Essential Doctrines
A list of the key elements of Christianity

The Nicene Creed

The Nicene Creed

The Creed of Nicaea
as approved by the Nicene Council (A.D. 325)

Athanasian Creed
One of the four authoritative Creeds of the Catholic Church. The Anglican Church and some Protestant Churches also hold it to be authoritative.

The Athanasian Creed

The Geneva Confession of Faith
The Genevan Confession was credited to John Calvin in 1536 by Beza who said Calvin wrote it as a formula of Christian doctrine suited to the church at Geneva. More recent scholarship attributes it to William Farel but in all likelihood Calvin did have considerable influence on the document. Indeed the records of the Senate at Geneva indicate that the confession was presented by both Farel and Calvin to the magistrates who received it and set it aside for more detailed examination.

The New Hampshire Baptist Confession
This Confession was drawn up by the Rev. John Newton Brown, D. D., of New Hampshire (b. 1803, d. 1868), about 1833, and has been adopted by the New Hampshire Convention, and widely accepted by Baptists, especially in the Northern and Western States, as a clear and concise statement of their faith, in harmony with the doctrines of older confessions, but expressed in milder form.

The Consensus Tigurinus

The Second Helvetic Confession

95 Theses by Dr. Martin Luther
Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences Commonly Known as the 95 Theses

The New Hampshire Baptist Confession, 1833
The New Hampshire Confession

The Canons of the Council of Orange
The Council of Orange dealt with the Semi-Pelagian doctrine that the human race, though fallen and possessed of a sinful nature, is still "good" enough to able to lay hold of the grace of God through an act of unredeemed human will. As you read the Canons of the Council of Orange, you will be able to see where John Calvin derived his views of the total depravity of the human race.

Canons of Dordrecht
Canons Ratified in the National Synod of the Reformed Church, Held at Dordrecht, in the Years 1618 and 1619.

Two Short Catechisms
Wherein the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ, are Unfolded and Explained. Proper fort all persons to learn before they be admitted to the sacrament of the Lord's supper; and composed for the use of all congregations in general.

The Heidelberg Catechism
In order that the Reformed faith might be maintained in his domain, Elector Frederick III commissioned Zacharias Ursinus, professor at Heidelberg University, and Caspar Olevianus, the court preacher, to prepare a manual for catechetical instruction. Out of this initiative came the Catechism, which was approved by the Elector himself and by the Synod of Heidelberg and first published in 1563.

The Belgic Confession
The oldest of the doctrinal standards of the Christian Reformed Church is the Confession of Faith, popularly known as the Belgic Confession.

The Westminster Confession of Faith

Geneva Convention
The Confession of Faith