Creeds

More years ago than I’d like to admit, one of my sons began listening to the Christian musician Rich Mullins. My wife and I also liked his songs, so we bought a CD of his. One of Rich Mullins’ songs is, in essence, the “Apostles’ Creed” set to music. For me, that was my favorite song on the CD. 

Here are words to Rich Mullin’s song “Creed”:

I believe in God the Father almighty
Maker of Heaven and Maker of Earth
And in Jesus Christ
His only begotten Son, our Lord
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit
Born of the virgin Mary
Suffered under Pontius Pilate
He was crucified and dead and buried

I believe that He who suffered
Was crucified, buried, and dead
He descended into hell and
On the third day, rose again
He ascended into Heaven where
He sits at God's mighty right hand
I believe that He's returning to
Judge the quick and the dead
Of the sons of men

I believe in God the Father almighty
Maker of Heaven and Maker of Earth
And in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son,
Our Lord
I believe in the Holy Spirit
One Holy Church, the communion of Saints
The forgiveness of sin
I believe in the resurrection
I believe in a life that never ends

To be a Christian, a person has to accept a set of truths. To accept Jesus as our Lord, we must accept that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. To fulfill those truths, we must recognize God as a trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You can see how we are traversing the Apostles’ Creed when we start affirming our acceptance of the objective truths of Christianity.

The New Testament contains several creedal statements such as:

1 Timothy 3:16:
Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion:
He was manifested in the flesh,
Vindicated in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the nations,
Believed on in the world,
Taken up in glory.

The statements in the Apostles’ Creed have been further clarified down through the years in later creeds, including the one you accepted when you became part of your church. 

These foundational truths are statements of fact, which were provided by first-person accounts or accounts that were thoroughly investigated (e.g., the book of Luke) of what people saw and learned from Jesus. This is why they are called objective truths rather than subjective truths.

Christianity is grounded in the reliable record of eyewitnesses who testified to what they saw and heard from Jesus Christ. And as Christianity grew, believers testified to what they heard and read and, most importantly, what they experienced when they placed their faith in Jesus.

Why bother to review and reaffirm these truths? We need to know what we believe so we aren’t swayed by modern trends. The writer of the book of Hebrews put it this way: “Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings.” (Hebrews 13:9)

Therefore, we, as believers, need to be ready and able to give our testimony to an unsaved friend, relative, or anyone God leads into our path. 

Photo by Anthony Garand on Unsplash