The Creed was first written in Latin and began with the Latin word credo, I believe, and from that we get the word Creed.  So the Creed means the Belief.

There are three Creeds altogether.  There is the Apostles’ Creed which is always said (either in full or a summary) at a Baptism or Christening when a person is made a Christian.  It is also said at the service of Evensong.  Then there is the Nicene Creed which we sing or say at the Eucharist.  It is called Nicene because it was originally drawn up in the year 325 AD by a council or meeting of bishops at a place called Nicaea in what is now Turkey.  Thirdly there is the Athanasian Creed which is named after a great saint, Athanasius, who was Bishop of Alexandria in Egypt.

These three Creeds all teach the same truths, though not quite in the same words.  Thus the Apostles’ Creed begins “I believe in God”, the Nicene “I believe in one God”.

At one time people thought that the Apostles’ Creed was put together in Jerusalem by the Apostles at the first Pentecost (Whitsunday).  However, we now know that it was written some years later and that the real reason why it is called after the Apostles is that it tells us in a few words what the Apostles taught.  It is a summary of Christian teaching and was actually drawn up so that converts to the Christian Faith could learn it off by heart before they were baptised.  That is why Baptisms today always include a declaration of Christian faith based on the Apostles’ Creed.

Believing and doing

At Baptism when people become members of the Christian Church, they are required to affirm that they believe the Christian Faith.  Adults do this for themselves; godparents and parents do it on behalf of babies.  So all Christian people are expected to believe the teachings of Christianity.  It would sound very odd if someone said “I’m a Christian, but I don’t believe what Christianity teaches”.  However, you will still find many people who say “It doesn’t matter what you believe, it’s what you do that counts”.  This is nonsense because what you do depends on what you believe.  For example, if people believe that it is a good thing to steal, they will take anything they can lay their hands on whenever they get the chance.  They will go on stealing until they change their beliefs about it.

In the same way, if you believe that God doesn’t mind whether you lead a good or a bad life, then very probably you won’t mind either.  But when you believe that God made you for his very own, loves you more than you can possibly imagine, and wants you to be pure and holy like himself so that you can live happily with him for ever when you die – when you believe that, then you will try and lead a good, Christian life.

Faith

The Creed means more than that, however.  It begins “I believe in God”, and that means not only that “I believe about God”, but “I put my trust in him, I have confidence in him”.

We may compare ourselves in this life with people climbing a snow-covered mountain.  The one who goes first is the guide and all the others follow in single file.  The guide knows the best and safest way to the top, and that is why the climbers trust him completely.  They are confident that as long as they follow him and do as he says, they will reach the summit.

So when we say in the Creed “I believe in God”, we mean “I take God as my Guide through life”.  And when we do that we may be sure that he will lead us safely through this world to the life beyond so that, when we come to die, we shall be with him still.

Belief in God, therefore, means both belief in the truths about God and also trust in God himself, and all of this is summed up in the one word ‘faith’.  Faith is something God gives us.  All the truths of the Christian religion are reasonable, otherwise they would not be true, but none of them are so obvious that they force us to believe them.  For example, it is a truth in arithmetic that two and two make four, and you cannot help believing that.  But the truths of the Christian religion (e.g. the truth that Jesus is God as well as Man) are different – they are not so obvious that they force us to believe them, although it can be shown that there are good reasons for doing so.

What happens is this.  We begin by deciding that these things are reasonable and that we ought therefore to accept them.  Then God gives us the gift of faith and we become certain that they are true, not just because they are reasonable but because it is God who had made them known to us.  In other words, faith is a gift from God by which we trust him and believe without doubt the truths he has revealed to us.  Coming to trust and believe in God doesn’t happen all at once – we all grow into our Christian faith and there may be times, especially if life is very difficult, when we simply say to God “I believe; help my unbelief” (NRSV, Mark 9:24).

SUMMARY

1. There are three Creeds or Beliefs – the Apostles’, Nicene and Athanasian – but they all put the same truths in different words.

2. What we do and how we behave depends on what we believe.

3. Believing in God means trusting God, having faith in him.  Faith is a gift of God by which we trust him and believe without doubt the truths he has revealed to us.