What we believe:
The Apostles Creed
Everything we believe finds it root in scripture. This is because we believe that the Bible is the infallible word of God, meaning that it is not corrupted and is exactly how God intended it to be put together. Of course the bible is a long book so throughout the church there has been a number of shortened statements of faith produced, based on the teachings of the Bible. Here we have used one of the earliest and most used creeds to sum up what we believe: The Apostles Creed.
"I believe"
The word creed comes from the latin word credo which basically means ‘I believe.’ Whether we believe in fairies or monsters under the bed, its important to believe in something. Even people believe we shouldn’t have a creed, have a creed in saying that! Below is what we as the church globally, past present and future, believe in.
"In God the Father, Almighty"
The first thing we affirm is belief in God, and like your parents who made you, God the Father, created everything, including us! That’s why the creed goes onto say that he is ‘maker of heaven and earth.’ Everything that happens is because he wills it, because he is all-powerful (omnipotent) and all knowing (omniscient) or to sum these up - Almighty! We also call him Father as a distinguishing title as one of the persons of the trinity. The trinity is how we describe God; three distinct persons in one God. All fully God, distinct from each other, and one God.
"In Jesus Christ, His son"
The second thing we proclaim is belief in Jesus Christ. While it may look like a second name, Christ is actually his title, and it means messiah or chosen one. God, to show that he is worthy to be worshiped, sent his son (who is also God) to die for the sins of those who would come to follow him on the cross.
He was not born by human conception, but given to Mary, by the Holy Spirit! (the third member of the trinity) He ministered for three years, fufulling and correcting all the teaching of the Jewish people from the Old Testament, proving to many that he was the Messiah. He was tried as a revolutionary by the Romans, and this is recorded in history and is why we say he ‘suffered under Pontius Pilate!’
He was hung on a cross, and died as a ransom for the sins of many, and was buried in a borrowed tomb, but it didn’t just end there. On the third day he rose from the dead and ministered to his disciples before going to be with the Father, until he will come again to judge all creation past, present and future. He also the Holy Spirit to dwell within believers until his return, to mould us into who we were created to be.
"In the Holy Spirit"
The third part of the trinity, yet fully God. The Holy Spirit dwells within followers of Christ Jesus, and is sometimes described a little bit like a conscience. He moulds us into what God intends us to be, an image bearer of Jesus. We can see the out-workings of the Holy Spirit in a number of ways, and these are listed in the creed.
We see in the ‘one holy catholic’ church. By one we mean there is one body of believers, by holy we mean set apart for God’s purposes, by catholic we mean unified from early believers to today, and by church we mean the people, the followers of Jesus!
We also see this in the ‘communion of saints.’ This means the bond of all believers both living dead and those yet to even be born under common belief!
Similarly this is the case for the ‘forgiveness of sins’. Sin in its most basic definition is separation from God, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a clear sign of the reconciliation between God and Man, through our justification (just as if I had never sinned), which was achieved by Jesus on the cross.