I Believe In God

Read the Creed

#716 in the Hymnal

“I Believe” - What is a Creed

History of the Creeds

The Apostles’ Creeds is one of the three main creeds that are widely accepted by all Christians. This includes

Roman Catholic

Protestants

Eastern Orthodox (accept the the teaching of the Creed even though they don’t officially use it)

The other two creeds are

The Nicene Creed

The Athanasian Creed.

(I have copy of these creeds if you’d like to see them)

Of these the Apostle’s Creed is the shortest and oldest. In its earliest forms it goes back at least as early as the 100s.

It’s possible that the Apostle's actually taught all or most of these words, but at a minimum all of these words are from the Apostles

But what is a Creed?

You’ve already answered this when we read together.

What are the first two words of the “Apostle’s Creed?”

“I believe”

or in Latin “credo”

Our English word “creed” as a noun comes from this from the Apostle’s Creed and other creeds that begin by saying “I believe” or Credo.

The Latin word “credo” means to trust, place faith in, commit, believe, or even lend money to. It’s where we get our English word credit from because you are trusting someone with a loan.

Creeds go by other names. The Latin name for this Creed could be translated as The Apostles Symbol. Creeds are statements that represent our beliefs, symbols. They are also called:

Confessions

Confessions of Faith

Statements of Faith

SBC calls their creed “the Baptist Faith and Message, 2000”

You’ll notice most of these have the word faith in them, also, a translation of the Latin word credo.

So Creeds are a way of clearly saying what we believe.

Should Christians Use Creeds?

Do you come from a tradition that makes use of creeds such as the Apostles Creed?

You are right, in a moment I’ll tell you why.

Do you come from a tradition that is non-creedal? Maybe you heard an expression like “no-creed but the Bible”

You are.... right also. In fact, I suspect that both of your traditions fully agree with one another regarding the Apostle’s Creed.

Anti-Creedal

The source of our belief is God’s revelation, in Scripture, not church bodies or other people.

Each person has a responsibility to search Scripture for yourself.

Pro-Creed

The Apostles Creed summarizes Scripture.

The Apostles Creed clarifies what we mean when we say we believe the Bible.

The Apostles Creed helps foster unity by articulating our shared belief rather than focusing on denominational distinctives.

“Believe” in Acts

List of 36 passages from Acts about belief.

“I Believe in God”

John 14:1 HCSB

1 “Your heart must not be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me.

1 Peter 1:18–21 HCSB

18 For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. 20 He was chosen before the foundation of the world but was revealed at the end of the times for you 21 who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

We come here tonight to this prayer meeting to pray go God. The foundation of our prayers is that we believe in God.

Do you believe in God?

Prayer for the Kingdom

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