He who was revealed in the flesh,
Was vindicated in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Proclaimed among the nations,
Believed on in the world,
Taken up in glory.” 1 Timothy 3:14-16.
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Our Common Confessions a/k/a Creeds are important. We can better understand their importance in today’s Scripture.
First, “in case I am delayed”, Paul wanted to set forth a common confession for Timothy. We may have our minister absent; it may be good and safe for another teaching elder, to stick to a common confession as a subject matter for a sermon or other teaching opportunity. Likewise, when we are alone for our own private study, common confession can be a good and safe subject for study.
Second, a common confession can teach us “how one ought to conduct himself”.
Third, along with the church, a common confession” is “the pillar and support of the truth”.
Fourth, godliness is a “mystery” to some extent, and common confession can help us better understand godliness. Rev. Ronald Hanko, in his article “A Plea for Creeds”, states the importance of doctrine and creeds. Rev. Hanko quotes Presbyterian author, G.I. Williamson:
The Bible contains a great wealth of information. It isn’t easy to master it all – in fact, no one has ever mastered it completely. It would therefore be foolish for us to try to do it on our own, starting from scratch. We would be ignoring all the study of the Word of God that other people have done down through the centuries. That is exactly why we have creeds. They are the product of many centuries of Bible study by a great company of believers. They are a kind of spiritual “road map” of the teaching of the Bible, already worked out and proved by others before us.
Rev. Hanko’s article, “A Plea for Creeds”, can be read in full in its original format at the following link – http://www.prca.org/articles/plea_for_creeds.html
Fifth, a “common confession” is common between believers. The quote of Presbyterian author, G.I. Williamson continues: “… an accurate creed binds the generations together. It reminds us that the church of Jesus Christ is not confined to one age, just as it is not confined to any one place. In other words, there is a unity in what Christians have believed, right down through the ages. Just think of it: when we confess our faith together . . . we join with all those believers who have gone before us. Does not this demonstrate that there is indeed just one Lord and one true faith? (p. 3).” (Emphasis added.)
In conclusion, the following link provided by the Protestant Reformed Churches brings you to a good sample of common confessions a/k/a creeds – Click here: Literature I also “copied and pasted” from this site a few of the them, so you can access them more directly and quickly through one link, but you should check out the more comprehensive link above as well.
- See also The Creeds of Christendom (which includes The Apostle’s Creed)
Here is a link to the Center for Reformed Theology and Apologetics web site which contains Westminister Larger Catechism – Click here: Historic Church Documents at Reformed.org
Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions 