On Confessions and Creeds: Recent Writings and Presentations

During the past year, I have been asked repeatedly to address creeds and confessions in the Baptist tradition. The writings and presentations linked below may help you see the logic behind a recent proposal which has garnered widespread attention. 

Several leading pastoral theologians and academic theologians joined with me in May and June to propose and encourage the addition to the Baptist Faith and Message of an article containing the Nicene Creed. The concept has encouraged many people. 

Please join us in praying for the Southern Baptist Convention to make a clear statement of orthodox Christianity by adding the Nicene Creed in 2025. May Christ glorify himself through our common confession.

• “The Biblical Basis for the Authority of Confessions” (Faculty Presentation, School of Theology, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, September 2023)
• With Steven McKinion, “First Person: For Baptist Confessionalism,” Baptist Press (January 2024)
• With Steven McKinion, “On Baptist Creedalism,” The Baptist Review (January 2024)
• “On Creeds and Confessions in Baptist Life” (L. Russ Bush Center for Faith and Culture, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, April 2024)
• With Andrew Brown, Stephen Lorance, and Steven McKinion, “The Need for the Creed,” Credo Magazine (May 2024)
• With Nine Other Southern Baptist Theologians, “Article XIX: The Creed” (Pro Gloria Christi, May-June 2024)
• With Andrew Brown, Stephen Lorance, and Steven McKinion, “Commentary: Why Add the Nicene Creed to Our Confession,” Baptist Standard (June 2024)
• Interview, “Editorial: Questions, Answers about Adding Nicene Creed,” Baptist Standard (June 2024)
• “We Defended the Inerrant Word; Now Let's Defend and Exalt the Incarnate Word,” Credo Magazine (Videocast, June 2024)
• With Matthew Emerson, Steven McKinion, and Luke Stamps, “The SBC and the Nicene Creed [Its Biblical Foundations]” (Center for Baptist Renewal, Video Interview, June 2024)

Article XIX: The Creed

We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father. By him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he descended from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again, in accordance with the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again, in glory, to judge the living and the dead, and his Kingdom shall have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father [and the Son], and who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified. He spoke through the Prophets. And in one holy universal and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and we look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

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We encourage the Messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in June 2024 to affirm the Nicene Creed. We encourage the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in June 2025 to include the Creed as an article in the Baptist Faith and Message. We are also happy to include the Apostles’ Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Chalcedonian Definition.

Matthew Barrett, Andrew Brown, Matthew Emerson, Stephen Lorance, Steven McKinion, Stephen Presley, Rhyne Putman, David Rathel, Luke Stamps, Malcolm Yarnell