Rediscovering Unity and Doctrine: The Apostle's Creed

Join us on Faithfullyliven as we explore the Apostles' Creed. Whether you're new to Christianity or seeking to deepen your faith, this episode promises to illuminate how this creed and others can serve as both a guide and a bridge to the historic church, nurturing a sense of unity with believers across generations.

References from the show

Did Jesus go to hell between His death and resurrection? 
https://www.gotquestions.org/did-Jesus-go-to-hell.html

What is the difference between the universal church and local church? https://www.gotquestions.org/universal-local-church.html

Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes: The History of Creeds. (1878)

John H. Leith, ed., Creeds of the Churches: A Reader in Christian Doctrine from the Bible to the Present. (1982)

Historic Creeds and Confessions, electronic ed. (1997).

What is the Apostles' Creed? https://www.gotquestions.org/apostles-creed.html

Holcomb, Justin S.,  Know the Creeds and Councils (2014) 

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Get a free Road Map to get started learning how to study the Bible https://mailchi.mp/88f9c9405da0/bible-study-road-map

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Welcome to Faithfully Living, the podcast where we learn how to live for Christ in our daily lives. I am Dwan, your host, and I would like to invite you on a journey with me to explore and learn how to be a faithful follower of Christ. Hi everyone, welcome to Faithfully Living, the podcast, where we strive to encourage you to live for Christ faithfully. We're offering guidance on how to study the Bible, how to understand the Bible better and how to remain faithful to historic Christianity in a contemporary society. So as believers, we know that we should know what we believe and why it's important. And early in Christian history, creeds, confessions and catechisms were written to help believers summarize the key tenets and doctrines of the Christian faith. So over the next couple of episodes we're going to dive into three of the common creeds of the Christian faith the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasians' Creed. So Christian creeds are like foundational statements of faith that articulate core Christian beliefs and they serve several functions in the life of the church. And I have about six of them, so I'm just going to go through so we can better understand how creeds can help us in our faith. So they one they provide doctrinal clarity by giving a clear, unified expression of Christian faith, such as the nature of God, christ, the Holy Spirit, and then salvation, the Holy Spirit and then salvation. Two they guard against heresies and doctrinal errors by clearly defining what Christians believe. So it gives kind of like a summary. And for creeds, usually with creeds or confessions or catechisms, those are things that people memorize and when you memorize you have it stuck in your head. So if you hear something like a false teaching or something that's concurrent, contrary to what you know to be true, that's how a creed can help you guard against heresies and doctrines. All right. Number three they're helpful to instruct new believers and guide in Christian education. So, like I said, it's a summary, so it's something that new believers can commit to memory, like I said, to help them understand what the Christian faith is all about. Number four they serve as concise summaries of the faith, making it easier to teach foundational Christian beliefs. Number five by reciting the creeds in worship, it helps to connect believers with the historic faith of the church. And then, lastly, number six, it fosters a sense of community with past generations of Christians, reminding us of our shared beliefs. All right, so if you have listened to my podcast for a while now.

Speaker 1: 3:44

You know that I always like to give a definition of the things that we're talking about, of the terms that we're talking about, so it can be on the same page of what we're exploring and learning. So I have two definitions of a creed. So I'm going to read those and the books that I get them from from. I'll put those resources in the show notes so you can go check those out. So the first one is from a book called the Creeds of Christendom with a history and critical notes, a history of creeds. So it says for the well-being of the Christian church, a creed may cover the whole ground of Christian doctrine and practice or contain only such points as are deemed fundamental and sufficient or have been disputed. And then the second definition comes from a book called Creeds of the Church a Reader Christian doctrines from the Bible in the present. So this definition says a creed is simply a church's understanding of the meaning of scripture. The creed says here is how the church reads and receives scripture. The whole history of theology is the history of the interpretation of scripture. Even though the theologians did not always cite biblical references, in general the victories in the great theological debates have gone to those who have been convincing interpreters of scripture. The creeds are the record of the church's interpretation of the Bible in the past and the authoritative guide to human utics in the present. So you can see, all of these definitions tell us that a creed is a summary of the scripture. It's not to replace scripture but it's a way to help believers verbalize and remember what they believe.

Speaker 1: 6:12

We sort of have a creed from Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, 3-7. And he wrote this to the Corinthians church. So I'll read that to you so you can kind of see, you can kind of hear kind of like a format of what a creed is. And then, as we go through these different creeds, you can see some similarities in the, in the structure of of a creed. So first corinthians 15, 3 through 7, says for I delivered to you as a first importance that I also receive that christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was rose on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. And he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than five thousand brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. So so that is a starter, what they call a creed in um corinthians. So let's dive into our first creed.

Speaker 1: 7:31

The apostles creed, which is what they say, is one of the oldest creeds of the church, right? So first I am going to read the Apostles' Creed. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, who was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. Hence he shall 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 everlasting life, amen.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Philip Scaff, in his Creeds of Christendom, writes of the Apostles' Creed as the Lord's Prayer is the prayer of prayers, the Decalogue is the law of laws. So the Apostles' Creed is the Creed of Creed. It contains all the fundamental articles of the Christian faith necessary to salvation in the form of facts, in simple scripture language and in the most natural order the order of revelation from God and the creation down to the resurrection and everlasting life. The simple doctrinal statement within this creed are clear and concise and their meaning cannot be misconstrued. So where did the Apost creed resonate? Are like who? Who wrote the apostles creed?

