We Believe: Creeds

If evangelicals are anything, they are a Bible people; a people of the book who hold the Holy Scriptures as sufficient and authoritative. This is undoubtedly a good thing. But must this high view of Scripture lead to a depreciated view of the Church’s historic creeds? Too often, evangelicals are tempted to answer this question in the affirmative. This is a grave mistake, however, for while the Scriptures are authoritative and sufficient in their own right, they still must be interpreted. At their best, the creeds have functioned as faithful interpretations of the Scriptures; well-forged articulations of the faith once for all delivered to the saints. The creeds are the collected wisdom of Christ’s Church, and confessing them is a way for evangelicals today to take Christ at his word when he promised that he would build his Church, and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. When we read and confess the ancient creeds, we are self-consciously identifying ourselves with our family history. In this issue of Credo Magazine, readers are invited to listen to the past and to be reminded of the best early creeds of the Christian faith.