The Creedal Imperative Remains
Crisis of Confidence: Reclaiming the Historic Faith in a Culture Consume with Individualism and Identity, Carl R. Trueman. Wheaton: Crossway, 2024. Hardcover, 192 pages.
In the broader Christian world, creeds and confessions face an uphill battle. There are those who see such documents as being a threat to the ultimate authority of the Bible. They view those churches that have creeds and confessions as sell-outs to the Protestant principle of sola Scriptura. But sometimes the animus towards creeds and confessions also comes from within our churches. Some would like to see less of an emphasis on them, less attention to them, even less rigour in holding to them.
Carl Trueman first wrote about the importance and inevitability of confessions in his 2012 book, The Creedal Imperative. This new book is a revised and expanded edition. Between 2012 and 2024, Trueman published his highly acclaimed The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self (see my review here). That book explained our culture as a place where “expressive individualism” reigns. Crisis of Confidence takes that insight and applies it to issues surrounding creeds and confessions. With its animosity towards institutional authority, expressive individualism has made creeds and confessions even less plausible and even more distasteful. This book attempts to address that, especially in chapter 1.
Trueman explains the biblical basis for creeds and confessions. He describes the development of creeds in the early church. He reviews the history of various Protestant confessions, including the Three Forms of Unity. Trueman explains how creeds and confessions should function in our public worship. Finally, he explains the usefulness of creeds and confessions. We may be used to hearing about them as being useful for teaching, for uniting the church, and for warding off false teachings. Trueman helpfully goes beyond those more obvious uses.
One of his best insights has to do with what Paul writes in 2 Timothy 1:13, “Follow the pattern of the sound words…” As he notes on page 60, “To claim to have no creed but the Bible, then, is problematic: the Bible itself seems to demand that we have forms of sound words, and that is what creeds are.” He connects this to 1 Timothy 1:15, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Writes Trueman, “Here it seems abundantly clear that Paul is using previously established phraseology, a form of sound words, to capture in a nutshell the gospel” (p.61). I know a Reformed pastor from New Zealand who regularly introduces his reading of the Heidelberg Catechism in the PM service by calling it a “pattern of sound words.” I like that. It connects our confessing with Scripture, not just the content of our confessing, but also the fact of our confessing.
Trueman is a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, so he’s most familiar with their history and practice. He can perhaps be forgiven then for getting a couple of things wrong when it comes to our history and practice in the Reformed churches. On pages 26-27, he states that the ecclesiastical adoption of the Belgic Confession took place at the Synod of Dort in 1618-19. However, it was written to be the confession of the churches in the Low Countries – it even bore that title. It was never the personal confession of Guido de Bres – he wrote it intentionally with the first person plural, “We believe…” Furthermore, as Dr. N.H. Gootjes pointed out, it was adopted already by the time of the Synod of Antwerp in 1565 (The Belgic Confession: Its History and Sources, pp.94-95).
Another thing Trueman gets wrong is his claim that continental Reformed churches require “confessional subscription of every communicant member” (p.156). He contrasts that with churches like the OPC who have a low bar for communicant membership, requiring only “a simple but publicly coherent profession of faith in the line of Romans 10:9-10.” First, our churches (for example) do not require confessional subscription of our members. That’s something only office bearers are required to do. We do, however, have confessional membership and our members are expected to be committed to the Reformed doctrine found in our confessions. But that isn’t the same thing as subscription. Subscription is far more rigorous in its demands. Second, I wonder if Trueman, as an OPC minister, is aware of the CanRC/OPC agreement on confessional membership which led to the establishment of ecclesiastical fellowship in 2001. That agreement states:
Anyone who answers the membership vows in the affirmative is bound to receive and adhere to the doctrine of the Bible. The patristic church has summarized this teaching in the Apostles’ Creed and the churches of the Reformation have elaborated on this in their confessions. Every confessing member is bound to this doctrine and must be willing to be instructed in it.
Given Trueman’s statement, I wonder how well-known this agreement really is in the OPC and whether what’s stated here is actually the case. It would seem not.
If you’ve already read The Creedal Imperative, should you buy and read The Crisis of Confidence? Yes, because there is a substantial amount of new material here. But even otherwise, buying it would give you reason to re-read it — and it’s a book well worth re-reading. Not only is it helpful for Reformed church members, but also for those who are contemplating coming over from other backgrounds.
Originally published in Clarion 73.16 (Year End 2024)
