Guard the Good Deposit

38 • Guard the Good Deposit: The Great Tradition for the Whole Church

We need the Nicene Creed as a brief memorable outline of the faith. You don’t have to be a genius with lots of education to know good theology. The Nicene Creed delivers the core of Christian theology to us in one bite-size chunk. You should certainly memorize passages of Scripture so that the Word of God sinks deep into your heart and mind. You should also remember how all of Scripture fits together to tell one story of who God is and what he is doing. The Creed is a brief memorable outline of the faith for every Christian. Children can learn it, families can recite it, pastors can teach it, and scholars can study it. It works for babies in Christ and for the elders of the faith. No one outgrows these fundamental truths. We need the Nicene Creed to protect ourselves and others from false teachings. The devil is a liar and the father of lies (John 8.44). He never stops assaulting the minds of Christians with falsehood. If we look at how he tempted Jesus, we see that sometimes he twists Scripture for his own purposes (Luke 4.10–11). His falsehoods can even appear biblical and he disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11.13–14). The Nicene Creed arms us with a simple first line of defense against the falsehood of the enemy. False teachings are everywhere. We listen to them on the radio, see them on TV, read them in books, and often hear them from our friends.