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    Five Ancient Creeds
    Five Ancient Creeds
    Five Ancient Creeds
    Ebook277 pages4 hours

    Five Ancient Creeds

    By Edwin Walhout

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    About this ebook

    Exploring the significance of five ancient confessions. A good place to start if you are wondering what happened to Christian thinking when it transitioned out of its Hebrew birthplace into the hostile Greco-Roman environment.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEdwin Walhout
    Release dateJan 29, 2011
    ISBN9781458105196
    Five Ancient Creeds
    Author

    Edwin Walhout

    I am a retired minister of the Christian Reformed Church, living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Being retired from professional life, I am now free to explore theology without the constraints of ecclesiastical loyalties. You will be challenged by the ebooks I am supplying on Smashwords.

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      Book preview

      Five Ancient Creeds - Edwin Walhout

      A Pastoral and Theological Critique of

      FIVE ANCIENT CREEDS

      The Apostles’ Creed

      The Nicene Creed

      The Formula of Chalcedon

      The Third Council of Constantinople

      The Athanasian Creed

      by Edwin Walhout

      Published by Edwin Walhout

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2010 Edwin Walhout

      Cover design by Amy Cole (amy.cole@comcast.net)

      See Smashwords.com for additional titles by this author.

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      * * * * *

      THE APOSTLES’ CREED

      A Pastoral and Theological Analysis

      CONTENTS

      1 Profile

      2 God

      3 Creation

      4 Providence

      5 Jesus Christ

      6 Son and Lord

      7 Conception and Birth

      8 Ministry

      9 Crucifixion

      10 Hell

      11 Resurrection

      12 Ascension

      13 Judgment

      14 The Spirit of Jesus

      15 The Church

      16 Forgiveness

      17 Resurrection of the Body

      18 Everlasting Life

      1

      PROFILE

      The Baptismal Formula

      The profile of the Apostles’ Creed is trinitarian, that is, the creed is structured in three divisions. There is, arguably, no better definition of the doctrine of Trinity than the Apostles’ Creed. That definition is (or at least ought to be!) the classic and definitive articulation of the doctrine of Trinity.

      There is no explicit doctrine of Trinity in the Bible, so why did the ancient church come up with such a teaching? Williston Walker is surely correct when he answers that the Apostles’ Creed is an explication of the baptismal formula of Matthew 28:19. (W. Walker, A History of the Christian Church, New York, Scribners, 1922, p. 61) The Great Commission, as that passage of Matthew’s Gospel is called, is the main instance when the three elements of the doctrine of Trinity are mentioned together, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

      Why did Jesus instruct his disciples to baptize people in three names? Would it not be sufficient to baptize them in the name of God, for example? Or, since this is a Christian sacrament, why not simply baptize people into the name of Jesus? Why would anyone want to be baptized into the name of the Holy Spirit? So, why three? It will be instructive to examine this question more closely.

      Obviously Jesus is telling his disciples that it is not enough to believe in the Father. One must also believe in Jesus. And also believe in the Holy Spirit. But why?

      The Greco-Roman world, in which the Apostles’ Creed originated, had no notion of one Creator God. They did have dozens of gods in their pantheon, each of them considered to be in charge of one or more aspects of nature and life. However, the Hebrew-Christian gospel comes with an insistence that there is only one God, and that this God not only created the entire universe, but that he is in charge of the entire process of nature and history as well. That is where the Christian message begins. Baptism in the name of the Father captures this insight.

      But it is not enough. There is the matter of sin and evil. Sin destroys the goodness of the human race. So, in the process of human history God has been slowly working out his purpose of bringing the human race to the point where it freely and voluntarily chooses to create a godly civilization. The process began with Abraham, continued with Isaac and Jacob. Then with Moses and the beginning of the holy nation, Israel. Eventually then through David and the subsequent kings, prophets, and priests to the coming of Jesus in the fulness of the times. The purpose of Jesus is to take away the sin of the world, to establish the kingdom of God instead. So it is necessary to see the purpose of the Creator God being effectuated by Jesus, crucified indeed as a common criminal, but raised from the dead by the power of the Creator God. Hence, when a person so believes, he is baptized in the name of Jesus as well as in the name of God the Father.

