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What is the first thing that came to your mind when you hear the word 'Creed'? Yes, i do mean creed, and not crepe or creep.
A quick check at the Dictionary.com website defines a creed as [a formal statement of religious belief or simply a confession of faith]. That should be put us into the right perspective for now. Henceforth, creed in this article will be defined as the a set of christian beliefs, often stated in a formal and authoritative written form, used primarily to guide one's faith in God.
Why do we, christians, need to have a creed(s)?
David Bennett[1] provided us with the following insights. He said that everyone who has the capacity to believe in something has a creed. Creeds, in general, are meant to define the boundaries within which a group of people operate. We do not want to let our personal beliefs reshape a whole Church, whose character embraces millions of people, and almost 2000 years of existence. Therefore, creeds are important to state explicitly what a Church believes in and hold firmly to in the very heart of her building constitutions.
In this same light, Tony Windross[2] commented that creeds are commonly regarded as anthem of catholic Churches, of which when read, the congregation actually participate in the proclaimation and confirmation of their faith to God. Notwithstanding the resultant unity bonding, one side effect of having creeds is that they confined our present faith with those literature and experiences from the past faith. They may hinder the progressive development of the modern theology and even our knowledge of the infinite trinity God whom we worship.
However, H. Frank Rall[3] argued that a creed seemed to be a necessary ecclesiastical equipment. It was a fence to keep the wolves out, or to keep the sheep in. As a test of orthodoxy, to be applied on proper occasion, it was necessary. Thus, it is inevitable to include traditional creeds in the building blocks of all the sound doctrinal establishments.
Having heard several different opinions on the needs for a creed, allow me to provide some of my humble insights to the practical sustenance of traditional creeds. These, but not limiting to, include the Apostles' Creed (origins debatable but earliest written form appeared in A.D. 215[4]), Nicene Creed (A.D. 325) and the Athanasian Creed (origins debatable too but highly probable composed in the 4th century[5]).
Creeds, i think, are important to our understanding of the ways earlier Church's leaders viewed and defended the christians faith. Attacked from all sides, these shepherds of God's flock need to take a definite and assertive stand on what the Church believes in and hold firmly to with their lives. It seemed, then, that simple interpretation of the bible could not addressed the cultic thoughts, teachings and influences in the pagan lands. The people, christians and non-christians, were divided, often confused from the many false teachings they received from the teachers and practitioners of various foreign religions; particularly emerging or reigning philosophies. They needed something more concrete and concise; written or spoken with such great authority, as if endorsed by God Almighty Himself. Hence, creeds were created to bridge the greyish doctrinal areas. We know, at least from history standpoints that these creeds had served well the intended purposes, during those chaotic era and beyond.
Mentioned earlier, creeds do serve an important unifying purpose in the Church. The bible says, "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body." [1Cor 12:12]. Therefore, although christians tend to have different belief systems and experiential encounters, but we all belong to the body of Christ whom partakes a common vision, faith, baptism, communion, fellowship and anointing from the Holy Spirit. As the creed(s) is read, the members of the body participate in the proclaimation of their faith in unison. Suddenly, we are brought into a different dimension. We put aside our many differences and opinions temporary and are made to reflect upon the fundamental faith that first drew us to Christ. To those who partake in the creed(s), we are then recognised as one body of Christ.
Do we, modern christians, have creeds too? Yes, we sure do. Whatever we believe in and hold firmly to are our personalised mental creeds. Quite often or not, our creeds are closely aligned to what our church has. The reason is simple, there exists a hidden dual-feedback loop between a church and her congregation which resulted in numerous permutation of active and passive influences to one another. A church offers foundation classes, sermons, bible classes and discipleship to her congregation. These shape what her members think, meditate and act. Over a period of time, they became part of the congregation's belief systems. Members, in turns, read christian literature, attend biblical seminars, courses and events, expose themselves to mass media, interact with christians in other churches. Indirectly, they were enriched, positively or negatively, with much more beliefs that are not found in their own church. Some of them are pastors, some are deacons, some are elders, some are teachers, some are layperson leaders and some are active members in their own rights within the church. They are pretty much involved, contributing extensively to shape the future of their church's belief systems. And the endless cyclic feedback loop tends to repeat autonomously by itself.
Pardon me, but my intended meaning is not to say that a church's doctrinal stand can be easily swayed by mere opinions of leadership person(s) in the church. What i am implying here is that a church without a solid creed(s) as part of their foundation can be eroded, doctrinally, by modern trends and philosophies of the present and future. Repeatedly, history has reminded us that if a church does not remained as a true light to the world, pretty soon, we will be tinted by the world. And how can we say we are Christ's witnesses when we cannot shine like Jesus, effecting God's radiance to the world?
Take, for example, the issue on the acceptance of gays within a christian community. Yes, because of God's great love, we do want to accept them, as a created being, into the Church. In fact, God's love encompasses all Man on earth. However, it is definitely against God's truth if we choose to concur with and overlook their persistent gay behaviours. In my opinion (and possibly the majority of the reformed orthodox Churches), it is absolutely absurd to conduct gay marriages, even more so, (as they claimed) in the presense of the Almighty God, whom in fact, has condemned the act as sinful!
It is written, "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion." [Rom 1:26-27]
The ways some churches chose to deal with the above issue often reflect the lack of a sound doctrinal belief systems within their congregation. In the junction of a crossroad, they opted to follow the former wicked path of the (if i may use) 'Sodomites' [Gen 19:5], rather than that of the Lot [Gen 19:6]. By the mere words of their leaders, the church has failed miserably in her duty to represent Christ, the Word made flesh, in the world. Where is that life-changing voice saying, "Go now and leave your life of sin." [John 8:11]?
Such will be the eventual deformed state of many other catholic Churches if we continue to relent on establishing a firm doctrinal stand or beliefs.
Most traditional creeds are ambigious in nature which led to the congregation having to make a lot of so-called "common sense" presumption when faced with doubts. We also see many churches using other synonym terms like faith confessions, statement of faiths, church's beliefs and so on to differentiate their doctrinal stand from the traditional creeds as they were used. Nonethelesss, all these set of christian beliefs, stated in a formal and authoritative written form, proved to be useful in helping the churches to propagate the fundamental christian doctrinal belief systems to the mass congregation.
Now, it is up to the respective God's appointed and anointed leaders of the catholic Churches to re-visit and review these set of christian beliefs (or creeds) so that they can contain a larger base of other relevant areas such as social, political, ethical and moral issues. Without these, typical christians would surely encounter difficulties when deciding on the best course of actions to take when they enter into the greyish zones the world has conveniently and ingeniously presented to us.
On the other hand, we should also avoid the Pharisees' mistakes of over-emphasing the laws over God's grace and mercy. The effects of stating formal and authoritative christian beliefs may be too overwhelming for many to handle. If unwisely governed, they can, in turn, became stumbling blocks for the people both within and outside the churches, waiting for the grace of God to be upon them.
Therefore, the body of Christ should provide guidelines to govern members' thinking process so as not to create any confusion for them. Catholic Churches, on the whole, should also come together and openly discuss such issues so as to come to a common consensus. After all, the catholic Churches of Christ, though having different sacrement and worship practises, should be unified in one common faith, in one common baptism and in one common Holy Spirit.
* The word "catholic" refers not to the Roman Catholic Church, but to the universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
References
1. http://www.ancient-future.net/creeds.ht
2. http://www.tcpc.org/resources/artic
3. http://www.quarterlyreview.org/clas
4. http://www.creeds.net/ancient/apost
5. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/020
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