White Horse Inn: Creeds & Confessions

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For the last two thousand years the church has crystalized various summary statements about the Bible’s most important teachings into clear, short, and easy-to-memorize statements that outline the most crucial and non-negotiable aspects of the Christian faith.

On this program the hosts will discuss the importance not only of affirming the substance of these creeds and confessions but also of making it a regular practice to recite them publicly during our weekly worship services so that “the pattern of sound words” (2 Tim 1:13) becomes part of our new identity. Join us for this edition of the White Horse Inn.

Host Quote:

“A couple of points to make. One is every phrase, every clause from the Apostles’ Creed emerges directly from Holy Scripture. It’s as simple as that. The second thing is what we get here is a distillation of the most core things that each Christian, or anyone who’s been exposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, should and must know and this is why the content is Trinitarian and it comes to us in a Trinitarian form or structure. We’re talking about the one and only, true and living God – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – who is the maker of Heaven and Earth. So we move from that grander, perhaps more nebulous general statement now to great specificity when we say, ‘And his Son, Jesus Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.’ Now we’ve gotten to the very specific God, the one who has acted in human history on our behalf.” – John Bombaro

Term to Learn:

“Inhibiting Factors of Catechesis”

The first and biggest factor that inhibits catechesis, and the hardest to counter or circumvent, is the turn away from external authority in Western culture… [L]eading thinkers in the West began to see themselves as pioneers of a new, post-Christian era in which the Christian heritage of belief might be questioned and critiqued like any other human point of view. This was a radical turn from a millennium and a half of acknowledging the truth and authority of God’s written Word as set forth in and by the church…

The second inhibiting factor, a corollary of the first, is resistance to authoritative instruction within the Christian community… In children’s and youth work across the board, today’s agenda is learning Bible stories rather than being grounded in truths about the Triune God. In group Bible studies generally, participants are led to look directly for personal devotional applications without first contemplating the writers’ points about the greatness, goals, methods, and mystery of God.

A final factor inhibiting catechesis emerges here: preoccupation. In most evangelical churches, Sunday and weekly programs are already as full as can be reasonably managed. (J. I Packer and Gary Parrett, Grounded in the Gospel: Building Believers the Old-Fashioned Way, pp. 10–12)

(This podcast is by White Horse Inn. Discovered by Christian Podcast Central and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Christian Podcast Central, and audio is streamed directly from their servers.)