Some Christians vociferously affirm “no creed but the Bible” denying any value in the historical creeds of the faith since they are not found in Scripture. Yet these same Christians (correctly) use the word “Trinity” to describe the Godhead, a word that is also not found in Scripture – something that Jehovah’s Witnesses are fond of pointing out. Do the historical creeds affirm truth? Absolutely . . . as long as they encapsulate the teaching of Scripture and do not contradict Scripture and accurately summarize its teaching.

Historically the creeds were formulated to combat heresy. Important historical creeds include:

The Nicene Creed was drafted in 325 to oppose the dangerous heresy of Arianism which asserted that the Son is created and not coternal and coequal with the Father. It defends the doctrine of the Trinity and deity of the Son, and that the one true God exists eternally in three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The modern incarnation of Arianism is Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Nicene Creed is a powerful affirmation of the deity of Jesus Christ.

The Chalcedonian Definition was formulated in 451 to defend the hypostatic union, that Christ has both a divine and human nature, coexisting on one person. It refutes the following heresies: Adoptionism (2nd Century) – Jesus was simply a man who was tested by God and after passing the test was given supernatural powers and adopted as a son (this occurred at His baptism); Docetism (2nd Century) – Jesus only appeared to have a body and was not truly incarnate; Apollinarianism (4th Century) – denied the true and complete humanity of Jesus, because it taught He did not have a human mind, but instead had a mind that was completely Divine; Nestorianism (5th Century) – maintained Jesus was really two separate persons, and only the human Jesus was in Mary’s womb; Eutychianism [Monophysitism] (5th Century) – taught Jesus’ humanity was absorbed by His divinity. Tragically, I regularly encounter Christians who unkwowingly subscribe to one of these heresies.

The Athanasian Creed is a Christian statement drafted in 500 to express belief focused on Trinitarian doctrine and Christology. Used by Christian churches since the early sixth century, it was the first creed to explicitly state the equality of the three hypostases of the Trinity. It differs from the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed and the Apostles’ Creed in that it includes anathemas condemning those who disagree with its statements, as does the original Nicene Creed.

The Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 is important to Baptists adhering to a reformed understanding of Scripture as it articulates a reformed perspective of the baptist faith.  It was revised by the Philadelphia Baptist Association in the 18th century, and is also known as the Philadelphia Confession of Faith. (BTW, Southern Baptists might be interested to know that their denomination is classified as a Reformed tradition.)

The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy is a formal statement of belief formulated by more than 200 evangelical leaders at a conference convened by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy and held in Chicago in October 1978. The statement was designed to defend the position of biblical inerrancy against a trend toward liberal conceptions of Scripture.

Here is a link to all the historic creeds and confessions. Iphone users can download a free app entitled “Creeds and Confessions”. It contains all the historic creeds from the Apostles Creed of 340 up to the Africa Statement of 2025. (There is also another useful app entitled “Christian Creeds & Confessions” but it needs to be updated to work with IOS 26.0)

Christians who ignore the historic creeds are prone to making the same heretical mistakes that the creeds were formulated to combat. For example, many Christians that I dialogue with affirm “modalism” in their understanding of the Trinity, the heresy that God is one person, that the Father became the Son and then became the Holy Spirit. The ancient creeds are a necessary bulwark against heresy.