What We Believe
Part I: Why Christians Have Creeds
Many Christians recite the creeds every Sunday. Others encounter them only occasionally. Some have never said them at all. Yet for nearly two thousand years, the creeds have stood at the heart of Christian worship, teaching, and discipleship.
Unfortunately, we live in an age suspicious of creeds. One sometimes hears the phrase, “No creed but the Bible.” It sounds pious, but it misunderstands what a creed is and why the Church has always used them.
Before we examine the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed individually, we should begin with a more basic question:
What is a creed?
The word itself comes from the Latin credo, meaning “I believe.”
A creed is simply a statement of faith. It is a summary of what Christians believe about God, Christ, salvation, the Church, and the world to come. It is not Scripture. It does not replace Scripture. Rather, it serves as a concise summary of what Scripture teaches.
Think of it this way. If someone were to ask you what Christianity teaches, you could hand them a Bible and say, “Read this.” That would be true enough, but it would not be especially helpful. The Bible contains sixty-six books, written over centuries, by numerous authors, covering history, poetry, prophecy, doctrine, and more.
The creeds provide a map.
They summarize the essential teachings found throughout Scripture and place them in a form that can be learned, memorized, taught, and confessed.
The creeds are not additions to the faith. They are summaries of the faith.
Why Did the Church Create Creeds?
The earliest Christians did not possess complete New Testaments as we do today. Many believers could not read. Copies of Scripture were precious and rare. Yet the Church still needed to teach new converts.
From the beginning, Christians summarized their faith.
The Apostle Paul refers to what scholars often call “creedal material” when he writes:
“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, NKJV)
Notice the language: I received and I delivered.
Paul is passing along an established summary of Christian belief.
Similarly, candidates preparing for baptism were taught the essentials of the faith before entering the Church. Over time, these summaries became more formalized. Eventually, they developed into the creeds we know today.
The creeds arose because the Church needed a clear answer to a simple question:
“What do Christians believe?”
Why Not Just Use the Bible?
Of course we should use the Bible. Christians should read it, study it, preach it, and obey it.
Yet even sincere people can misunderstand Scripture.
History demonstrates this repeatedly.
Nearly every major heresy in Church history appealed to the Bible.
The Arians quoted Scripture.
The Gnostics quoted Scripture.
The Modalists quoted Scripture.
The Nestorians quoted Scripture.
The problem was never whether they possessed verses. The problem was how they interpreted them.
The creeds developed as guardrails. They helped the Church distinguish faithful interpretation from false teaching.
When someone claimed that Jesus was merely a created being, the Church responded through the Nicene Creed.
When confusion arose regarding the Trinity and the Incarnation, the Church responded through the Athanasian Creed.
The creeds do not stand above Scripture. They stand beneath Scripture as faithful summaries of its teaching.
The Three Great Creeds
The Anglican tradition recognizes three historic creeds.
The Apostles’ Creed
The Apostles’ Creed is the oldest and simplest of the three.
Though not written directly by the Apostles themselves, it reflects the faith taught by the Apostolic Church. For centuries it has been used in baptism and daily prayer.
It answers the question:
What do Christians believe?
The Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed emerged from the great theological battles of the fourth century, particularly the controversy surrounding the divinity of Christ.
It affirms that Jesus Christ is truly God, equal with the Father, and not a created being.
It answers the question:
Who is Jesus Christ?
The Athanasian Creed
The Athanasian Creed is the most detailed and theological of the three.
It carefully explains the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, protecting the Church from numerous errors that had arisen over the centuries.
It answers the question:
How do Christians understand God?
Why They Still Matter
Some people assume creeds belong to a distant age. They imagine that modern Christians have moved beyond such concerns.
The opposite is true.
The questions that produced the creeds have never disappeared.
Who is Jesus?
Is He truly God?
Is the Holy Spirit divine?
What is the Trinity?
What is salvation?
What is the Church?
Every generation must answer these questions.
The modern world has not produced fewer errors than the ancient world. If anything, it has produced more. The need for clear teaching remains as urgent as ever.
The creeds remind us that Christianity is not a religion we invent for ourselves. It is a faith we receive. We stand in continuity with the saints, martyrs, bishops, pastors, and ordinary believers who have confessed these truths for centuries.
When we recite the creeds, we are not merely repeating words.
We are joining our voices to the Church throughout time and across the world.
The Faith Once Delivered
The creeds are not relics gathering dust in old prayer books. They are living confessions of a living faith.
They remind us that Christianity is rooted in history, grounded in truth, and centered upon the person of Jesus Christ.
In the weeks ahead, we will examine each of the three great creeds individually. We will explore where they came from, what they teach, and why they remain essential for Christians today.
For now, it is enough to remember this:
The creeds do not replace Scripture.
They point us back to it.
They do not compete with the Word of God.
They proclaim what the Church has always believed that Word to mean.
And in an age of confusion, that may be more important than ever.
All I heard growing up was “No creed but Christ”. No elaboration. It was meant to silence questions.
This is great! I am looking forward to your further discussion. I love the creeds and have had the opportunity of teaching the Apostles’ creed and Athanasian creed in church. Rufinus, in his commentary on the Apostles’ Creed (c. 409 AD) states that the purpose of the creed is to ensure that as the Gospel is proclaimed in all the world the same word is being taught. He does think that it was written by the Apostles, but even so I think he is right about the purpose. He wrote at a time when the creed was not in its final form. Interestingly, the version that he cites for his region adds to the article about God the Father, “invisible and impassible.” He thinks this may have been addressing a particular heresy.