John 3:16 is the "once upon a time" (No I am not calling the Bible a fairy tale, follow the analogy). You still need the rest of the story until you get to the "happily ever after" (heaven).
The creed(s) is what leads to that. They are the defense against Arius etal.
Once upon a time.....really?
Creeds mean nothing to God. Faith does.
Guess Abraham comes up short as he had only faith and no creed to go buy. Same with all the others in Hebrews 11.
Never saw where Peter required Cornelius to learn a creed before he was saved. Nor was that what was preached on the day of Pentecost.
I agree completely. I could shout the Nicene Creed from the minarets of the hagia sophia and if I have no faith when the muslims come to lop my head off I'll go to hell. However...
The Creeds help teach us how to interpret Sacred Scripture:
"I believe in One God..." resolves lots of problems people had with understanding the Blessed Trinity. It doesn't answer all the questions and objections that have arisen since but it eliminated what was prevalent at the time.