Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

242 • P LANTING C HURCHES AMONG THE C ITY ’ S P OOR : V OLUME 1

a. Sources of creedal material

(1) Traditions, 2 Thess. 2.15

(2) Word of the Lord, Gal, 6.6

(3) Preaching, Rom. 16.25 (In the technical sense, creeds are not present in the Bible, but they nevertheless express essential biblical data and truth.)

b. Baptismal creedal confessions, Acts 8.37; Matt. 28.19; Rom. 10.9-10

c. The Christological confession, Phil. 2.5-11

II. What Is the Instructional Basis for Creedal Theology?

A. Serves as a syllabus for catechetical teaching in Christian belief and doctrine in order to ground new believers in the faith

1. Creed allows for variation (from “simple exposition to advanced theological presentation”)

2. E.g., from recitation of the Creed itself to the treatment of Langdon Gilkey’s systematic theology based on the Creed (cf. the Catecheses of Cyril of Jerusalem in the fourth century) 3. Sources show that candidates for baptism had to display some understanding of the profession they made in baptism (i.e., demanded intellectual comprehension as well as sincere heart commitment).

B. Serves as a basis for doctrinal and theological education for the Christian community at large, regardless of level of maturity

1. Creeds forged out of theological controversy, the rise of heresies, and the need to protect the apostolic confession from admixture with falsehood 2. The ministry of heresies: enabled early Christian pastors to expand their first rough confessions into more developed formulas

3. Examples of creedal defense