      But, interestingly, that still is not enough. Baptism must have a third party, the Holy Spirit. Why? Because what one believes in one’s mind must then control one’s behavior. Or, to use Biblical language, the new covenant in Jesus’ blood must be written on hearts of flesh, not merely on tables of stone as in the old covenant. It is possible, it seems, that a person could believe in God the creator, in Jesus as savior, but not let this confession dominate his life. He could, for example, continue to use shady business tactics, entertain sexual fantasies and pornography, hold grudges against others, be proud and haughty, use foul language, cheat on school tests and on income tax returns, undermine the reputation of others. So, to be baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit carries with it the reality of repentance, conversion, sanctification, the development of an inner holiness that changes the tone of one’s life. This is why the third item in baptism is required. Faith must be carried over into the transformation of one’s behavior, and this is the function of the Holy Spirit.

      So that is why the Apostles’ Creed, building on the Great Commission, is structured in these three divisions. Visualize a new convert coming to the church and asking for baptism. The elders ask, Do you believe in God? The postulant replies, Yes, I believe in God who created the heavens and the earth. Then the elders ask, Do you believe in Jesus? The supplicant says, Yes, I believe in Jesus, born of Mary, crucified, risen from the dead, ascended into heaven. And then the elders ask, Do you believe in the Holy Spirit? The convert replies, Yes indeed, I know my sins are forgiven; I experience the new life of the Spirit within me; and I want to be a part of the Christian church. Thus the elders lead the new believer through the trinitarian structure of faith, and the new church member is pleased to respond in faith and join the body of believers by receiving the sacramental sign of baptism.

      Baptism, accordingly, is not merely the sacrament of water baptism. It is that, to be sure, but it is much more. It is baptism in the Spirit. The actual creation of faith in the heart and life of a person is the real baptism of which water baptism becomes the sign. Water baptism without that prior accompanying spiritual conversion means little or nothing. It is in this context that the entire Apostles’ Creed should be read.

      The Sacrament of Entrance

      Accordingly, when we think of baptism we must by all means keep it down to earth. That is, make sure that it has clear and definite meaning within the ordinary concerns of daily life. Baptism is not a sacrament that points to something esoteric or noumenal, to events in some other dimension of existence. It is a sacrament that points to something real happening in the earthly life of a person, something that happens in a person’s psyche and is demonstrated in the changed life that ensues.

      For adults, baptism points to what God has done to bring about conversion, namely faith in Jesus that gradually transforms a person’s thinking and behavior. For infants and children the heart of baptism is the same. Already at birth God begins to work in the life of the baby born into a Christian home. From the very earliest moments of life such a Christian child receives the powerful inner guidance of the gospel of Jesus Christ through parental nurture.

      So, in both cases, adults and children, water baptism signifies the same thing: that God is working in that person’s life to bring about a sanctification of personality and character. Water baptism is a sacrament, thus, of entrance into the kingdom of God. When God draws a person, at whatever age, into the embrace of his church, of his people, into the community of saints, then baptism is administered, for it is then that the Spirit of Jesus begins his work of conquering sin in that person’s life.

      Accordingly, when it is said that the Apostles’ Creed is an explication of Christ’s baptismal command, we should bear in mind that the creed is talking about real life, not about some ethereal esoteric abstract magical event.

      Gnosticism

      The Apostles’ Creed, as we now have it, has a history. Apparently it developed in ancient Rome as a means for defining authentic Christian faith as opposed to a variety of heretical formulations.

      The Apostles’ Creed is an explicit repudiation of Gnosticism. Gnosticism (from gnosis, knowledge) is a kind of offshoot from the Platonic theory of Ideas. Plato taught that truth is found in Ideas, not in Matter. Any given object in the world is a combination of Matter and Idea. If you want to know anything you have to strip off its Matter, and what is left is Idea. If, for example, you strip off all the Matter of a tulip, what do you have left? Just the Idea of a tulip, that’s all.

      For Plato an Idea is not simply a memory in our minds, but a self-existing entity. There is, so to speak, a realm of Ideas off somewhere by itself, where all Ideas reside. These Ideas become entangled somehow with Matter, and thus become tangible objects of some kind in our world. But you have to penetrate beyond Matter if you are going to understand truth. You have to get at the Idea in anything and everything, and then put these Ideas together in a logical way.

