Apostle's Creed: How does it deal with members of the Trinity?

Mark Virkler's picture

This creed was formed perhaps 200 - 300 AD. Even then the Church did not have a good grasp of the role of the Holy Spirit, and they were unable to say anything about the Holy Spirit, other than He exists. Amazing!


Father

  • I believe in God,
  • the Father almighty,
  • Creator of heaven and earth,

Son

  • and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
  • who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
  • born of the Virgin Mary,
  • suffered under Pontius Pilate,
  • was crucified, died and was buried;
  • he descended into hell;
  • on the third day he rose again from the dead;
  • he ascended into heaven,
  • and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
  • from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

Holy Spirit

  • I believe in the Holy Spirit.

Notice the imbalance?

Wow! The Holy Spirit gets one line! He is the one who lives within. He is the one Jesus sent to lead us into all truth. He is the one who releases the power of God to us. We are to walk in the Spirit and live by the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). Yet we only gave Him six words in our historical creed.

May our lives be restored to the place where we honor the life of the Holy Spirit within us.

Related Resources: 

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Honoring the Holy Spirit   
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Anonymous's picture

Dear Mark,

The reason for the simple line, 'and I believe in the Holy Spirit' is surely that God as the Holy Spirit was and is at work in so many different ways within the lives of all of us who are Christian people, to say nothing of his work elsewhere in the world, that that line sufficed to sum it all up in rather the same way that the word 'Trinity' was intended to sum up all that a Christian means by 'God' and our relationship with Him in Christ by the working of the Holy Spirit.
+ Andrew Shergold

Mark Virkler's picture

Andrew,
That is an interesting idea. Seems to me like the end result of not speaking about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, was that the church now never even mentions him as the goal of salvation (as Peter did in his Pentecost sermon), nor do many denominations teach about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or how to pray in the spirit, or walk in the Spirit or live in the spirit. So the One who has come to live within us, ends up being ignored.

Anonymous's picture

This is the truth in my life, and it wasn't until the 70's when the Jesus movement and. The .Charismatic movement went through all denominations that I actually understood the whole work of the Holy Spirit. I feel that we are I ineffective as a living church...Body o f Christ because of the lack of teaching and understanding of His presence in our lives? I don't. feel as though I live in the full life I need to be because of nominal Christians in our churches and the lack of accountability.

Anonymous's picture

Except the Spirit is the Lord and "It pleased the Father to ascend Jesus far above the heavens that He might fill all things". I think He means in heaven and earth? I've just been meditating on this scripture and how it relates to the Holy Spirit. Can you see the heightth and depth of this. The Holy Spirit is all present and yet He is before the throne. Against Him is the only unpardonable sin. And In Genesis the Holy Spirit was hovering over the waters when they said let us make man in our own image. Was that the Holy Spirit and the Father talking together? Sorry for not having more insight into this but can you expound on this?

Mark Virkler's picture

Therefore it says, "WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN." (Now this expression, "He ascended," what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.)
(Eph. 4:8-10)

This passage is referring to Jesus and not the Holy Spirit. However, the Holy Spirit is part of the Godhead, and is present in heaven, as well as being sent to earth to be our Comforter.
In the Garden of Eden, it says Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; (Gen 1:26). The word OUR, indicates to me that the Trinity was present in the creation process.

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