{"id":387,"date":"2023-08-18T20:28:17","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T20:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/?p=387"},"modified":"2023-08-18T20:28:17","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T20:28:17","slug":"no-creed-but-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/18\/no-creed-but-the-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"“No Creed but the Bible”?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Merriam-Webster defines creed<\/em> as \u201ca statement of the basic beliefs of a religious faith; a set of guiding principles or beliefs.\u201d Creed<\/em> simply means \u201cI believe\u201d and serves as a general statement of faith. If you say, \u201cI believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God,\u201d that is a creed. It need not be written, just stated. It does not summarize every aspect of your faith; indeed, no creed can.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Ponder now the statement, \u201cNo creed but the Bible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That statement inherently rejects declarations of faith of all generations since the Bible was written. In other words, the holder of this view looks with suspicion (and possibly condemnation) upon any statement of faith written outside the Bible. Would this view not condemn articles and books written to describe faith or interpret Scripture? I own many commentaries in which men attempt to say what scripture means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ancient creeds were statements of faith which early Christians wrote down. The Apostles\u2019 Creed is one of the earliest, simplest, and shortest statements of faith, and most Christians today agree with it. In fact, if you do not<\/em> agree with it, you (at best) are heterodox (you believe in something other<\/em> than the normal, historical Christian faith). Unitarians cannot hold to the Apostles\u2019 Creed because it clearly confesses the Father almighty, His only Son the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. Indeed, it boldly professes God in three Persons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his Systematic Theology<\/em>, Louis Berkhof explains how the Fundamentalist\u2019s tendency to break with the past agrees with the trajectory of modern liberal theologians:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is a manifest tendency, however, on the part of modern liberal theology to break with the past. Many of its representatives are often rather loud in their praises of the Creeds of the Church as historical documents<\/em>, but refuse to acknowledge their doctrinal value for the present. And, sad to say, the so-called Fundamentalists of our day join hands with the liberals on the point with their well-known slogan, \u201cNo Creed but the Bible.\u201d They do not seem to realize that this really involves a break with the historical past of the Church, a refusal to profit by the lessons which the Churches of the Reformation passed on as a precious heritage to following generations in their great Creeds and Confessions, and a virtual denial of the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the past history of the Church.<\/p>\nFrom Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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Isn\u2019t that interesting? The \u201cNo creed but the Bible\u201d advocate agrees with the liberal theologian that we should not listen to Christians of the past. We shouldn\u2019t study what our spiritual ancestors believed to find guidance for today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo creed but the Bible\u201d practically results in a continual reinventing of the wheel in each generation. I should not believe what my dad believed; I should read the Bible and follow that. My wife should not believe what I believe; she should read the Bible and believe that. Should I even attempt to teach my children? Should they listen to what I have to say about the Bible? Or should they just read the Bible and believe it? You can see how ridiculous this can get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Restoration Movement forefathers tied their own hands. Attempting to restore Christianity as they found it in the New Testament, they cast off all creeds and confessions that brethren before them had worked out over the years. Those ancient men may not have been real Christians. They couldn\u2019t interpret their Bibles the way we can today. So the restorers of 1830 interpreted the Bible better than those of the 1500s or the 1200s or the 400s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what did the Restoration leaders do? They published papers published far and wide\u2014the Christian Messenger, <\/em>the Christian Baptist<\/em>, the Millennial Harbinger\u2014<\/em>full of instruction, argumentation, and interpretation. Should we read those today? Should we follow their<\/em> biblical interpretations?<\/p>\n\n\n

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Churches of Christ often teach five steps to salvation (Hear, Believe, Repent, Confess, and Be Baptized) and five acts of worship (Prayer, Lord\u2019s Supper, Singing, Giving, and Preaching). Neither list exists in the Bible, but the details are derived from<\/em> the Bible. Is it okay to say, \u201cI believe in five steps to salvation\u201d? But if there is no creed but the Bible and the Bible says nothing about \u201cfive steps,\u201d you are off base if you preach it, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

True, some well-meaning Christians elevate creeds of men to an authority on par with Scripture. We should not use creeds or confessions in this manner, for sure, but can we keep a balanced perspective? Can we use creeds as historical guides, commentaries complied by faithful brethren? Can we appreciate them and use them properly as teaching tools for ourselves, our children, and our churches?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are ditches on both sides of the road. Do not toss the ancient creeds completely out the window, and do not hold them in such high regard that they become equal with God\u2019s word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo creed but the Bible\u201d has produced Christians who separate and isolate themselves because they recognize no common heritage with other Christians around them. Christ\u2019s Body comprises all individuals<\/em> who truly believe on His name. It does not comprise local<\/em> churches<\/em>. This is an important distinction. A person is not saved by being in the correct local church; he is saved by being in Christ\u2019s Church (His body), of which there is only one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brethren worship in sundry local churches all over the world. We should recognize each other! One way we recognize one another is by asking, \u201cDo you believe Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God?\u201d In other words, we want to know what the other believes<\/em>, which is (practically) the same as asking, \u201cWhat is your creed?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the \u201cNo creed but the Bible\u201d brethren insist that creeds produce disunity in the Body of Christ, we don\u2019t seem to have achieved any great unity by throwing out the creeds. In fact, we seem to have become more distant, fractured, and factious as time progresses. Perhaps it is time to rethink how we evaluate the creeds and confessions of those of like precious faith. Maybe we should start by admitting we have our own creeds. We just haven\u2019t officially<\/em> written them down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Merriam-Webster defines creed as \u201ca statement of the basic beliefs of a religious faith; a set of guiding principles or beliefs.\u201d Creed simply means \u201cI believe\u201d and serves as a general statement of faith. If you say, \u201cI believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God,\u201d that is a creed. It need not be written,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[182,169,240,190],"tags":[46,194,267,193],"class_list":["post-387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-authority","category-bible","category-church-of-christ","category-creeds","tag-authority","tag-church-of-christ","tag-confessions","tag-creeds"],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nathanbekah.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/writing-923882_640.jpg?fit=640%2C427&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":392,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions\/392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nathanbekah.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}