One objection against Baptists using the Creed comes from some Evangelicals’ personal experience of having said a creed before conversion.
Five Notes in Response:
*The saving Gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection is expressed in the Creed. That likely helped the person recognize the Gospel.
*One ought not reject Christian song in worship because a person sang before conversion. One ought not reject reading the Bible because one read it before salvation. Likewise, one ought not stop confessing truth about God because one read aloud that confession before conversion.
*Like sermons, creeds do not only have the purpose of offering the Gospel. They are also used for pedagogy and discipline. Pedagogy: They teach the basics of the Christian faith, from the Trinity to Christ to the Final Judgment to the Resurrection. Discipline: They repel heresy.
*Conversion is a sovereign act of divine grace that occurs instrumentally according to the proclamation of God’s Word, whether that comes through song, creed, sermon, or reading Scripture. Conversion is not an automatic event based on one human use of a means of Gospel proclamation.
*People often tell me they were glad for their exposure to the Gospel through a church’s use of the Creed. Let us praise God for their conversions! IMB missionaries tell me that affirmation of the Creed helps people see Baptists are not a cult. Praise God for credal orthodoxy!
Adding the Creed to the Baptist Faith and Message will have many positive functions, including helping Southern Baptists contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Let us praise God for the long history of Christian confession of the Gospel in the Creed!
