Why A Statement of Faith, pt. 3 April 14, 2014
The year isAD 318. The city is Alexandria, Egypt. As theleading pastor of the church expounds on his topic “The Unity of the Trinity,”one of the church’s other prominent elders begins to squirm uncomfortably. Whenhe finally has opportunity to speak, the dissenting elder rises andcomments: “If the Father begat the Son, he that was begotten has a beginning inexistence; and from this it is evident that there was a time when the Son wasnot.”
As youmight imagine, Arius’s comments scandalized the church, creating such a riotover the next seven years that Emperor Constantine was obligated to convene aspecial gathering of prominent theologians to decide the matter—the Council ofNicea, which met in AD 325. You might ask, “Why didn’t Arius just read theBible?” Actually, he did. “He [the Son] is the image of the invisible God, thefirstborn of all creation” (Col1:15).
TheCouncil’s solution was to condemn Arianism as a heresy and to draft a statementclarifying their understanding of Scripture on the issue. Many believersthroughout history have followed their example, using a statement of faith toclarify the Bible’s teaching.
At firstthis might seem like an arrogant purpose: why would we presume to clarify theBible? The problem, of course, is not with the Bible; it lies with ourunderstanding of the Bible. When Christians do not agree on the meaning of theBible itself, they often find it necessary to explain their beliefs withgreater precision—the precision of a detailed statement of faith. In suchcases, the assertion “No creed but the Bible” cannot solve the problem, becauseit fails to recognize that the debate actually centers on the words of theBible itself. In other words, the question “What does the Bible mean?” is notbest answered by quoting verses from the Bible. It requires us to employadditional, man-made summaries called creeds, confessions, or statements offaith.
Bysummarizing and clarifying essential Christian beliefs, our Statement of Faithperforms a very valuable and practical service to all our members. As itfulfills this purpose, we believe it edifies us and guides our growth inbiblical knowledge. It leads us to further study of the truth, thusexpanding (not truncating) our knowledge of the precious word of God.