This anniversary has sparked some interest in investigating the creeds at a historical level. However, more broadly speaking, our society seems to be experiencing a revival of interest in the Bible.[1] The Christian historical underpinning of western civilization is being recognized and appreciated as the basis for many of the norms of our culture. But what are the essential beliefs of Christianity? The Bible is a big book – what beliefs make a person a Christian?
Unsurprisingly, this is not a new question. The early Christians also recognized the need to formulate such a definition. The word creed comes from the Latin credo – “I believe!” – and is in the first line of many of the famous creeds. It is a statement of faith. In their milieu, they were not only keen to distinguish their beliefs from those of Judaism, and the pagan religions of their native lands, but they were also confronted with the task of teasing out the boundaries of orthodoxy. Christianity in its very nature is not a set of rules to follow. It is a relationship with God in the Spirit through Jesus Christ, accessed by faith. But what is to be believed?
Individual access to biblical manuscripts would have been difficult in the early centuries of Christianity. The sheer cost of producing copies would have been prohibitive for most – even if they were literate and able to read them. Gnostic philosophies with their fuzzy distinctions between the material and the immaterial, the physical and the spiritual, added to the need for clearly defined truths regarding the nature of God. Heretical teachings needed to be confronted and dismissed. Into this atmosphere, the early church leaders provided their flocks with creeds: statements of belief that would ground the believers in biblical truth; rich packets of doctrine distilled into easily memorized poems and phrases.
God provided the Israelites with a creed when He brought them out of Egypt. This creed, called the Shema, is found in Deuteronomy 6:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One” (v.4).
This assertion of their devotion to the only true God was followed by a command:
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (v.5 ESV).
The creed reminded them of the unique character of their God. It shaped their identity as God’s people and guided their behaviour as they lived in relationship with their LORD. Jesus, commenting on the command to “love the LORD” (Matthew 22:37), said that this, together with the companion phrase to “love your neighbour as yourself” (v.39), summarised the whole of the Old Testament (v.40).
So it is not surprising that Paul records some of the creeds that had become accepted in the first few years after the ascension of Christ. In his first letter to the Corinthians, he reminds them of some gospel essentials:
“that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve” (1 Corinthians 15:3-5 ESV).
When writing to the Philippians, Paul emphasises the Christian virtues of humility and self-sacrifice, by calling their minds to a creedal hymn praising Christ for His selfless work from glory to glory via the cross.
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11ESV).
Paul also uses a creed to emphasize the deity of Christ when he writes to Timothy regarding the mystery of godliness:
“He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit,
seen by angels,
proclaimed among the nations,
believed on in the world,
taken up in glory”
(1 Timothy 3:16 ESV).
This selection of biblical creeds shows us the kind of truths that are basic to belief. These creeds centre on the nature of God and the gospel. As we delve (in future articles) into creeds formulated in the years following the completion of the biblical canon, we will find that they do not stray from the biblical model. Our Christian brethren, in those first few hundred years after Christ, were keen to define and declare the nature of God. They knew that their formulations were not inspired, but their unique historical situations drove them to the Scriptures as they sought to articulate the biblical revelation of God, whom the Bible shows to be three distinct Persons in One – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They were keenly aware that, without a right understanding of the nature of God, then all is lost – there is no gospel and no hope. Therefore, the historical settings of the creeds will be considered alongside the Scriptures in order to understand the impetus for their formulation – the creeds having served as a basis for orthodox Christianity ever since.
