---
title: 'The Need for Creeds'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2018-07-27
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2018-the-need-for-creeds
---

# The Need for Creeds

Do you wonder what it means to be a confessional Presbyterian? It is one thing to understand Presbyterianism, a form of church government and worship; it is another to understand the importance and value of confessions or creeds.

We have some [resources to help understand Presbyterianism](/topics/ecclesiology), of course; but this post is especially meant to highlight resources on confessionalism, as understood by Presbyterians, which are available at Log College Press.

- [Samuel Miller](/authors/samuel-miller), *The Utility and Importance of Creeds and Confessions* (1824);
- [Francis Robert Beattie](/authors/francis-robert-beattie), “A Brief Description of the Great Christian Creeds” and “The Nature and uses of Religious Creeds” in *The Presbyterian Standards: An Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms* (1896);
- Robert Lewis Dabney, “The Doctrinal Contents of the Confession—Its Fundamental and Regulative ideas; and the Necessity and Value of Creeds” in [*Memorial Volume of the Westminster Assembly, 1647-1897*](/topics/compilations) (1897);
- James D. Tadlock, “The Relation of the \[Westminster\] Standards to Other Creeds” in [*Memorial Volume of the Westminster Assembly, 1647-1897*](/topics/compilations) (1897);
- [B.B. Warfield](/authors/b-b-warfield), *The Significance of the Westminster Standards as a Creed* (1898); and
- [Egbert Watson Smith](/authors/egbert-watson-smith), *The Creed of Presbyterians* (1901).
    
    These works have much to say about why we need to articulate Scriptural truths in creedal form, and how they benefit the church. Take a look and consider especially what Miller, Beattie, and Dabney have to say about the need for creeds.