'If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.'  Augustine

 'The doctrines of the Bible are not isolated but interlaced; and the view of one doctrine must necessarily affect the view taken of another.' A. A. Hodge

I. Definitions
    A. Scripture

QUESTION: What do we know about Scripture?

 1. The OT and NT have been given by inspiration of God
 2. It is the only and the all–sufficient rule of faith and practice.
 3. All that we are to believe concerning God, are revealed there.
 4. All that we are to do in obedience to God, are revealed there.
 5. All that it contains is to be believed and obeyed.
 6. This Divine Word, therefore, is the only standard of doctrine which has intrinsic authority binding the conscience of men.
    And all other standards are of value or authority only in proportion as they teach what the Scriptures teach.

  B. Creed

QUESTION: What do we know about Creeds?

 1. While, however, the Scriptures are from God, the understanding of them belongs to the part of men.

 2. Men must interpret to the best of their ability each particular part of Scripture  separately, and then combine all that the
     Scriptures teach upon every subject into a  consistent whole, having a mutual consistency as parts of a harmonious system.

 3. The Latin term credo, from which "creed" is derived, simply means, "I believe."

READ: 1 Peter 3:15

 4. Every Christian is charged with being able to articulate the faith they hold, to give an answer to everyone who asks.
     Articulating one's religious beliefs is both natural and essential.

READ: 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10; 1 Corinthians 8:6; and 1 Timothy 3:16.

QUESTION: What do these verses tell us about short concise statements of faith?

 5. Clearly the earliest church had such statements of its foundational beliefs. These  scriptures appear to have functioned as
     concise statements of Christian belief that arose  out of specific circumstances.

QUESTION: What is Doctrine?
        It is the systematic exposition of the truths of Scripture in their relation to one another.

 6. Strictly speaking, Scripture is not doctrine. This is implied in that Scripture is said to be  profitable for doctrine.(2 Tim. 3:16)
     And we should notice, too, that doctrine is the first  thing that Scripture is profitable for. Creeds are doctrine.

READ: Luke 1:1 (KJV)
 'Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us'

 7. Creeds take all the passages of Scripture regarding a certain teaching and put them together into a statement of that doctrine
     and then show also how that doctrine relates to others. They are, doctrinally, a "setting in order of those things which are
     most surely  believed among us".

  C. Confession

QUESTION: What do we know about Confessions?

 1. A human document. That we acknowledge a confession as strictly a humanly composed document is an important step in a
     quest for unity.

 2. Witness to the coherence of truth. Confessions are possible and necessary as witnesses to a belief in the coherence of truth.
      Scriptural data related to any subject can be  put together so as to produce a biblical doctrine.
         -The most obvious example of such a doctrine is that of the Trinity. Although it is not specificially mentioned in the Bible
           as the Trinity, it is concluded as such from the many passages that theach this truth.

 3. Commitment to unity. Confessions represent a commitment to guarantee a faithful and  conscientious unity.

 4. The main difference between a creed and confession is the detail and length.

Summary:

The Creeds and Confessions of the Christian Church are not inspired additions to God's word.

They are brief formal summations of Christian doctrine which were often constructed  in light of heresies.

 As stated, creeds and confessions always arise out of particular circumstances that lead believers to articulate their faith carefully and positively.

II. Creeds and Confessions of the Church
    A. The Ancient Creeds.
         The Creeds formed before the Reformation are very few, relate  to the fundamental principles of Christianity, especially the Trinity and the person of the God–man, and are the common heritage of the whole Church.

QUESTION: What are some of the ancient creeds of the Christian Church?

 1. The Apostles' Creed
    This was not written by the apostles, but was gradually formed, by common consent, out of the Confessions adopted severally by particular Churches, and used in the reception of their members. It reached its present form, and universal use among all the Churches, about the close of the 2nd century.

It is as follows:
"I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth: and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into Hell (Hades); the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the Holy Catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting." Amen.

 2. The Nicene Creed.
    This Creed is formed on the basis of the Apostles' Creed;
      -the clauses relating to the consubstantial divinity of Christ being contributed by the great Council held in Nice in Bithynia,
       A.D. 325;
      -the clauses relating to the divinity and personality of the Holy Ghost added by the Second Ecumenical Council, held at
        Constantinople, A.D. 381;
      -the "filioque" clause added by the Council of the Western Church held at Toledo, Spain,    A.D. 569.
      -In its present form it is the Creed of the whole Christian Church, the Greek Church  rejecting only the last added clause.

It is as follows:
"I believe in one God the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth, and of all things visible and invisible: and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from Heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.  He suffered and was buried; and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead: whose kingdom shall have no end. And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spake by the prophets. And I believe in one Catholic and Apostolic Church; I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come."

 3. The Creed of the Council of Ephesus, A.D. 431
      -One heretical tendency culminated in Nestorianism, which maintains that the divine and human natures in Christ constitute two persons.

 4. The Council of Chalcedon, A.D. 451.
      -The opposite heretical tendency culminated in Eutychianism, which maintains that the divine and human natures are so united in Christ as to form but one nature.

 5. The Athanasian Creed.
      -It is a grand and unique monument of the unchangeable faith of the whole Church as to the great mysteries of godliness, the Trinity of persons in the one God and the duality of  natures in the one Christ