In an effort to illuminate some of our important church problems recent OUTLOOKS have at the Board‘s suggestion contained articles attempting to present side–by-side (1) the historic, Biblical Reformed view and (2) the emerging, changing, broadening view held by an increasing number in our churches. The March issues contained such a presentation of I. The Nature of the Problem: The Biblical Antithesis. The April issue spotlighted II. The Authority: God‘s Inviolable Word. In this issue let us consider III. An Honest Confession.

(1) The Biblical, Reformed View Why must we confess and hold creeds? The word “creed” comes from the Latin for “I believe.”

The Lord orders that those whom He saves must believe in and confess Him “before men” (Matt. 10:32, 33; Rom. 10:9, 10). That “confession” really means “saying the same things” as God says (1 John 5:9–12). God’s Word enjoins us to “be ready always to give answer to every man that asks . . . a reason concerning the hope” which we have (1 Pet. 3:15). The creeds are simply the churches’ deliberate efforts over the centuries, under the promised and given guidance of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16, 17; 15: 26, 27; 16:13, 14), to carry out this instruction of the Lord. This saving gospel revelation has structure and order so that Paul must instruct Timothy to “Hold the pattern of sound words which thou hast heard from me, in faith and love which is in Chris t Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee guard through the Holy Spirit which dwelleth in us” (2 Tim. 1:13, 14), and this trust he, in turn, must “commit . . . to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (2:2). It is this trust of “sound” or, literally, “healthful” doctrine which the churches must teach, preserve and defend in their creeds. They are part of the ongoing effort to “hold to the faithful word” in order to teach the “sound doctrine” and “convict” its “opponents” (Tit. 1:9). Their purpose is educational, missionary and apologetic. While clearer and more extensive statements of God’s biblically revealed truth and its bearing on new problems or errors may be desirable, “new confessions” or “testimonies” which are designed by ambiguous language to loosen the ties to Scripture and to accommodate those who really deny the faith and practice which it teaches, ought to be rejected as betrayals of the faith. Although the authority of the creeds is subordinate to that of the Bible, we must honestly make their testimony to the unchanging truth of God our own. We have to confess this revealed “whole counsel of God” positively and oppose all who contradict it (Acts 20:27–32), seeking if possible to correct them (2 Tim. 2:25, 26), and if they persist in rejecting God’s truth, discipline them (Tit. 1:13f., 3:10; 1 Cor. 5:13; Rom. 16:17).

(2) The Broadening View Creeds are appropriate expressions of the churches’ faith. We realize today (as our predecessors did not) that they are all (like the Bible itself) historically conditioned. They express the feelings of the churches at the time of their origin and cannot be expected to adequately express the churches’ attitude in other, changed times. Our historic creeds were formulated in a time when men thought “ontologically,” in terms of what they thought “is”; whereas today men think “functionally,” in terms of what works. Therefore, to live in and speak to men in today’s world, we must discard the “static” ideas of an unchanging truth and begin to think “dynamically.” In dealing with creeds (as well as in dealing with the Bible) we must leave room for a variety of changing “interpretations.” Our creeds must inspire and unite us as widely as possible, not restrict, divide or exclude anyone. Therefore we should discard antiquated “forms of subscription,” for they inhibit progress and prevent us from our taking an influential place in the present world. We must welcome new insights and learn from dialog with others of differing traditions. While we ought to retain our old confessions because of their historical value in helping us to preserve a sense of continuity with and understanding of the tradition of the fathers, we really need a new confession which will no longer attempt to bind us to old opinions which are no longer meaningful to people of our time. Positively, it should appeal to the needs, interests and problems of contemporary man, especially his social, political and economic interests and problems. Such a confession may be expected to help direct our own responsible activities and improve our evangelistic appeal to our communities.