Christians reject formal creeds and profess to find the Scriptures
sufficient for all purposes that creeds are meant to serve. The
Christian religion rests on Christ, and the final appeal on any question
of doctrine must be to the Scriptures which testify of Him: but it is
found that very different conclusions are often reached by those who
profess to ground their beliefs upon the same passages of the Word of
God. Almost every heresy that has disturbed the unity of the Church has
been advocated by men who appealed to Scripture in confirmation of the
doctrines they taught. The true teaching of the Word of God is gathered
from careful and continuous searching of the Scriptures, and there is
danger of fatal error when conclusions are drawn from isolated passages
interpreted in accordance with preconceived opinions. It has been found
not only expedient but needful that the Christian Churches should set
forth in creeds and confessions the doctrines which they believe the
Scriptures affirm. They are bound not only to accept Scripture as the
rule of faith, but to make known the sense in which they understand it.
As unlearned and unstable men wrest and subvert the Sacred Writings, it
is fitting that those who are learned and not unstable should publish
sound expositions of their contents. In the light of creeds, converts
are enabled to test their own position, and to put to proof the claims
of those who profess to be teachers of Christian doctrine.

One of the most widely accepted of these forms is the Apostles' Creed,
so called, not because it was drawn up by, or in the time of, the
Apostles--although there is a tradition to the effect that each of them
contributed a clause--but because it is in accordance with the sum of
Apostolic teaching. The history of this Creed is not easily traced. The
care with which it was guarded excluded it from the writings of the
early fathers, and it is impossible, therefore, to assign to their
proper dates, with certainty, some of the articles of which it is