Creeds, Confessions and the Scriptures
I’m going to start with reading the Biblical reason why all
historic orthodox Christian denominations (that would be Baptists,
Presbyterians and Lutherans) have been creedal or confessional since their
founding in the Reformation. In Jude vs. 3-4 God’s half-brother starts out by
saying why he originally wanted to write his book, and then what he had
to actually write about.
Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common
salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all
delivered to the saints. Why? For
certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this
condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality
and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
(Jude 1:3-4 ESV)
Personally, I was saved out of a denomination (the Church of
Christ) which rejects Creeds so when you run into Christians who say that they
don’t believe in creeds, then you need to know 1st that they are
lying, and 2nd that the Bible includes creeds and confessions.
The Word Creed comes from the Latin word Credo anyone know
what the word Credo means? “I believe.” So if you believe water freezes at 32
degrees F then your water freezing creed is what? I believe water freezes at 32
degrees F and despite the fact that they don’t like them, the Church of Christ
holds its own creed, “No creed but Christ” now, it’s a creed that doesn’t say
anything about Christ, who he is or what he’d done and lies that its members
don’t believe anything aside from Christ, but its still a creed. So we could
say that a creed is a personal statement of belief and a confession would be a corporate
agreement of several creeds or beliefs, like the Baptist Faith & Message.
All Christians need to take the time to think about what
they believe and why they believe it and if what they believe can be defended
Biblically. This is called Spiritual Growth or Discernment.
The problem as I see it with the majority of American
Christians is that they think that they have the right to believe what
ever they want to. Now people in general do have the right to believe whatever
they want to. But here’s the rub, people do not have the right to believe
anything they want and still call themselves Baptists or Lutherans or even
Christians. If you don’t believe what Baptists believe you’re not a Baptist, it
doesn’t matter where you attend church services and if you don’t believe what
Christians believe your not a Christian. (Pause) For example a turtle that
believes it’s a duck objectively & genetically is still a turtle, it’s just
a very confused turtle.
So I pray that these classes will both pressure you to think
more deeply about what it is you believe and why you believe it and also
encourage you when you find that much of what you believe already has been
taught Biblically and historically within Orthodox Christianity.
Does this bring up any
questions you guys have about creeds or confessions?
This is from the intro to the Baptist Faith and Message:
Baptists are people of deep beliefs. From the very beginning
of the Baptist movement, Baptist churches and associations of churches have
adopted statements of belief to teach, defend, and perpetuate the faith. These
statements, most commonly known as confessions of faith, are intended to
clarify and publish the most basic beliefs that frame our faith, our witness,
and our worship. In the beginning years of the organized Baptist movement,
theses statements were often intended to demonstrate that Baptists were fully
orthodox as Christian believers. Later, such statements were used to establish
identity, confront false teaching, and instruct Christians in the faith.
And that brings us to the Scriptures
Let’s say we have 3 people Bob, Sue and Joe and all 3 claims
to be Christians and all 3 have different views of the same Biblical doctrine
and Bob says I know I’m right because I feel it in my heart. And Sue says I
know I’m right because my belief is the most logical to me and Joe says I know
I’m right because God the Holy Spirit came to me in a vision and told me I’m
right, how do we know who is correct and who is incorrect? The only way is objective, external Truth, this is why we have the
Bible.
If you remember the very First article from the Baptist distinctive
was Biblical authority. So today we’re going to look at what is the Word of
God, then 4 primary philosophies that guard this doctrine and finally I’ve
already sent out some Bible reading aids that will help you as you continue to
read and learn the Scriptures.
So Christians use the term “Word of God” in 4 distinct ways,
what are they? The first is a Person and the last 3 are different ways God
speaks.
1-
Person Jesus Christ - John 1:1 John calls Jesus the
Word of God
2-
God speaks creatively – God decrees things into
existence Gen 1:3 and God said let there be light.
3-
God speaks directly to Man – Gen 2:16-17 God commanded
Adam saying…
4-
God speaks indirectly through means –
a.
God speaks through men, Jeremiah 1:9-14 God put His
words in the prophet’s mouth
b.
