On Church Creeds

Church creeds have been useful. In an age where people could not read and when Bibles were so rare that most had no access to them because the price of hand copying a book was prohibitive reciting a Creed at Mass or Service every Sunday was a useful way of teaching people doctrine. But in my considered opinion the abuse of creeds is something that outweighs their value. So I oppose Creeds So why do I oppose creeds? Not because they profess to believe something, not because they offer purported truth, but because they are legalistic repressive devices. How many will confess their unbelief as sin to God after having recited a church creed where they stated as truth something they in fact do NOT believe?  Clearly a creedal statement makes a hypocrite of a person. For commitment to a doctrine is not the same thing as believing it. This is the kind of intellectualism which is the very essence of hypocrisy. After 40 years a Christian I now know how utterly jam packed with heresy and unbelief I am. I am learning that my commitment to doctrine is intrinsically dishonest; and so my refusal to admit to God what my life shows what I really believe only complicates things and delays my healing. For my pain stems from my unbelief, from my legalism, which his unbelief, and my clinging by brute force to doctrines of grace, which in fact is nothing to do with what scripture commands when it says hold fast to what good. Rather such is the counterfeit, the abuse of the command. As I discovered years ago my legalism is no remedy to any sin at all. It is a symptom of the sin it fights. In fact it is the very sin it fights for if I truly believed in the love of God or His forgiveness I would rest in it without strain. The strain is force is therefore force, so is unbelief, not faith. The same goes for legalism of thought or belief as it does for legalism of action. Only the unwilling heart has to force itself to do good works; only the unbelieving mind has to force itself to strain to hold to true doctrine Our fruit are very revealing as to what we really believe. If we do not have peace rest and joy we do not believe the gospel, for all our commitment to the doctrines Here I am not denying doctrinal truth as a matter considered principle. Far from it! For I assert that it was the grace of God that got me to even consider the fact of my unbelief let alone face it. Of course He does this  that eventually He might produce repentance of sin leading to real belief rather than that which I have, (except for the barest minimum which makes  me a Christian in the first place) which  belief is  forced and feigned. For me to recite any church creed  would be sheer hypocrisy and I would not do it. What shows what we believe? OUR LIVES - by which I do not mean any forced good work, but our spontaneous reactions and careless words. Look at those and we see what our creeds are really worth, which is why we prefer to focus on mere propositional truth  lest our responses to such be revealed. it is not for nothing that to the world "church" and "hypocrite" are synonymous. If we want abundant lives, as Jesus both promised and commanded that we have, let us face the unbelief whereby we are without rest peace or joy. Let us face our unbelief, or, more importantly, let us be in a relationship with the Spirit that He will lead us to face it In so doing we will find love, joy and peace, the real thing not the feigned will of the flesh counterfeit which we so vainly call discipleship. For if we will not do this under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit we will be the tree that never bears fruit. And Jesus Himself warns us as to the fate of it

S