---
title: 'A.A. Hodge on Creeds and Confessions'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2024-04-27
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2024-a-a-hodge-on-creeds-and-confessions
---

# A.A. Hodge on Creeds and Confessions

“Creeds and Confessions, therefore, have been found necessary in all ages and branches of the Church, and, when not abused, have been useful for the following purposes: (1.) To mark, disseminate and preserve the attainments made in the knowledge of Christian truth by any branch of the Church in any crisis of its development. (2.) To discriminate the truth from the glosses of false teachers, and to present it in its integrity and due proportions. (3.) To act as the basis of ecclesiastical fellowship among those so nearly agreed as to be able to labor together in harmony. (4.) To be used as instruments in the great work of popular instruction.

It must be remembered, however, that the matter of these Creeds and Confessions binds the consciences of men only so far as it is purely scriptural, and because it is so; and as to the form in which that matter is stated, they bind those only who have voluntarily subscribed the Confession, and because of that subscription.” — [**A**.**A. Hodge**](/authors/archibald-alexander-hodge), *A Commentary on the Confession of Faith* (1869), pp. 23-24