What is the Apostles' Creed?

The Apostles' Creed, as the church has it now, was composed at different times, and hardly any two churches had exactly the same one. "The Communion of Saints," for example, was added quite late; "the holy church" earlier; the word "Catholic" later still. The descent into hell was not in the Roman creed called the Apostles' at all... All the creeds are called apostolic, meaning they contain apostolic doctrine. What is now called the Apostles' Creed was the creed of the Roman church with one or two articles added.

Some have gone so far as to adopt not only the account of its composition by the apostles given by Rufinus, but also the later improvement on his improbable story — the one that decorates his fiction with a detailed description of the apostles, gathered to compose the Creed, each in turn speaking one of its clauses, Peter offering this, John contributing that, James adding that, and so on... Only of the Western Church, however, can this be said, for the Greek Church has been just as consistent in doubting the tradition, and in professing to know nothing of such a creed existing early on.

"This Creed is added here," declared the famous Westminster assembly, "not as though it were composed by the apostles, or ought to be regarded as canonical Scripture, like the ten commandments or the Lord's Prayer, but because it is a brief summary of the Christian faith, agreeable to the word of God, and anciently received in the churches of Christ." The important point in this claim for us is what is said about its agreement with the word of God. Its usefulness as a summary of Christian truth depends, needless to say, entirely on that.

Take the earliest and best, the so-called "apostles' creed;" its very first words directly contradict Scripture — "I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth." The Word ascribes creation to God, but when it speaks of the persons of the Godhead, while it does name the Spirit as taking part, and while it constantly attributes the work to the Son, the Father is never mentioned. It is of the "Word," that Scripture says "All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3).

There is not a trace in it that Christ is God; someone denying His deity could sign it as well as, or even better than, one who holds the fundamental truth of the Trinity of Persons in the unity of the Godhead. Is this not rather serious if it is to be the standard of faith? The Father is God and Almighty, and the Son and Holy Spirit are spoken of separately with no hint of divinity!

Where, in the Apostles' Creed (so called), do you find the gospel? "The forgiveness of sins" is an article of belief, no doubt; but how and when?... Practically, the belief of the times was in the efficacy of baptism, and forgiveness for sins committed afterwards was so painful and uncertain a matter that multitudes put off baptism until they were dying, so that the sins of a lifetime might be washed away together.

The truth is neither dependent on a creed for being clearly grasped and stated, nor does it have to be embodied that way before it can serve as a clear test... The very process of giving the truth a form — and we are only capable of a faulty expression of it — takes away from its truth and value. As one has said, "Supposing everything in it was right, it is like a made tree, instead of a growing tree." Any "declaration of the things most surely believed among us," however backed by tradition, must in the end give way to the inspired record itself.

The aged father was unable to follow him through all the tangles of his doubts, but repeated in his ear a sentence from the Apostles' Creed which had often given rest and comfort to himself: "I believe in the forgiveness of sins."... The monk reminded him that the belief must be personal and not general; that it was not enough to believe merely in the forgiveness of David's sins or of Peter's sins, but that there must be the appropriating faith which says, "my sins."