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?
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).
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:
God
Jesus Christ
the Holy Spirit
and the Virgin Mary
Jesus was crucified
and was buried
He rose from the dead
He ascended to heaven
He sits in the favored place of God the Father
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:
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.
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.
We get it humanly – the relationship of a son (or daughter) to a father (or to our mother).
HumanAND ever-existing SON
Mortal men and women can relate to a Son of THE FATHER.
We understand, in part, that JESUS was flesh and blood, body and brain a perfect human son of man (Mary, actually: ‘man‘ as in human like all of us).
John, the Apostle who speaks so well relationally in the witness of his Gospel tells us:
But these [signs, proofs or miracles] are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
The Twelve, having loved their friend and Master whom they followed willingly, understood a relational link between JESUS and each of His disciples personally.
When the Lord in so many ways showed His Disciples His ever-existing relationship to Almighty God our Father — HIS Father from before the beginning — they could not have been more awe struck that GOD stood in their human presence.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
Yet think from the witness of any of the Twelve of the impact of JESUS, the living Christ they follow, telling His disciples: “I and the Father are One.”
Just like all faithful Jews, these disciples had recited the Sh'ma since their childhood:
John’s Gospel continues with Jesus’ further explanation of the Spirit:
“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
What is JESUS telling us about spirit and the Holy Spirit?
Although mankind is flesh and blood, created from dust and water,
and Man is created in God’s image;
Man, LIKE GOD, is also spirit.
What is Spirit?
John begins his Gospel with Jesus (the Word) and the Spirit.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.
READ MORE BELOW NOTE: Although I generally limit your reading time to ~5 minutes, today I'll expand our TOPIC of SPIRIT with additional definitions and more Biblical verses than we could cover in a single post on the SPIRIT.
Please continue and COMMENT at the end of this entire post.- RH
The KJV translates Strong’s H7307 in the following manner: Spirit or spirit (232x), wind (92x), breath (27x), (various additional)
Two additional uses in Genesis show both the Spirit of God and His quickening spirit in His creatures, including mankind:
And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; – Gen. 6:3a NKJV
And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life.. All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. – Gen. 7:15,22 NKJV
COMMENTARY
The Spirit of God; not the wind, which was not yet created, as is manifest, because the air, the matter or subject of it, was not yet produced; but the Third Person of the glorious Trinity, called the Holy Ghost, to whom the work of creation is attributed, Job 26:13, as it is ascribed to the Second Person, the Son, Joh 1:3 Col 1:16-17 Heb 1:3, and to the First Person, the Father, every where.
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Before proceeding to the more powerful and most mysterious Holy Spirit of God,
consider beyond flesh and blood, mind and spirit -- that which is the same in Old and New Testaments, yet having subtle ungraspable distinction: spirit and soul.
“BEHOLD, MY SERVANT WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN;
MY BELOVED IN WHOM MY SOUL [psychē] IS WELL-PLEASED;
We hear it also in the heart of Isaiah, a Prophet of God:
With my soul [nep̄eš] I have desired You in the night, Yes, by my spirit [rûaḥ] within me I will seek You early; For when Your judgments are in the earth, The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
Spirit of God, the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son
as inspiring ecstatic state of prophecy
as impelling prophet to utter instruction or warning
imparting warlike energy and executive and administrative power
as endowing men with various gifts
as energy of life
as manifest in the Shekinah glory
never referred to as a depersonalised force
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.
When you hear an ENGLISH translation of pneuma in the King James Version it will most often suggest an image of the Holy Ghost.
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
As mysterious as Ghostor the Spirit may be to mankind, its root word [Strong’s G4154 – pneō] directs our thoughts
to breathe hard, i.e. breeze:—blow (of the wind)
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.
Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit. Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.’
The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
I encourage you in the spirit to pray with ears to hear the Holy Spirit of the Lord God, who IS ONE with the Father and the Son our savior Jesus Christ.
Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
So far, we have been reminded that GOD is One – that is: Father, Son and Holy Spirit – Eternal (before all time and and after all time ceases to exist) – separated from His creation (including creatures), that is: Holy.
Church and Biblical teaching are both clear and mysterious in describing GOD’s ROLES of relationship within HIMSELF, that is:
FATHER to the SON
SON to the SPIRIT
Holy Spirit
to the Father
and to the Son
Some Christians know and experience a personal relationship to THE ONE GOD. The HOLY SPIRIT speaks to the heart [spirit ] of a uniquely created man or woman, a mortal made of flesh and blood.
