LIFE The Creeds: Walking in the Faith of our Fathers - p.6 The Creed: Defines the Scriptures & Strengthens the Faith - p.8 Creeds: What Are They All About - p.10 In The Field - p.12 Bringing Christ to the Sudan - p.14 WORLD of the For the January 1999. Volume Three, Number One Pontius Pilate,w as crucified,died and w as buried.He descended into hell.The third day he rose again from the dead.HeCh ur ch ,t he co m m un io n of sa in ts ,t he fo rg iv en es s of si ns ,t he re su rre ct io n of th e bo dy ,a nd th e lif e ev er la st in g. Am en 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 ascendedintoheavenandsitsattherighthandofGodtheFatherAlmighty.FromthenceHewillcomeagaintojudgethelivingandthedead.IbelieveintheHolySpirit,theholyChristian I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by When the word Creed is mentioned, we generally associatewith it a fixed body of statements which were formulatedand accepted at a specific point in time by the Christian church and transmitted in its history as important articles to which believers continue to pledge their allegiance. Three important creeds immediately come to mind, namely the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed. Upon opening the Book of Concord, wherein all important documents of the Luther- an church are contained, the reader will find these creeds referred to as the “three chief or ecumenical symbols” and placed along- side seven other documents of the Lutheran church: theAugsburg Confessions, its Apology, the Smalcald Articles, the Treatise, the Small and Large Catechism, and finally the voluminous Formula of Concord. These three creeds enjoy a very special status in the Christian church not only because of their old age but also because they are ecumenical in character, that is, they have been accepted by the Christian church worldwide and not only by a single church body. Thereby, they have become for all Christians signs or sym- bols which remind us that fundamental questions were both raised and decisively answered in the period between the days of the apostles and those of the reformers. Noteworthy, therefore, is the fact that the reformers quoted the Creeds with the specific purpose to prove to their opponents they were not innovating new doc- trines of a church-divisive nature, but shared the ecumenical faith of the ancient church. As a token of acknowledging their revered status, posterity gave the three creeds alone the exclusive title creeds whereas all other important documents of the church were called confessions. The Creeds Have Their Roots In Scripture Together with the other confessions in the Book of Concord, the creeds share a relationship to Scripture, not as being infallible in character, but nonetheless as true explications of Scripture. In fact, they do not only illuminate the Bible’s truemeaning, but they have their roots in Scripture from both a phenomenological and histor- ical perspective. If we examine the word Creed etymologically, that is by tracing the origin of the word, we discover that it is derived from the Latin word credere which means nothing other than “to believe.” We can say that creeds are statements of what Christians’ believed at a particular moment in time. Such state- ments of faith are infinite in number in Scripture and very old in origin. Creeds are as old as the church; yes as old as God’s people on this earth. Already the nation of Israel, in allegiance to its God Jahwe, the Creator and Redeemer, expressed its faith in brief state- ments such as “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4). In the New Testament, believers shared Peter’s confession that Christ is the “Messiah (Christ), the Son of the living God,” which was his answer to Jesus’ question, “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16: 15-16). In similar fash- ion also the eunuch in his desire to be baptized by Philip declared his faith with the words, “I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (Acts 8:37). Confessing The Creeds May Lead To Persecution Yes, to affirm one’s trust and allegiance in Jesus Christ as Lord was without doubt both a very personal and audible expression in whom salvation is believed to be found. As we are told by Paul, “because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). However, in doing so, the believer very often puts his own life on the line. Stephen, the martyr, may serve as the most placid example where his bold and outspoken belief cost him his life. In fact, this may explain why in the time of per- secution in the early church, Christians chose the symbol of the fish to express their faith in this cryptic form. For if spelled out, the letters for a fish, I CH TH YS, stood in for the abbreviated Greek words, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. To this day, inscriptions of this symbol can be seen in the catacombs beneath the city of Rome where the remains of many a Christian’s tortured and mutilated body rest in peace. The Creeds Are Structured According To The Faith In The Triune God It was not only the one person, Jesus Christ, who stood in the focus of the Christians’ faith.At times, God the Father and the Son were confessed together (Romans 