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to Contemporary Issues
 In this booklet you will discover:
Contents Chapter 1 The World and Its
Questions Chapter 4 Topics Worthy of
Attention Chapter 7 Creed Dreams Excerpts It is Sunday morning. Around the world Christians are confessing their faith in the words of the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed. During the education hour, a group of inquirers are taught by the pastor from a student manual based, in part, on the statements from these same creeds. These activities are so common and so ancient that it may not have occurred to us to ask: Is this the only way for believers to confess their faith? Should we base our instruction and outreach exclusively on creeds which answered questions which were at issue centuries ago? Consider the issues that Christians face every day. Brenda, a widow in a small, mid-western town is concerned about Cliff, her recently deceased husband. A friend at work has assured Brenda not to worry, because Cliff will be reincarnated some day, somewhere. Brenda never really considered this option until now. What in the traditional creeds will specifically and clearly inform Brenda about the truth value of reincarnation? Back in 1980, Hector, a real estate agent in Mexico City, came across the Spanish version of Erik von Daniken's best-selling book Chariots of the Gods. Pseudo-archeologist von Daniken proposes that belief in supernatural beings resulted from the intergalactic visits of extraterrestrials to this planet centuries ago. Over the years, Hector's worldview has been influenced by several other paperbacks on the subject, as well as films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. When Hector goes to Mass on occasion, he recites the creeds, and even though they contradict his "gods from outer space" philosophy, he fails to take the creedal statements seriously. Robert and Fatima are Indonesian Christians who hear that a neighbor has visited a shaman to place a curse on them. They debate whether to tell their missionary pastor about it, "He just doesn't seem to understand these matters. Perhaps we should seek out a stronger shaman to protect us." While contemplating this decision, they attend worship and confess their faith by means of a Trinitarian Creed composed 1500 years ago. Although the words are beautiful and true, they do not provide Robert and Fatima a clear direction regarding their dilemma. Terry, an Afro-American Christian in Detroit, has taken notice of the new mosque down the street and the billboard on Michigan Avenue which declares: "Read God's final revelation--the Qur'an!" "Maybe Islam is superior to my Christian beliefs," he wonders to himself. Reviewing his catechism, based on the Apostles Creed, he fails to find anything to help him to compare the two religions. Reincarnation. God's from outer space. Black magic. Islam. These issues -- and a host of others -- confront the Christian Church today. By looking to the ancient creeds, believers can find some help in responding to such issues. For example, the Nicene phrase "begotten of his Father before all worlds" can be used to explain to a Muslim that God did not beget a child through physical union with a human woman. Again, the idea of Christ judging the living and the dead indicates that reincarnation and karma are false doctrines. If we view creeds as tools, we should praise the usefulness of the ancient creeds which have served the Church down through the centuries and still have some use for confronting today's false teachings. Like a favorite old hammer or drill in a carpenter's tool box, we have no reason to set them permanently aside. Even so, we need to recognize that the creeds composed in the early centuries of church history came into being in response to questions and issues of that day, not our own. Therefore, they are not the best suited tools for answering the concerns of our day. If we limit ourselves to the ancient creeds, we become like nostalgic wood workers who refuse to use a tool less than a century old. To speak to the doctrinal and evangelistic challenges of today with precision and boldness, we need new tools, including modern creeds. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to promote the creation of contemporary creeds which address modern issues more precisely than our standard "tools of confession." At this point, the word "iconoclast" (image breaker) might be popping into the mind of some readers. Iconoclasm is not my goal. Our tried-and-true tools, the ancient creeds, do not need to be destroyed. My goal could be called "iconofabrication", that is, that the church would continually produce new tools, new confessions of the faith in answer to the questions of each generation and of each place where it is attempting to penetrate the darkness with God's light. Many denominations in North America have a tradition of being confessional churches. This means that they know what doctrines they stand for because they have been written down in statements called confessions. The ancient historic creeds will always be part of our confession. But we must not only confess what the ancient Church fathers confessed. We must also confess as they confessed, building on their example of addressing the issues of their time. In other words, just as they had the privilege and duty of confessing biblical truth in response to the questions of their day, so we too must not only parrot their words, but follow their example, by composing succinct, biblical responses to the issues of our day. Here are five reasons why current creeds are needed in our present era.
