Confessing the Apostles’ Creed
At Faith, we like to devote a portion of every Sunday morning service to confess what we believe together. This confession of faith always follows the sermon; in response to God’s Word preached, we confess our belief that it is true (see “Why is the worship service like this?”). Of course, if you have worshipped at Faith for more than a month, you will have noticed that when we celebrate the Lord’s Table (usually the second Sunday of every month) or when we baptize an individual, these events take the place of and, in essence, become our confession of faith.
One of the benefits that comes from confessing faith together is that it reminds us that our little congregation, Faith Presbyterian Church, is not the sole Christian church. As we confess our beliefs together, we also confess a unity with Christians who have gone before us, Christians who we will not meet until heaven. In a similar way, the writer of Hebrews reminds Christians (likely in Italy) of faithful believers whom they had never met, men and women like Abel, Abraham, Moses, and Rahab. He tells them that they are “surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” in order to encourage them to “run with endurance” (see Hebrews 11 and 12.1).” To feel that you are completely alone can be one of the most deflating experiences, so we remind ourselves that men and women, by God’s grace and through His Holy Word, have believed before us.
The Apostles’ Creed is one of the confessions that we use (see others). Despite the name, it is not called the Apostles’ Creed because it was written by the apostles, but because it captures, in simplicity, the teaching of the apostles. A simple statement of faith very much like the Apostles’ Creed that we use today was written by one pastor (Marcellus) in the early fourth century as a statement of his beliefs and given to another pastor (Julius). In this same period, a pastor (Rufinus) in the far northern edge of Italy actually refers to this statement of belief and comments that it’s nearly identical to the one the original apostles wrote in Jerusalem! Evidence for such an early origin of this statement of faith is that elements of this creed were circulated by Christians in Rome as early as 150. The Apostles’ Creed in its most widely-used form today, actually comes from a collection of quotes to help missionary pastors compose sermons; this collection was written in the eighth century by Pirmin of Antwerp.
What is exciting about the Apostles’ Creed is that it has been used by Christians since AD 150 not only as a confession of faith in the church, but also as a tool to train new believers. In the fourth and fifth century, Augustine argued that every Christian should be instructed in the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the ten commandments. Martin Luther in the sixteenth century agreed when he said, “these three plainly and briefly contain exactly everything that a Christian needs to know.” Like other English Protestants, Richard Baxter used these three regularly in his instruction from the pulpit and in people’s homes, instruction that was praised by George Whitefield in the eighteenth century. For more, see J. I. Packer and Gary Parrett’s book, Grounded in the the Gospel: Building Believers the Old-Fashioned Way.
If it was a regular part of Christian instruction, it is no wonder, then, that the Apostles’ Creed was a regular part of Sunday morning worship in Protestant churches across Europe and America. Although these pastors were leading Sunday morning worship in different countries with different languages and different cultural settings, they generally followed a similar order of worship. In fact, the form of worship in Scotland, Switzerland, England, and Holland all contained the Apostles’ Creed. The order of worship for the Church of England (as printed by Robert Waldegrave in 1584) and the one for English Baptists (the 1661 Savoy Liturgy) both included the Apostles’ Creed. You can learn more by checking out Appendix A of The Worship of the English Puritans, by Horton Davies.
Even though we make use of the Apostles’ Creed, I have never actually preached through the 12 (or 13) articles of this statement of faith. (Actually, I had not even given it much thought until today, when I discovered that many Reformation ministers have done exactly that!). I do know, however, that there are two particular articles that cause a fair amount of confusion and it is these that I’d like to turn to separately.
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