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Tag: Church

The Apostles Creed: We Believe in One LORD
The Apostles’ Creed is foundational to our Apostolic Christian faith (even though Jesus’ Twelve Apostles didn’t write it).

TalkofJESUS.com has previously examined and defined creeds and Trinity, but today we’ll briefly connect this fundamental of the faith to authority and truth of Apostolic faith from Scripture.

Talk of JESUS .com

Creeds and Credo

How do we know if our fellow worshipers also believe what we do?

Although creeds were originally individual (credo from the Latin, I believe), they shortly became statements of doctrine in which groups set forth their essential beliefs.

Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Tenney, v.1,p.1025

We believe in…

That’s how (regardless of the frequency and regularity of our corporate affirmations) the Apostle’s Creed and other affirmations of faith came about.

Therefore, as part of weekly worship, baptism and other corporate gatherings of believers WE sometimes affirm our CREED together:
- YOU witness publicly in worship of the LORD GOD that WE believe in this.
- So, DO YOU?
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Do YOU really believe this? It's a fair question — a foundational question of WHAT YOU BELIEVE concerning God and Jesus Christ (regardless of recitation as ritual or perhaps never having confessed your faith pubically at all). 
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Structure of Christian CREEDS

Here’s a brief outline of the fundamental objects of our faith found in The Creed:

I BELIEVE or WE BELIEVE IN:
1. God
2. Jesus Christ
3. the Holy Spirit
  - and the Virgin Mary
4. Jesus was crucified
  - and was buried
5. He rose from the dead
6. He ascended to heaven
7. He sits in the favored place of God the Father
8. He will judge the living and the dead.
Here, the weightiness of what we have just confessed must certainly convict the faithful soul. Then follows a reiteration and underlining of the same fundamental faith:

(I or WE believe in:)
- The Holy Ghost
- The Holy Church
- The remission of Sins
- The resurrection of the Flesh
- (The Life everlasting).
source: apostles-creed.org

The early CREEDS of the Church include:
- Nicene Creed – AD 325
- The creed of Marcellus – c. AD 340
- Apostles’ Creed – AD 340
  - AD 400 – Rufinus adds, ‘the Father almighty’ and
  - ‘the life everlasting.’
- Chalcedonian Creed – AD 451
- sources: apostles-creed.org &
  - Zondervan Encyclopedia, Tenney
  - more.. from Grockipedia
The early church taught what is basically in the Apostles creed, yet, they never had a written form of their teaching and called it “The Apostles Creed.” It was not till heresies and divisions in the church that any creeds were established.

The very first established creed that was accepted throughout the church as a whole was the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed was established by the Ecumenical church in 325 A.D.. The Apostles creed was established shortly after.

source:

The Apostles’ Creed

Our outline above used for this SERIES taken from the Old Roman Creed (vide ante) from which the Apostles’ Creed was adapted and possibly in use before the mid-2nd century.

Christians proclaiming Apostolic faith adhere to the narrow path of Scriptural orthodoxy. (I am not the first to have said so.)

Roger@TalkofJesus.com

These essays are concerned only to discuss the actual fact that the central Christian theology (sufficiently summarized in the Apostles’ Creed) is the best root of energy and sound ethics.

G.K. CHESTERTON – ORTHODOXY (pub. AD 1908)

Chesterton also quipped:

There is only one unanswerable argument against Christianity: Christians.

ORTHODOXY (pub. 1994), forward by Philip Yancy, p.xii

The Apostles’ Creed and other affirmations of faith were adopted corporately by the Church to refute permeating heresies plaguing believers since the time of the Apostles.

Roger@TalkofJesus.com

NEXT: I believe in God

Trinity

Talk of JESUS . com

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
December 20, 2025
Finding the Evangelical Freedom of Balaam in our Evangelical Church
.. promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption..

