Church creeds once ruffled the feathers of many in the Church of Christ. Today we seldom hear anything about these creeds, good, or bad; perhaps we have decided creeds aren’t as bad as we thought, or we’re just so tired of the problem we have moved on to new feather ruffling issues.
God’s inspired Word completely furnishes every need of the Christian, and their relationship to the church, without having to add anything to it. We don’t need any religious man-breathed creeds to guide our lives, and regulate our walk with Jesus. Church creeds often attempt to organize, and control a church, or group of churches, by molding its members into what they believe is the ideal way to be religious. These creeds bind the child of God to a man-made document that must be followed if they are to be acceptable members of that church.
Creeds basically are nothing but devised human attachments to the Word of God that are unnecessary. They burden the Christian with traditions and regulations that the scriptures never intended. They restrict the freedom of Christians to follow Jesus as determined by each individual, and seek unity in a religious creed rather than in Christ.
In Jesus we have the one and only perfect mediator between man and God…we don’t need anything, or anybody, to devise a new way to regulate our thinking, or conscience, in our relationship with the Creator.
While church creeds may be initiated with the best of intentions, they often reflect the personal opinions of a few individuals. Creeds that define the body of Christ in human terms, and requires its members to conform to laws and regulations designed by men are wrong. Mortals should not attempt to cross over into territory angels fear to tread.
Some Church of Christ groups are governed by unwritten creeds that are every bit as harmful; we don’t see a visible creed in a written published form, so all the little traditional things we pass among ourselves seem harmless, yet somewhere along the way we have set in concrete many traditional opinions, and in some cases, forced them on our brothers and sisters as undeniable truth resulting in numerous divisions.
Jesus, minus all religious creeds (written, or unwritten,) should smooth the ruffled feathers!
Hello Larry … good post and I can appreciate what you are saying.
Creeds, in my opinion, are not evil as long as they are personal statements and not communal decrees.
For instance, if I ask you what you believe about Jesus, you will recite your personal creed … a list of beliefs … even if you provide Scripture to substantiate.
But if we devise a creed between the three of us and then tell everyone else that this is THE creed, then we are forcing our opinions on others – a feather ruffler for sure.
There is value in studying the ancient creeds … and there surely are things that we can all agree upon.
So is there a way to avoid a creedal communion while upholding our beliefs (truths, creeds)? Interesting thoughts!
By: johndobbs on August 14, 2007
at 8:56 pm
Larry if we are going to have unwritten creeds, we may as well put them down in writing, at least that way we can read them and not depend on old folks like me to remember them.
By: Laymond on August 14, 2007
at 11:16 pm
john…
Thanks for coming by and taking the time to comment. Hope all is well on the Gulf Coast.
Enjoyed your interviews with Trey Morgan and Danny Dodd…reading their blogs is not the same as being able to hear them. Try getting an interview with Bobby Valentine, and Al Maxey…that would be interesting!
By: Larry on August 14, 2007
at 11:39 pm
laymond…
Trying to remember all the unwritten stuff is a problem for me too! Some of the stuff is easy to remember because we see it all the time.
By: Larry on August 14, 2007
at 11:43 pm
sssshhhhh…if we don’t admit we have unwritten creeds, perhaps no one will ever know!
By: jettybetty on August 15, 2007
at 9:28 am
JB…
Hope I haven’t let the cat out of the bag!
By: Larry on August 15, 2007
at 11:12 am
I occasionally make a nuisance of myself on other peoples’ blogs by encouraging folks to write their own creed … study, meditate and pray deeply about what they believe and why and then put it into writing … then put it away for twenty or thirty years … look it up and see how much they have grown in the faith.
But I won’t do that here.
By: Keith Brenton on August 16, 2007
at 9:54 am
Well, I wouldn’t say necessarily say “nuisance”……but it can be incredibly challenging. At least it was for me…
By: mmlace on August 16, 2007
at 10:34 am
That is probally a good Idea Keith, Larry and I might not have twenty or thirty years to spare. Lary check out my blog I may have come up on the facts of this life :) or non facts however you see it.
By: laymond on August 16, 2007
at 10:37 am
Keith…
Feel free to say whatever you want; I’m not thin-skinned. :) I certainly don’t have all the answers, and those commenting help me understand a little better.
Creeds by individuals, used as you indicated in your comment, is not the creeds I was referring to. Creeds that I believe cause problems are those where a church, or a group of people acting for the church, create a body of man-made rules, then insist that everyone else in the church must follow their rules.
By: Larry on August 16, 2007
at 10:54 am
laymond…
Now you’ve done it again; told everyone how old we are. :)
By: Larry on August 16, 2007
at 10:56 am
mmlace…
Thanks for coming by…
Keith is always a nuisance; he makes me think too much! :)
By: Larry on August 16, 2007
at 11:00 am
Larry, good ideas for interview subjects! Glad you enjoyed the podcasts … it’s fun to do.
Things are going well here as we approach the two year mark. There are still about 1,000 FEMA campers in our county … so there is plenty of work to do. We currentlyl have no volunteers scheduled until November…so if anyone reading this wants to come down and work, come on down. We’ve got room. We did meet with some Mennonites yesterday that are hoping to come in January. Our mild winter is an excellent opportunity for their schedule.
Larry, I thank you for the help you sent our way. People like you helped us stay afloat during some of the toughest times I’ve ever lived through.
And we pray now for the dissipation of Hurricane Dean.
