I believe in creeds

Yes. I believe in creeds. Sunday morning on Speaking of Faith, there was a fascinating (to me) interview with the recently deceased Jaroslav Pelikan.

I was raised in and remain a part of the evangelical "low church" tradition. But one that increasingly does respect (at least in theory, even if not much in practice) traditions of our "high church" brothers and sisters.

Reciting the creeds, I think can be helpful. The Church, through the early centuries formulated creeds as expressing the heart of the faith of Christians in their place and time. They were hammered out with reference to heresies, such as the Gnostic and Arian heresies. Forms of these heresies, along with others the Church addressed, continue to arise. So these creeds continue to express the heart of our faith in a way that speaks against abberations claiming to represent the true faith. The formulation of the creeds was a part of the Church fulfilling our call to contend for the faith once for all entrusted to God's people (Jude).

Creeds are human attempts to express truth from Scripture on crucial matters, that matter as to salvation and orthodoxy (correct/right belief). Heresy, earlier from a New Testament Greek word simply meaning "schism" or what we might call today cliques (or maybe sects) among true believers, came to mean departures from the faith, so that the result is to no longer to be in the faith. Yet claiming to be Christian. In this sense Jews are not heretics. Whereas anyone or group denying Jesus' resurrection, while calling themselves Christian, would be classified heretical.

Here is the Nicence Creed, one of the early creeds of Christianity still believed in by Protestants, Anabaptists, Roman Catholics and Orthodox, to this day:

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father [and the Son].
With the Father and the Son
he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Pelikan's 2003 interview with Krista Tippet is fascinating in his profound understanding of the creeds and their place. Also, to learn of creeds continuing to be made (as in Africa), to express the same faith in a different place was also interesting.

God, Thank you for enabling your people to have discernment by the Spirit and Scripture, to see what is true, and thus distinguish it from the false. Let us be those who can express the heart of our faith, and above all, let us be those who live out that faith, in all of life. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, and is, and ever will be, world without end. Amen.