2 Peter 2:19a LSB

Why does the Apostle Peter point to Balaam?
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Do evangelical pastors of Christ's Church have the freedom to accept all prophesy and every doctrine? 
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Note the similarities of the growing popularity of Balaam of Pethor, whom Moses introduces in Numbers 22, to the AD first century missionary journeys of Peter, Paul and John.

Moses led the Israelite people from slavery in Egypt by the hand of the Lord God to the land of Canaan.

Balaam is NOT a prophet of God! He travels to new lands to profit from his reputation as a seer. (This is not unlike many false teachers we meet in Acts of the Apostles.)

Balaam is an opportunist FORCED to obey the LORD. But in addition to Balaam’s error (as some call it), the prophet would easily mislead any away from truth and will of the God.

Worshipers of Baal and other gods will follow false prophets to inclusively worship other gods— even in this Common Era.

Balaam’s journey begins in his homeland, which is described as “Pethor, which is by the Euphrates.”

Balaam’s journey to Moab is marked by divine intervention .. highlighting the spiritual battle over Balaam’s intentions and the sovereignty of God over pagan practices.

BibleHub.com

2 Peter 2: False Teachers – Wandering Creatures

These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed.

They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals, they will be destroyed.

Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done.

They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight.

They are a disgrace and a stain among you.

They delight in deception even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals.

They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse.

2 Peter 2:12-14 NLT

They have gone astray by abandoning the straight path and have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of wickedness,
2 Peter 2:15 CSB

but received a rebuke for his lawlessness:

A speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

v.16

The Divine Coercion of Balaam

R.C. Sproel observes:

Only by divine coercion did Balaam obey God, and then he gave four prophesies…

ibid. p.236
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The oracle of Balaam son of Beor,

the oracle of the man whose eyes are opened; 
the oracle of one who hears the sayings of God
and has knowledge from the Most High,
who sees a vision from the Almighty,
who falls into a trance with his eyes uncovered: 

I see him, but not now;

I perceive him, but not near.

A star will come from Jacob,

and a scepter will arise from Israel. 

       - Numbers 24:15-17 excerpt CSB
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Further study of Numbers in the context of Peter’s witness will reveal how a fourth prophesy of Balaam may interest the church.

Freedom Restrained by Truth

The Apostle of Christ writes this second epistle to the church to instruct us:

We do NOT have the freedom to say whatever we want.

AND, in fact, prophets and teachers of false doctrine will walk among the saints of the Church seeking followers to leave the narrow Way of the Lord.

Peter is not describing pagans here but apostates.

R.C. Sproel – Be All the more Diligent to Make your Calling and Election Sure, p.234

Apostates

In these loose, liberal times of Common Era preaching, I believe it necessary to provide a brief definition of that against Peter warns.

An apostate is an individual who has abandoned or renounced their faith, particularly in the context of Christianity.

The term is derived from the Greek word “apostasia,” which means a defection or revolt.

Apostasy is considered a grave sin in Christian theology, as it involves a deliberate turning away from the truth of the Gospel and the rejection of the salvation offered through Jesus Christ.

BibleHub.com Topical Encyclopedia

Most Common Era christians have never heard of such a great sin of apostasy or do we recognize how false teachers have led us away from Christ to the gods of our imagination.
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Referring to 2 Peter 2:15-16 Sproul continues: 
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They know the right way; they have been exposed to the teachings of the Gospel;they know what the truth is—they have heard it proclaimed repeatedly—but they have forsaken it and gone a different way.

R.C. Sproul, ibid. pp 234-35

eleutheria – Freedom and Liberties

Fifteen years earlier [AD 49], at the time of the Council of Jerusalem, James writes in his Epistle:

Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.

James 2:12 CSB

And in his first epistle to the Church Peter had already written:

Submit as free people, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but as God’s slaves.

1 Peter 2:16 CSB

AND NOW THE APOSTLE WARNS:

Although these false teachers promise such people freedom, they themselves are enslaved to immorality. For whatever a person succumbs to, to that he is enslaved.

