I have been promising to write about the foundational beliefs of Christianity, and here it is. I think that sometimes I forget how fortunate I am that I was raised in solid, Bible-teaching churches, and I take for granted the information that was taught me. I realize how much syncretism there is in the church today when I see how many Christians hold unbiblical beliefs.
How did the early Christians learn the essential beliefs of their faith? They learned creeds. Creed comes from the Latin word ‘credo’ which means “I believe.” Creeds are simply statements summarizing what we believe. Alisa Childers writes in her book Another Gospel?, “When Christians today think of creeds, we tend to think of the Nicene or Apostles’ Creed, shared by Protestants and Catholics alike. But many Christians are unaware that our New Testament contains dozens of creeds that are hundreds of years older than their more famous counterparts. Some early Christians were literate, others were not. Creeds were an easy way to summarize and memorize their essential beliefs.”
One of the earliest Christian creeds found in the New Testament is written down by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:3-7. “For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.” This creed began circulating within years of Jesus’s death and resurrection. Another creed is found in Galatians 4:4-5. “When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Philippians 2 might be a familiar passage to you. But did you know this was an early creed? Here is part of it. “For this reason God highly exalted him
and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (2:9-11). The last one I will mention is Ephesians 4:4-6. “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope at your calling— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.” Many scholars believe that this was a creed that was recited by new converts when they were baptized.
These early creeds led to the development of the Apostles’ Creed, a creed we still recite today. It contains the fundamentals of the Christian faith. It is based on the old Roman creed, which was used as early as the 2nd century. The Apostles’ Creed is the first widely accepted creed of the Christian faith, outside those of the New Testament. Here it is:
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
Before we move on, I want to clarify two phrases. The first is “He descended into hell.” According to the Lexham Bible Dictionary, “This phrase is commonly understood as a reference to the ‘harrowing of hell’, which is based on 1 Peter 3:19. The phrase is first mentioned by Rufinus in the late 4th century, and does not appear in any other versions of the creed until AD 650… moreover, Rufinus makes clear that he did not believe Christ literally descended into hell, but rather that the phrase merely meant he was buried.” The other phrase is “holy catholic church.” Catholic is used to mean ‘universal’ or ‘global,’ not the Roman Catholic Church. Some Protestant churches even recite “holy Christian church” to avoid any confusion.
Now that we have cleared that up, let’s look at the foundational truths of the creed. First, we believe in one God. He is the creator of everything. We believe God exists in relationship-God, the Father; God, the Son; And God, the Holy Spirit. Each has a separate role, but they are one in nature.
The Apostles’ Creed dedicates the most space to Jesus Christ. As Christians, we are Christ followers, so this makes sense. Much of our foundational beliefs relate to His work and who He is. We believe Jesus is God’s Son. He has divine authority and is to be worshipped. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He is 100% God and 100% man. He had to be 100% man to be an acceptable sacrifice and 100% God to be able to save us. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, and buried. He was the sacrifice for our sin. He rose from the dead on the third day. Death was defeated. He ascended into heaven and is seated in the position of authority, at God’s right hand. He will return again to judge the living and the dead.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the third person of the godhead. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit when we first believe (Ephesians 1:13).
There is one worldwide body of believers. There is a communion of Saints, which means that all believers, past, present, and future, are united in Christ. Nowhere in the New Testament does it teach that we are to live out our faith independently of each other. We are to be part of the body, the church.
We believe in the forgiveness of sins. To have our sins forgiven, we have to get back to the core belief that we are all sinners. Adam and Eve sinned, and we have been sinning ever since. “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” (Romans 3:23). But as we see, God loves us so much He sent us a Savior. “For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8). We are sinners in need of a Savior. And through Jesus, we have that forgiveness of our sins. Once we have accepted the gift of forgiveness, we no longer fear death: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
We believe that there will be a future resurrection of our bodies, not just our souls. As Christians, we will be raised to new glorified life where we will live eternally with God. We believe in eternal life-those of us who have put our faith in Christ will live eternally with God, those who have not will be eternally separated from Him in torment.
The gospel can be summarized in four chapters: creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. The Apostles’ Creed encompasses those four chapters beautifully. These are the core Christian beliefs and the ones that make up a biblical worldview. Some may argue that there are a few more beliefs that are essential to the core tenets of Christianity, but I do not think that any of the beliefs that I wrote about can be taken away.
In case you were wondering about the Nicene Creed, and where it came from, it was written in 325 AD. It was written to establish in writing, the full deity of Christ-being “of one substance” with the Father. It also put in writing the triune nature of God. Its initial purpose was to address the heresy of Arianism, which taught that Jesus was created. In other words, the Arians denied Christ’s full deity. The creed was written in three parts, because it is about the Trinity.
Grace be with you!
Abundant Joy 