The English word Creed derives from a Latin term meaning “to believe”. When the Church quotes a Creed is quoting what “We believe.” Certain statements of Christian belief have come to be known as universal creeds, such as the Apostle’s Creed, or the Nicene Creed. What are these statements, what authority do they have? What is their value? Do we need them?
Creed and Scripture
The simple answer is, yes. Why? We only need these creeds to the extent that we need to have and understand the New Testament. The universal creeds are summaries of the standard of teaching, the form of doctrine, or the rule of the faith delivered by the Lord Jesus to the Apostles. They, in turn, delivered these traditions to the Churches. By this rule of faith, the Churches knew what was to be received as Scripture, and so the New Testament formed around it. “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter” (2 Thessalonians 2:15)
The GoodFaith Podcast
The GoodFaith podcast is intended to take the wisdom of collective church history and apply it to the problems and concerns we have today. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or your favourite feed by copying the following into your client (http://chadwgraham.com/feed/podcast), or by clicking on the RSS feed links on the home page of ChadWGraham.com
