In Article 9 of our Confession of Faith, three writings dating from the first centuries of the Christian Church are named as creeds which “we do willingly receive.” They are: the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. The adoption of this Confession of Faith by the Synods of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, held in the last part of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, constituted therefore at the same time an implicit approval of the three Creeds mentioned above. They are called Ecumenical creeds (general, universal) because they have been approved and adopted by nearly all the churches of Christendom.^[i]