Throughout the history of the church of Christ Jesus, from time to time, believers would create what are known as creeds or confessions.
These were created in order to give a summary (usually), of the core beliefs of the faith or denomination.
This means that whoever doesnt believe these things are not in the faith, or part of that denomination.
Some take the form of a long list of doctrinal statements.
These are mainly used for denominational boundaries, and can be quite in-depth.
Creeds and confessions are ultimately a tool that condenses the theological truths and commands that are found all throughout the bible.
So, although they are not infallable, meaning that they aren't perfect and may contain errors, they are helpful to ground one in the basics of sound christian doctrine as well as the doctrine of individual churches and denominations.
Churches, and individual believers. who are more doctrinally minded use the agreeing or disagreeing of creeds and confessions in order to identify which "stripe" of christianity other believers are in.
However, if someone is ignorant of creeds and confessions, they may find themselves feelingva bit ostracised from a number of theological groups, even if they agree on many points.
At the same time, the reason for examining creeds and confessions shouldn't be for acceptance. At least, not primarily.
It's to expand ones understanding of scripture, doctrine, the faith, ultimately God, through the scholarship of the many believers who came before us, building on the foundation laid down by the prophets and apostle, where Christ is the corner stone.
To that end. We will be taking a look at some creeds and confessions over the next few days.
Maranatha
