160 CHURCH HISTORY for DUMMIES Class
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
160 CHURCH HISTORY for DUMMIES Class #13: The Apostles’ Creed The Apostles’ Creed I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; [he descended to the dead/he descended into hell.] On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic [universal] Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. The Apostles’ Creed was written some time in the 2nd century and was altered throughout the first few centuries of its existence. But it’s important to know that it was not written by the 12 apostles, because if it was written in the 2nd century, then the 12 apostles are already dead! So it could not have been written by the 12 apostles if it was written in the 2nd century ‘cause they’re all dead! But it’s called the Apostles’ Creed because it was the early church’s attempt to give a summary of apostolic teaching. That’s why it is spelled: Apostles’ Creed And not: Apostle’s Creed This creed did not originate with the 12 apostles. It’s a summary of apostolic teaching. So the creed is a summary of Christian essentials. We have a snapshot of the essentials of Christianity. But there is still a legend that each of the 12 articles of the creed were written by one of the 12 apostles. For example, Rufinus of Aquileia (345–411) wrote, So they [i.e., the apostles] met together in one spot and, being filled with the Holy Spirit, compiled this brief token . each making the contribution he thought fit; and they decreed that it should be handed out as standard teaching to believers. 161 Despite its title, there is no evidence the Apostles’ Creed was actually written by the 12 apostles, and the legend was largely abandoned by scholars by the time of the Renaissance. But what’s so interesting is that this creed is widely accepted By all Christians, more than any other profession of faith. Irenaeus and Tertullian and Origen all affirmed various parts of it. John Calvin devoted an entire chapter to it in his first edition of his Institutes. The Apostles’ Creed is a variant of an ancient baptismal confession known as the Old Roman Creed (also, the Roman Creed or the Old Roman SymBol). The Old Roman Creed is believed to have been created in accordance with Jesus’s command in Matthew 28:19: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” One of the main uses of the Apostles’ Creed was in baptism. Those coming to be Baptized were asked: Do you believe in God the Father Almighty? Do you believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was born of the Holy Ghost and of Mary the virgin, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and died, and rose again at the third day, living from among the dead, and ascended unto heaven and sat at the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the quick and the dead? Do you believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy church, and the resurrection of the flesh? So we see an emphasis in stressing basic Christian doctrine in the early church, according to the Apostles’ Creed, especially at baptism. Several Reformation catechisms, such as the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) and Luther’s Small Catechism (1529), use the Apostles’ Creed as a way of articulating the basics of the Christian faith. For example, question #22 in the Heidelberg Catechism asks- “What, then, must a Christian believe?” and answers, “All that is promised us in the gospel, which the articles of our catholic and undoubted Christian faith teach us in a summary.” 162 The answer then, to next question of the Heidelberg Catechism— Question 23“What are these articles?”—is the text of the Apostles’ Creed. So the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) affirms the Apostles’ Creed. Similarly, the Apostles’ Creed forms the answer to question #31 of the New City Catechism, that we recite every Sunday morning in church: New City Catechism - Question 31 Q31: What do we believe by true faith? A: Everything taught to us in the gospel. The Apostles’ Creed expresses what we believe in these words: And it then the New City Catechism goes to recite the Apostles’ Creed. Why Creeds? But why have creeds at all? Why do we need creeds? If we have the Bible, why do we need creeds? You’ve proBably heard people say, “No creed, but Christ.” But the irony is that is a creed in itself! The word creed simply means, “I believe.” So when someone says, “No creed, but Christ,” they are telling you what they believe! A creed is simply a statement of what someone believes; a statement of faith. So what reasons were there for developing the Apostles’ Creed, or any of the other creeds that we will look at, in the early church? The main reason is that creeds draw up boundaries, and they transmit truth, and they protest error and false teaching. One of my church history professors, Dr. Jeff Bingham, said it this way- “You cannot trust me to be a gentleman with Scripture on a date by myself (unobserved and unmonitored). You must send a chaperone: tradition. I don’t want to date tradition, but Scripture. I am interested in having a relationship with Scripture, but in order for it to be fruitful, I have to bring in tradition. Tradition helps me stay in the straight and narrow.” 163 We need a chaperone when we read Scripture because left to ourselves we can come up with some wacky interpretations and explanations of Scripture, right? So we need chaperones when we read the Bible. We need tradition. We need the community of God where the Spirit of God is. And we need the traditions that have been passed down to us in the creeds and councils of church history. Otherwise we’ll come up with some crazy ideas about God. Dr. Bingham, also said- “This is, after all, what church leaders do. They explain to their congregations acceptable parameters within which they are to understand and interpret the Bible. They also point out unacceptable interpretations. Good theology doesn’t just happen. Church leaders who care for their congregations don’t allow unacceptable thinking about the Trinity and Christ’s person to go unchecked…Church leaders must first be the church’s theologians…Do the councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, and Chalcedon answer all of our questions about the Trinity and the incarnation? No. But they do give us boundaries within which we find acceptable interpretations of the Scriptures about the Trinity and the two natures of Christ. We may not have all the answers, but we know things we should say and believe and we know views we shouldn’t hold. Mature Christians may be more than those who know and confess true doctrine, but they can never be less.” (Pocket History of the Church, p.52, 54) So pastors and elders must labor to explain acceptable parameters within which people are to understand the Bible. And the creeds and councils of church history give us boundaries within which we find acceptable interpretations of the Scriptures about Jesus. The creeds and councils of church history give us parameters and they draw circles around what we can and can’t say about God. The Apostles’ Creed was originally called “the Roman SymBol” and appeared on the scene around 150 to 175 AD, around the time of the Apologists that we have Been looking at. So, perhaps the logical question is what was happening in Rome about that time? Answer: Everything that we have been looking at! The church was dealing with all the heretics and heresies that we have been discussing: Marcion, Valentinus, Gnosticism, Docetism, etc. So the church begins crafting the Apostles’ Creed to bring unity to the church and to stress what it means to believe Christianly. 164 But if we are naïve to think that simply introducing a creed would bring an end to heresy, then we are too optimistic about the nature of heresy and just how persistent heretics can be. With the introduction of the Apostles’ Creed- and all the later creeds- the heretics simply sharpened their heretical teachings. These creeds did not faze them. So as the heretics refined and repackaged their false theologies, the church then was forced to further define orthodoxy and make more things explicit. And so, the Apostles’ Creed was gradually amended through the years to answer the heretics. For instance, even though the idea of Jesus’ resurrection was in the original form of the creed the word “body” was added for the sake of emphasis and to comBat the false teaching that Jesus was resurrected spiritually, and not bodily. Also, the word “suffered” was also added to the Apostles’ Creed: suffered under Pontius Pilate. Why? To stress that Jesus really came and had a body. Because the Docetists, if you rememBer, claimed that Jesus did not have a body and that He only appeared to have one, kinda like a ghost.