We Believe: Creeds, Catechisms, and Confessions of Faith

Christians in every generation must know what they believe. Only then can God’s people declare His truth with clarity and conviction in a confused world. Throughout the centuries, the church has written summaries of the Bible’s teaching for this reason. Creeds proclaim essential Christian truths, confessions outline the core doctrines of Scripture, and catechisms instruct believers in the knowledge of God. These are invaluable tools to keep us grounded in God’s Word so that we may “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Collecting creeds, confessions, and catechisms from the early church to the post-Reformation era, this volume helps readers glean biblical wisdom from the past and guard it for future generations. This book contains twenty creeds, confessions, and catechisms spanning the history of the church: Apostles’ Creed (Second Century) Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (325/381) Definition of Chalcedon (451) Athanasian Creed (Fifth Century) Luther’s Small Catechism (1529) Augsburg Confession (1530) First Helvetic Confession (1536) Geneva Catechism (1542) French Confession of Faith (1559) Scots Confession (1560) Belgic Confession (1561) Thirty-Nine Articles (1563) Heidelberg Catechism (1563) Second Helvetic Confession (1566) Canons of Dort (1618–19) Westminster Confession of Faith (1646–47) Westminster Larger Catechism (1646–47) Westminster Shorter Catechism (1646–47) Savoy Declaration (1658) Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689)