Original subtitles

we believe in God the Father Almighty

maker of heaven and earth so begins what

is universally called the Apostles Creed

strictly speaking it was not formulated

by the Apostles it emerges in the second

century but what is meant by the

Apostles Creed is not that the Apostles

formulated that exact expression but

that the summary of what is given in the

Creed reflects the doctrine of the

Apostles the doctrine of the New

Testament in summary form it's a it's an

early Christian confession but it is so

early and has been used so widely across

Christian denominations all around the

world that it is one of the rare things

that unites all Christians in common

belief if you read it through carefully

and slowly you'll see there's explicit

mention of the Father and of the Son and

of the Holy Spirit of creation of the

virgin birth the coming of Christ is

rising from the dead who Christians are

what it means to have the Holy Spirit

working within us and so forth all in

very brief compass in words that

millions and millions of Christians have

either memorized or recite every Sunday

or sometimes use as part of their

private devotions one of the things

that's important to remember is that

Creed's are sometimes shaped at least in

part by the era in which they were

formulated not because the Bible changes

but because the questions that we ask of

the Bible changed just a wee bit from

time to time so that there are other

creedal statements for example that are

made at the time of the Reformation in

the 16th century that ask and answer

slightly different questions but this

one is regularly said by Christians all

around the world because it was so early

that it was used before a lot of the

later doctrinal important doctrinal

divisions set in and within this

framework it very ably summarizes the

gospel itself in in just a few sentences

in some ways it reminds me of a kind of

2nd century attempts to recapitulate

what you read for

in the opening verses of first

Corinthians 15 which again is is a very

simple Creed what is the gospel paul

asks well first christ died for our sins

according to the scriptures and then

various things are added and added and

added until you get a summary of the

great good news and its content that God

in the fullness of time sent forth his

son to die on the cross rise from the

dead and and bring to himself a vast

number of the people that Paul calls the

new humanity so when you gather for

public worship on the Lord's Day

remember that behind the mere words on

the page as you recite the Creed there

is 2,000 years of Christian history

there is linking of Christians across

cultures and languages and space and

time as together Christians say we

believe in God the Father Almighty maker

of heaven and earth