Subject: Creeds and Confessions Needful? |
Bible Note: Greetings, I cannot say about many of the Baptists denominations, but about the Southern Baptists. We adhere to the Baptist Faith and Message, which isn't a Creed but a statement of what we believe. It does summarize and touch on various confessions and creed. As for sola scriptura, the Bible, as in the Old and New testaments, is the only authority of God's word because other so called holy documents fail the test of canonicity. Like the apocrypha, for example, doesn't hold true to prophecy as being scriptural, as well as authors being ambiguous, and many other reasons. The book of mormon isn't concidered to be scripture either, and neither is the koran. The view that many of the churches I have belonged to hold that Christian History, tradition, and even creeds and confessions are good for helping to interpret the scripture, but that they must give leave to the Authority of scripture first. If something with theology or interpretation is inconsistant with the Scripture, you alter the theology or interpretation, not the Bible. Many false beliefs, assumptions, and inconsistant theologies have emerged in the Church as a whole because someone placed another source on equal authority to the Bible. By being sola scriptura, we try to prevent that as much as possible. quvmoh |