Creeds

What is a Creed?

A Creed is a formulated statement of belief. It gets its name from the Latin word, "Credo", which means "I believe". A Creed is a summary of beliefs or doctrines of a particular body of people - usually of the Christian Church.

Why Creeds?

Firstly it must be stated that the Creeds of the Church can not and do not carry the same sort of authority as the Scriptures. They do not exist to replace the Scriptures or to make them unnecessary.

In the earliest days of the Church, however, the scriptures were not readily available to most people. Even today, after 2000 years of the Church, there are many people-groups who do not have the Scriptures in their own native language. Moreover, there are places where Bibles are banned and/or destroyed. Until quite recently this was true of many Communist countries and it is still true of China and of many parts of the Muslim world.

In such circumstances a method of learning by heart the basic beliefs of the Church is not only useful, it may be vital. The Creeds of the Church supply a summary of doctrine against which such people can judge any teachings that they receive.

How did the Creeds come into being?

After the initial early days of the Church when the power of the Holy Spirit ruled in all things, there came a time when false teachings began to enter the Church. In some cases the false teaching came from allowing pagan teachings to infiltrate (this was true in the case of the Gnostic sects). In other cases it came because of the influence of those who believed that Jesus had come only for the Jewish people and that, therefore, gentiles must first become Jews before they could become Christians. In other cases the problems arose from disagreements about how to interpret the nature of Jesus and of the Godhead.

How was it possible to understand the concept that Jesus was both divine and human?
How could we speak of Father Son and Holy Spirit yet claim that there is but one God?
How can we understand the concept of an immortal God that dies?

Because of the false teaching that was beginning to undermine the "faith once delivered to the Saints", it was thought necessary for the basic doctrines of the Church to be formulated. At first the creeds were fairly simple, like the Apostles' Creed, but as the heresies became more complex it was necessary for Church Councils to meet and agree upon more specific creeds like the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds.