The Apostle’s Creed

As a Christian, what do I believe? Did God make heaven and earth, or was it simply time an chance acting on matter? Is Jesus fully or partially God? Was Jesus God or was He man? Was Jesus God walking around in a mansuit? Did he actually die, and was he actually resurrected? Did Jesus exist across all time, or did he start when he was born of Mary? Is the Holy Ghost also God?

Thankfully, this was a struggle for early church fathers as well. Perhaps even more so than today because Christians didn’t have books or the Internet to go look it all up. They needed a short memorable statement of faith — one that believers could memorize.

The Apostle’s Creed is believed to have come after the Old Roman Symbol, and dates back to perhaps the second century. The Apostle’s Creed is relatively easy to memorize and contains the core of Christian faith. The Nicean Creed came later, and addresses that Christ is “as one substance” with the father. The definition of Chalcedonian help us work out some of the details of who Christ was. Each of these is worth a bible study in themselves.

I was brought up Catholic. Though I would consider myself Presbyterian now, I owe a great debt to my mother for bringing me up in the Catholic tradition; I learned a lot that I still benefit from today. I learned the Nicean Creed, among other things. Later, I attended protestant churches that occasionally ignored the creeds. It’s a shame since they are wonderfully grounding. My current church not only teaches the creeds but also recites them corporately, though not each one every week.

I encourage all Christian brothers and sisters to be familiar with these 3 works to help better understand our faith. Indeed, I should reread “Faith of Our Fathers” by L. Charles Jackson to deepen my own understanding.