LAYING THE FOUNDATION

Thomas H. L. Cornman

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

The Apostles' Creed

The Apostles' Creed centers on Christ. It declares Christ to be the only Son of God and Lord. According to J. I. Packer, the creed expresses with confidence the essential reality that "Jesus was, and remains, God's only Son, as truly and fully God as his Father is." It declares that He was virgin born. His crucifixion, death, and burial were followed by His miraculous resurrection from the dead. It also affirms that this same Jesus who ascended into heaven will return as judge.

This preeminent creed was written to protect the church from theological aberrations and clarify what constituted genuine Christian belief. At the time, the fundamentals of faith were being challenged and even twisted. Today, as these fundamentals of faith continue to be challenged by those who propose new doctrines, we need to clarify anew what are the fundamentals of the faith and look at their implications for the twenty-first century man and woman.

BACK TO THE BEGINNING

When the early church began to carry the good news of salvation to the Gentiles, moving beyond the religious community of the Jewish people to whom the message of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ had been delivered initially, questions soon arose. What was essential to the Christian faith? What necessary beliefs and behaviors were required for belonging?

Acts 15 records the first institutional discussion of questions. In the first verse we read, "Some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers: 'Unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.'" This assertion led to significant discussion about the essentials of Christian faith and practice. The matter was so important that it could not be handled at a regional level. The disciples in Syrian Antioch sent a delegation to Jerusalem so that the matter could be concluded for the whole of the fledgling church.

At this early stage, the core question was soteriological: What results in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of the individual? The apostles Peter and James both spoke to the issue, arguing that individuals are saved by grace through faith and not by adherence to external standards or behaviors. Both indicated that those who would add to faith were returning to the failed models of the past that neither earlier Jews nor the contemporaries of Peter and James could achieve.

The solution to the problem was clear. The apostles, representing the entire community of faith, declared that Gentiles should not be troubled by Jewish custom, but should be bound to the essential doctrine that salvation was by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 15:8–11, 19–20, 28–29).

They concluded that the central message of Christianity is the work of Christ on the cross, validated by His resurrection. Today, even those who would not identify themselves with evangelical Christianity acknowledge this: "Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event the suffering and degradation of its god." To that idea, the apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:12–19, adds that without the work of Christ on our behalf and His resurrection from the dead, we have a futile faith. The young church in Jerusalem understood this and protected her doctrine from the intrusion of contaminating elements that would have changed the message of life into a burden that no one could bear.

THE APOSTLES' CREED

The discussion of what constituted the essential elements of the faith continued after the New Testament era. Because the ancient world had a high rate of illiteracy, it became critical to find ways to protect the church from those who sought to alter the message of Christianity. The creed or confession became a defense against those with variant views who wished to gain a platform for their theological aberrations.

The Apostles' Creed represents one of the earliest attempts to provide such protection for the larger community of belief. The creed began by affirming the cardinal belief in God. This was not subject to debate in the early church. God exists and He is both all-powerful and Creator. The core of the creed was Christocentric. It declared Christ to be the only Son of God and Lord, born of a virgin. It affirmed His death, resurrection, ascension, and return to judge the world's inhabitants.

Implicit in the creed, although not clearly articulated, are two other important beliefs. One is the truth that Christ came to provide for the forgiveness of sins through His death. The other is the reality of a bodily resurrection both of Christ and of those who believe in Him. Consequently, four facets of the foundational faith were expressed either explicitly or implicitly in this third-century creed: the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, the substitutionary atonement, and His resurrection and return.

The perceived threats to the faith that had called for the Apostles' Creed in the third century led to a series of church councils beginning in the fourth century. The Christian faith began to gain popularity and eventually became part of the cultural mainstream during the time of Constantine when the persecution of the church ended. The preservation of the essential facets of the faith required increased vigilance. Roman culture had long been an eclectic mix of traditions and religions. In this environment Christianity was in danger of becoming commingled with other belief systems.

In A.D. 318, a church leader from Egypt began to suggest new ways of thinking about Jesus and His relationship with God the Father. He attempted to combine Christian theology with Greek philosophy and provide a simpler model of understanding a complex, abstract notion. Arius proposed that Jesus could not be the Father's equal. Instead, He must have been God's first and most glorious creation. He claimed that Jesus Christ...