4:24) in what we identify today in scholarly terms as bipartite structured statements. On other occa- sions, all three persons of the Trinity were confessed in the form of tripartite structured statements as can be found in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) or in what we call the Pauline pul- pit blessing, “Grace and peace be with you from God our Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” (2 Corinthians 13:13). Naturally, the Creeds themselves were a direct outflow of these brief confessions to the Triune God but of a more elaborate structure and content. The Creeds Versus The Privacy Of Faith In conducting a comparison between such brief expressions of faith in the Bible and the long and elaborate statements of the ecu- menical Creeds, the fixed and rigid formulations of the latter hard- ly seem to reflect the personal and spontaneous character of the former. This may give rise to a number of objections so common to this day and age. Without doubt, many a Christian’s battle cry can be heard, “The Bible, the bible only is the religion of us Lutherans” and not some later formulas passed by the church. Others might place greater demands on a person’s ethical expres- For the Life of the World6 Walking intheFaithof ourFath theCreeds: sions where what you do becomes the hallmark of true Christian- hood rather than what is confessed and believed, particularly such formal statements as the creeds. Others, while finding the setting and statements of the creeds from a historical perspective appeal- ing, reject their validity for today’s time and situation. Opponents to the creeds, such as those mentioned above, seem to be oblivious of the basic claim of the ecumenical creeds. They never want to represent a movement away from the personal and brief statements of faith in Scripture, but rather a radical return to their deepest meaning and implications as these were opened afresh by controversial and problem- atic attacks. Indeed, it may be said the ecumenical creeds are once again successful attempts at finding answers to the fundamental question Jesus asked Peter, “Who do you say I am?” in a given context. Faith is never confessed in a vacuum, but relates to important events and chal- lenges within a Christian’s life. The Creeds Must Remain Personal Statements Of Faith The three ecumenical creeds will never be relegated to antiquity. According to the motto, “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesi- astes 1:1), they may be used as an important yardstick to address con- temporary questions and problems which are often not so new after all, but mere repristinations of former old heresies. This advice applies in particular to young churches in the mission field who may be relieved in having these creeds in their pos- session to combat new controver- sies on the Triune God. But, we too, must include the creeds in the per- sonal expression of our faith as we continue to seek answers to the question, “Who do you say I am?” The most apparent evidence of our commitment to the creeds, apart from having received them into the Book of Concord, is that they are given a special seat in the liturgy of our church. The Apostles’ Creed is confessed most often in the worship service be it at baptism or after the reading of the Gospel. The Nicene Creed is reserved for important church festivals or Sundays. Unfortunately, the Athanasian Creed has been rele- gated to near obscurity. Though hard- ly confessed in the church, it fortu- nately has found a special seat in Trinity Sunday with which the lengthy Trinity season begins. This shows that the creeds are still very much in use today. Their important seat in the liturgy of the Christian church has always included their value for pre-baptismal catechetical instruction and confirmation. The Creeds Belong To Faith As Light Does To Fire In view of the creeds, two further rea- sons may justify their validity for today. There is the saying “the person who belongs to God also understands who God is” and that “a church with- out a past has no future.” The creeds, were for the Christians, a means to openly publicize their faith in the Tri- une God to the outside unbelieving Grecian and Roman worlds. Just as the quality of a trumpet depends on its clear sound, so too, our faith may keep nothing back of the truth about God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who has set us free. All Christians “are chosen to tell about the excellent qualities of God” (I Peter 2:9). In this way, our faith and the creeds belong together just as fire and light are inseparable from each other. May they again become for us a means of instructing our erring neighbors and enlightening the faith of the unbeliev- ers. The Rev. Dr. Detlev Schulz is Professor of Pastoral Ministry & Missions at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind. 7JANUARY 1999 It may be said the ecumenical creeds are once again successful attempts at finding answers to the fundamental question Jesus asked Peter, “Who do you say I am?” in a given context. Faith is never confessed in a vacuum, but relates to important events and challenges within a Christian’s life. ourFathersW By the Rev. Dr. Detlev Schulz