3. Creeds and confessions of
faith are simply the truth and candor that every Christian church owes to the
other churches and to the world around her.
Let us imagine a hypothetical
believer, a devout and religious man, who wants to form a deep in spiritual
bond to a body of believers of like mind. Before he joins any church, he will
want to know something of their faith, their government, and their general
character. He will also want to know their doctrine. How will he find any of
this out? It will certainly not be by going from church to church within a 50
mile radius of his house trying to ascertain from what he hears from the pulpit
what that particular church holds for Bible truth. This would require an
impossibly long amount of time and effort which no one can afford. And even
supposing he had the time to spend in such an endeavor, he would never hear
enough of the doctrine of anyone church to be able to decide what the universal
and uniform character of that particular church was. He would have no way of
knowing whether what he saw and heard on any given Sunday was standard
procedure or a mere fluke.
But supposing that this
hypothetical inquirer finds that we have a published creed or confession of
faith, which declares how we understand the Scriptures, and further details the
great truths which we have agreed to unite in maintaining, he can ascertain
in a very short time without even leaving his own living room, what we profess
to believe, and how far his views accord with our published confession.
Creeds and confessions
therefore, rather than alienating and embittering Christians and churches who
think merely alike, in fact make them better acquainted with each other while
laying the foundation for mutual confidence in harmony as fellow believers and
members of the church of God. Whole denominations exist, whose doctrinal standards are virtually identical, yet no one would know how far they are agreed without these standards being published and subscribed to in a public manner.
The aforementioned hypothetical believer merely
presents us with one half of the equation. But the same logic applies with regard to our witness to the world around us. Do not
churches and denominations owe the world around them an honest and candid
presentation of their beliefs? Surely no one would dispute this. This is precisely what creeds and confessions do.
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