The Apostles' Creed

One of our oldest fixed creeds is the Apostles' Creed. It is the creed of the Roman Church which the 3^rd century Fathers of the Church identified as having been "handed down to us by the Apostles themselves." Even though modern day scholars refute that the Apostle's Creed was written by the Apostles, the truth is that we can neither prove nor disprove that our oldest creed comes directly from them. There is evidence to support that a creed was written by the Apostles, or at least by St. Peter, in the profession of faith that Peter gave at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 when he was moved by the Holy Spirit to proclaim what the Apostles had seen, heard and felt. That proclamation "in Greek, kerygma "was in fact a profession of faith.

St. Peter definitively outlined the beliefs that were to become the fundamentals of Christianity when he told the Jewish crowd gathered around him on the day Jews celebrated the feast of Pentecost (Acts 2:1) that "the day of the Lord" foretold by the prophets was at hand, quoting from Joel 3:1-5 (Acts 2:14-21). Next he said the day that was foretold has been ushered in by Jesus of Nazareth, a man sent by God, whose credentials were his words and works (Acts 2:22). This Jesus, "by foreknowledge of God," was crucified by the Jews and by the pagans "outside the Law," but death could not hold him (Acts 2:23-24). Peter declared that Jesus fulfilled the vision of King David who had predicted the resurrection of the Messiah (Acts 2:25-35 quoting Ps 16:8-11 and 101:1). And Peter concluded by saying "For this reason the whole House of Israel can be certain that the Lord and Christ whom God made is this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2:36). Whether the Apostle's Creed we recite today is word for word what the Apostles professed, it undoubtedly carries in it the seeds of their original words.

In the time of St. Justin Martyr (circa 150 AD), formalized professions of faith seems to have come into use in the catechism of the Church and in the Sacrament of Baptism. The variations are many, but the basic confession is the same. The person being baptized was asked standard "do you believe" questions to which he or she responded, "I believe." St. Hippolytus gives an example of this early interrogatory' form of the creed in his writings (c. 200 AD). St. Hippolytus compiled a sacramentary known in history as the Apostolic Tradition. In it he describes liturgical practice in Rome at the beginning of the 3^rd century AD and provides a detailed account of the catechumenate and the rite of baptism. The profession of faith made by the candidate for baptism followed the interrogatory form (question-answer format).

By the fourth century AD a declaratory form of the creed, similar to the one we use today, was in common use. Instead of "do you believe?" declaratory creeds are framed as statements that use the first person: "I believe," or "We believe." Although we have fragments of declaratory creeds that go back to the 100's AD, by the 300's this form was in use everywhere in the catechetical system in preparation for baptism. Later the creeds found their way into the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist.

The Nicene Creed

In the fourth century Arius, an influential theologian in the church at Alexandria, Egypt, who had a private agenda, was twisting the biblical texts to his own purposes. He manipulated Scripture to make the Son less than the Father, spreading the heresy that Jesus was a man who was later made Divine. In an effort to state the Church's faith more precisely regarding the relationship of the Father and Son, a world-wide Ecumenical Council of the Church was called to meet at the Roman imperial palace at Nicaea in Bithynia (on the Black Sea) under the protection of the Roman emperor. This universal council of the Church is known as the Council of Nicaea. When the council was opened on the 20^th of May, 325 AD, there were 250 bishops in attendance. Before the council held its last session, the number of bishops present had grown to 318. Pope Sylvester was absent due to the infirmities of age, but he sent his representatives and the Roman Emperor Constantine I (who was a convert to Christianity) opened the session.

It was decided that it was not enough to condemn the heresy of Arius but that it was necessary to define the Church's position with reference to the controversy by means of a clear-cut statement of the Catholic faith in the Divinity of Christ. It was decided that the Greek term homo-ousios' which means "of one essence or substance" (Latin the word is consubstantialis; it is the English transliteration of this word that we use in the Creed) was the term needed to clarify the Church's infallible teaching that the second Person of the Trinity, who became man, is of one and the same essence or substance or nature as God the Father. In this definitive way, the Council professed the essential unity of the Father and the Son. St. Ambrose noted that the Latin term consubstantial was finally adopted by the bishops at Nicaea in addition to the Greek term homoousios when both terms were firmly rejected by Arius and his followers. After four weeks of deliberation, they had drawn up a creed. This creed was signed by all the bishops (except two supporters of Arius) and has been known ever since as the Nicene Creed:

"We believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Creator of all things visible and invisible; and in One Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten as the only-begotten of the Father, this is, from the essence (ousia) of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not created, consubstantial (homo-ousios) with the Father, through whom all things were made, both in heaven and earth. Who for us men and for our salvation came down and was incarnate, was made Man. Who suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven, and shall come again to judge the living and the dead; and in the Holy Spirit. But to those who say, There was a time when He was not, and before he was betotten He was not, and He came into existence out of what was not'; or who say, He is of a different nature and essence from the Father,' or the Son of God is created or capable of change,' let them be anathema (cursed)."

