In this video, Dr. J.V. Fesko describes the value in studying creeds and confessions.
Why study creeds and confessions, especially when we can spend time studying the Bible? As common as it is and important as it is for us to study the Scriptures, one of the things that the Bible does say—and Paul tells us this in Ephesians 4:11—is that Christ in the wake of His ascension and His enthronement at the right hand of the Father, has given among other gifts to the church, pastors and teachers. And so we have to remember that when we talk about these pastors and teachers, that these are not just simply the pastors and the teachers that are walking about and that are living and breathing today—as much as a blessing as those pastors and teachers are. Rather the teachers and pastors of which Paul speaks, are the pastors and teachers that exist throughout the entire history of the church.
And so we can benefit from their wisdom and from their knowledge of God’s Word because as Paul tells us, they’re gifts to the church. So when we keep this in mind, where we find their wisdom and knowledge codified and written down for us are in the church’s historic creeds and confessions: things such as the Apostles’ Creed, the Athanasian Creed—the ecumenical creeds—the Council of Nicaea, the Council of Chalcedon. Or more recently, at least in terms of church history, things like the Westminster Confession of Faith, or the Three Forms of Unity—the Belgian Confession, the Cannons of Dort, and the Heidelberg Catechism. What these creeds and confessions help us to do is that Christ’s gifts to the church as they are represented in these creeds and confession hold us by the hand and they teach us the faith once delivered to the saints.