Introduction:
We so far have introduced broadly the nature of doctrinal statements, confessions, and creeds in post #1, with the laying out of the full text of the Nicene Creed here Growing Christian Resources: Post #1 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - What Are Creeds, Why They're Important, And Introducing the Nicene Creed. We also noted how the inspired creeds of the Bible compare to their non-inspired counterparts like the Nicene Creed here:Growing Christian Resources: Post #2 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - Are Creeds Such As The Nicene Creed Biblical To Use And Biblical In Content?.
I want us to spend time today exploring whether or not such Creeds ought to have a place in 21st century church life, as well as understand what authority, if any, they have when compared to the Bible.
The place of confessions, doctrinal statements, and creeds in the Southern Baptist Convention as an illustration for how to understand the role of the Nicene Creed in Christianity today.
Perhaps the easiest place to begin is in my own denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, for two reasons. Number one, the SBC is celebrating a milestone of its own with regards to the 100th anniversary of the Baptist Faith and Message. Then secondly, a proposal at the 2024 SBC convention to add the Nicene Creed to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. We will take each of these in their turn.
The 100th Anniversary of the Baptist Faith and Message and it illustrating why Creeds and Confessions are important.
The "BFM", as it is called, emerged as the doctrinal consensus of the SBC back in 1925. Since then, Southern Baptists have ratified two additional versions of the "BFM", one in 1963 and the current doctrinal statement - the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. Even though a doctrinal statement is different from a creed in function and format, the principle I'm discussing now still applies, namely the relevance of doctrinal expressions and creeds outside the Bible.
How The SBC Attempted To Not Have An Official Doctrinal Statement Or Creed.
Anyone who studies the history of Baptist life will find that the SBC saw the need to articulate what it believed and why in the face of mounting cultural challenges and pressures. When the SBC was formed in 1845, there was no push to produce a commonly agreed upon doctrinal statement. Charles Jones wrote an article on February 24, 2025 for Baptist Press on the 100th anniversary of the Baptist Faith and Message here BF&M 100, part 1: Defining and defending the faith | Baptist Press. In that article, Jones summarized the early days of the SBC towards creeds and confessions:
"There were various Baptist confessions of faith dating back generations, but when the SBC organized in 1845, it did not adopt a confession, saying: 'We have constructed for our basis no new creed; acting in this matter upon a Baptist aversion for all creeds but the Bible.'
It wasn't for lack of other doctrinal statements and confessions for the SBC to choose.1 Certainly other Baptist groups had already employed the use of doctrinal confessions.
Why did the SBC choose to depart from what otherwise was a common practice of Baptists? Despite these examples, the SBC desired to practice a "non-creedal" form of church life, since it prioritized what it called "soul competency". Soul competency is the view that every Christian is free to believe what he or she wants according to the Bible, unencumbered by outside requirements to creeds or confessions.2
The SBC saw the need to have in writing what it believed.
By 1925, the then eighty-year old SBC found itself in the midst of the mounting culture wars and threats of theological liberalism, the battle between creation and evolution, and the need to express theologically where it stood on sound doctrine.
In 1963, the Baptist Faith and Message was updated, to try to keep up with changing cultural demands. It was as a result of the battles over the inerrancy of Scripture in the 1970's, 1980's, and 1990's that the SBC ratified their revision of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 to reinforce its commitment to Biblical inerrancy.
The recent effort to add the Nicene Creed to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, a second illustration of understanding the role of the Nicene Creed in modern church life.
The Creed of Nicaea was agreed upon in 325 A.D. to combat the heresy of Arius who denied the deity of Christ. As attention turned more to addressing attacks upon the deity and personality of the Holy Spirit, a more robust statement about Him was added to fine-tune what came to be known as the "Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed" (or more simply "The Nicene Creed) in 381 A.D. at the Council of Constantinople. It is this version of the Creed that is most familiar to many today.
As we saw already, the SBC learned that it is next to impossible to conduct denominational life without a confession of faith. Many Baptists in the SBC today do not mind calling themselves "confessional Baptists". However, to address oneself as a "creedal Baptist" makes some nervous, while others are raising the cry to tighten the circles more tightly on areas of sound doctrine, as was done a century ago.
In the last few years, a growing minority in the Southern Baptist Convention have pushed to make the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (or "Nicene Creed", as we shall call it from here forward) added to the Baptist Faith and Message.3
At the 2024 SBC Convention in Indianapolis, IN, the Messengers or those in attendance representing their respective individual SBC churches, voted to send consideration of the proposal to the Executive Board of the SBC for review and formal re-introduction at the forthcoming SBC convention in Dallas in June of 2025.
Why some felt we ought not have the Nicene Creed in our churches.
There were vocal critics of the proposal. Now let me say from the onset, when viewing the Creed from their perspective, one can understand the concern. Dr. David Allen, Dean of the Adrian Rogers Center For Preaching at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, noted his reservations on the language of the creed. It was then that Allen made is statement here Southern Baptists that claim 'no creed but the Bible,' take no action to add the Nicene Creed to their statement of faith:
"Allen suggested that Southern Baptists need time to reflect and evaluate their doctrinal statement before making any changes such as adding the Nicene Creed."
