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What Christians Believe
The Articles of Faith
Church History
Just like the church in the New Testament, the church of later centuries exhibited a variety of theologies. On many minor issues, there was very little unity. But the more central doctrines, such as the articles of faith in the Apostles' Creed, were received and affirmed almost universally. And in those cases where these fundamental beliefs were rejected, the church and history have largely counted the dissenters as schismatics and false teachers.
As just one example, consider the events of the fourth century A.D. The earliest versions of the Apostles' Creed were already in use at this time. At this point in history, several heresies arose that the church dealt with in its councils. Some of these were local councils, but others were considered to be ecumenical because they included bishops from most parts of the church throughout the world. For instance, the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325 and the Council of Constantinople in A.D. 381 were ecumenical councils dealing with issues related to several of the articles of faith in the Apostles' Creed.
The modern Nicene Creed was initially drafted at the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325, and it reached its modern form at the Council of Constantinople in A.D. 381. It is largely an expansion and explanation of the Apostles' Creed, intended to clarify several of its ideas for the sake of denying false interpretations of the creed.
For instance, the heresy known as Gnosticism taught that the God of the Bible that created the world had himself been created by another god. Heresies like Gnosticism were not explicitly condemned by the Apostles' Creed, so the Nicene Creed added language to make the intent of the Apostles' Creed more clear.
Specifically, where the Apostles' Creed merely said "I believe in God the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth," the Nicene Creed offered this expanded statement: We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. Notice four things here:
First, the Nicene Creed is based on the Apostles' Creed. By basing their own creed on the Apostles' Creed, the ecumenical Nicene Council demonstrated that the church universally affirmed the Apostles' Creed.
Second, the Nicene Creed began with the word "we" in place of the word "I." Whereas the Apostles' Creed had been intended as an individual's profession of faith at baptism, the Nicene Creed was a statement that the church universally and collectively endorsed these same doctrines.
Third, the Nicene Creed offered a clarification by adding the word "one" before the word "God." This made explicit what the Apostles' Creed had implied: that there is only one God.
And fourth, the Nicene Creed offered the clarification that God created everything, including invisible things such as spirits. This made it clear that God himself was not created. Again, this point was implicit in the Apostles' Creed, so that the Nicene Creed was simply clarifying the matter.
These types of affirmations and clarifications continued to be offered by other councils and theologians throughout the centuries. At times, the decisions of councils were not accepted by all churches. One council would condemn the views of some churches; another council would condemn the views of other churches. But in most cases, the churches on both sides of these controversies continued to affirm the basic principles of the Apostles' Creed.
For this reason, the Apostles' Creed has commonly been viewed as the most basic and most ecumenical statement of the Christian faith. Only the Nicene Creed has approached the Apostles' Creed in terms of ecumenical acceptance throughout history. But the Nicene Creed is not nearly as basic. It includes several theological statements that even theologians often misunderstand. This is why we have chosen the Apostles' Creed as the foundation for this study of the central tenets of the Christian faith.
So far we have indicated the New Testament's universal agreement with the Apostles' Creed, and mentioned the acceptance of its doctrines throughout church history. Now we are ready to speak of the present, noting that these same beliefs still characterize the Christian church.