大象传媒

Birth of the Christian Church and development of Protestantism - CCEAAdvantages and disadvantages of the creeds

Saint Patrick is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland. There was initially one single Church. Protestantism developed in the 16th century when people began to split from the Catholic Church.

Part of Religious StudiesThe Protestant Church

Advantages and disadvantages of the creeds

Creeds have a number of advantages for the Church:

  • They act as a short summary of Christian belief which people can more easily learn.
  • They can protect the Church from false teaching (ie teaching that does not match up to the statements of truth in the creeds).
  • They can explain difficult beliefs from the Bible in a simpler way.
  • They can help people to worship God as they recite parts of the creed and apply it to their lives.
  • They help to unify the Church because they all agree on the same beliefs.

Creeds have a number of disadvantages for the Church:

  • Creeds were written so long ago that the wording is old fashioned.
  • They take complex (complicated) Christian beliefs and oversimplify them.
  • Some of the creeds were written to deal with false teaching in the Church hundreds of years ago, these creeds are no longer relevant today.