Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Apostles' Creed thoughts

The Apostles' Creed is possibly the best recognised concise statement of Christian belief.

I first learnt this version while at CEBS in the mid 1960s:

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.
He descended into hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father
Almighty;
From there he shall come to judge the living 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. [Amen]

Although as I was writing this, I almost said to myself at line 13 "From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead" so perhaps the Book of Common Prayer version was the first I learnt. However, the one above is my favourite, but the more modern version at line 8 is probably 'more better':
"He descended to the dead". "hell" is possibly defensible from some scripture, but that Jesus said to the penitent thief would be in paradise with him 'today' (Luke 23:43) suggests otherwise.

I also wonder if we might insert a new line after 9, being:
"and was seen by many."

This makes sure we understand that Yeshua's resurrected self was witnessed in our historical time-space and he was in fellowship with his disciples. I would also use 'universal' instead of 'catholic' to avoid modern confusion with the denomination. Nevertheless, I love the pace and cadence of the Australian Anglican Prayer Book version and so would vary it thus:

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.
He descended to the dead.
The third day he rose again from the dead
and was seen by many.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From there he shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit;
the holy universal church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.

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