The Apostles’ Creed: The Articles of FaithSample

Preservation of the Church: Jude 3-4

The church is not infallible. And the Apostles’ Creed is not encouraging us to believe whatever our local church teaches. Rather, it is simply affirming the fact that Christ appointed his church in part to protect and to proclaim the gospel and other truths.

Consider the way Jude, the brother of Jesus, wrote about the church’s mission in verses 3-4 of his epistle:

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men ... have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord (Jude verses 3-4).

According to Jude, part of the church’s job is to contend for the faith, to protect the truths and beliefs that have been entrusted to it against those who promote false teachings and practices.

Now, it should be obvious to most of us that there are many false teachings in various parts of the church today. And there are many sinful practices as well. Nevertheless, God has never withdrawn the church’s assignment, or declared that any other group or individual should take over the job of protecting true doctrine. It is still the job of the church to protect the truth. 

And the church is still trying to do its job. Sometimes we do it better than others. Some of our theology is faithful to Scripture, but other parts of it need to be improved, or even changed altogether. And this will always be the case. But the point we want to make is this: We can’t give up. We have to keep trying to preserve doctrine in the church. And if we abandon this call, we are denying a central article of the historic Christian faith: I believe in the church.