Lutheranism 101 - Part 19 - The Apostle's Creed - Intro

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 Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

What is a creed? Well yes it is the name of a rock band, but it is more than just that. You could say that we all have creeds about certain things. We have creeds about who should be President. We have creeds about gun control and immigration. We have creeds about sports. We all have many different creeds in different areas of our lives. A creed is simply a statement of what we believe, teach and confess. If you are a Republican you probably have a different creed than a Democrat when it comes to taxes and social spending. It is the same with our faith. We all have creeds about what we believe about God. As Christians we also subscribe to the historic Christian Creeds. These would be the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed. These three creeds are pretty much accepted as the truth by all Christians around the world even if they do not use them in their worship services. We will be looking at the Apostles' Creed because it offers the most concise explanation of Christian doctrine.
Now the Apostles' Creed is not called that because it was written by the apostles. It is called that because it briefly states the doctrine that God gave through the apostles in the Bible. You will also notice that the Apostles' Creed is Trinitarian. It has three parts to it. The first part deals with God the Father, the second part deals with God the Son and the third part deals with God the Holy Spirit. You will also notice that the creed begins with the word I. It starts that way because it is a statement of faith and we cannot believe for each other as a group. You must believe for yourself.
Traditionally in the church we have used the Apostles' Creed for baptisms because it started out as a baptismal creed. We also use it for non-communion services. We use the Nicene Creed for communion services. This is just tradition and doesn't need to be done that way.

Here are some Scripture verses for you: Romans 10:10; Psalm 31:14; Psalm 37:5; Romans 10:17; Hebrews 11:1; Habakkuk 2:4; Luke 7:50; Matthew 28:19; Ephesians 4:4-6; John 15:26; Galatians 4:6

Pastor Fred