Some pastors and theologians in the Reformed corner of the Father’s grand vineyard are saying that it is time to update the church’s creeds and confessions. Such a proposal forces the church to ask, How can this be done in a manner faithful to truth? One voice from the past, J. Gresham Machen, offers solid advice on what prerequisites must attain before advancement can be attained.
After noting the advances in the church’s doctrine from the meager stages of the second century Apostle’s Creed to the forth century developments of Augustine and continuing through the Reformers to the great creeds and confessions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Machen asks: Can we expect the church to continue to update and advance its confessions in our day as it has done throughout her history? He answers ‘yes,’ but only if doctrine is understood as setting forth the truths of Scripture:
Well, there is no essential reason why it should not do so. However before it attempts to do so, it is very important for it to understand precisely what Christian doctrine is. It should understand very clearly that Christian doctrine is just a setting forth of what the Bible teaches. At the foundation of Christian doctrine is the acceptance of the full truthfulness of the Bible as the Word of God. (From “Creeds and Doctrinal Advance” by J. Gresham Machen.)
Doctrine is an expression of objective truth, the truths of Scripture to be more precise. Confessions and creeds are drawn up to profess the objective truths of Scripture. (“We believe God’s word teaches such and such.”) The church gets into danger when she mistakenly re-defines doctrine as her subjective experience of the objective truth. (“Based on my personal experience with Jesus the church ought to profess this or that belief.”) This distinction, as Machen points out, must be understood before the church can advance her doctrinal formulations.
Once this initial point is understood, Machen argues for two more prerequisites to doctrinal advancement: the plenary, verbal inspiration and infallibility of Scripture and the polemical nature of truth.
If there is to be any doctrinal advance, we must believe that doctrine is the setting forth of what is true, not a mere expression of religious experience in symbolic form; we must believe, in the second place, that doctrine is the setting forth of that particular truth that is contained in the Bible, which we must hold to be truly God’s Word and altogether free from the errors found in other books; we must endeavour, in the third place, not to make doctrine as meagre and vague as possible in order that it shall make room for error, but as full and precise as possible in order that it shall exclude error and set forth the wonderful richness of what God has revealed. Ignore these conditions, and you have doctrinal retrogression or decadence; only if you observe them can you possibly have doctrinal advance. (From “Creeds and Doctrinal Advance” by J. Gresham Machen.)
I find these wise words from a grandfather in the faith to be well worth heeding as I, D. V., seek to serve the Father in the Reformed church. May He find me and my brothers and sisters faithful to advance the church’s doctrine (and praxis) according to the Sacred Scriptures.
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