“In the beginning …” Genesis 1:1

As I’ve previously stated, the purpose of this blog is to attempt to explain Christianity in everyday, common sense language.  The goal is to make Christianity and its core tenets more accessible to the layperson (i.e. those of us who aren’t Pastors), and to help us all understand how we can live better lives by observing Jesus’ teachings and our daily application of basic Christian Beliefs.

So, to start with, what is a “Christian?”  A “Christian” is a person who professes to believe in the existence, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, and who attempts to live by the tenets of His preaching.  It’s that simple!

A number of theologians, church dignitaries, or even just plain “Christians” may take issue with this definition because there is actually a LOT more to living as a practicing Christian than this simple statement may indicate.  However, Christ himself said that the only requirement to become one of His followers was to, “believe in and follow Me.”

“Christian” and “Christianity” were not designations that Jesus came up with.  They simply evolved out of the practice of learning about and attempting to follow His teachings after he was no longer physically present on the Earth.  People needed a way to describe their faith and their following of that faith in succinct and clear terms.  Hence the name for those who follow Him = Christians, and the name for the religion that He founded = Christianity.

So, now that we understand who Christians are, what do Christians believe?  The answer to that question is a bit more complicated.  Each of us is tasked with developing our own relationship with God and for interpreting how we are to live into that relationship according to God’s revelations to us, wisdom presented in Scripture, and insights gleaned from Jesus’ teachings.   As a result, we all must decide for ourselves what and whether to believe … anything.

For the majority of those professing to be “Christians,” the core beliefs of their religion are generally agreed to be summarized in the Apostle’s Creed, which began to be used in many churches sometime after 700 AD.  The Apostle’s Creed seems to have been derived from the even older “Old Roman Creed” which began to come into general use in the late Second Century AD (the “100’s”).  Until that time each church or gathering group of Christians was left to its own devices for describing exactly what they believed.  As I’m sure you can imagine, there were as many statements of beliefs (or “Creeds”) as there were congregations, so basic tenets of “Christianity” could differ greatly from one congregation to the next.  It quickly began to become apparent that some sort of ‘standard’ expression of beliefs needed to be agreed to so that people could understand what was meant when someone said that they were a Christian.  The Old Roman Creed evolved out of this need and is quoted below.

The Old Roman Creed (circa 180 AD)

I believe in God the Father almighty; and in Christ Jesus His only Son, our Lord,
Who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,
Who under Pontius Pilate was crucified and buried,
on the third day rose again from the dead,
ascended to heaven,
sits at the right hand of the Father,
whence He will come to judge the living and the dead;
and in the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Church,
the remission of sins,
the resurrection of the flesh
the life everlasting.

We know that there were both Latin and Greek versions and they were nearly identical.  The only difference between them of significance is the inclusion of the last line, “the life everlasting”, in the Greek version, while the Latin version omits it.  The Old Roman Creed was used in various forms for centuries but by the early 700’s had morphed into the Apostles Creed, much as we know it today.

The Apostles Creed (circa 700 AD)

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 dead and buried.

The third day He arose from the dead; he ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.  From thence He shall to come to judge the Quick and the Dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

We can get into the differences between the two Creeds (or statements of belief) some other time.  For now, let’s concentrate on where they agree.

1. They both say that there is a “God;” that He is “the Father” and that He is “almighty.” In other words, a belief in God is required, and that He is the progenitor of all things (“the Father”), and that He is All-Powerful, or the Supreme Power in the Universe.
2. The second point of agreement is in the belief in “Christ Jesus” or “Jesus Christ,” “His (God’s) only Son, our Lord.” Here they are saying that the Christian also believes in the fact of Jesus’ existence, that He was God’s only begotten Son on Earth, and that the Christian recognizes Jesus as “Lord” or the person who is “over” him and to whom he owes his allegiance.
3. They again agree when they assert that Jesus was born from the union of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. Here, the believer asserts that there is such an entity as the “Holy Spirit” and that it was He who was responsible for impregnating Mary, the mother of Jesus.  Also, the believer is expressing his belief in the fact that Mary was a virgin at the time of conception and Jesus’ birth, meaning that she’d not had sexual congress with any living man prior to her conceiving.
4. That Jesus was tried before the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate; that Pilate allowed him to be crucified; that He died on the cross and was buried; that three days later He arose from the dead to a new life; and He subsequently left Earth to dwell in Heaven.
5. That He is now in Heaven with the Father and that He will judge the quality of the life each of us has lived in accordance to His teachings.
6. They both express belief in the Holy Spirit; in the Holy Church; the forgiveness/remission of our sins while alive; the resurrection of Christ’s body; and that everlasting life is available to believers.

It is worth noting that the “Catholic” church mentioned in the Apostle’s Creed does not refer to the Catholic Church denomination we have today.  The word “Catholic” was meant to be inclusive of ALL Christian churches, of any denomination either then existing or thereafter formed.

The main difference between the two Creeds is that the Apostle’s Creed is a bit more ‘expansive’ in some of its language, presumably to clarify meanings and points of theology.  The “Communion of Saints” is new to the Apostle’s Creed and we’ll explore this point in a later post.

So now, we all have at least a basic or starting point for understanding what it means when one says that he is a “Christian.”  Future posts will focus on what the basic expressions of belief incorporated in the Apostle’s Creed mean (or could mean).

Until then, I invite you to respond to this post.  Give me your thoughts, questions about what we’ve covered thus far, or criticisms regarding the information presented.  Your suggestions for future postings would also be appreciated.  My hope is that we can use this space to generate some new thoughts, meaningful dialogue, and new insights into our mutual journeys to find and relate to God.

Please note that your comments, questions, concerns or other communications will likely be shared with other readers, so please keep your messages clean, considerate and mindful that others (including God) will be hearing what you have to say.

Thank you for your attention and participation as we make this journey together.

Richard

June 14, 2018