After employing much time and ingenuity in vain, in endeavoring to drag this artful chief from his lurking places, and to obtain from him an explanation of his views, the Council found it would be impossible to accomplish their object as long as they permitted him to entrench himself behind a mere general profession of belief in the Bible. They therefore did what common sense, as well as the word of God, had taught the Church to do in all preceding times, and what alone can enable her to detect the artful advocate of error. The framers of our confession were careful to subordinate the confession to the Scriptures as the only infallible standard of truth. Those who protest against creeds most loudly function by a creed themselves. Those most vigorous against creeds use their own unpublished creeds in their ecclesiastical proceedings.
Creeds are but interpretations of Scripture.
The Scriptures imply the legitimacy and necessity of creeds. In Acts 15 the church gathers to address the gospel to a new situation. In the end it formulates in written fashion a creed concerning the issue at hand. This is precisely the situation with reference to the first post-apostolic creeds. To address doctrinal issues men needed to re-cast doctrine in a new mould, in new words, and use language that precisely addressed the error of the times.