God speaks through Scripture Ex 31:18 God gave Moses
the Law written by the very finger of God
Now here are some common Bible questions:
Is the Bible 1 book or 66 books? Both, its really 1 library
which contains 66 books in it, but its printed as 1 large book.
Are there several authors or just 1? Both, there are about
40 different human authors but 1 Holy Spirit which inspired every single word.
Including the OT and the NT are there several ways to become
“saved” Biblically or just 1? 1, repentance and trust in God/Christ.
If I ask for a 1 word explanation of the point of all of
Scripture (both OT and NT) what would it be? Jesus
Here are some Baptist quotes regarding the Bible:
This is from the commentary on the Baptist Faith &
Message: The Bible is the Breathed out by God writings; or the Bible is the
Word of God, written by men.
A Baptist with a great name - Basil Manly Jr said, “The
Bible as a whole is the Word of God, so that in every part of Scripture there
is both infallible truth and divine authority.”
CH Spurgeon said, “This Volume is the writing of the living
God…everywhere I find God speaking: it is God’s voice, not man’s; the words are
God’s words, the words of the Eternal, the Invisible, the Almighty, the Jehovah
of this earth. The Bible is God’s Bible; and when I see it, I seem to hear a
voice springing up from it, saying, ‘I am the book of God: man, read me!”
Some good take away questions would be how deeply do you regard
Scripture? Do you treat it as if it were the actual Words of God? If you wanted
to hear from God would Scripture be the first place that you would turn?
4
philosophies that guard the doctrine of Scripture
The Word of God is….
Authoritative as
in if the Bible tells us we have to do something we do it, like the Great
Commission – make disciples by baptizing them and teaching them all that Christ
taught. I’m actually doing the Great
Commission, right now, by discipling you. (Pause) By the way, does anyone in
here need to get baptized?
The cumulative authority of Scripture can be seen from the
frequency in which the Bible reveals Thus says the Lord directly and also
indirectly through the prophets in the OT or through Christ’s teachings in the
Gospels and through the Apostles in the NT. It’s important to remember that the
NT is doctrines taught either to the disciples or by the Apostles, remembering
that Jude and James were both Jesus’ half-brothers, and Matthew, Peter, Paul
and John were all Apostles, and Mark and Luke were both traveling companions and
disciples under Paul and Peter, so unlike Charismatic teachers today who make
up new doctrines and claim that they came from God, these men actually knew God
in the flesh and were taught their doctrine from him.
The NT often validates the doctrines of the OT like in 2
Timothy 3:16 & 2 Peter 1:21, and then in 2 Peter 3:16 Peter calls Paul’s
writings Scripture on par with the OT and in 1 Timothy 5:18 Paul turns around
and calls Luke’s writings Scripture as well and on par with the OT.
Therefore to disbelieve or disobey any word of Scripture is
to disbelieve or disobey God.
Jesus often rebuked his disciples for their lack of faith in
the OT - Luke 24:25 and believers are to keep and obey the disciple’s words
John 15:20 & 2 Peter 3:2. The NT goes as far as to say that to disobey the
writings of Paul was to make oneself liable to church disciple up to
excommunication 2 Thessalonians 3:14. As such written Scripture becomes our
final authority in all matters of conduct and right belief.
How are you guys
doing? Are you we good so far? Any questions?
Inerrant as in
the Bible is wholly without error in any of its parts, this doesn’t mean that
people cannot use the Bible incorrectly; this just means that the Bible is itself
without error, not necessarily its users.
Ultimately the Bible is true, and you should not have a
lower opinion of Scripture than Jesus does, and Jesus clearly and literally
believed in several parts of Scripture that more theologically liberal scholars
would reject as mythology: including a literal Adam and therefore Creation, a
prophet named Jonah who was swallowed by a great fish, Noah’s flood, the
destruction of an actual city called Sodom, and even Election.
The Scriptures in its original language are without error in
any place. I say this because if someone mistranslates the Bible they make
it wrong, it wasn’t wrong to begin with for example you may know some Baptists
prefer the King James Version of the Bible the best (I don’t) but if you read
the OT in KJ you’ll notice several times there are unicorns running
around now this is not the fault of the Bible but bad translation of the Greek
and Hebrew.
