Devotion/Study – “THREE C’s” – 01/22/2026 – Faithful Steward Ministries and FSM Women's Outreach

CATECHISMS – CONFESSIONS – CREEDS

Today’s devotional and study is from the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. I have used their materials often because I agree with their view most of the time. Today is no exception. While this article focuses on the importance of Creeds, I think it could be expanded to include Catechisms and Confessions as well.

Why are these important, you may ask? Simply put, they are what we hold to be true about our faith, written for all to see. Equally importance they are available to all to study and grow in faith. These in no way diminish the Holy Word of God. In fact, quite the opposite, as each is an expounding of scripture for man to understand, with scripture references usually attached. Useful, not only for personal growth, but they are equally helpful tools for evangelism and apologetics.

DEVOTION

The Need for the Creeds

STUDY

Catechism. Named after katēcheō, the Greek verb for oral instruction, this is a summary of Christian *doctrine used for religious instruction, presented in question-and-answer form. Although the practice is much older, this particular word and its distinctive form were first popularized during the Reformation by Martin *Luther. The intention was to present a distinctive, dialogical interpretation of the Nicene Creed, the Decalogue, the Lord’s Prayer, the *sacraments and other doctrinal topics. A smaller, or shorter, catechism is usually intended for memorization by children, while a larger catechism is for more advanced study and often aimed at parents and church leaders. The most important Reformed examples are the *Geneva Catechism, the *Heidelberg Catechism, and the Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechisms, with the latter based on the *Westminster Confession instead of the Nicene Creed.

Kelly M. Kapic and Wesley Vander Lugt, Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Tradition, The IVP Pocket Reference Series (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013), 31.

CONFESSIONS AND CREDOS Theological statements of faith. Although individual Christians can produce such treatises, Christian groups or denominations normally produce confessions and credos. These proclamations are intended to declare the doctrinal perspective of the group on the matters addressed in the document.

The OT depicts the people of God confessing truths about Him and then offering their allegiance to him. Deuteronomy 6:4–25 calls for Israel to confess the truth about God (His oneness) and salvation (deliverance from Pharaoh’s armies), and then to offer allegiance to Him in terms of personal devotion (love Him with all your heart, v. 5), passing on the heritage of God’s message (teach [the commands] diligently to your children, v. 7), be always remembering God’s Word (vv. 8–10), telling the story of their deliverance to the next generation (vv. 20–25). This passage has for centuries served a confession used regularly in Jewish homes. Psalm 78 demonstrates how Israel regularly called to mind God’s work in its history. It speaks in narrative form of God’s sovereignty (vv. 12, 22–26), His wrath (vv. 21, 27–29), His salvation (vv. 12–16, 70–72), His mercy (vv. 38–39), His judgment (vv. 41–67), and His elective grace (vv. 67–72). Other confession texts can be found in Exod. 19–20, Josh. 24, Deut. 26.

The NT gives evidence of the early church’s use of confessions and credos. The expression “Jesus is Lord” is an early confession intended to signify those who were genuinely born again and in whom the Holy Spirit dwelt (Rom. 10:9; 1 Cor. 12:3; Phil. 2:11). A baptismal candidate immediately prior to baptism may have used the confession to profess faith in Christ. Such public confessions often resulted in persecution and death. Credos may have been tools used to instruct new converts or to combat heresy. For example, the expression “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” appears to be a credo designed to refute the false teaching that Jesus Christ only appeared to be a human being (1 John 4:2; 2 John 7). Other examples of succinct statements that encapsulate the faith of the early church in a confessional/creedal format are: Col. 1:15–20; 1 Tim. 3:16; 1 Pet. 3:18–22; Heb. 1:1–3; Phil. 2:5–11.

In the early church, confessions and credos were used to profess the faith of martyrs or those who withstood persecution. The concept eventually came to mean a resolved affirmation of religious convictions. These declarations may or may not be in conjunction with persecution.
Following the biblical precedent, confessions and credos ultimately developed into formal doctrinal statements. This concept has several forms. One form of confessionalism is the production of confessions of faith. Confessions of faith are theological documents intended to provide doctrinal identity and promote denominational unity. Confessions of faith often identify and articulate common areas of belief among different Christian denominations. Most denominations have used confessions of faith throughout their history. Exceptions would include Campbellites (followers of Alexander Campbell, now represented by these denominations: Church of Christ, Christian Church, Disciples of Christ) and Quakers. The former have held that the NT is sufficient, and thus there is no need for any confession of faith, while the latter have held to a radical individualism in which each person under the guidance of the Spirit’s “inner light” is the arbiter of truth. Baptists and other Protestants have generally rejected such arguments.

