BIBLES * Bulldogs * & Beards

Disagree, agree, or have a question: Contact us through the contact page on our website; http://www.biblebulldog.com Pastor William Shifflett discusses PART ONE - The Early Church - Chapter 3 The Creedal Imperative by Carl R. Truman

One of the frequent objections to creeds is that the Bible does not contain any. Is this true?

Creeds and confessions are biblical. This is illustrated by the fact that the Old Testament people of God confessed their faith every morning and evening with the words of Deuteronomy 6:4, the basic confession of the Old Testament: "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God: the LORD is one."

Where else are there examples of creeds in Scripture?

Peter confessed Jesus as "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:16). This was the basic creed of the New Testament. Paul went on to elaborate on this in places such as 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, where he summarized the faith of the church in this creed: "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures … he was buried … he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures." In the previously referenced Ephesians 4:4-6, Paul gave what many scholars believe to be a creed that was recited when a new convert was baptized: "There is one body and one Spirit … one hope … one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father." One last example of a New Testament creed is 1 Timothy 3:16, where Paul wrote to the young pastor Timothy, saying, "Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory."

When we move from the period of biblical history into the post-apostolic age, creed-like formulations start to appear.

We need to understand that Creeds have a 2 fold aspect:

1.Content: Which is designed to serve the transmission of the faith, the doctrinal concern.

2.Normative nature (implying, creating, or prescribing a norm or standard):

The ecclesiological concern. Concerns in the study of the Church.

How would you define orthodoxy?

The Rule of Faith. The “Rule of Faith” is a summary of the essentials of Christianity that occurs in various verbal forms in the writings of numerous early church fathers.