Article 08

The three Creeds

“The three creeds, the Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed, and that known as the Apostles’ Creed, ought to be wholeheartedly accepted and believed. This is because their contents may be proved by definite statements of holy Scripture.”

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G. K. Chesterton once famously said, “When a man does not believe in God, he does not believe in nothing; he believes in anything!” Everybody is a believer; everybody believes in something. Christians, Buddhists, atheists and agnostics all believe and often believe passionately, but the object of their belief can be very different and often mutually exclusive. It is a truism to say that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, but all serious thinkers must ask themselves: Where do my beliefs come from? Are they true?

Anyone who has attended an Anglican service will know that one of the integral parts of the service is the Creed. The word comes from the Latin ‘credo’, which means, ‘I believe’ – and, indeed, the Apostles’ Creed begins with these words. Each of the three creeds found in the Book of Common Prayer is a concise summary of what Christians believe about God – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is wholly appropriate that when Christians meet together that they should remind themselves of these crucial beliefs by reading the Creed aloud together.

If this set of beliefs is so fundamental to Christians, it is important that we know from where they originate. Would it be wise to base one’s life on beliefs that some other human being just thought up and put together? The tenets contained in the Creed may have become overly familiar to some, but they make extraordinary claims about God and his mission to rescue us. Why should we accept them as the truth? The 39 Articles give the answer: “The three creeds… ought to be wholeheartedly accepted and believed. This is because their contents may be proved by definite statements of holy Scripture.”

We do not base our faith on beliefs plucked out of thin air or dreamed up by humans, but on facts revealed to us by God through his word, the Bible. The Creed contains nothing which is not clearly stated in the Bible – and Christians believe that through the Bible, God himself speaks.