Christianity is the only religion that has Creeds and Doctrines rigidly formulated, The other major religions have their scriptures of course, but there is no equivalent of doctrinal statements. Since Christianity was born when the Roman Empire was powerful politically, and Greek philosophy was a dominant influence throughout the Middle East, a definitive statement of the core beliefs was thought to be necessary by the early Fathers.
Nevertheless, in her book ‘Making of the Creeds’, Frances Young explains that the Creeds themselves should not be treated as doctrinal ‘Articles of Faith’, but as ‘confession’ (which also means acknowledgement). Nor is it a summary of our Scriptures. It was part of the process of identifying oneself, especially if a convert seeking baptism, as a Christian. Once the candidate has acknowledged their belief in God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, they would be baptised, and find their identity in the Christian community.
Both the Apostles’ Creed (AC) and the Nicene Creed (NC) begin: ‘I believe in (NC adds, one) God the Father’ followed by (the) Almighty and Maker/Creator of Heaven and Earth. NC expresses it further as ‘Maker... of all that is, seen and unseen’. Frances Young advises us to note that it is important to understand the historical context of the formulations and appreciate what has been left out in the Creeds. So here we acknowledge God, the Creator, but do not say how God created Heaven and Earth. A huge controversy in early Christianity was whether God created (the Universe) out of nothing, or pre-existing material: not mentioned in the Creeds. The Genesis story of God creating the earth and its inhabitants in six days, for example, is again not mentioned in the Creeds (which is a great relief for me!).
Judaism, from which Christianity originally developed, had ‘one God’ as its core belief. However, they also had room to accept other supernatural beings like angels and demons, and Satan who, some believed, had dominion over the earth at that time. So the adoption of the idea of ‘one God’ was not as straightforward and obvious as we might think at first. Remember Ps. 95.3 for example: For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. The inclusion of that phrase, one God, as almost every other phrase, was hard won. Might it be the purpose of the phrase, ‘all things visible, and invisible’ on earth and heaven to assert God’s sovereignty over such beings?
At a very basic level, I find that this is what underpins my life as a Christian. God is the Father of us all and the creator of everything we see and exist in. If everyone of us is a child of God, created equally in his image, then we are all brothers and sisters; and we should treat each other as that and the created world as sacred.
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