The creeds

The Apostles' Creed Explained

The Apostles' Creed is the oldest and simplest summary of the Christian faith, a confession in three parts about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. To be honest about its name, the apostles did not sit down and write it personally; it grew out of the questions asked at baptism in the early church and took its final form over several centuries. It is called apostolic because it faithfully summarizes the faith the apostles handed down.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism,Ephesians 4:5 (KJV)

What the Apostles' Creed is

The Apostles' Creed is a short confession of faith, structured in three movements. The first confesses God the Father, the Maker of heaven and earth. The second, and by far the longest, confesses Jesus Christ his Son: conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, dead and buried, risen, ascended, and coming again. The third confesses the Holy Spirit and the blessings that flow from him: the church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.

It is a creed you can hold in your hand and say in a minute, yet it holds the whole story of God, from creation to the life of the world to come. For this reason it has been the first thing taught to new believers and children for many centuries, the trellis on which the whole of the Christian faith is trained.

An honest word about its name

A legend from the Middle Ages held that the twelve apostles composed the creed together on the day of Pentecost, each contributing one of its clauses. It is a beautiful picture, but it is not history, and no serious scholar in any tradition holds it today. The apostles did not write this creed with their own hands.

What is true is more interesting. The creed grew from the Old Roman Symbol, a baptismal confession used in the church at Rome by the second century, itself rooted in the questions Jesus commanded be asked when he sent his disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Over the following centuries the wording was gently expanded, and the received text we say today settled in the West by about the eighth century. It is called the Apostles' Creed not because the apostles penned it, but because every line is a faithful summary of the faith they preached and passed on.

Why a summary was needed

In the earliest centuries the church had no printed Bibles to hand a new convert, and it faced a stream of teachers who twisted the faith. Some said the God who made the world was a lesser or evil god, not the Father of Jesus. Some said Christ only seemed to have a body and did not really suffer. Some denied that the dead would rise. A believer needed a reliable summary to be baptized into and to measure teaching against.

The Apostles' Creed answers each of these errors quietly and firmly. It insists that the one God is the Maker of heaven and earth, that his Son was really born, really suffered under a datable Roman governor, really died, was really buried, and really rose in the body, and that our bodies too will rise. Every clause was hammered on the anvil of a real controversy, which is why the creed is so spare and so strong.

How the creed points to Christ

Notice where the weight of the creed falls. The lines about the Father and the Spirit are brief; the lines about Jesus are many. The creed spends most of its words tracing his life, from the manger to the cross to the empty tomb to the throne to his return, because the whole faith turns on him. To confess the creed is to tell the story of Jesus and to stake your life on it.

This is why the creed is not dry doctrine but living confession. Paul told the Ephesians there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; the Apostles' Creed is that one faith, said in order. When you learn it, you are not memorizing a formula. You are learning to tell, in the church's oldest words, the good news that God the Father sent his Son to be born, to die, and to rise for you, and to pour out his Spirit so that you might belong to him forever.

The three articles and the shape of baptism

The structure of the Apostles' Creed is not accidental; it follows the pattern Jesus gave. When he sent his disciples to make disciples of all nations, he told them to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The creed is built on that threefold name, one article for each person of the one God, which is why it is sometimes called the trinitarian rule of faith.

This shape comes straight from the baptismal font. In the early church, those being baptized were asked three questions as they stood in the water: Do you believe in God the Father Almighty? Do you believe in Jesus Christ his Son? Do you believe in the Holy Spirit? To each they answered, I believe, and were baptized. The creed is the fruit of those three questions, gathered from a dialogue into a single confession.

Seeing this shape helps the whole creed make sense. It is not a random list of beliefs but the confession of a person entering the family of the Triune God. When you say it, you are answering, in effect, the same questions the church has asked its newest members for nearly two thousand years, and taking your place among the baptized who belong to the Father through the Son in the Spirit.

What it means for us

The Apostles' Creed is a gift for ordinary faith. It is short enough to say at a bedside or a graveside, plain enough for a child, and deep enough for a lifetime. Millions have died with its words on their lips, and millions have been welcomed into the family of God by confessing it at their baptism.

You do not need to master theology to begin. You can start where the church has always started, by saying I believe, and letting each clause lead you to the Lord it describes. The creed is a map, and the destination is a person. Come and see the Jesus at the center of every line.

For all its age, the Apostles' Creed is not a museum piece but a living confession, still said at fonts and gravesides, in prisons and cathedrals, in a thousand languages every week. When you learn it, you are handed a lamp that has been passed from believer to believer for nearly two thousand years, and it still lights the same path home. Say it slowly. Let each clause become a small window onto the Lord it describes, until the summary gives way to the Savior himself. The creed has done its work not when you can recite it but when it has led you to trust and follow the Jesus at its heart, and to take your place among the countless who have confessed him before you and will confess him still. Learn it by heart, love it, and let it carry you all the way home to the Lord it was written to reveal, who is waiting to be known.

A note for all traditions: the creeds are not a fourth authority above Scripture but a faithful summary of it. Christians hold them in different ways, some reciting them weekly in worship and others rarely, yet the faith they confess is broadly shared across the church. Where believers differ on secondary matters, the creeds mark the ancient center that unites us: one God, and one Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.

Related: What are the creeds? · I believe in God the Father Almighty · The Nicene Creed explained · The Christian creeds