The Apostles’ Creed is foundational to our Apostolic Christian faith (even though Jesus’ Twelve Apostles did NOT write it).
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
- YOU witness publicly in worship of the LORD GOD that WE believe in this.
- So, DO YOU?
Structure of Christian CREEDS
We believe in…
Here’s a brief outline of the fundamental objects of our faith found in The Creed:
- God
- Jesus Christ
- the Holy Spirit
- and the Virgin Mary
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
I believe in
God the Holy Spirit
What do we believe about the Holy Spirit?
Q36 of the New City Catechism
Kid’s Answer:
That he is God, coeternal with the Father and the Son.
Of course any simple or complex answer falls short of describing the Eternal God. A reminder about God and Trinity:
As Scripture states:
GOD IS ONE IN ESSENCE,
and as the Gospel reveals,
THREE IN PERSON.
More on Trinity from R.C. Sproul
The Nature of Spirit – (Holy and familiar)
Define God.
It's the question unanswerable that could lead us far beyond a limited glimpse of the Holy Spirit.
But note Scriptures and definitions which attempt to show the unseen. (God, of course, is unseen and so is spirit.)
Picture, if you will, the ether of a non-existant creation described in Genesis 1.
.. and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:2b KJV
rûaḥ ĕlōhîm – the Spirit of God – וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים
- wind, breath, mind, spirit
7. Spirit of God, the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son..
G. never referred to as a depersonalised force.
Source: BlueLetterBible.org Lexicon :: Strong’s H7307 – rûaḥ
Yet no man explains the Holy Spirit (or the Father) better than JESUS, to whom the Father IS personal.
Jesus answered [the Pharisee Nicodemus],
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.
Gospel of John 3:5-6 LSB
πνεῦμα – pneuma – Spirit is spirit
Much more to study in the link above from Strong's G4151
Now the esteemed Pharisee Nicodemus would know both the Hebrew and Greek application of spirit. Yet here the Son of God instructs Nicodemus about the Holy Spirit.
The Lord Jesus continues by describing spirit in general, referring to ‘wind‘,’ as does Moses in his Genesis 1 description of creation:
“The wind G4151 blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit G4151.”
Gospel of John 3:8 LSB ref. Strong’s G4151 pneuma
Most Bibles capitalize "Spirit" to mean the Holy Spirit and use "spirit" [small 's'] for the spirit of man, an angel, etc.
A Singular Role of the Spirit
Think for a moment about the incarnation of the Son of Man.
Can the LORD God not create whoever and whatever He wants in whatever manner God has desired?
God has created spirit beings – angels – in which some do not believe.
The Lord God has also created spirit beings who have (like adam) also sinned against God.
(Scripture confirms such demons and devils wielding some influence over man. So does Jesus also speak of such unseen spirits of evil.
And yet, just like the Person of the Holy Spirit some of you do NOT believe, neither do you believe in evil angels and demons exist.
Jesus Christ, Who was Conceived by the Holy Spirit
So what heresy is the Apostles’ Creed addressing here?
Some deny that Almighty God —Father of all creation and all generations of adam — is capable of conceiving the Son of God as a second adam in the womb of a daughter of adam.
Do you believe the account of Luke’s Gospel?
But Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel answered and said to her,
Born of the virgin Mary
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
Gospel of Luke 1:34-35 LSB
and the power of the Most High
will overshadow you;
and for that reason the holy Child
shall be called the Son of God.
The Christ is born of a virgin, as prophesied — a humblest of births in a place also prophesied — providentially raised as a son of man.
From the King James Version:
And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.
For with God nothing shall be impossible.
Mary believed the angel.
Do YOU believe that?
I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary…
Beginning of The Apostles’ Creed
And Mary said,
Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.
And the angel departed from her.
Gospel of Luke 1:38 KJV
Next: a Savior who Suffered
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