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    The Apostles' Creed is undoubtedly the most important of the historical creeds. Not only has it been widely accepted and widely cherished for centuries, but it is also basic to many other statements of faith. In order to better understand the role which this creed has played in Christian Theology consider these facts.
    The Apostles Creed, as a statement of faith, developed from the words of Matthew 28:19 (The baptismal formula) during the first or early part of the second century A.D.While we cannot be certain just what role the Apostles had in its development, we can be certain that every part of it is taken from God's Word.
    The following statement of faith by Irenaeus is dated at 170 A.D.It is based upon earlier statements of faith going back perhaps to the Apostles themselves.

IRENAEUS (GAUL) A.D. 170

    We believe in one God the Father Almighty, who made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that is in them;
    And in one Christ Jesus the Son of God, our Lord; Who became flesh, of the virgin, for our salvation; and His suffering under Pontius Pilate; and His rising from the dead; and His bodily assumption into heaven; and His coming from heaven in the glory of the Father to comprehend all things under one head,...and to execute righteous judgement over all.
    And in the Holy Ghost...And that Christ shall come from heaven to raise up all flesh...and to adjudge the impious and unjust...to eternal fire, and to give to the just and holy immortality and eternal glory. (HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH by Philip Schaff, volume two, page 536)

    The fact that Irenaeus was expressing the universal faith of the Christian Church of his day is revealed by a number of similar statements of faith recorded by various writers of the early church.Consider for example the following statement of faith recorded by Terullian, who lived far from Irenaeus.

TERTULLIAN (NORTH AFRICA) A.D. 200

    We believe in one God, the Creator of the world, who produced all out of nothing . . .
    And in the Word, His Son, Jesus Christ; Who through the Spirit and power of God the Father descended into the virgin Mary, was made flesh in her womb, and born of her; Was fixed on the cross, under Pontius Pilate, was dead and buried; rose again the third day; Was taken up into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father; He will come to judge the quick and the dead.
    And in the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, the Sanctifier, sent by Christ from the Father.And that Christ will, after the restoration of the flesh, receive His saints into the enjoyment of eternal life and the promises of heaven, and judge the wicked with eternal fire. (IBID)

    I could produce several more statements of faith by early Christian writers, all very similar in content.However, the two which I have given should suffice to show both the antiquity of the Apostles Creed and its widespread acceptance.Except for the phrase "He descended into hell", which was added in the seventh century, the Apostles Creed, as we have it today, was in common use by 340 A.D.
    At the time of the reformation Martin Luther changed the word Catholic to Christian because he felt that the name Catholic had been stolen by the papal heretics. Luther also arranged the Apostles Creed into three paragraphs (corresponding to the three paragraphs in the Nicene Creed) instead of twelve individual statements.Following is the Apostles’ Creed as it exists today.

THE APOSTLES' CREED

    I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
    And in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the virgin Mary; Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; The Third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
    I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints; The forgiveness of sins; The resurrection of the body; And the life everlasting.Amen.

    The Apostles' Creed begins with the words "I believe" for this important reason: No one can speak for someone else. Every person must believe for himself.In fact the word "creed", which comes from the Latin word "credo", means "I believe. "The Apostles' Creed is intended to be a very personal statement of faith which embraces the very heart of the gospel message, the death, burial, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

THE COUNCIL OF NICEA

    In the fourth century A.D. a theologian named Arius denied that Christ was true God.He argued that Jesus was not of the same substance as the Father and therefore was not God.The followers of Arius used craft and deceit to spread their heresy.They did this by redefining the words which were commonly used to describe God.This enabled them to sound like Christians while denying one of the basic teachings of Scripture.This trick has been used by false teachers throughout history.

    In order to deal with this heresy a general church council was called.This council met at Nicea in 325 A.D.The chief opponent of Arius at this council was Athanasius, who saw clearly that the teaching of Arius undermined the entire salvation message.Athanasius approached the Arian heresy, not as a theologian, but as a believing soul in need of a savior.Thanks largely to the influence of Athanasius the Council of Nicea rejected the Arian heresy.In order to affirm the true doctrine it then adopted an enlarged version of the Apostles' Creed.This creed, known as the "Nicene Creed", expands on all three articles of the Apostles' Creed. In the following paragraphs Kenneth K. Miller explains the meaning of these additions.

    To Article 1 the Nicene Creed, adds "And of all things visible and invisible," meaning that He created all the angels of which Jesus is not one. In 2 it adds "the only-begotten Son of God, Begotten of His father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Being of one substance with the Father, By whom all things were made." There are other less important additions but this is the chief change. It insists that the Son was not created or made, but is the only-begotten Son; i.e., He comes from the very Being of the Father and is one with Him.The Father begat Him "before all worlds," ---- this does not mean there are other worlds, and that Christ was created before they were. The original Greek word is Aeons, or ages, and refers to time. Before all the time that you can imagine in eternity preceding Creation, the Son was already begotten.

    He is God who comes out of God, Light who comes out of Light, and Very, or True, God who comes out of True God. That is, He is not simply called God, but He truly is the Second person of the one God. And He is of one substance with the Father. This does not say that God is a substance. It really means "essence."He is one and the same essence with the Father..... The Arians tried to peddle a Christ who is...of similar essence to the Father. So we insist in our Confession that Christ is God exactly as the Father is God, one Being with the Father.And then the subject of the next clause is Christ also: by Him all things were made, so He is not a creature, but the Creator. (THE FAITHFUL WORD, WINTER 1991, page 228)

    The Third Article of the Nicene Creed was added by the Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D.It affirms the deity of the Holy Ghost.The Apostles' Creed, both in its original and in its Nicene form, has been of great value in defending the doctrine of the Trinity and is basic to evangelical theology.Because it provides a direct doctrinal link between churches today and the apostolic church it deserves our attention and appreciation.

THE CREED OF THE APOSTLES