The Apostles’ Creed — foundational to our Apostolic Christian faith
I BELIEVE or WE BELIEVE IN:
The Apostles’ Creed
We believe JESUS will JUDGE the living and the dead.
The Quick and the Dead
Death becomes a more serious matter IF WE consider an inevitable after-life of our lifeless flesh and blood and in a prepared place of our created soul.
This failing flesh, weakening sinews, crumbling of bones, flow through our heart and quickness of brain will not endure…
nor will the very breath of our brief mortal life.
And yet.. this created soul will remain…
What then?
Redemption OR Judgment?
Structure of Christian CREEDS
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
Jesus was crucified
and was buried
He rose from the dead
He ascended to heaven
Siteth at the right hand of the Father (ye olde English)
Whence He cometh to judge the living and the dead
more…
source: apostles-creed.org
We believe Jesus will judge the living and the dead
During His incarnation as the Son of Man and prior to His crucifixion Jesus had confessed:
The Apostle Paul helps us with this look at the judgment of the quick and the dead:
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,
he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
We know it and recognize the the Apostles borrow this from the Gospel of what Christ has taught during His incarnation.
from the Greek [ζωοποιέω] it more specifically means:
to produce alive, begat or bear living young
to cause to live, make alive, give life
and as Jesus used it in a parable pointing to death:
of seeds quickened into life, i.e. germinating, springing up, growing
For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.
Gospel of John 5:21 KJV
Think of the implication of this to a mortal like us as we look toward the dust.
An the Lord Jesus assures the faithful:
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing:
and you believers with ears to hear, listen to this:
the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Gospel of John 6:63 KJV – the word of Jesus, the son of Man and Son of God
from Christ to the Apostles to Christian Creeds
The Apostle Paul writes to the church in Ephesus — a worldly cosmopolitan city with the temple of the Greek goddess Artemis (the goddess Diana of the Romans) — in about AD 60, quoting the Prophets:
“Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”
See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Ephesisans 5:14b-16 NKJV
And the risen Christ speaks a warning against turning back from sins and heresies leading to hell, which had seduced many of the Ephesian ‘christians‘:
“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.
Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 2:5 NKJV
Their great falling from grace in Ephesus having taken place in the AD 90’s, a mere three decades after the Apostle Paul had pastored their church.
The historical record of the Church beyond the first century AD points to both firm doctrine and similar falling away from Christ.
Augustine of Hippo on the Apostles’ Creed
Born: AD 354, Augustine lived an early 'willfully, decadent, pagan life' in Carthage, even taking a mistress who bore him a bastard son.
Source: The Confessions of St. Augustine, Rosalie DeRosset – intro
In Carthage, Augustine’s knowledge.. he admits, made him, “swollen up with vanity” (Bk 3, chap. 6). — probably made him prey for the Manichean religion. The chief characteristic of this sect was Gnosticism, an extreme dualism that claimed evil and good as equal.
ibid. pp 13-14
In just four centuries heresies had encompassed and seeped into the churches. Later after after St. Augustine and the fall of Rome, considerable idolatry and various heresies would invade the Catholic Church and later after Luther, the Protestant Church.
READ what Augustine later taught about THE APOSTLES’ CREED:
“Thence He shall come to judge the quick and dead.”
The quick, who shall be alive and remain;
the dead, who shall have gone before.
It may also be understood thus: The living, the just; the dead, the unjust.
For He judges both, rendering unto each his own.
To the just He will say in the judgment, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.” For this prepare yourselves, for these things hope, for this live, and so live, for this believe, for this be baptized, that it may be said to you, “Come ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
To them on the left hand, what?
“Go into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
Thus will they be judged by Christ, the quick and the dead.
We have spoken of Christ’s first nativity, which is without time;
spoken of the other in the fullness of time,
Christ’s nativity of the Virgin; spoken of the passion of Christ; spoken of the coming of Christ to judgment.
The whole is spoken, that was to be spoken of Christ, God’s Only Son, our Lord. But not yet is the Trinity perfect.
Peter’s second epistle to the church mirrors what the Lord had prayed prior to His crucifixion:
“But I have prayed earnestly for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, once you have returned, strengthenG4741 your brothers.”