Nearly a half century ago, Hendrik Kraemer mused, "Strictly speaking, one ought to say that the Church is always in a state of crisis and that its greatest shortcoming is that it is only occasionally aware of it."1 In answer to the many crises around us, the church will benefit greatly from the crafting of new creedal tools. What is a creed? The word comes from the Latin credo which means "I believe." Therefore, a creed is a statement of faith. It can be as simple as "Jesus is Lord." It can be two pages in length like the Athanasian Creed or as bulky as the 636 pages of Lutheran confessional writings collected in The Book of Concord of 1580. What should a creed do? What should it accomplish? Building on the insightfulness of Bob Scudieri, we can say that a creed should be both apostolic and apostolic2. First of all, a creed should be apostolic in the sense that it is consistent with the New Testament teachings of the apostles. This is the traditional meaning of the term in Christian circles. However, Scudieri urges us to recognize the original meaning of the word apostle. Apostles are sent ones, missionaries sent out by the resurrected Christ to take the Gospel to all the nations of the earth. Creeds are to be both apostolic, biblically based, and apostolic, missionary in nature. Creeds are defensive, maintaining sound teaching. Creeds are also offensive, communicating the truth clearly to those who do not know it. Thinking in terms of the worship setting, creeds should both help worshipers keep their faith on an even keel doctrinally and equip them to share their faith with the lost world. Thinking in terms of Christian instruction, creeds should deliver biblically accurate Christian doctrine to students, as well as respond to the questions and doubts of the world which children, teens, and adults ponder as they study God's Word. New creeds which are geared to answer the questions of our day will help believers be more bold in their witnessing. Limiting ourselves to a few standard creeds, however, may hinder lay people's ability to enunciate their faith to their contemporaries. Back when I was a student at Concordia College in Seward, Nebraska, I participated in an Ambassadors Weekend in a county seat in western Iowa. Usually an Ambassadors Weekend consisted of visiting unbelievers in the community. Our assignment this particular weekend was different. We were to visit the members of the local Lutheran parish, share our faith with them, and then listen to their response as they witnessed back to us. Unfortunately, it did not work out that way. My calling group, consisting of two other students and myself, shared the Gospel in about fifteen church members' homes that weekend, but not a single person ever spoke to us about their Savior. A few people said something like, "Oh, isn't that wonderful," but that was as far as their ability to witness could take them. The closest anyone got to sharing their faith was one little old lady who told us, "I would love to speak with you about these things, but I learned the catechism in German." Although she had spoken English for decades, she only knew how to confess her faith, how to theologize, in the German tongue. The others folks fared no better. This true story substantiates Eugene Bunkowske's observation that self theologizing "is more important and basic to indigenous church planting than the well worn three-self concept that includes self support, self governance and self propagation."3 Although those folks in western Iowa were church goers, they were unable to theologize in everyday conversation. The same is true of many places in the world. Those who confess Christ in a worship service often do not know how to confess Christ outside of the sanctuary. They only know their faith in the "Christian-ese" in which they were instructed. They must learn how to speak it in their own words, to self-theologize. The challenge of composing new creeds will assist them in their mission task of sharing the enlightening, saving faith with a confused and lost world. Wouldn't it be amazing if a local church regularly formed creedal task forces to address contemporary issues? The result would be a church knowledgeable about its community and able to self-theologize and communicate the word of God to its neighbors. Let's dream even more broadly. What if creed writing teams were formed all over the world? What if by means of computer technology we could share those creeds with believers at all corners of the globe? Creedal e-mail. What if teams agreed to place their creeds in the public domain, so that they could be used without restrictions of copyrights and usage fees. What if the creeds of Arab Christians in Iraq helped believers reaching out to Muslims in North America? What if North American Christians wrote a creed about materialism which proved useful to believers in Beijing? What if Christians of different denominations and lands were able to dialogue regarding such creedal statements, so that we learned to understand, appreciate, and love each other better than we do today? The result would be a global church attempting to be what God called it to be--both apostolic and apostolic, both biblically sound and sounding forth the gospel. It can be done. With God's good gifts and promises, it will be done. [This material appeared in Missio Apostolica, Vol. 4, No. 1 (May 1996): 25-34.] How to Order The entire text of New Creeds for Today's Needs can be purchased from Roller Coaster Press. To Order.
End Notes
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. |