ARE THE HISTORICAL CREEDS IMPORTANT

ARE THE HISTORICAL CREEDS IMPORTANT
TO THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH TODAY?


In Matthew 16:13-18 it is recorded that Jesus was
discussing with His disciples the reaction of the
populace to Him and His ministry, and He asked
who the people were saying He was. There were a
variety of answers, and He pressed the point, asking
who did the disciples think He was, and Peter spoke
up, saying “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God.” Peter used the term christos, often translated
as “anointed” or “Messiah.”


In His response, Jesus used a precise choice of words,
and in a voice both tenderly loving and mightily
prophetic, said “thou art Peter (petros) and upon
this rock (petra) I will build my church.” The Greek
word petros means a stone which is easily moved, and
that is the way Peter often acted, while the word petra,
which Jesus used in speaking of Peter’s expression of
faith, means a mass of rock, solid and immoveable.


But beyond the play on words, Peter’s affirmation can
well be considered as the first Christian creed. The
word “creed” does not appear in the Bible, but is
derived from the Latin credere, “to believe” or credo,
“I believe.” Historically, the early Christian creeds were
developed essentially as statements of agreements on
the Trinity and Christology, the study of the person of
Christ. Whereas Peter here called Jesus the “Son of the
living God,” John would later speak of Him as God’s
“only begotten Son.” (John 3:16)


The New Testament provides several examples of
creedal statements of belief: in John 1:49 where
Nathanael confessed to Jesus, “Thou art the Son of
God,” or in Acts 8:37 where the Ethiopian eunuch
confessed to Philip, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God.”


Foundational to all of the later creeds was the “Rule
of Faith” from St. Irenaeus of Lyons, who had been a
student of Polycarp, who in turn had been a protégé
of John, the beloved disciple of Jesus. It has a date
of approximately 185 AD, and is amazing in how it
expresses a complete statement of the Christian faith.
Jesus had ministered in the first century, and now
just a century later, Irenaeus, who came to be called
the “father of the church,” sets forth a clear statement
of God‘s plan for His creation, which would become
the foundation for the creeds which centuries later
became enduring definitions of the Christian faith.



Some of those historical creeds are familiar to us
today; in order of their dates of adoption, they are
the Nicene Creed, 4th century; the Athanasian Creed,
5th century, and very likely the best known, the
Apostles Creed, adopted probably in the 6th century.



Perhaps a thousand years later, several more specific
expressions of particular denominational aspects of
the Christian faith were adopted, dating from Martin
Luther’s Catechism and Augsburg Confession about
1530, to the Methodist Articles of Religion in 1800.



Probably the best observation as to the value of the
historic Christian teaching, came from the great
British preacher, evangelist and educator, Charles
Haddon Spurgeon, in a lecture to his students in the
mid 1860’s: “You are not such wiseacres as to think
or say that you can expound the Scripture without
the assistance from the works of divine and learned
men who have labored before you in the field of
exposition … It seems odd that certain men who
talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to
themselves, should think so little of what He has
revealed to others.”



No better summary could be given than this brief
one by J. L. Neve in his volume, Churches and Sects
of Christendom: “Creeds, confessions and covenants
… are the expressions of an experience which the
church of Christ has had in its study of Scripture,
in its search for truth, in its conflict with error.”



To answer the initial question, as to whether the
historical creeds are important to the church today
-- yes, they most certainly are. In a time when the
basics or the fundamentals of the Christian faith
are being abandoned, those creeds, conceived and
adopted in the early centuries of the Christian
church, and thus close to the life and ministry of
Jesus Christ, are important as concise statements
of what actually comprises the Christian faith. And
they have stood the test of time for hundreds of
years, actually for more than a millennium.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -



MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR


The Evangelical Viewpoint is pleased to present this
new series of essays by Dr. Jerry Beavan, in which he
offers mature discussions of important elements of
the Christian faith, with the goal of helping Christian
believers to live the Christian life more effectively.
At age 89, he already has a lifetime of experiences in
Christian ministry, as a graduate theologian, as a
professor in college and seminary, and as a world
traveler involved in government relations at high
levels, here in America and around the world. The
late Dr. Jerry Falwell referred to him as "one of
God's giants and modern patriarchs." Dr. Billy
Graham said of him, "Jerry Beavan is the architect
of world evangelism as we know it today." Now
living in "active retirement" on America's Pacific
coast, although physically impaired, he is using his
writing skills, via the internet, to help other believers
gain a better understanding of their Christian faith.
He is the author of several works, including his recent
volume, “A Handbook of Applied Christianity.”