By: John Dobbs on August 17, 2007
at 6:51 pm
Hey Larry. Would you say there is a difference between a church’s “creed” and a statement of values? The church I attend just produced a “Faith and Values Statement”. It is kind of a compiled breakdown of the core values we hold to. You can glance at a copy of it at pvcc.org and scroll down until you see the Faith and Values button. So far, this has been a good outreach tool that I can hand to folks that ask me questions about where I worship. Let me know what you think.
By: Alan Gable on August 18, 2007
at 2:41 am
alan…
Thanks for coming by… tough questions, thanks a bunch :)
The “statement of values” at pvcc , in my opinion, isn’t an attempt to control a church as some creeds do. There are a few things in the statement that may not reflect the beliefs of some of the members, not that the statements are wrong, but perhaps some may differ with the the exact wording…while it may represent the beliefs of the majority of the church, it may offend some of the members.
Once the statement was released is it possible that somewhere in the future it could become the creed of pvcc? What is considered non-essential to some might seem essential to others, if so, will this document be considered the source by pvcc to maintain beliefs exactly as worded in the statement?
If the statement becomes a testing document to determine whether a member is sound, or unsound, based on how closely he adheres to the “statement of values” it becomes a problem.
Hey, I’m just dishing out opinions, but if the statements ever attach themselves to the most prominent wall in the building, becomes framed, and sprouts capitals (Statement of Values,) it might be somewhat worrisome… :)
By: larry on August 18, 2007
at 4:27 am
I attend (and work at) Alan’s church – in fact I designed, but did not write, the “Faith and Values” document. It’s really pretty much a re-write of one done by another church in Memphis. They no longer post theirs on their Web site.
My guess is that, years down the road, the folks at PV will look back on it as a quaint commentary on the times.
And that is really the biggest challenge facing anyone writing a creed, whether it’s personal or for a church. We’re products of our past and residents of our current times, and hopefully we grow with them.
The words on the page stay the same.
And it’s really hard to improve on the ones in scripture for staying power.
By: Keith Brenton on August 19, 2007
at 5:54 pm
keith…
Thanks for stopping by again. I think we probably differ on creeds to an extent, and perhaps I don’t understand like I should, but as Christians we can certainly discuss and respect each others viewpoints; thanks for participating with your comments.
Writing a personal creed certainly can be useful, as you stated, for measuring one’s growth. I don’t have any problems with these statements of faith, but I’m not keen on any human creeds formulated for an entire body of Christians.
Church creeds are generally penned by a select group of its members who are given the power to create and publish that church’s beliefs. The writers of the creed have the potential to create a document that promotes their own belief system, which may not be scriptural, or even agreeable to a large portion of the church. This creed may indeed not promote error, but it has within the creation process the possibility of pushing beliefs that may not be scriptural, on the church.
Why trust creeds when we have God’s Word to follow. If the creed follows the scriptures exactly, then it is redundant, and unnecessary; if it differs from the Scriptures it is wrong. Perhaps an over simplification of the process, but often I need simple explanations. :)
By: larry on August 19, 2007
at 9:56 pm
Just a simple comment Larry, I’m with you, there is no need for creeds. If anyone wants to know what I believe I just recommend the bible, with my own interpretation . :)
By: Laymond on August 20, 2007
at 7:20 am
laymond…
We’re both fortunate to have perfect interpretation of all things spiritual. :)
By: larry on August 20, 2007
at 7:34 am
Larry,
Great post.
I believe the Bible should be our creed that we should follow.
When you follow man’s creeds it could lead to legalism and other things that aren’t intended to be what we would Christian.
By: preacherman on August 20, 2007
at 10:35 pm
preacherman…
Appreciate your comments.
It’s hard to speak for an entire church since there are so many honest opinions about certain scriptures that are difficult; creeds make blanket statements that try to cover all bases, and have the potential (since they are man-made) to create more problems than they solve.
By: larry on August 21, 2007
at 5:53 am
Larry…is the term “creed” just a another word for the specific “practices” of any given church? Or are we talking about something much more “global”? (haven’t read the Nicene Creed lately, so I don’t know if this is something different) I DO know that at my church, we have a brief “Mission Statement” which is not unlike a condensed version of what we SHOULD be all about from the Bible. But then, I am in full agreement with Bro. Al regarding “unity” and “specificity” in what we should be doing, and that it doesn’t matter WHAT name appears on that church building…as long as they adhere to the specific commands of Christ, they are our brothers and sisters in Christ. And I’m not talking about “commands” that man has inserted just because of the “Law of Silence” of which many churches say that exclusion of such man-generated “commands” is sinful and will doom others to hell. Anyone who specifies such “commands” in a “creed” is in danger of a much greater sin, especially if they condemn others and say so publically.
We Christians don’t NEED a “creed”… the Bible is quite explicit on what we need to be DOING. A very wise preacher once told me, “Don’t you think God forgives our ‘errors of doctrine’?” I’d like to close with a title switch on Elvis’ song – “A little more ACTION and less CONVERSATION”! (I’m speaking in broad terms, of course – not to your wonderful blogs!)
Praise God for the grace he bestows on us…and for his love for ALL Christians!!
By: Carolyn W on September 20, 2007
at 7:16 pm
HMMMMMMMMM
Creeds.
The only creed we in churches of Christ have that
I don’t like is the one where we turn examples of NT Christians into law.
The problem when we do that, we do not become free from religion as they were.
We do not become what they were.
We bcome exactly the opposite of what they were.
We now have to complete 5 acts perfect under law, each Sunday.
They never did such.
They ‘lived” Christ like, daily
By: H. Clay McCool jr. on December 8, 2007
at 11:57 pm