Gospel of Luke 22:32
The Apostle had recently written to these same believers:
For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets
A single greek word for ‘that you may be mindful’ is the same word of remembering used frequently in the gospels.
And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So he went out and wept bitterly.
Matthew 16:75 NKJV
Peter emphasizes the subject matter spoken before by the ‘holy prophets,’ referring to the major and minor prophets of Old Testament Scripture from Isaiah to Malachi—pointing to them as Holy [ἅγιος – hagios – (an awful thing)] and certainly in contrast to the misleading false prophets and teachers against whom the Apostle has already warned.
Secondly, Peter equates Apostolic authority in this reminder mentioning the Holy Prophets speaking God’s word even before Jesus instructed them in Person.
and of the commandment of us,the apostles of the Lord and Savior..
commandment of the apostles of your Lord and Savior
or commandment of your apostles of the Lord and Savior.
The end was neither — the incarnation of JESUS the Son of God nor — resurrection of JESUS the Son of David hoped for by some of the Jews.
And don't Common Era scoffers also want a conquering King — bringing victory without cost and proclaimation without persecution, also saying:
… all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”
2 Peter 3:4c NKJV
And so they do, Peter suggests, but these [scoffers and doubters of Christ] are without excuse.
For this they willfully forget: that
by the word of God the heavens were of old,
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
and the earth standing out of water and in the water,
by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.
A clear reference to Noah, who Peter has just mentioned.
2 Peter 3:5-6 NKJV
But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word,
are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition [apōleia– the destruction which consists of eternal misery in hell]
of ungodly [ἀσεβής – asebēs – destitute of reverential awe towards God]
men [anthrōpos – men or women].
2 Peter 3:7 NKJV
Has your Common Era Pastor preached this Apostolic caution?
And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: …
And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
Genesis 7:21, 9;11 KJV
The Apostle’s Timeless Response
agapētos HEAR THIS:
But, beloved, do not forget this one thing,
that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us [or you]
not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
In the year of the Lord 2025 — dismissed by scoffers as: 2025 of the Common Era [2025 CE] — Do you fear the wrath to come when Christ returns?
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night,
in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise,
and the elements will melt with fervent heat;
both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
[literally, utterly burned up and consumed by fire!]
2 Peter 3: 10 NJKV
Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along.
On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
2 Peter 3:11-13 New Living Translation
The Apostle’s command to look ahead may not appeal to you anymore than considering your inevitable death of the flesh.
Ah, but what of your spirit, the resurrection of our familiar flesh and the judgment to come?
Peter assures Christ’s true followers — the saints of the Chruch which may include you:
And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen,
make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.
And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved.
2 Peter 3:14-15a NLT
Might the Apostle actually be calling YOU, beloved member of Christ — in need of repentance for your impure fruit, to reject those easy false teachings which oppose the Lord Jesus Christ?
The APOSTLES, including Paul
NEXT, we will briefly study just one Epistle or Letter of the Apostle to the Gentiles [or Hellenists or Greeks], Paul.
Here Peter now mentions the Apostle Paul, due to an already developing false teaching in the early church broadly known as gnosticism [a Greek word meaning “knowledge.”]
Gnosticism
Such ‘knowledge‘ often accelerates into a down-hill slope into the pit of error. Therefore a brief summary here from BibleHub.com
Dualism: Gnosticism is marked by a strong dualistic worldview,
The material world is often seen as the creation of a lesser deity,
sometimes identified with the God of the Old Testament,
who is distinct from the true, transcendent God.
This, of course, is NOT SCRIPTURAL from either Jewish Scripture OR the Gospel of the New Testament.
Gnostics believe that.. salvation involves awakening this divine spark through gnosis.
Some Gnostic texts depict Christ as a purely spiritual being .who did not truly suffer or die.
Gnosticism generally views the physical world as corrupt or illusory.
This belief often leads to ascetic practices or,
conversely, to libertine behavior, as the material is deemed irrelevant to spiritual salvation.
Peter confirming Paul
So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters.
