Creeds and Confessions: What’s the Difference?

You may belong to a church that calls itself “confessional,” and you may even have heard of the phrase “confessional identity.” If so, you’re probably aware that at the time of the Reformation and afterward, numerous Christian denominations wrote (and still write) “confessions,” that is, statements of what that group of Christians believes.

These confessions vary a great deal in length. They might make a small handful of points, each expressed in a short paragraph (Anglicanism’s 39 Articles) or they might stretch out much longer and read more like theological treatises (such as the Second Helvetic Confession). Some of these confessions have been adapted into catechisms (such as the Larger and Shorter Catechisms based on the Westminster Confession of Faith), in which the points of the confessions are recast into question-and-answer format as an aid to teaching them particularly to children.

If you’re familiar with confessions, you may be wondering about creeds. There are two major creeds in Christian history, the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed, and if you attend a church that recites a creed in worship, you’ve probably heard your worship leader introduce the recitation with the question, “Christians, what do you believe?” If confessions and creeds are both statements of what we as Christians believe, what is the difference between them? Read More