Speaker 1: 9:42

So there are some legends out there about how the apostle creed came to be. So till the middle of the 17th century there was a current belief of the roman catholic church and protestants that the apostles creed was actually written by the apostles on the 10th day after ascension of christ and then after the holy spirit came, on the day of pentecost. So when they? They say that according to this legend, the different apostles wrote different parts of the Apostles' Creed. So they say Peter wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. I believe in God, the Father Almighty. Andrew, according to some, and some people think it's john continued and in jesus christ, his only son, our lord james the elder went on to say, who was conceived by the holy ghost, then followed by john, and some people think andrew meta wrote this part. So it's kind of interchangeable between those two. But they wrote the part suffered under Pontius Pilate, philip descended into Hades, thomas, the third day he rose again from the dead and then and so on until Matthias completed the work with the words life everlasting. So the legend is probably no doubt addressed because they probably think that it's been thought that if the title of Apostles' Creed is given to this creed it gave it more credibility.

Speaker 1: 11:36

But the legend added prestige to the creed, the thinking that the apostles wrote this. But it was exposed by a scholar named Lorenzo Valia and he probably said most likely the creed did not, was not written until around AD 100, well after the, the apostles died. So the ancestry of the apostles creed, they say it can be traced to a creed that was developed in Rome about the end of the second century. So, to be clear, the origin is not really known but it's most likely one of the most earliest creed there are. It's just it's not written by the apostles of the Bible. So we know that this creed is not in the Bible. So, like I say, it's probably not written by the apostles. I've read one thing that says it was probably written at least 150 years after the apostles died. But like I say they put it. They named the apostles creed to kind of give it some some leverage. But it is a record of because you can see this in the bible of what the apostles did teach in the gospels.

Speaker 1: 13:05

All right, we're going to dive a little bit into some of the language of the Apostles' Creed. We're not going to dive into everything, but the creed is pretty straightforward, but there are some parts that might stand out and might have you scratching your head Like what does this actually mean? So on the website gotquestionsorg, they point out some of these, some of these issues, so I'm just going to read what they say here. They said there are two primary concerns with the apostles creed. First, in regards to the phrase he descended into hell, meaning jesus, and they have an article about did Jesus go to hell between death and resurrection? And then the second thing that they point out is the phrase the Holy Catholic Church, and this does not mean the Roman Catholic Church as we knew it today. This word Catholic means universal, so they were talking about the true Catholic Church, which is the church in general that placed their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. They also have an article on the Universal Church. So both of those articles I just mentioned, I'll put those in the show notes so you can definitely take a look at it. But I want to dive a little bit more into that phrase.

Speaker 1: 14:34

He descended into hell. Here's an explanation from um justin hokum. He wrote a book called no decrees and counsel counsels and he goes into like a little bit of a lengthy or explanation of this phrase. He descended into hell. It's kind of it's kind of long, but I'm just going to read it to you to kind of help you think about it in a little bit. Think about it a little bit more. So he says. For those who grew up in a roman catholic context, the expression he descended into hell may be familiar because it is associated with the doctrine of the heroine of hell.

Speaker 1: 15:20

In Catholic theology, the idea is that after Christ's death on the cross, his spirit descended into Sheol, the Hebrew word for the. It goes on to say. Much of this discussion is not based on the Bible. The New Testament itself emphasizes the consequences of Christ's death and resurrection from the dead, in which he triumphs over sin, death and the devil, rather than that Christ did between death and resurrection. Initially, the language of the sin into hell was borrowed from the old testament. It simply meant that jesus died or passed into shoal, meaning the pit or grave, just as any other person did. Dying was the final stage of christ's humiliation, a necessary passage from his before his triumph in the resurrection. He goes on to say Second century theologian Tertullian wrote that Christ, our God, who, because he was a man, died according to the same scriptures, satisfied this law also by undergoing the form of human death in the underworld and did not ascend aloft to heaven until he had gone down to the regions underneath the earth.

Speaker 1: 17:01

The latin translation of the creed themselves and I agree on how to phrase this doctrine some have what he ascended into ad inferna, into hell, and in others at infernos, to death. The latter reflects more close, closely it seems, the intention of the creed. A number of contemporary translations reflect this understanding by changing the language of the creed to he descended to the death. So they are kind of summarizing, like some debate or discussion of what does it actually mean that he descended into hell? So it's probably more like they were trying to say he died, he experienced death and not necessarily went to hell to preach the gospel to the people there. So it gives us something to think about, all right.

Speaker 1: 18:04

So I think the Apostles' Creed. It provides a good summary of what we believe as Christians, even though it does bring up some interesting questions such as did Jesus actually descend into hell? So it kind of forces us to dig deeper. I know I'm going to be doing just a little bit more study on that issue, but hopefully it will prompt you to dig deep into, like, did jesus actually descend into hell and what does that actually mean? And hopefully it will help you in your understanding of the bible. So I hope this episode was helpful and insightful also I know it was for me and until next time, remember god is always good and he's always faithful. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Do me a favor by following the podcast and leaving a review to help spread the word. I look forward to hearing from you.