Though it is true that Reformed Christians, like other Protestants, develop their theology primarily based on the authority of Scripture, leaders in the Reformed tradition have always believed that it is necessary during certain points of history to reflect on what the Church believes and to set forth these beliefs in the form of a creed of a confession. The creeds and confessions that Presbyterians have adopted in the Book of Confessions represent three important understandings of who we are:

1. we are part of the Church universal
2. we are descendants of the Protestant Reformation
3. we adhere to the tenets of the Reformed tradition. Therefore, the creeds and confessions that constitute our Book of Confessions come from different times and places within the history of the Church universal.

In all of this, however, our tradition upholds a motto that keeps our understanding of creeds and confessions in perspective: Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda (The Church reformed and always being reformed). This motto reminds Reformed Christians that we are to be open to God and the ways God is at work reforming the Church in all times and places. We listen to the “voices” of older creeds because we believe God was at work in the Church before our time using women and men as instruments of instruction and revelation for later generations. We occasionally still write creeds because we believe God is still speaking to the Church today, reforming the modern Church in light of new historical circumstances.

The Presbyterian Church considers creeds and confessions to be "subordinate standards in the church, subject to the authority of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, as the Scriptures bear witness to him" (G-2.0200). Creeds and confessions guide us in our understanding of Scripture, but they do not take the place of Scripture as our primary source of authority.