      Now Gnosticism, pursuing that line of thought, went so far as to affirm that Matter in itself is evil, and contrariwise, that Idea is good. Any object, including a human person, is thus a combination of good and evil. Our bodies are evil, our minds are good. What is left of us when we die, that is, when our bodies are stripped off, is the Idea of a person, of me or of you. The real me is what is left after my body is dead. The real me, my Mind or Soul or Idea, continues on, unencumbered by the evil body. Gnosticism, then, is the belief that what is important in life is how we think, not how we live; what we believe in our minds, not what we do with our bodies.

      Some of this thinking influenced Christian theology. There were a few ancient thinkers who insisted the body of Jesus was not real. How could it be, since all Matter is evil? Jesus cannot be evil. His physical appearance was an illusion. So his birth as a baby was an illusion. His death on the cross likewise did not happen (Jesus changed himself the last minute to look like Simon of Cyrene, who carried the cross, so that it was Simon who was crucified not Jesus!). So everything about Jesus that implies a true body, and in that sense authentic humanity, was expunged from Christian faith by these Gnostic Christians.

      The Apostles’ Creed counteracts that tendency in ancient thinking. It begins by insisting that God the Father did indeed actually create Matter, the heavens and the earth. Then it goes on at length to insist that the physical aspects of Jesus’ life are genuine aspects of Christian faith. And it also affirms that it is in us as material, physical Christian people that the Spirit works to shape us into a holy catholic church.

      Accordingly, we need to understand that the Apostles’ Creed emerged in a definite philosophical setting, specifically as a repudiation of Gnosticism. The Creed supplies a reasonable and authentic alternative to the philosophy that matter is evil.

      The Old Roman Creed

      The Apostles’ Creed was never formally defined or adopted by an official decision of the ancient church, though it was accepted by all western churches (not the eastern churches, who use the Nicene Creed). Apparently it is still uncertain just how the Creed developed into the form we know today. It is, however, likely that it is the product of the church in Rome during the second, third and fourth centuries. Various early creeds have survived from those centuries, and it is likely that they are the precursors of our received text.

      According to H. Bettensen, the complete Apostles’ Creed as we now know it is found first in a medieval document dating back to c. 750. (Henry Bettensen, Documents of the Christian Church, New York, Oxford University Press, 1947, p. 35) The affirmation that Jesus descended into hell appears to have been the latest addition to the creed.

      Here is a version, called the Old Roman Creed, which dates back to about 340:

      1. I believe in God almighty

      2. And in Christ Jesus, his only son, our Lord

      3. Who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary

      4. Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried

      5. And the third day rose from the dead

      6. Who ascended into heaven

      7. And sitteth on the right hand of the Father

      8. Whence he cometh to judge the living and the dead.

      9. And in the Holy Ghost

      10. The holy church

      11. The remission of sins

      12. The resurrection of the flesh

      13. The life everlasting. (Bettenson, p. 34)

      Since it is likely that this is the baptismal creed utilized in the church of Rome, we may conclude that this is a summary of the faith that a person was required to confess before becoming eligible for baptism.

      You will note that this Old Roman Creed does not mention the creation of the world by God the Father, nor that Jesus descended into hell. In addition, notice that in Article 8 the present tense is used rather than the future tense, Whence he cometh to judge the living and the dead. The word catholic is not found in Article 10, nor is the communion of saints. We will return to these items in the discussions that follow.

      2

      God

      I believe in God, the Father Almighty.

      Elohim

      The ancient Canaanites, among whom the early Israelites were living, had a word for God, namely El. El was regarded as the High God, the highest among a whole family of gods, the ruling god comparable to the Greek Zeus or the Roman Jupiter. The word describing that entire family was Elohim, the plural of EL. This term for God is used extensively in the Old Testament, in names like Bethel, Daniel, Ezekiel, Elkanah, Elijah.

      In Genesis 1 the word Elohim is used to describe God as the Creator, In the beginning ELOHIM created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1) We may wonder why this word, with its polytheistic overtones, was used. We would not like to say, In the beginning the gods created the heavens and the earth. On the other hand, that is an exact translation.

