Need for Creed

Creeds are sometimes misunderstood as another unnecessary tradition laid on the backs of people to recite and remember when they could simply just read their Bibles. However, creeds are more then just something to remember and spit back out. 

Creeds stand as the very belief of the Church during times of persecution and heresy. They stand as the very fabric that held the church together during some of the hardest times of Christianity. They gave back bone to what the Church held and believed. Even to the point of death. 

For the millions of illiterate Christians in centuries past it was their way of knowing the doctrine of the Bible without actually having to had read it. Without being too vague or over-concise it gave Christians to specifically express what they believed to be the essentials of their faith. 

After the homily when I stand and recite the Nicene Creed I'm not just reciting another formula, but I am uniting myself with nearly 2 millenniums of Christians before me. I am making the profession that their faith is my faith.