In every generation, the church is entrusted with the same sacred responsibility: to guard the truth of the gospel once delivered to the saints (Jude 3). While Scripture alone is our final authority, the church has never existed without summaries of what it believes Scripture teaches. Creeds and confessions are not additions to God’s Word, but faithful responses to it—corporate declarations that define, defend, and preserve biblical truth for the good of Christ’s church.
Shared Truth in a Fragmented Age
We live in an age that values personal interpretation over shared conviction. Phrases like “my truth” and “what this passage means to me” dominate Christian discourse. Yet the New Testament presents the faith as something objective, public, and teachable. Paul exhorts Timothy to “follow the pattern of the sound words” he received (2 Timothy 1:13). That language assumes a defined body of doctrine—truth that can be confessed together and passed on faithfully.
Creeds and confessions give the church a shared theological vocabulary. They draw clear boundaries between truth and error, unity and confusion. Without them, the church is vulnerable to drifting doctrines and unstable teaching, even when Scripture is quoted frequently.
Confessions as Guards, Not Replacements
A common objection is that creeds and confessions undermine the authority of Scripture. Historically, the opposite is true. Confessional Christianity arose precisely because the church sought to protect biblical teaching against distortion. Confessions function as subordinate standards—they are always tested by Scripture, never placed alongside it.
When the church confesses the faith together, it is saying, “This is what we believe the Bible teaches.” That clarity protects congregations from doctrinal novelty and pastoral inconsistency. It also ensures that leaders are accountable to a shared understanding of truth rather than personal theological preference.
Let’s look at some examples…
The Nicene Creed: A Summary of the Christian Faith
The Nicene Creed stands as one of the most significant doctrinal statements in church history, formed to guard the church against false teaching that threatened the heart of the gospel.
In response to confusion and error regarding the nature of Christ, the church confessed with precision what Scripture teaches—that the Son is fully God, eternally begotten, and “of one substance with the Father.” This careful articulation draws clear boundaries around biblical truth so that Christ’s identity and saving work would not be distorted.
Creeds protect the church by defining orthodoxy, exposing error, and preserving the gospel for future generations. The Nicene Creed, along with the Apostles’ Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Chalcedonian Creed, are the four most commonly used in Reformed churches.
- The Nicene Creed confesses the Triune nature of God and clearly affirms the full deity of the Son and the Holy Spirit, guarding the gospel against errors that deny who Christ truly is.
- The Apostles’ Creed provides a concise summary of the foundational truths of the Christian faith, uniting the church around the essentials of the gospel revealed in Scripture.
- The Athanasian Creed carefully defines the doctrine of the Trinity and the incarnation, drawing firm theological boundaries to preserve orthodox belief about the one God in three persons.
- The Chalcedonian Creed safeguards biblical Christology by affirming that Jesus Christ is one person with two distinct natures, fully God and fully man, without confusion or division.
Creeds faithfully summarize biblical doctrine and serve as subordinate standards—authoritative only insofar as they agree with Scripture (sola Scriptura). By confessing shared truth publicly and clearly, the church proclaims that faith is not shaped by opinion or culture, but anchored in the unchanging Word of God.
The 1689 London Baptist Confession: A Faithful Witness
The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith builds upon the theological framework of the Reformation while clearly expressing Baptist convictions. It is thoroughly Reformed in its doctrine of God, Scripture, salvation, and the Christian life, while also articulating believers’ baptism, regenerate church membership, and congregational church polity.
The 1689 Confession provides a robust summary of biblical teaching on subjects such as:
- The authority and sufficiency of Scripture
- God’s sovereignty in creation and redemption
- Justification by faith alone
- The perseverance of the saints
- The nature and purpose of the church
1689 LBC vs Westminster Confession
In short, the Westminster Confession represents Reformed theology within a Presbyterian structure, while the 1689 Confession represents the same Reformed theology expressed through Baptist convictions. Both confessions aim to guard the church with shared truth, but they do so within different ecclesiological frameworks. I belong to a Reformed Baptist church, so I will be using the 1689 London Baptist Confession in my example.
Far from replacing Scripture, the 1689 Confession functions as a public declaration of what a church believes Scripture teaches. It promotes doctrinal unity, guards against theological drift, and offers pastors and congregations a shared theological foundation for teaching and discipleship.
Often read along with the 1689 Confession, the Baptist Catechism presents biblical truth in a clear question-and-answer format that aids memorization and understanding. Covering essential doctrines such as the nature of God, the law and the gospel, sin and redemption, Christ’s work, and the Christian life, the Baptist Catechism helps embed sound doctrine into the heart and mind of the church.
Rather than replacing Scripture, confessions and catechisms serve as faithful guides that train believers to think biblically, speak accurately about their faith, and pass on truth from one generation to the next.
Unity Through Doctrinal Clarity
True unity in the church is never built on vagueness. Biblical unity is unity in truth (John 17:17–21). Creeds and confessions promote this unity by establishing common ground for belief, worship, and practice. They do not eliminate disagreement, but they prevent confusion about what a church actually teaches.
Rather than stifling spiritual life, doctrinal clarity provides stability. Believers are anchored, discipleship is strengthened, and teaching ministries are guarded from error. In this way, confessions serve both the pulpit and the pew. They also help ensure that what is passed on to the next generation is the same gospel once delivered—not a diluted or redefined version shaped by cultural pressure.
Guarding the Church Faithfully
Clarity is not the enemy of unity. Defining doctrine is an act of faithfulness, not division.
In an age where belief is often fluid and undefined, these historic summaries help guard the church by anchoring her to the unchanging truth of God’s Word. They teach us not only what we believe, but how to believe together—as one body, confessing one faith, under the authority of Scripture alone.
The church does not support creeds and confessions because Scripture is unclear, but because truth is precious—and worth protecting.
A Prayer for the Church
Gracious and Sovereign Lord,
We thank You for entrusting Your church with the truth of the gospel and for preserving that truth throughout every generation. We confess that apart from Your grace, we are prone to drift, to compromise, and to forget what You have clearly revealed in Your Word. Guard Your church, both local and universal, by Your Spirit, that we may hold fast to sound doctrine and walk in humble obedience before You.
Strengthen our individual congregations to be faithful stewards of the truth—teaching what accords with Scripture, loving one another in unity, and proclaiming Christ with clarity and conviction. Preserve Your church across the world from error and division, and grant that we would confess the faith once delivered to the saints with courage, charity, and joy.
May all we believe, teach, and confess bring glory to You alone, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Dawn Zauner 