Creeds and Confessions

Hebrews 10:23 ESV

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

If Scripture is sufficient, should we avoid using creeds, confessions, and catechisms?

To say that we should avoid using creeds because Scripture is sufficient is a simplistic and unhelpful approach to the sufficiency of the Bible. The Bible is a big book and none of us are sufficient for it. Therefore, to have help from the church to summarize the Bible and condense its important teachings, as confessions and creeds do, is a way of linking ourselves with the wisdom of the church’s understanding of the Bible and with the Bible itself.

The creeds and confessions must always remain subordinate to the Bible. The Bible always stands in judgment over the creeds and confessions if someone thinks there is something wrong in them. However, having summaries of biblical teaching is useful and helpful for Christians.

Catechisms were originally teaching tools for the sake of the church. They also summarize the faith, as well as how one might teach the faith, often to children, but to adults as well. The Heidelberg Catechism and the Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechisms are particularly useful.

The Apostles’ Creed can be traced back to the second century in a shorter, more abbreviated form. It appears to have been used as a confession at one’s baptism, and some martyrs used it as their last words. By the fifth century, the Apostle Creed developed into the form as it is now used today.

The Apostles’ Creed, like all creeds composed in the early church, was composed as a direct response to heresy in defense of the Gospel and the Christian faith.

John Calvin states that the Creed “furnishes us with a full and every way complete summary of faith, containing nothing but what has been derived from the infallible Word of God.” (Calvin, Inst. 2.16.8).

The Westminster Confession of Faith

The Westminster Confession is the most precise and accurate summary of the content of biblical Christianity ever set forth in a creedal form… no historical confession surpasses in eloquence, grandeur, and theological accuracy the Westminster Confession of Faith.

Written during the English civil war. King Charles I called the Long Parliament, which in turn called the Westminster Assembly. They were charged with revising the Church of England’s Thirty-Nine Articles, but it morphed into an entirely new confession of faith

The Westminster Confession of Faith gave substantial definition to Reformed theology in the seventeenth century.

There was an internal debate as to where to begin the confession: with the doctrine of God, or with the doctrine of Scripture. The WCF begins with sacred Scripture. Why? Two reasons.

First, at the very heart of Christianity is the concept of divine revelation. The Christian faith is one that is revealed to us. It is something we receive, not something we discover through our own merit.

Second, the principle of sola Scriptura which acknowledges that the final authority in all matters of theology is not the decrees of the church, but sacred Scripture itself.

And so from the very start, the WCF is a document of the Reformation and not of Roman Catholicism.

Among the documents produced by the Westminster Assembly are the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Larger Catechism, the Shorter Catechism, and the Directory for the Public Worship of God. These writings were the collaborative work of 131 of the most theologically astute Protestant minsters and professors in the United Kingdom in the seventeenth century–among whom were Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and independent pastors and theologians. The assembly also consisted of thirty combined laymen from the House of Commons and House of Lords, and a Scottish delegation of advisory commissioners. From 1643–1649, the assembly met for a total of 1163 sessions. It was convened at the behest of the English Parliament with the express purpose of setting out a succinct summary of Protestant doctrine. Parliament had tasked the assembly with revising the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England.

In 1647, Scripture proofs were added to the divines’ articulation of the doctrines of the Christian faith. This act further revealed their utter commitment to the final and ultimate authority of Scripture.

The Westminster Confession of Faith is no cold or sterile theological document. Rather, it is full of experiential application of biblical doctrine. One cannot read the divines’ chapters on adoption, sanctification, saving faith, repentance unto life, good works, perseverance, and assurance of grace and salvation (chs. 12–18) without noting the deeply practical and pastoral ways in which the doctrinal truths of Scripture have a bearing on the lives of God’s people. These chapters contain ample examples of experiential Calvinism. While the Confession of Faith is not a devotional document per se, there is a consistent devotional component to its doctrinal expositions.

That’s the beauty of having confessions—because they give us guardrails, they give us parameters, and they help to give us a good footing so that we would not go off-track and teach contrary to Scripture.

Catechesis was an age-old pedogogical method from classical education, which the Reformers picked up as part of the discipleship process. Fathers back then had the responsibility to catechise their kids by using the simple question and answer format found in the Westminster larger and shorter catechisms.