There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest you be carried away with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
In addition to several Jews, including Jason who had been a leader of the local synagogue, the Church of the Thessalonians had many Macedonians (and perhaps Roman citizens as well.)
And some of them were persuaded, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.
ACTS 17:5 But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 6 And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying,
These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also; 7 whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Cæsar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. 8 And they troubled the people and the rulers of the city, when they heard these things. 9 And when they had taken security of Jason, and of the other, they let them go.
10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea..
Jason and other Jews have undoubtedly continued in Christ as members of the church in Thessalonica.
And they [Berean believers] that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens: and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus [who had remained in Berea] for to come to him with all speed, they departed.
18 After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth.. 5 And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.
How was our first epistle received?
PAUL, TIMOTHY, SILAS (Silvanus), Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others [from Athens and other cities] COMMUNICATED with the Church in places where Paul and Silas had proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ. Timothy, Jason and others became part of church leadership in cities throughout Asia Minor, Macedonia and Achaia.
APOSTLES SENT EPISTLES TO COMMUNICATE WITH AND SUSTAIN THE CHURCHES in a similar fashion as when in about A.D. 50 the Council of Jerusalem had sent clarifications of the faith into all the world of their ROMAN provinces.
The Apostles must have sent AND RECEIVED letters and brief messages much more frequently than these exemplary New Testament Epistles record.
Paul’s Second Letter to the Thessalonians
Once again PLEASE endure a most appropriate formality (17th c. King's English) of the KJV & Authorized KJV for this Apostolic Epistle.
- RH
~ A.D. 51 (a few months after Paul’s First Epistle)
.. we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure:
Silas, Timothy, Jason and others had delivered first-hand or second-hand accounts of events in Thessalonica after Paul had escaped.
Paul knew that the Thessalonian believers were suffering. So the Apostle encourages the faithful:
5 which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:
Skipping ahead in Paul's Second Epistle:
II Thessalonians 3:6
Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. ..
11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. 12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
HOW did Paul, Silas and Timothy know about these serious challenges to the Thessalonians?
COMMUNICATION between church leaders and the Apostles.
IF you are SUFFERING on account of your witness of the Lord JESUS Christ GOD has chosen you and GOD will repay those who trouble you.
BUT IF some in your church DO NOT OBEY the commands and example of the Apostles they DO NOT and SHOULD NOT represent Christ as a member of your church.
When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed!
Paul preaches clearly about the Judgment to come.
II THESSALONIANS 1:7-12 AKJV – Paul’s Points concerning Judgment
that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord,
and from the glory of his power;
when he (The Lord Christ JESUS] shall come to be glorified in his saints(all believers),
and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
with his mighty angels,
in flaming fire
Let no man deceive you
Paul continues in encouraging these faithful Thessalonians currently enduring persecution to look forward to THE DAY Christ will return and draw the saints unto Him in victory over death.
.. by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and by our gathering together unto him,
be not soon shaken
in mind,
or be troubled,
neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Don't believe such things.
.. for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first,
and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himselfabove all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2 Thessalonians 2:8-10 AKJV
We can hardly overlook Paul’s warning of Satan’s deception which will precede the returning of Christ for those He has saved.
Persecuted Thessalonians would obey the Apostle – having received the Holy spirit AND to whom Paul had already written in his first epistle:
He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit. – 1 Thessalonians 4:8
Quench not the Spirit. – 1 Th 5:19
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. – 1 Th 5:23
ONCE MORE PAUL ENCOURAGES BELIEVERS IN THE TRUTH OF THE RETURN AND JUDGMENT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Pray that we might be delivered..
.. pray for us
..that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men:
for all men have not faith.
But the Lord is faithful,
.. and keep you from evil.
And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we command you.
And .. into the patient waiting for Christ.
Walk away from evil men
I have already addressed [above] Paul's concern from evil influencers who claim to be 'christians' AND Paul's COMMAND to stay away from such men.
But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.
And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
11 Thessalonians 3:13-15 AKJV
And so, my dear brother or sister in the Lord, WHY NOT respond to Paul’s Epistle by your COMMENT?
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
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