II

HISTORIC STANDARDS IN CHRISTIAN

CHURCHES

OCTRINAL formulations are not peculiar to modern times. Indeed there is strong reason

to believe they were found in the very early period of the Christian Church.

Beginning with the words of Jesus and with the spoken discourses and narrations of the early disciples of the Christ, and following with the Gospels and the other New Testament writings, the Church had its standards. Then, as the primitive Church passed on from the living presence of the Apostles who had seen Jesus, it is manifest that questions would soon arise as to the exact meaning of spoken words of Christ and his first followers which had been transmitted and oft repeated, and as to the precise meaning of statements contained in the Gospels, the Epistles, and other Scriptures, and also questions as to usages of the Church which had come down to their day.

These questions were likely to evoke differences of opinion, and these differences, or uncertainties of interpretation, as to the writings treasured by the Church, and as to expressions or things relating to the Church, would naturally develop a desire for the Church, or those it would recognize as having knowledge and authority, to formulate an explanation, or interpretation,

of these matters that would harmonize conflicting views, settle strife, and be regarded as having authority then and for the future. A conspicuous instance is seen in the calling of the first council in Jerusalem and in its decisions, as given in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.

Or those having influence and authority might have seen the necessity for, and taken the initiative in, constructing condensed statements or explanations touching vital matters.

We know that Paul put the truth into a "pattern of sound words," which were received, repeated, and probably copied and duplicated time and again. That the Apostle gave a "form of sound words" shows the importance of the verbal expression of the truth, and that the "sound doctrine" needed presentation in "sound words."

Then the instructions given the catechumens would naturally tend to concise formulations of what were regarded as elementary and essential truths as to the Christian religion.

In these and other ways, interpretations of the truth must have begun, even in the very early periods of the Church, resulting in common forms more or less fixed.

So it is not hard to believe that close to the beginning of the Christian Church credal forms gradually grew up and crystallized, each being a condensed formulation of the sayings of the Apostles, or other early teachers, or what the Church itself taught, and which was accepted as the truth, or the correct interpretation of the narratives as originally given.

Thus was created what was called "sound doctrine" expressed in "the form of sound words," and these

declarations were recognized as standards of Christian doctrine.

The Didache-or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, a very ancient work, is a suggestion in this direction.

This went on through the generations, and, as new questions arose, there were new or additional investigations as to the truth and as to what the Church should accept as the truth in particular cases, and the answers were given in new decisions and formulations, or in new, or additional statements, which, under various titles, such as creeds, confessions, or articles of religion, became standards of doctrine, sometimes promulgated by the chief personage in the ecclesiastical government, sometimes in the decrees or canons of Church councils, and sometimes by the order of other authoritative bodies representing the Church.

Such doctrinal deliverances are always of decided interest, and usually of great value. Sometimes they show the logical development of human thought, sometimes the peculiar processes of man's mentality, and sometimes the effects of environment and the pressure of dominating influences, while at other times they reveal a hidden truth, or restore one that has been forgotten, or present a fuller and more accurate interpretation of partially understood truth, or stamp a doctrine with the proper emphasis, or place it in its proper perspective.

By way of illustration we should recall some of these formulations of the ages.

What is regarded as the earliest surviving form of a Christian creed is that which is commonly called the Apostles' Creed, accepted as agreeable to their teachings, though it has been doubted that the Apostles

wrote it, or wrote it in that exact form.

Nevertheless

it has been used by the Churches for centuries" because it is a brief sum of the Christian faith, agreeable to the Word of God, and anciently received in the Churches of Christ."

It has a place in the catechisms of various branches of the Christian Church, and is used in the baptismal confessions of many Churches, including the Greek, the Roman, the Lutheran, the Reformed, the Anglican, the Methodist Episcopal, the Protestant Episcopal, the Reformed Episcopal, and other Churches too numerous to mention.

As Doctor Philip Schaff has said, though it is "not in form the production of the Apostles, it is a faithful compend of their doctrines, and comprehends the leading articles of the faith in the triune God and his revelation, from the creation to the life everlasting, in sublime simplicity, in unsurpassable brevity, in the most beautiful order, and with liturgical solemnity; and to this day it is the common bond of Greek, Roman, and evangelical Christendom."

It has been held that the Apostles' Creed was developed between the first and the eighth centuries, but though there is not unanimous agreement as to its exact date, it seems perfectly plain that in some form it appeared at a very early period, and so early that the Apostles might have given the creed its initial form, or its earliest content and form were so like what the Apostles had taught, that it was quite a natural thing to say that the Creed was the Apostles'.

The second great expression of Christian doctrine, in a similar formulation, is that which is called the Nicene Creed, or, as some prefer to term it, the Niceno-Con

stantinopolitan Creed, which was adopted at the Council of Nice, A. D. 325, and enlarged at the Second Council of Constantinople, A. D. 381. It sets forth the view of the Church with regard to the person of Christ, in opposition to certain erroneous teachings, and especially those of Arianism.

The third in order of time among the great doctrinal statements is what is known as the Athanasian Creed, so called because, for some time, it was supposed to have been drawn up in the fourth century by Athanasius, but later, on various grounds, it has been denied that the creed was composed by Athanasius.

This creed is received by the Greek, the Roman, and the Anglican Churches, but not by the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. The Protestant Episcopal Convention of 1785 expunged from the proposed Book of Common Prayer both the Athanasian and Nicene Creeds, whereupon the English bishops refused to consecrate the Protestant Episcopal bishops unless these creeds were restored. Then another convention was held the next year by the Protestant Episcopal Church and it restored the Nicene Creed, but "wholly refused to restore the Athanasian Creed," objecting particularly to the "damnatory clauses" which it contains.

On this compromise, the bishops were consecrated. Another creed is the Chalcedon, conceded the date,

451.

Some would place this as the third in order, but all the great Churches have not received it as they have the Apostles' and the Nicene Creeds.

These three, or four, creeds, the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds, may be said to be