Know the Creeds and Councils

Author: Justin S. Holcomb
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310515106
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Book Description
In every generation, the Christian church must interpret and restate its bedrock beliefs, answering the challenges and concerns of the day. This accessible overview walks readers through centuries of creeds, councils, catechisms, and confessions—not with a dry focus on dates and places, but with an emphasis on the living tradition of Christian belief and why it matters for our lives today. As a part of the KNOW series, Know the Creeds and Councils is designed for personal study or classroom use, but also for small groups and Sunday schools wanting to more deeply understand the foundations of the faith. Each chapter covers a key statement of faith and includes a discussion of its historical context, a simple explanation of the statement’s content and key points, reflections on contemporary and ongoing relevance, and discussion questions.

Know the Heretics

Author: Justin S. Holcomb
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310515084
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Book Description
There is a lot of talk about heresy these days. The frequency and volume of accusations suggest that some Christians have lost a sense of the gravity of the word. On the other hand, many believers have little to no familiarity with orthodox doctrine or the historic distortions of it. What’s needed is a strong dose of humility and restraint, and also a clear and informed definition of orthodoxy and heresy. Know the Heretics provides an accessible “travel guide” to the most significant heresies throughout Christian history. As a part of the KNOW series, it is designed for personal study or classroom use, but also for small groups and Sunday schools wanting to more deeply understand the foundations of the faith. Each chapter covers a key statement of faith and includes a discussion of its historical context; a simple explanation of the unorthodox teaching, the orthodox response and a key defender; reflections of contemporary relevance; and discussion questions.

The Story of Creeds and Confessions

Author: Donald Fairbairn
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 1493418181
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 399

Book Description
Creeds and confessions throughout Christian history provide a unique vantage point from which to study the Christian faith. To this end, Donald Fairbairn and Ryan Reeves construct a story that captures both the central importance of creeds and confessions over the centuries and their unrealized potential to introduce readers to the overall sweep of church history. The book features texts of classic creeds and confessions as well as informational sidebars.

What Christians Ought to Believe

Author: Michael F. Bird
Publisher: Zondervan Academic
ISBN: 0310520932
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
The Apostles' Creed is a treasure trove of basic Christian beliefs and wisdom that helps ensure the integrity and orthodoxy of our faith. Sadly, modern churches have often hesitated to embrace the ancient creeds because of our "nothing but the Bible" tradition. In What Christians Ought to Believe Michael Bird will open your eyes to the possibilities of the Apostles' Creed as a way to explore and understand the essential teachings of the Christian faith. Bringing together theological commentary, tips for application, and memorable illustrations, What Christians Ought to Believe summarizes the basic tenets of the Christian faith using the Apostles' Creed as its entryway. After first emphasizing the importance of creeds for the formation of the Christian faith, each chapter, following the Creed's outline, introduces the Father, the Son, and the Spirit and the Church. An appendix includes the Apostles' Creed in the original Latin and Greek. What Christians Ought to Believe is ideally suited for both the classroom and the church setting to teach beginning students and laypersons the basics of what Christians ought to affirm if they are to be called Christians.

The Need for Creeds Today

Author: J. V. Fesko
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 1493427016
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Book Description
This brief, accessible invitation to the historic creeds and confessions makes a biblical and historical case for their necessity and shows why they are essential for Christian faith and practice today. J. V. Fesko, a leading Reformed theologian with a broad readership in the academy and the church, demonstrates that creeds are not just any human documents but biblically commended resources for the well-being of the church, as long as they remain subordinate to biblical authority. He also explains how the current skepticism and even hostility toward creeds and confessions came about.

Voting about God in Early Church Councils

Author: Ramsay MacMullen
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300135297
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Book Description
In this study, Ramsay MacMullen steps aside from the well-worn path that previous scholars have trod to explore exactly how early Christian doctrines became official. Drawing on extensive verbatim stenographic records, he analyzes the ecumenical councils from A.D. 325 to 553, in which participants gave authority to doctrinal choices by majority vote. The author investigates the sometimes astonishing bloodshed and violence that marked the background to church council proceedings, and from there goes on to describe the planning and staging of councils, the emperors' role, the routines of debate, the participants' understanding of the issues, and their views on God's intervention in their activities. He concludes with a look at the significance of the councils and their doctrinal decisions within the history of Christendom.

Know How We Got Our Bible

Author: Ryan Matthew Reeves
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310537223
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 198

Book Description
The easy accessibility of the Bible in most of the world's major languages can obscure a dramatic and sometimes unexpected story. In Know How We Got Our Bible, scholars Ryan Reeves and Charles Hill trace the history of the Bible from its beginnings to the present day, highlighting key figures and demonstrating overall the reliability of Scripture. Reeves and Hill begin with the writing of the Bible's books (including authorship and dating), move into the formation of the Old and New Testaments (including early transmission and the development of the canon), and conclude with several chapters on Bible translation from the Latin Vulgate to the ongoing work of translation around the world today. Written simply and focused on the overarching story of how the Bible came to us today, Know How We Got Our Bible is an excellent introduction for formal students and lay learners alike. Each chapter includes reflection questions and recommended readings for further learning.

The Creed: Professing the Faith Through the Ages

Author: Scott Hahn
Publisher: Emmaus Road Publishing
ISBN: 1941447791
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 180

Book Description
Why were the early Christians willing to die to protect a single iota of the creed? Why have the Judeans, Romans, and Persians—among others—seen the Christian creed as a threat to the established social order? In The Creed: Professing the Faith Through the Ages, bestselling author Dr. Scott Hahn recovers and conveys the creed’s revolutionary character. Tracing the development of the first formulations of faith in the early Church through later ecumenical councils, The Creed tells the story of how the very profession of our belief in Christ fashions us for heavenly life as we live out our earthly days.

Why Creeds and Confessions?

Author: Jay Rogers
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1329995619
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Book Description
Why a book on the creeds and confessions of the Church? A single book containing the actual texts of the most important creeds of the early Church will not often be found. Out of the multitude of works on the evangelical Christian book market today, those dealing with the creeds of the Church are scarce. This book contains the full texts of the most important creeds of the early Church. The purpose is to put into the reader's hands a book containing the creeds that all Christians throughout the ages - Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant - have believed. When we come to the Reformation period, we will see that the matter of salvation and church government became a matter of debate. However, there has always been a continuous thread of teaching that all Christians have held in common. Why Creeds and Confessions? provides a foundation of biblical orthodoxy as a defense against the false and truly heretical doctrines advanced by the spirit of this age.

The Creedal Imperative

Author: Carl R. Trueman
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433521938
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Book Description
Recent years have seen a number of high profile scholars converting to Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy while a trend in the laity expresses an eclectic hunger for tradition. The status and role of confessions stands at the center of the debate within evangelicalism today as many resonate with the call to return to Christianity's ancient roots. Carl Trueman offers an analysis of why creeds and confessions are necessary, how they have developed over time, and how they can function in the church of today and tomorrow. He writes primarily for evangelicals who are not particularly confessional in their thinking yet who belong to confessional churches—Baptists, independents, etc.—so that they will see more clearly the usefulness of the church's tradition.