A Series of Studies based upon “Presbyterian Creeds – A Guide to the Book of Confessions” by Jack Rogers. (WJK Books ISBN0-664-25496-9)
1. An Introduction to the Confessions
Every time an elder, deacon or minister is ordained they are asked “Do you sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed Church as expressed in the confessions of our church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do, and will you be instructed and led by those confessions as you lead the people of God?” the reply is usually an “I do”; a reply often made in the hope that the confessions actually are ‘authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do’, rather than with any first hand knowledge!
We often treat the confessions rather like the medicines we obtain from the pharmacy. Although they come with detailed instructions of every single side effect and plausible dosage, we go ahead and take them in faith, and it’s only when something goes wrong turn to examine the details!
So, what are these confessions?
Are they still essential?
How did they come about in the first place?
Maybe first we should ask... what exactly is a Reformed Church anyway?
REFORMED THEOLOGY
The Reformation is known for the time Martin Luther nailed his theses to the door and the break began with the Catholic Church. Equally important in the reformation story were the figures of Ulrich Zwingli and John Calvin. There were differences in the theologies of these reformers, particularly when it came to the sacraments.
Martin Luther took the view that it was enough to simply reject those matters of medieval doctrine that seemed clearly contrary to the Word of God. Calvin and the other Swiss Reformers took the view that reform would only truly take place when life in the church and the world was fashioned after only those things that were in the scriptures.
At a later date Queen Elizabeth 1st described the theology of the Swiss Reformers as being “More Reformed” than that of the Lutherans because of its stress upon simplicity of worship and upon discipline in public and private life. As the ‘Reformed’ movement matured it developed some distinctive theological emphases.
TENSION
The Confessions and Creeds reflect theological tensions across centuries of faith and guide us as to how that theology that came to be known as Reformed dealt with those tensions. They mostly came out of situations of conflict or times of great change and as such often delve deeper into things than many would normally take the time to do. Such explains their sometimes inaccessibility, yet also their importance, as they can be a bedrock upon which to stand during times when faith is under fire.
ESSENTIAL AND NECESSARY
In the hope of being ‘Reformed and also Reforming” a distinction is sometimes made between what is ‘essential and necessary’ to believe, and what is of secondary importance. Freedom of conscience is tempered by community standards. Our ‘Book of Order’ Chapter 2, gives a summary of what is considered ‘Essential.”
Universal (Held by all Christian Churches)
The Trinity
The Incarnation
Reformed (Held by all Reformed Churches)
Justification by Grace through Faith
Scripture as the final Authority for salvation and the life of faith.
Distinctive (Particular to Presbyterianism)
God’s Sovereignty
God’s election (choosing) of people for salvation and service.
The Covenant nature of the Church, ordering its life by the Word of God
Faithful Stewardship of God’s creation
The rejection of idolatry
Obedience to God’s Word in working for justice and the transformation of society.
SETTING MARGINS
Within the margins of a typed page, one has freedom to express whatever one wishes. But functioning without margins makes things intolerable. If you have ever downloaded a file to “Notepad’ on your computer and not checked the “Word Wrap” button, you’ll understand what I’m talking about!
The margins can be changed. But even then, others have to be set. Think maybe of our Confessions as margins (that sometimes have been moved as paper has changed its quality and printing has evolved) but essentially margins remain in place to define us as being “Reformed” and guide us in our “Reforming.”
2. Doctrine and Dogma for Dummies
The need for Creeds comes about because Christians are a disagreeable bunch of folk. Ask a Session Meeting to decide what color the kitchen should be painted, and you’ll soon discover what I’m talking about. Theological arguments run even deeper than decorative ones, and many of the confessions came about because of strong disagreement over such things as Doctrine, Dogma and Dogmatics.
Before launching into a look at the individual Creeds, it may be helpful, that as we last time described what we meant by Reformed, that this time we define what some of these loaded theological “D” words are about and how it is they build a bridge for us from the Scriptures to the Confessions.