Another understanding of confessionalism is the formal presentation of beliefs produced by Protestants. These presentations provide interpretative guides to Scripture, usually expounding the recognized creed of faith of a particular denomination. Confessionalism in this sense concerns formal theological treatises that are classified as “confessional theologies.” These confessional theologies normally profess a Protestant understanding of the faith, often in contrast to Roman Catholicism, or even to other Protestant traditions.

Confessionalism can also be the endeavor of deriving doctrinal, core insights from within a particular Christian community of faith. This form of confessionalism finds its theological starting point from a perspective that is unique to a particular Christian religious community. This doctrinal interpretation may or may not be an interpretation of the formal creedal statements of a particular denomination.
Debate today surrounds the distinction between confessions of faith and creeds. Distinctions between the two are often difficult to clarify and define. Confessions of faith and creeds both provide denominational and doctrinal identity to particular Christian denominations. Further, both articulate explicit doctrinal statements that require a voluntary, conscientious adherence. One distinction, however, may be in the use of such documents. Creeds can be used to require conformity by all members of a particular tradition. In other words, creeds require a complete subscription by an individual in order to be a member of the denomination. Confessions of faith, while providing a consensus opinion of the majority of adherents, do not generally require such a subscription in order to belong to the specific body.

Chad Brand with Norman Stan, “Confessions and Credos,” in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, ed. Archie England et al. with Draper Charles (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), 328–329.

CREED (or Credo [AS. creda], taken from the first word of the Latin confession of faith = Greek ‘symbol’ [symbolon, symbolum]).—An ecclesiastical (non-Biblical) term, signifying ‘the faith’ objectively and as explicitly declared, ‘the articles of’ Christian ‘belief’ drawn up in systematic and authoritative form. ‘The Creeds’ denote the three great historical Confessions of the early Church—‘the Apostles’,’ the Nicene or Constantinopolitan (325, 381 A.D.), and the Athanasian (of Latin origin, 6th century); ‘the Creed’ commonly means the Apostles’ Creed alone. This last can be traced, in its simplest form, to the 2nd century; see Lumby’s Hist. of the Creeds, or Swete’s Apostles’ Creed. Shaped in their developed form by doctrinal controversy and Conciliar definition, the Creeds owe their origin to the necessities of worship and the instinct of public confession in the Church, felt at baptism to begin with. Christian believers formed the habit, when they met, of reciting their common faith, and this recitation assumed a fixed rhythmical form; so that the creed is akin to the hymn and the doxology. Its beginnings are visible in the NT—see Mt 16:16, 28:19, Ro 10:9, 10, 1 Co 8:6, 12:3 (RV), Eph 4:4–6, 1 Ti 3:16, 1 Jn 4:2; and further back, for the OT and the Synagogue, in the Shema of Dt 6:4.

James Hastings et al., Dictionary of the Bible (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1909), 165.

Catechisms, Confessions, and Creeds

The following two lists are from Reformation Stewards. I have set links to a few of the more historically important documents.

During the Protestant Reformation, several creeds and confessions were drafted to articulate doctrinal beliefs, establish religious identity, and distinguish different Protestant groups from the Roman Catholic Church. Here is a list of some of the most significant creeds and confessions from that period:

Augsburg Confession (1530)
Smalcald Articles (1537)
The Formula of Concord (1577)
Tetrapolitan Confession (1530)
The Scots Confession (1560)
The Belgic Confession (1561)
Second Helvetic Confession (1566)
The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647)
The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689)
The Thirty-Nine Articles (1571)
The Schleitheim Confession (1527)

Several catechisms were drafted during the Reformation as tools for instruction and education. These catechisms were designed to articulate core beliefs and to instruct individuals in the essentials of the Christian faith.