Creeds & Confessions

Christ did not leave His people without a voice.

From the earliest days of the Church, Christians have publicly confessed what they believe Scripture teaches—especially when the truth of the gospel was challenged or misunderstood. Creeds and confessions are not additions to Scripture, but carefully worded summaries of biblical truth, forged in the life of the Church.

At Teaching Bridge Fellowship, we use creeds and confessions as faithful guides, not as replacements for Scripture. They help us teach clearly, remain accountable to the historic Christian faith, and avoid theological isolation.

This page will help you understand what these documents are, why they exist, and how we use them.

If you are new to creeds and confessions—or unsure how they relate to Scripture—we recommend reading in this order:

1. Authority & Boundaries
   How Scripture, creeds, and confessions relate—and why Scripture alone is supreme.

2. The Ecumenical Creeds
   The early Church’s foundational confessions of the Triune God and the person of Christ.

3. Reformation-Era Confessions
   Confessions shaped during the Protestant Reformation to clarify the gospel and church doctrine.

4. The 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith
   Our confessional home and the primary doctrinal standard used at Teaching Bridge Fellowship.

This order matters. It reflects how authority flows—from Scripture, to the Church’s shared confession, to our particular confessional commitments.

The ecumenical creeds represent the early Church’s unified witness to essential Christian doctrine. They focus primarily on:

• The nature of God as Trinity

• The full deity and humanity of Christ

• The reality of the incarnation, atonement, resurrection, and return

These creeds were forged in response to serious doctrinal errors and remain foundational to orthodox Christianity across denominational lines.

Teaching Bridge Fellowship affirms these creeds as faithful summaries of biblical teaching and as boundary markers for historic Christian belief.

During the Protestant Reformation, churches were compelled to confess their faith more fully as questions arose concerning:

• The authority of Scripture

• Justification by faith alone

• The nature of the Church and the sacraments

• The relationship between law and gospel

Reformation confessions do not abandon the ancient creeds; they build upon them, applying biblical clarity to contested doctrines.

These confessions demonstrate that the Reformation was not a rejection of history, but a recovery of biblical fidelity within the Church.

Teaching Bridge Fellowship is confessionally Reformed Baptist.

We confess the faith summarized in the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, which we believe faithfully expresses the teaching of Scripture concerning:

• God and His decrees

• The covenantal structure of redemptive history

• The person and work of Christ

• Salvation by grace alone through faith alone

• The Church, its ordinances, and its mission

The 1689 Confession stands within the broader Reformed tradition while clearly articulating Baptist convictions, particularly regarding the Church and the New Covenant.

It serves as our primary confessional standard, always subordinate to Scripture.

This section is:

• A guide to historic Christian confession

• A teaching resource for understanding doctrine

• A framework for theological clarity and unity

This section is not:

• A replacement for Scripture

• A claim of infallibility

• A demand for uncritical agreement

We encourage every reader to engage these confessions thoughtfully, prayerfully, and biblically.

• Authority & Boundaries — How we understand authority in the Christian faith

• The Ecumenical Creeds — The Apostles’, Nicene, and related creeds

• The 1689 London Baptist Confession — Structure, theology, and use

• What We Believe — Doctrinal summaries drawn from Scripture