Theological Directory (by Topic) - Creeds

Quotes

"A confession of our loyalty to the Bible is not enough. The most radical denials of biblical truth frequently coexist with a professed regard for the authority and testimony of the Bible. When men use the very words of the Bible to promote heresy, when the Word of truth is perverted to serve error, nothing less than a confession of Faith will serve publicly to draw the lines between truth and error...A confession is a useful means for the public affirmation and defence of truth...(it) serves as a public standard of fellowship and discipline...(and it) serves as a concise standard by which to evaluate ministers of the Word."
-- R. Martin in Sam Waldron's A Modern Exposition of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith

"Creeds serve a variety of purposes in the life of the church. They are a testimony of the church's belief to the world; they offer a summation of Christian doctrine for the instruction of the faithful; and they form a bulwark against the incursion of error by providing a standard of orthodoxy and a test for office-bearers. In these ways creeds also serve to protect and to foster the bond of Christian fellowship as a unity of faith and doctrine, of mind and conviction, and not merely of organization or sentiment."

-- Robert Reymond in Biblical and Pastoral Basis for Creeds and Confessions

"It is really impossible to be without creeds. Every believer believes something about what the Word of God teaches. And insofar as that faith is precious to him he confesses it. He really cannot do otherwise, if he loves Christ and loves the Word. Everyone and every church has a creed whether it is written down or not. Even in those churches that reject creeds there is a creed which has there as much force and authority as the written creeds do in churches that have them."
-- Ronald Hanko in A Plea For Creeds

"Very important is the catechetical use of the creeds. By this we mean that they are used to teach the truth to children and to new converts. They are useful in this respect because they teach the doctrines of Scripture. Anyone who has done any teaching knows that it is almost impossible to learn anything unless the teaching is systematic and carefully arranged in its logical relations. This the creeds do, especially the catechisms which were designed for teaching both young and old."
-- Ronald Hanko in A Plea For Creeds

"I ordered copies of the 1689, and I used it, with both young Christians to disciple, and with older Christians to teach. I even remember sitting on my church's front steps talking with a non-Christian about the gospel, using the 1689's statements on justification to explain the gospel. It was and continues to remain a gloriously useful part of the ministry. The Westminster Divines are my teachers. And their Baptist revisers only improved the document. I continue to stand in their debt as a pastor, teacher and evangelist."
-- Mark Dever in Which Confession?

"I have thought it right to reprint in cheap form this excellent list of doctrines, which were subscribed to by the Baptist Ministers in the year 1689. We need a banner because of the truth; it may be that this small volume may aid the cause of the glorious gospel by testifying plainly what are its leading doctrines....This little volume is not issued as an authoritative rule, or code of faith, whereby you are to be fettered, but as an assistance to you in controversy, a confirmation in faith, and a means of edification in righteousness. Here the younger members of our church will have a body of divinity in small compass, and by means of the Scriptural proofs, will be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in them."
-- Charles Spurgeon in a forward to the 1689 London Baptist Confession


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