Let me say that I’m happy that Baptists haven’t given up the
use of the word inerrant; some scholars have replaced it with softer language
like infallible that isn’t as hard-edged. From my experience with apostasy,
heresy and liberalism the 1st step with all of them is the rejection
of the complete truthfulness of the Scriptures then its only a matter of time
before they are no longer Christians at all they’re merely Agnostic not knowing
what to believe.
Clear as in you
do not need to be a Priest or a Pastor, a Seminarian or even a Baptist to read
and understand most of what the Bible has to say. Often when people say that
the Bible doesn’t make since - they don’t mean the words themselves don’t make
since like speaking in Charismatic Tongues:
bought-a-Mazda-should-have-bought-a-Hon-da instead they mean either they don’t
believe in the God described in Scripture or they just don’t know why God would
do what the Bible says he did.
We know for instance that Jesus thought the Bible was clear
(which I’ll define as both readable and understandable) because he often
answers people’s questions with … have you not read Matt 12, 19 & 22 or
have you not read in the Scriptures Matt 21 or even you are wrong
because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God Matt 22.
And if you remember Paul’s writings were not just to Pastors
but to particular churches assuming those congregations would hear and be able
to understand what he wanted to tell them. Often misunderstandings of Scripture
come because people want to make the Bible say what it does not say (ie that
slavery is bad and democracy is good) or by not accepting what it does say.
Okay are we clear on
Clarity?
Necessary as in
for Salvation, this does not mean you have to be a Bible-believing Christian to
appreciate a Sunrise or a Sunset, or to understand that if our gravitational
field stopped we’d all hurtle off into space, or if our orbit was any closer or
further from the Sun we’d all freeze or burn up but it does mean that you
personally cannot (will not) be saved without exposure to the Gospel which is
found only in God’s revealed Word so that everyone is either read into the
kingdom of God or preached into the kingdom of God, no one meditates themselves
into the kingdom or works themselves into the kingdom or whatever else the new
age movement spouts.
The Bible is necessary for knowledge of the Gospel, how else
can you learn about God’s faithfulness to His people or Christ’s sacrificial
atonement, even secular films like the Mel Gibson’s the Passion or Charlton
Heston’s 10 Commandments are not based off of History Channel documentaries and
their theories regarding the Middle-East 2000 yrs ago but are based on
Scripture.
Remember too that the Bible is also necessary to get a fuller understanding of maintaining a spiritual life and of proper worship of God. However the Bible is not necessary for knowing that a god exists if we were unemotionally democratic and we polled every single human being who has every lived then something like 98 or 99 percent have believed in some kind of god, so the Bible can explain who that God is but isn’t necessary to know that a god is out there. We know that inherently. Neither is the Bible necessary for having a conscience or having some idea of right or wrong. That is called Common Grace and its inherent in all people, it may be skewed or perverted but its there.
So in Conclusion
Southern Baptists are known as people of the Book, around
the world in big churches and small churches, singing praise band cover songs
or hymns, common to us all is our love for the Bible.
It’s important to remember that the Bible is not a collection
of human thoughts about God, but what God expects us to know about Him.
And that we can know God loves us in that we don’t need to
search to find out about Him but instead He has revealed Himself to us, through
Christ and through Scripture.
The Bible is God’s Word written though men so it’s not as if
only the topics are inspired or only sections are inspired (like just the words
of Jesus) but every word in the Bible is God’s Word to us and every word is
fully inspired.
God used the varied personalities, writing styles and
experiences of those He chose as authors to get across exactly what He wanted
to. 2 Peter 1:21
When Scripture speaks God speaks, understand it or not, like
it or not, Christ says that it will endure long after our short lives are gone.
A Christian loves the Word and demonstrates it by reading it
and learning it better and by demonstrating a hunger for Biblical preaching and
teaching
Christ called us to believe all of the OT Luke 24:25 and Christ
gave His message to His Apostles which is the message of the NT
The Bible is sufficient – don’t add to or take away from
Scripture Deut 4:2 & I think Rev 22
The Bible is Eternal – 1 Peter 1:24-25
The Baptist Faith and Message begins with Scripture and
where else could it begin? God has spoken; He has given His word, He has
reveled Himself to us in it and in the Bible all of the other doctrines we’ll
study are truths that can be found in God’s Word. Read it and God bless.
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