Is "No Creed but the Bible" Actually Unbiblical?

Carl Trueman, who I always find enjoyable and challenging (even when I don't agree with him), has just written a new book aimed primarily at his evangelical friends in non-confessional or non-creedal traditions, attempting to help them see the need for creeds and confessions.  In this new book, The Creedal Imperative, he writes:

Christians are not divided between those who have creeds and confessions and those who do not; rather, they are divided between those who have public creeds and confessions which are written down and exist as public documents, subject to public scrutiny, evaluation, and critique; and those who have private creeds and confessions which are often improvised, unwritten, and thus not open to public scrutiny, not susceptible to evaluation and, crucially and ironically, not subject to testing by scripture to see whether they are true or not.

He concludes the first chapter with a gentle challenge to anti-confessional and anti-creedal evangelicals:

I conclude this chapter by posing a challenge to those who, in  their earnest desire to be faithful to Scripture as the supreme authority of faith and life, claim that they have no creed but the Bible. Reflect critically on the cultural forces that are certainly consonant with holding such a position and ask yourself whether they have perhaps reinforced your antipathy to creeds and confessions in a way that is not directly related to the Bible’s own teaching at all. Then, setting aside for just a moment your sincere convictions on this matter, read the rest of this book and see whether creeds and confessions might not actually provide you with a better way of preserving precisely those aspects of biblical, Christian faith which are most valuable to you and which you passionately wish to communicate to your church.

For those evangelicals who are not particularly confessional in their thinking, this book may be a helpful and challenging read. 

HT: JT

Carl Trueman on Luther's Marks of a Good Preacher

Carl Trueman reflects on Luther's marks of a good preacher:

In Table Talk 2580, Luther outlines the qualifications of a good preacher in a way that is refreshingly practical. I will deal briefly with the first five marks today....

The first five are: ability to teach; possession of a good head; eloquence; clarity of speech; and a good memory. The list is interesting because it focuses first on practicalities, things often lost in the romantic spiritual notions of ministry we often have. In short, the person should be able to think and speak clearly, two traits which are often intimately connected. It seems like common sense, but these basic elements are often neglected by churches, seminaries, sessions, elder boards, presbyteries and classes. To put it bluntly: if you cannot put a decent, clear sentence into English and speak it in a way that others can understand, you are not called to the ministry, no matter how much that inner voice tells you that God is calling you to preach, or your mum tells you you'd make a wonderful pastor.

That does not mean that you cannot be of great use to the church; but clarity of mind and speech are absolutely basic, just as important as godly zeal and sense of call (internal and external), for the office of preacher. We need to be careful that we do not over-spiritualize the call: just as someone with St Vitus' Dance should never be allowed to be a brain surgeon, so the one who cannot speak with coherence and confidence should not be in a pulpit.

HT: Ref21

God's Means of Preventing Amnesia

The Gospel Coalition just released the new issue of Themelios. I particularly appreciated Carl Trueman's article, "Lest We Forget." Here is a brief excerpt from his conclusion:

I have yet to come across a student who struggled with, or even abandoned, the faith, who did not, at some early point in their struggle, abandon the mundane routines of the Christian life: regular attendance at the preaching of the word, prayer, etc. etc. Boring they may be, but they are God’s means of preventing amnesia; and we forget them at our peril.

Click here to read the whole thing.

HT: Tim Challies

Carl Trueman on the White Horse Inn

Has American Christianity become more concerned with success than fidelity? Has it chosen style over substance? On the most recent edition of the White Horse Inn, Michael Horton spoke about these issues with Carl Trueman, professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia), and author of The Wages of Spin.