While driving home during the latest winter storm, I was thankful that someone else had gone before me and made tracks through the ice and snow. The other person’s tracks showed me where I needed to keep my vehicle so I didn’t slide off the way. The tracks also gave me traction for the climb up the steep hills, and they enabled me to get home safely despite several other paths and turns . It was during this cold ride that I realized that the same can be said for the Christian faith. There have been people throughout Church history that God has used to make tracks for us. Now, more than ever, we need to use the tracks that have already been laid down.
To push the metaphor a bit further, think of the road under the snow as the Bible. Solid, sure, and sufficient but we have all piled our own ideas, bad teachings, and worldly desires on top of the Word now making it difficult to see the right way from the wrong way.
The 3 tracks that I will mention here will enable us to stay on the road (the Bible) till we get home.
Track #1 - A Creed
Growing up in church here in good ol’ Appalachia, I don’t believe that I was ever taught a creed of any sorts. It’s very unfortunate, too, seeing how traditional we Appalachians tend to be. From our music to our burial trends, we like the “old path” but sadly for most church goers the path that is sometimes followed isn’t that old at all. Although my pastors and teachers were faithful men who loved the Lord, so many errors and misconceptions in my own life and thinking could have been avoided if we had practiced reciting creeds or spent time learning them as a church.
In the simplest sense, a creed is a “formal statement of Christian belief” says the Oxford dictionary. I’ll add that the creeds that I am talking about in this letter are ones that have stood the test of time. Creeds like the Apostles Creed which dates back to the 4th century or the Nicene creed that first came on the scene in AD 325.
Creeds tend to be short and to the point making them perfect for reciting as a church (during worship!) and for personal memorization. Dr D.A. Carson says that the Apostles’ Creed “very ably summarizes the gospel itself in just a few sentences.” Much like the tracks in the snow, a creed keeps me from getting off the road into danger. A creed will take basic biblical truth and put you safety within those bounds and gives you something to share with people in your life. The creeds that I have mentioned will keep us from slipping off the slope of Christianity and into the deep ditch of false teaching. Creeds can help us when it comes to the correct belief on major gospel issues like; the Trinity, the truth that Jesus is “ very God “ and very man, and how we are to “do” church, among many other things.
In other words, learning and knowing these ancient creeds will keep us, our families, and our church from sliding over the bank into false teaching and destruction.
Track #2 - A Confession
Somewhere along life’s way I read a tweet that said “Christian children today don’t know enough about the faith to backslide from it”. This is so sad and yet so true. Our children as they grow have so many questions, don’t they?
“What does this mean” or “why is this like this”. Sometimes the questions are just too much or maybe even too difficult for us to answer. So now I ask you, if you’re not there, who will they take their questions to? Who will they rely on to give them answers? A television preacher? A cult who knocks on their door on a Saturday morning? Think of the hardships and ruin that this could cause your family for generations.
Thinking through these things brings us to track #2, a good confession helps us keep traction in the faith. Like a creed, a confession summarizes biblical truth but “fleshes” it out in a different way. Instead of a short, formal statement, a confession is longer, broader, more detailed summary of truth that includes scripture references for you to go to.
As a baptist, the “1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith” is the “go-to” confession for me, my family and the church. And just like the tracks that give me traction in the snow, the confession gives me traction in my life, my family’s life, and the church’s life.
Why do you believe the Bible? Why are you a Baptist? Why is “this “or “that” important or not important as believers? Where in the Bible does it say that?
A confession will give you traction in your approach to these things and keep you, your family, and church from spinning your wheels with the latest fads and the oldest heresies when it comes to the Christian Faith that was “once and for all delivered to the saints” Jude 1:3
Here are 3 simple ways a good confession will keep you in the traction
#1 Traction for you - A confession will help you to study the scriptures for yourself. Someone said long ago “If a fella can talk you into something, he can talk you out of it, too.” Using a confession in your study time will drive you to the Bible as the source of your traction.
#2 Traction for your family - As parents (especially Fathers) you are responsible for what your child is taught. A confession is a great tool to work through with your family to teach them what the Bible actually says about how we are to live and think as followers of Jesus.
#3 Traction for your Church- So many churches, once vibrant pillars of the truth, slip and digress into obscurity. Why? Maybe the pastor left... Maybe the priorities changed... Maybe they lost traction?
With a confessional document anchoring a congregation to the Bible, no matter what the storms of life lay down, the church will always be moving along in the direction that God has laid out for them in HIs Word.
Track #3 - Church History
There has been times in the last few months that I didn’t know if I was going to make it another day. Hard times. Times of pain and struggle. Do you know one of the things that God has repeatedly brought back to my memory? The stories of missionaries, pastors, wives, husbands, orphans, widows, daddies and mommies. Stories of the saints!
Think about this... You have thousands of years of people that have came before you on this journey, they’ve walked where you walk, they struggled with what you struggle with, and God has brought them all the way home. You are not alone! How did they do it? What were their practices and habits?
Hebrews 11 is a perfect biblical example of this kind of encouragement in action. Looking back, the Hebrew writer urges his readers to push forward!
Not only does learning about people of the past in the church encourages us, it also stops us from taking wrong turns.
I see people arguing about things that have been settled thousands of years before. I see people falling for bad teaching labeled as “cool” or “relevant” that was called heresy by God’s people hundreds or even thousands of years ago. Why are we constantly going down these wrong paths? Because we dont know our history and we dont know our Bibles. We need to study the past to see the tracks home.
I recon I’ve said enough... Think about these 3 things. Creeds, Confessions and Church History.
Reach out to me if you want to talk further.
Maybe next time we can get specific on resources to use and ways to implement them into our lives.
On the Potter’s Wheel,
Pastor Chris