Look Inside: b"The Apostles' Creed"

Why study the Apostle’s Creed? Many churches recite the Apostles’ Creed each week. The phrases are familiar, not only to committed Christians, but also among the wider population who grew up attending church with family or at school. Yet for many it is a dull routine, and for others it is spoken with confusion or doubt, rather than with confidence and joy. The Apostles’ Creed is one of the oldest and most widely acknowledged creeds. Tradition divides the Creed into twelve phrases—one for each of the apostles—but there is no historical evidence for this. It probably started life as a summary of Christian faith for people who wanted to be baptised. When asked: ‘Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty?’ and so on, a Christian would reply: ‘I believe’. This is why the Creed says ‘I believe’, whereas most creeds say ‘We believe’ to express the common faith of the Christian community. As the Apostles’ Creed developed, several variations existed, both in Latin and Greek, until the Creed took its final form in the eighth century. By the twelfth century it was accepted by all branches of the church as a binding statement of Christian belief. Many modern versions have ‘he descended to the dead’ instead of ‘he descended into hell’, including the version used in the Anglican prayer book, Common Worship, and this is the wording used in this course. Do we really need creeds? Some people do not like the idea of pinning truth down. Others want to stick to the Bible alone. Certainly it is true that only the Bible is God’s inspired Word—creeds cannot have the same authority. But most churches have found it helpful to have a summary of Christian belief. Creeds summarise who we are, they teach us what is important, and they help us avoid error. In modern business language, they are our ‘identity documents’. The New Testament clearly suggests there are certain truths that people deny at their peril. We should have the humility to learn from the great summaries of Christian faith put together by previous generations. This Good Book Guide aims to fill out the content of the short statements of this creed, packed with so much momentous truth and understanding. In these ten sessions, you will discover how the Creed’s statements are derived from the Bible—the teaching of the apostles— and its life-changing significance for our daily lives. Saying the creed need never be dull, confused or joyless again!