The Nicene-Constantinople Creed

In 381 AD the Council of Constantinople reaffirmed the theological pronouncements of the Council of Nicaea and reaffirmed the Nicene Creed. Nevertheless, they considered it necessary to make an addition to the Nicene Creed written in 325 in order to clarify the relationship of God the Holy Spirit to the other Divine Persons of the Trinity and to declare that we confess our belief in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. With this clause, the bishops of the universal Church were declaring that we share the faith of the first Christian community and in that sense our faith is the same as that of the Apostles. By attributing its contents to the Twelve Apostles acting under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Church clearly implies that wherever Christians recite the "Apostles Creed" or the "Nicene-Constantinople Creed," they profess the same faith as that of the ancient Church. From that time on, only those two creeds "The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene-Constantinople Creed were officially recognized by the Holy Catholic Church. The reformulated Nicene Creed from the Council of Constantinople is the creed that we recite today in the liturgy of the Mass. However, although the Church found it necessary to convene a council to affirm the divinity of Jesus and His eternal unity with the Father, and to define the role of God the Holy Spirit as the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, it was not establishing a new doctrine. It was defending what had been taught by Jesus and always believed and experienced by His Church. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed is also the creed of Eastern Catholics.

The Nicene-Constantinople Creed that we repeat in the Eucharistic celebration on the Lord's Day, like the ancient Shema of the Old Covenant faith, serves both as a chant of praise (in Greek doxa) and as a witness of faith. Christians confess before their One Holy and eternal God and before and their fellow human beings the wonders the Lord has done for them. Although there are important differences between creeds and hymns of praise, the two have much in common. The creed functions in the liturgy as a hymn of praise just as many of the Hebrew psalms praising the glorious deeds of Yahweh are also creedal statements. In the words of St. Paul, we confess with our lips what we believe in our hearts:

• The word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith, the faith which we preach, that if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved. It is by believing with the heart that you are justified, and by making the declaration with your lips that you are saved
• Since we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, "I believed, and so I spoke," we too believe, and so we speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise up also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence

In the celebration of the Mass, the Creed is the link between what we have just heard in the both the readings from Sacred Scripture and in what we have learned in the homily in the part of the Mass we call the Liturgy of the Word. The readings are the Word of God, now Incarnate, speaking to us and the homily prepares us for what comes next " Christ our Savior who will come to offer himself upon the altar in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. When it is time to recite the Creed as a united covenant people, we are invited to literally and symbolically "stand up" for our faith and to profess what it is we truly believe from our hearts.

Question: What promise did Jesus give His disciples that we can claim in reciting the Creed? See Luke 12:8 and Matthew 10:32-33.
Answer: Jesus gives us His promise if we confess our faith in Him in the presence of others that He will declare Himself for us in the presence of God the Father when we face our individual judgments.

Question: What important question do we answer publically when we recite the Creed? It is a question Jesus asked of his disciples in Matthew 16:13 and Luke 9:20-21.
Answer: Jesus asked "Who do people say that I AM? We acknowledge that Jesus is the I AM who is the Messiah-Redeemer and the Son of God.

Question: List the reasons why you believe the profession of faith in a formal creed is necessary.
Answer: Suggested answers:

1. We want to understand what we believe and to share that belief publically with our families and faith community.
2. We want to be reminded and to be filled with awe at the love with which we are loved.
3. We have been commissioned by Christ to proclaim the "good news," the Gospel message of salvtion, to all those who do not yet know it. Those who proclaim the faith must utter the mystery, and to help us utter the mystery we need a guide. The creed is a guide to missionary preaching.
4. The creed is necessary to unite in a single body the different churches of God spread over the surface of the world "the Body of Christ.

Even though each church has its own language and different customs and traditions developed by different nationalities and cultures, we can still be united as a single covenant family by a creed which must be "...the tie which holds together the sheaf and keeps the various communities as a single family," to quote St. Irenaeus who was a witness to this diversity and the profound unity coming from Asia Minor in the 3^rd century to become the bishop of the community in Lyons, France (177-202, Bishop of Lyons).

Although the Apostles' Creed and Nicene-Constantinople Creed are the official creeds of the Catholic Church, the Church has composed creeds for the benefit of the faithful from the very beginning. Among these creeds are the Athanasian Creed, the professions of faith of various Church councils, and in our own day the Credo of the People of God published in 1968 by Pope Paul VI. The Catechism states: "None of the creeds from the different stages in the Church's life can be considered superseded or irrelevant. They help us today to attain and deepen the faith of all times by means of different summaries" (CCC 193). It is fitting, therefore, that the Catechism of the Universal Church is organized according to the plan of the Apostles' Creed.

A Comparison of the Nicene-Constantinople Creed and the Apostles' Creed

Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2012 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.

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