      It is clear enough that the book of Genesis was written piecemeal, not as one whole complete document. It was not as if Moses sat down and spent a year or so composing the book as we have it now in the Bible. For example, several segments of Genesis do not use the term El or Elohim to refer to God, but use the term Yahweh, as for example in Genesis 2. The same author would not use Elohim in chapter 1 and then switch to Yahweh in the very next chapter.

      Rather, it seems reasonable enough to think the various stories in Genesis were written by different persons at different times, and then at some later date were assembled together into one book. There would have been numerous papyrus scrolls with one or more stories on each, all of them collected in the archives of the temple. Somebody in later Jewish history, perhaps someone like Ezra, would have taken all these separate scrolls, sorted them out in historical order, and made one book out of them.

      We can visualize Moses, well-educated and literate, perhaps now living with his father-in-law Jethro in the land of Midian. Moses is a thoughtful person, much concerned with the plight of his Hebrew brothers in Egypt, and he puts down his thoughts in writing, short articles, on a piece of papyrus. Eventually he has several papyri on different subjects. After he leads the people out of Egypt, he continues the process, recording many of the events that happen. Or perhaps he supervised the work of a few specialist scribes who recorded the events as they happened.

      Someone else, perhaps, in later years also puts down his wisdom on various matters, some of which may well parallel some of the things Moses has written. For example, what is now Genesis 2-4, the stories about Adam and Eve. The scrolls on which they are written may be stored in the same place Moses’ manuscripts are stored. Moses used the term Elohim, this other author used the term Yahweh, and after they were all sorted and arranged that is the way they both remain in our Bible.

      Yahweh

      This brings up an historical question that puzzles theologians yet today. When did the name Yahweh begin to be used among the Israelites? Whoever wrote the stories of Adam and Eve used the term Yahweh, but who was this author and when did he live? By that time the term Yahweh was obviously the name in use among the people of Israel, but when did that happen? That unknown author, in fact, writes, At that time men began to call on the name of the Lord (Yahweh). (Genesis 4:30) He is referring to the time of Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve. That is one possibility.

      Another possibility is that the name Yahweh began to be used by Abraham when he switched his allegiance from polytheism to monotheism. All the Abraham stories are written using the term Yahweh, for example, There Abram called upon the name of the Lord (Yahweh). (Genesis 13:4)

      Still another possibility is that the name Yahweh came to be the accepted name for God after the exodus, while the Israelites were camped at Mt. Sinai. Moses had insisted that God identify himself before he would be willing to confront Pharaoh. This is how the author reported this part of Moses’ argument with God at the burning bush, God (Elohim) said to Moses, Say to the Israelites, The Lord (Yahweh), the God of your fathers – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob – has sent me to you. This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation. (Exodus 3:15)

      Shortly after this, the author writes, God (Elohim) also said to Moses, I am the Lord (Yahweh). I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty (El Shaddai), but by my name the Lord (Yahweh) I did not make myself known to them. (Exodus 6:2-3) So a strong case could be made for the answer that the name Yahweh came into general use after the exodus.

      Though we cannot say for certain when the name began to be used, it seems that after the exodus the name Yahweh became the unique name of the God of Israel, and that the other references above suggest that the author(s) simply used the current name to describe events of an earlier time.

      It is of some value to understand the name Yahweh itself and to reflect on what it means. Scholars explain the term to mean I Am or I Am That I Am. This name, accordingly, points to the concept of existence. Who is Yahweh? He is the Existent One, He Who Is. I suppose every thinking person asks himself at one time or another, Is there really a God? Occasionally such a person answers himself, No, there is not, and becomes an atheist. But this Hebrew name for God, Yahweh, answers, Yes, there is a God, an existing Someone or Something. The most basic thing you can say about God is that he exists, that there is indeed a God. That is what the name Yahweh connotes. If nothing else exists at all, God does exist. He Is. I Am. Yahweh. It is with that affirmation that the Apostles’ Creed begins, and where every human person should begin. I believe in God.

      Monotheism

      For the times in which the Apostles’ Creed was developing, just

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