2 Peter 2:19 New English Translation

And what of Popes and false Prophets?

Whether all creatures in the time of Noah — the entire city of Sodom in which we live — the evangelical landscape of all-inclusive gods — speaking to wavering believers,

Does one walk sandalless in the error of Balaam?

The Apostle Peter warns every saint of the Lord Jesus Christ:

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome,

the last state has become worse for them than the first.

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

2 Peter 2:20-21 ESV

Peter is not finished with his warnings against these pernicious preachers yet to come and corrupt the Church. The Apostle of the Son of the One God — speaks through the Holy Spirit of disobedient angels and false prophets as irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed.

AND, of those in the church who listen to false doctrine and are led astray, the Apostle writes:

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

2 Peter 2:21 RSV
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Have YOU escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? 
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NEXT: a Steadfast Purpose and Day of the Lord

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
December 2, 2025
Letters to the saints of the First Century Church
An Introduction to the Epistles

TalkofJESUS.com would like to introduce you to an overview of some of the letters of the New Testament.
- We have recently finished a SERIES from 1 Corinthians and will soon study three more epistles.
What’s an Epistle?
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Here's a general sense of it from Scripture: 
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So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch: and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle:

Acts of the Apostles 15:20 KJV

[Soldiers] Who, when they came to Caesarea, and delivered the epistle [from the chief captain of the centurions] to the governor, presented Paul also before him.

Acts 23:26 KJV

ἐπιστολή –

epistolḗ, ep-is-tol-ay’; from G1989; a written message:—”epistle,” letter.
- to send one a message, command
- to write a letter
- to enjoin by letter, to write instructions
BlueLetterBible.org

Historical Context in the Early Church

During the first century AD, written communication held a central role in connecting communities separated by great distances. It was common for Christian leaders to address the fledgling groups of believers through written correspondence, ensuring consistent teaching and doctrinal guidance. These epistles were often circulated among multiple churches (see Colossians 4:16) and copied for preservation and further dissemination.

The Greco-Roman practice of public reading of letters provided an effective way to convey instructions and encourage unity. Such letters were seen as authoritative instructions from established leaders, which enabled early Christians to remain steadfast in their beliefs and practices.

BibleHub.com

The New Testament generally indexes Epistles by the place of its recipients, i.e. Philippians, but occasionally by the name of the letter writer, i.e. James.

Older translations like the King James Version use Epistle or Letter from the same Greek word most translations simply title, ‘Letter.’

How do WE respond after hearing a letter from an Apostle of Jesus Christ to our Church?

Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel

PAUL and Twelve Apostles had been sent into all the world by the risen Lord Jesus Christ to preach the Gospel.

~ A.D. 30 – Beginning with the Twelve Disciples responding to the command of the risen Lord Jesus:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts of the Apostles 1:8 ESV

A diaspora of the Gospel (Good News) of the risen Christ began with more than five-hundred witnesses of Jesus after the crucifixion of Israel’s Messiah.

See: 1 Corinthians 15:6 [context 1 Cor 15:3-8]

It began, as Jesus commanded, in Jerusalem — Simon Peter and John as Christ’s first vocal witnesses in the Temple — the Gospel then spreading throughout Judea and Galilee, and with Philip in Samaria, Gaza and Caesarea.

Followers of The Way of Jesus Christ establish many churches in person and later write to church leaders (elders) to build up the saints of these churches during difficult times of several decades of the first century.

Acts of the Apostles (including some letter writing)

Acts is an account of FIRST-HAND WITNESS written for saints of every era — AS SCRIPTURE AND TRUTH of the GOSPEL of our LORD and Savior JESUS CHRIST.

When did the Apostles write their LETTERS?
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ALL dates approximate
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- AD 49 – James (half-brother of Jesus) writes a letter sent to several churches
- Paul writes a letter to the near-by churches in Galatia (during his first missionary journey)
- AD 50 – During his second missionary journey, Paul writes a letter to the church in Thessalonica (which he had established), then later a second letter.
- AD 55 – Paul writes a letter to the Corinthians (where the Apostle had established this church during his previous mission) and then will write a second letter to these saints a year later.
A contemporary analogy
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Need a context to our Common Era? 