Remember that the Creeds are not intended to replace Scripture. An essential Presbyterian belief is that “Scripture alone is the final authority for salvation and the life of faith.” They are, as we insist on our officers assenting, “authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do”
Even the simplest and best known scriptural passages are open to interpretation. As an example, Jack Rogers takes in his book the biblical statement that commences the Lords Prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven’ (Matthew 6:9). The first of our “D”s is;
DOCTRINE
Whilst we may have learnt the Lords Prayer parrot fashion, the intention in doing so was not simply recitative ability but that we may consider what it teaches us about God. ‘Doctrine’ comes from the Latin word ‘doctrina’ meaning ‘the content of what is taught’. Whenever we state a biblical idea, we are expressing a doctrine.
In the first phrase of the Lord’s Prayer we discover a number of things about the nature of God. First of all, we claim that God is ours – as opposed to yours or theirs. This is not a God divorced from experience, but one whom we are in fellowship with.
We call this God ‘Father’ – a term indicating a parental function that God to exerts over our lives. We could go further and develop what exactly an Eastern concept of Fatherhood at the time of Jesus would indicate. This personal God (we call ‘who’) is located in a specific realm that we describe as ‘heaven’ from where the concept of personal fatherhood exerts an influence over our lives.
We were to then take each of those concepts, “Our God”, “Fatherhood”, “Heaven” and search through the scriptures for other occurrences and meanings we would be developing a doctrine – a general concept – derived from a synthesis of a number of biblical passages.
A doctrine is the sum of what the scriptures teach about a particular topic. So, you will find books that speak about, “The Doctrine of the Church” or the “Doctrine of Atonement’. Some have even attempted “The Doctrine of God” in other words – “Everything you wanted to know about God but were afraid to ask”
A doctrine deftly developed may become a;
DOGMA
There is a movie called Dogma which takes a warped look at religion and reminds us that ‘dogma’ and his friend ‘dogmatic’ tend’ to be taken as negative adjectives. Often, we use the terms to describe ideas or people whom we judge to be narrow, inflexible and biased.
In it’s original Greek it expressed a positive. Dogma was “That which seemed good.” It referred to a principle that settled things once and for all. Ask the question “Do chairs work best when they have 4 legs”. Answer “Yes, Chairs need 4 legs” and you have stated a dogma regarding leg necessities on pieces of furniture we call chairs. No further discussion is necessary.
In religious terms a “dogma” came to describe a “doctrine” that had been decided by a church body or council to be authoritative. As an example, the Nicene Creed was sanctioned by the very first ecumenical councils (way back in AD 381 and 325) as being an authoritative interpretation of scriptures teaching. Their words represent what the entire known church of the day agreed was good.
Our simple prayer fragment “Our Father who art in heaven” becomes developed to read, “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and Earth, and of all things visible and invisible.” The second statement deals with some of the questions that were raised about the first.
If God was only ‘our God’ did that mean, there were other Gods for other people? No, we believe in One God. Well, if God’s in heaven, and He made the earth, then who made the heavens? God made them both, God is the Almighty Creator! What about things we can’t see, did God make those as well, angels and all that stuff? Yes, God is creator of all things, visible and invisible. The doctrines connected to the dogma . And the Dogmas connected to the…
DOGMATICS
As with Dogma, the term Dogmatics and his friend, “Systematic Theology,” raise eyebrows with some fellows in the theological world. Again, their original intention was a positive one as they were meant to describe the orderly study of doctrines and dogma in an attempt to state clearly all that we know about Scripture.
The word theology derives from two Greek terms, ‘Theo” (God”) and ‘Logo’ (“words”). Theology is simply God-Talk. Systematic Theology (or Dogmatics) became the word used to describe the process of organizing all the different doctrines into a whole. In a volume of systematic theology you may find headings such as ‘The Doctrine of God,’ of.. humankind, sin, salvation, the church and the ‘Last things’.
Where does all this Doctrine, Dogma and Dogmatics lead us?
Why, of course to our topic… "CREEDS AND CONFESSIONS".
Our sessions will cover some of the historic creeds found in the PC(USA) Book of Confessions.