedyourself on certain points of doctrines many times over. The creeds,particularly the catechisms, are designed to summarise the teaching of theBible so that they are not only easily digestible, but cover the whole counselof God in a manageable and repeatable duration. I am convinced that the teaching programme of our church ought to have a strongemphasis on the creeds. This, naturally, does not mean that we do not teach theBible, for a biblical creed such as the WCF or the HeidelbergCatechism is founded on the Word of God. Of course, there is also aplace for studying the books of the Bible expositorily. But for the reasons Ihave already stated, it would be to our disadvantage if we do not insist on aregular and systematic diet of the creeds each week in addition to anyexpository study of the biblical books. Finally, dear pilgrim, though you may not be required to subscribewholeheartedly to our Confession,—namely, the Westminster Standards,mayI urge you to endeavour to know it well so that it can be effectively andproperly use for the purpose of building up the body of Christ.
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