Day 1: What IS a ‘Creed” ?

The simplest definition of a ‘creed’ is: a statement of the basic beliefs of a religious faith: a set of guiding principles or beliefs. The first time it will appear in referring to Ecclesiastical Christian tenets is in the middle of the third century.

I grew up in the Middleport Church of Christ and the Gallipolis Christian Church. Middleport was a direct outreach of the Stone/Campbell movement of the 2nd Great Awakening and Gallipolis followed the same lines. For me, attending both Milligan College and Kentucky Christian College those precepts were pretty much set in my mind, including the ‘banner call’ of the Campbellite movement: ‘No Creed but the Bible’. (This, in addition to the phrases ‘we can be Christian and Christian Only’ and ‘we can be Christians by reading the Bible Only’ still ring in my ears). And while I honestly still hold to those thoughts, is it possible that there are some creeds that we can use today to get a better understanding of scripture-or at least outline our basic beliefs-a kind of ‘crib sheet’-for the scripture? I’m inclined to believe we can!

Now that’s not to say I believe we need one. As I was taught, the idea that Thomas Campbell was fond of saying was ‘if we need a creed, we will write one’, with the idea that creeds were originally used to combat some heresy that was prevalent at any given location (early on before the widespread availability and understanding of scripture). In many Evangelical churches and church camps and Sunday schools today there is a ‘Christian Flag’ present and there is a time when everyone is to stand, place their hand on their hearts and do the ‘Pledge to the Christian Flag’ (often followed by the ‘Pledge to the Bible’). Personally, I’m not too fond of this, as it strikes me of almost making these things an icon. And ‘icon reverence’ can potentially lead one down into idolatry. But this is my opinion, and why I won’t say either one.

Having said that, over the next few days let us look at some early creeds that were used in the Church, why and what we might learn. All of the creeds we will look at date to before 500 A.D. and we can divide them up into creeds directly from Scripture, Early Church Creeds and Late Church Creeds.

Scripture reading for today:

2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that he servant of God may be thoroughly quipped for every good work.

Galatians 1:6-9
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

Prayer: