THE BIBLE AND OUR CREEDS

A Creed is a concise formal statement of essential or basic Christian belief.

There have been several creeds, confessions, articles or statements made in the history of the Christian Church. Anglicans will be familiar with The Apostles' Creed, The Nicene Creed, The Athanasian Creed and the 39 Articles of the Book of Common Prayer.

Here are some others:-

The Doctrinal Standard of the Greek Church
The Confession of the Lutheran Church
The Confessions of the Reformed or Calvinistic Churches
The Helvetic Confession
The Heidelburgh Catechism.

These are all of course based upon the Traditional Text in their various languages, as is the Authorised Version in English.

The expression which occurs in so many Creeds and Statements: 'We believe in the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures....' is meaningless today as we have over 100 different versions of the Bible.
However we shall take one well known and respected Creed known as the WESTMINSTER CONFESSION OF FAITH and see how it is based upon the Authorised Version of the Holy Bible.
The Westminster Confession of faith was first published in 1646. It was the product of an assembly of the most godly and learned divines of 17th century England and Scotland.

When the Confession was presented to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, it was, 'upon mature deliberation', declared to be 'grounded upon the Word of God', and 'judged to be the most orthodox'.

There were strict standards required of those who formed the Confession. Those who were admitted to sit in the Assembly took this promise and vow:

"I... do seriously promise and vow, in the presence of Almighty God, that in this Assembly, whereof I am a member, I will maintain nothing in point of doctrine, but that which I believe to be most agreeable to the word of God..."

In Chapter 1 of the CONFESSION entitled "OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE" we find a clear description of the word of God, what it is and what it is not, how it was given, its final authority and confirmation in a human heart by the Holy Spirit, its infallible rule of interpretation and its supremacy by which all controversies of religion shall be decided.
Indeed, as we should expect, every scripture quotation is taken directly from the Authorised Version.
Time has been taken purposely to emphasise this once held 'high view' of Holy Scripture which so many lived by, maintained the faith by, and in some cases died for.

It is hard for the rising generation to realise this, but for nearly 400 years there has been one written word of God in the English language and it has been known as the Authorised Version. Its textual sources, from which it was translated, have been the same as that of other languages. It is only comparatively recently that other textual resources have been used in the 'wisdom' of modern scholars.

"Unless therefore I am convinced by the testimony of scripture... I can not and I will not retract... Here I take my stand... I cannot do otherwise... May God help me." Martin Luther.