Taking that the Lord Jesus Christ had been crucified, buried and rose from the grave before ascending into heaven some 25 years ago, WE would be witnessing this HISTORY as if it had occured in about 2000 CE. 

(And much has happened with the church since then..) 
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First Corinthians Featured Series
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TALK OF JESUS .COM LINKS to each Chapter of Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians
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What did Paul write in Second Corinthians?
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a year later...
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Although we will not include 2 Corinthians in our current series of Second (or 3rd) Epistles, TAKE A LOOK at the focus of Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians written in ~ A.D. 56. 
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Key Themes [partial] Endurance through difficulty and Christlike behavior are made possible by the grace of God and are modeled by Paul himself.

The Spirit transforms believers into the image of God, which is seen in Christ.

Christ, as Savior, is also the universal Judge.

ESV Global Study Bible
INTRODUCTION TO
2 CORINTHIANS

Theme: Strength in Christ

But He said to me,
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.”
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses,
so that the power of Christ may rest on me.
—
2 Corinthians 12:9
BibleHub .com 2 Corinthians

MORE of the TIMELINE of the Apostolic Epistles

First Century YEARS of continuous Letters (Epistles) to the Church
- AD 57 Paul writes to the Romans
- AD 60-62 While in Rome, writes three Epistles to the churches
  - in Ephesus in Asia,
  - Philippi in Macedonia and
  - Colossae near Laodecia east of Ephesus
  - and a personal plea to Philemon, leader of a house church in or near Colossae concerning his fellow escaped slave Onesimus.
- AD 62-64 After his release from prison in Rome, Paul writes his First pastoral epistle to Timothy, the Apostle’s protege and successor as pastor to the church in Ephesus.
- AD 62-64 The Apostle Paul writes a pastoral Epistle to Titus, between his first and second Roman imprisonments, from either Corinth or Nicopolis.
- AD 64 The Apostle Peter writes his First Epistle to ‘the strangers [or pilgrims] scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, from Rome at the time Nero burns it, referring to it as ‘Babylon.’
- AD 66 – Christians flee Jerusalem rather than join a Jewish revolt against Rome.
  - Some historians estimate the dates of these Epistles and martyrdoms of Peter & Paul earlier around A.D. 64
- AD 66-67 SECOND PASTORAL LETTER OF PAUL TO TIMOTHY
  - (SOON: part of our NEXT Featured SERIES)
- AD 67-68 SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER
  - (SOON: part of our NEXT Featured SERIES)
- AD 60’s Epistle to the Hebrews
AD 70 Rome destroys Jerusalem

Burning of Jerusalem AD70
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Do you need a contemporary compasspoint again? 

It's now been 40 years since AD 30, our pivotal point in HISTORY. 
Think back now forty contempory years to AD 1985. How has YOUR church changed?
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- AD 70’s Epistle of Jude (the younger half-brother of Jesus.)
- AD 85-95 The Apostle John writes his Gospel and THREE EPISTLES
  - (2 John & 3 John included in our NEXT Featured SERIES)
John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before His throne,

Epistles for a Common Era church

Once again – a paradigm shift ahead to 2025 of the Common Era.

Our pivotal HISTORY of ACTS of the Apostles and the Gospel began back in the AD 30’s

and the Apostle John writes to the churches in the AD 90’s.

Sixty-some years ago — in the years of our Lord the 1960’s.

Once again, I will ask YOU, my fellow saints of the Lord Jesus Christ:

How do WE respond after hearing a letter from an Apostle of Jesus Christ to our Church?

Even in these last days of the Common Era let us proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a world with a remnant of souls yet to be saved from the wrath to come.

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
October 1, 2025