With that reservation about the Nicene Creed noted, would adoption of the Creed as an extra article in the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 undermine the autonomy of local churches? If our brief history lesson about the Baptist Faith and Message itself proved anything, clarifying what we believe about God, salvation, believer's baptism, the church, and the Lord's return can only help, not hinder the mission of each local church.
Reflecting on my own experience of reciting the Apostle's Creed in a church service, and how it illustrates the benefit of occasional use of the Nicene Creed as part of church life.
Before my wife and I got married nearly thirty years ago, I had begun attending the church where she and her family were members. I came from a church background where drums were more central to church worship, guitars were played, and where innovation was encouraged. The church service I attended with my then to-be wife was a far cry from whence I'd come. The Pastor stood up, said an opening prayer, and then on that day the congregation recited the Apostle's Creed.
I was at first skeptical. I was taught to avoid church "formality", since such traditions could stifle the Holy Spirit's moving in a service. Then the next Sunday they did it again. The Pastor had decided to have the congregation to this for a period of time, since he was trying to introduce them to it.
As I came to memorize those words of that creed, I found my mind and heart more focused on the Lord. If for anything, realizing that the Christian faith wasn't only a "me and Jesus thing" but "The faith once and for all delivered to the saints" (1 Corinthians 11:23; 15:1-4) caused me to focus less on my "felt needs" and more upon paying heed to God's Word and Christ Himself.
Kevin DeYoung in a recent book "The Nicene Creed" here The Nicene Creed: What You Need to Know about the Most Important Creed Ever Written (Foundational Tools for Our Faith): DeYoung, Kevin: 9781433559754: Amazon.com: Books, notes helpfully about creeds and confessions:
"We can think of creeds as statements about the God in whom we believe, while confessions are statements-usually longer and more comprehensive-about what we believe."
If a denomination or church has opportunity to possibly clarify even further where it stands theologically by appending a time-tested Biblically-sound creed to its Baptist Confession, my thoughts are it ought to be done.
Creeds and confessions are secondary in importance compared to the Bible. As a pastor and Christian that confesses "sola Scriptura", I still preach that the Bible alone holds the conscience captive, and it alone is used by the Holy Spirit to change the human heart, whether for conversion or Christian growth. With that said, confessions, and their older cousins, creeds, serve the church as summaries of the key doctrines of Scripture. Moreover, how many times in our evangelism practices have churches used tools like "The Romans Road" or "Evangelism Explosion"?
Although we cannot make anyone believe what the Nicene Creed teaches, nevertheless, anyone who is truly born again ought to have no problem confessing its contents once instructed about why it was written and the meaning of its words.
Conclusion:
As I close out today's post, my hope is the SBC will adopt the Nicene Creed as part of the Baptist Faith and Message at some point in its future. Furthermore, my desire would be to either preach, teach, or give some simple lessons on the Nicene Creed. I would find it refreshing, on occasion, to even see churches invite its members to recite either the Apostle's Creed or Nicene Creed.
Such practices require a careful introduction and wise pace of presenting the Creed as part of church life. I'd even say it is good practice to preach through the Creeds, just as I and other SBC pastors have over the years preached through the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. In these times, where the forces of darkness, secularism, and pluralism are aggressively trying to erode the confidence of Bible believing Christians, it is good to take a closer look at a dear old Creed that the Holy Spirit has used in His Providence to bring to mind those inspired truths of His sacred, inerrant, infallible Word - The Bible. In the next post, we will begin our journey through the Nicene Creed as we celebrate its 1700 years of existence.
Endnotes:
1. There were certainly other doctrinal statements and confessions circulating around Baptist Churches in the 19th century. Some in the North used the 1742 Philadelphia Baptist Confession of Faith here philadelphia confession, based off of the 2nd London Baptist Confession of 1689 here The1689.org | The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith.
Most other Baptist Churches outside the SBC subscribed to the then new 1833 New Hampshire Confession of Faith, a document that would influence the wording of the eventual 1925 Baptist Faith and Message. The first SBC Seminary, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, had its own doctrinal statement: "Abstract of Principles" here Abstract of Principles - The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which was required adherence for all its faculty.
2 As commendable as that strategy sounded, it underestimated how much inside and outside forces can attempt to corrupt any Christian denomination or Church that gets confused on what it believes and practices. At the time, it was believed that soul competency preserved the historic Baptist stance on congregational government and the autonomy of the local church.
3 Mark Winfield wrote an article for the "Baptist News Global" that summarized the effort at last year's general convention in Indianapolis, IN here Motion will ask SBC to add Nicene Creed to Baptist Faith and Message – Baptist News Global. Although the effort did not go through, it still highlights what we're discussing in this post about the place and role of creeds in Christianity. Winfield wrote:
"On May 29, four Southern Baptists announced their intent to call for a change in Southern Baptist identity."
Winfield continued:
"They proposed to add the Nicene Creed to the Baptist Faith and Message, the SBC’s doctrinal statement, “for the sake of doctrinal clarity and increased unity."
Winfield then enumerated reasons why the Nicene Creed proposal was set forth at last year's convention:
1). "The Nicene Creed authoritatively articulates the primary doctrines of the Christian faith from the Christian Scriptures.”
2). “For nearly two millennia Christians have universally used the Creed for both teaching and worship.”
3). “The Creed is a robust and indisputable summary of orthodox Christian belief in the two most central and indispensable dogmas of the universal Christian faith: God the Trinity and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