Church Doctrine (teaching)
Christian Teachings of the Church from Scripture
In Part 3 of this doctrinal post about the one LORDJESUS CHRIST we will look at scriptural teaching concerning CHRIST from historic catechisms of the Church AND most foundationally, from God’s word in the BIBLE.
Catechisms provide studied ANSWERS to student QUESTIONS
Every Christian has QUESTIONS about the Lord God and about JESUS (who IS God).
Like ANY learning, the Questions and Answers of a catechism we study and memorize as students seeking a deeper understanding of God.
Doctrine-based QUESTIONS of Christology
21. Who is the redeemer of God’s elect?
The only redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, forever.
23. What offices doth Christ execute as our redeemer?
Christ, as our redeemer, executeth the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in His estate of humiliation and exaltation.
*24. How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet?
*
*25. How doth Christ execute the office of a priest?
*
*26. How doth Christ execute the office of a king?
*READ the Westminster Catechism [A.D. 1647] for ANSWERS to these and more Questions about God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you also wonder about the Holy Spirit, time does not allow further studytoday.
What does the Church teach? (Church Doctrine)
Today we’ll study the roles of JESUS’ personal relationship with YOU, with me and with all followers of the Lord.
Let's begin with a review from the NICENE CREED with its EARLY UNIVERSAL (Catholic) agreement as to the Person and Roles of Christ and God.
THE CREED OF NICAEA – AGREED AT THE COUNCIL IN 325
Until the early 20th century, it was universally assumed that the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (the more accurate term) was an enlarged version of the Creed of Nicaea, which was promulgated at the Council of Nicaea (325). It was further assumed that this enlargement had been carried out at the Council of Constantinople (381) with the object of bringing the Creed of Nicaea up to date in regard to heresies about the Incarnation and the Holy Spirit that had arisen since the Council of Nicaea. - source: Britannica
JESUS
Who because of us men and because of our salvation came down,
and became incarnate
and became man,
and suffered,
and rose again on the third day,
and ascended to the heavens,
and will come to judge the living and dead,
And in the Holy Spirit.
Nicene Creed, a Christian statement of faith that is the only ecumenical creed because it is accepted as authoritative by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and major Protestant churches. -Britannica
Then the LORD came down in the pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both went forward. Then He said,
“Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream.
Now the main point in what is being said is this: we have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the holy places and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.
Strong's Number G935 matches the Greek βασιλεύς (basileus), which occurs 118 times in 107 verses in the TR Greek.
And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING G935 OF THE JEWS.
Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John
Outline of Biblical Usage
leader of the people, prince, commander, lord of the land, king
probably from G939 (through the notion of a foundation of power); a sovereign (abstractly, relatively, or figuratively):—king.
JESUS showed POWER on earth, signs and miracles no created man could do except the expected Messiah of GOD !
The King, as Judeans had hoped, would be more powerful than Herod the Great (who rebuilt the Temple, a civil project still under construction under one of his sons (King Herod). Jerusalem and all the lands and their kings were subject to ROME and its Caesars.
Rome’s Governor Pilate would decide a pre-ordained mortal fate of this earthly KING Jesus, a man seemingly powerless as Jerusalem’s King Herod and his appointed priests of the Judean Temple.
The Apostles Peter and John also preached Christ crucified and risen with signs from God. ACTS 3-4
JESUS, according to God’s Word
HOW should we address JESUS?
Wouldn't HOLY SCRIPTURE; written, God-breathed words of the BIBLE (faithfully translated); provide the best, true guidance of how Christian should proclaim JESUS?
Consider how the New Testament speaks about Jesus - source
“Jesus” occurs 980 times in 940 verses in the LSB.
942 times in the KING JAMES VERSION
1000+ times in translations substituting ‘Jesus‘ for prepositions such as ‘He.’
“Jesus” AND “prophet” occurs in 5 verses in ‘The Gospels” in the LSB.
and JESUS never uses it Himself as a title, only confirming this office.
“Jesus” AND “priest” occurs 30 times in 14 verses in the LSB.
He is never addressed as a ‘Priest,’ but the letter of HEBREWS and other Scripture makes clear that JESUS is both Priest and Sacrifice.
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us take hold of our confession.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin.
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