Part 15 (1/2)

_v._ 16. By whom all things were made.

_v._ 17. Before all things.

_v._ 18. Begotten before all worlds.

_v._ 19. In whom by the will of the Father all the fulness dwelleth.

_v._ 20-22. Who died for our Redemption and Reconciliation.

1 Cor. xv. 3-8. References by a preacher to what he has taught to any whole congregation must, almost of necessity, be references to what he was in the habit of teaching. The articles _mentioned_ here are part of S. Paul's Creed, viz. the articles which he is about to use as the basis of an argument about Resurrection.

Acts xix. 2, 3. The ignorance about the Holy Spirit displayed by the 12 men at Ephesus revealed to S. Paul that they had not been baptized as Christians; for (S. Matth. xxviii. 19) that would have involved Teaching about the Holy Trinity.

Acts viii. 37. This verse, though not now believed to be part of the original text, was so believed by Irenaeus (A.D. 170).

It therefore shows us that a confession of faith at Baptism was (1) expected in Irenaeus' time, (2) expected by someone much earlier, who being accustomed to it, wrote it in the margin, or between the lines of a copy of the Acts.

2 Tim. i. 13, 14. The form of sound words was a good deposit which Timothy was to hold fast.

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There are other pa.s.sages which contain references to the Holy Trinity: suggesting that the earliest Christians, when thinking of the G.o.dhead, were p.r.o.ne to include the Three Persons, as we by reason of our Creeds are also disposed to do. Thus our investigation leads us to suppose that a Creed was early used as a Basis of Teaching, and as a Pa.s.sword at Baptism: that it soon settled down into a form very like the Apostles' Creed: that in A.D. 325 the controversy about our Lord's Divine Nature led to the expansion of those Articles which referred to Him.

To these we may add that in 381 the Council of Chalcedon expanded the Article _I believe in the Holy Ghost_, or formally adopted an expansion which had become usual: and so gave to the Nicene Creed the form which it now has.

It is difficult to say exactly where the Apostles' Creed is most likely to have come as a link in the historic chain.

A comparison may be usefully made between:

THE APOSTLES' CREED AND THE CREED OF IRENAEUS (A.D. 170).

I believe in G.o.d the Father I believe in one G.o.d Almighty, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: Who made heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only And in one Jesus Christ the Son our Lord, Son of G.o.d, Who was conceived by the Who was made flesh.

Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, And (I believe) in His Suffering,

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Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into h.e.l.l;

The Third day he rose again And in His Rising from the from the dead; dead,

He ascended into heaven, and And in His Ascension in the flesh, Sitteth on the right hand of G.o.d the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to And in His Coming from judge the quick and the heaven that he may execute dead. just judgment on all.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; And in the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints; The Forgiveness of Sins;

The Resurrection of the Body, And that Christ shall come from heaven to raise up all flesh ... and to adjudge the impious and unjust ... to Eternal fire and to give to the just and holy immortality And the life everlasting. and eternal life.

The Articles of the Creed rest upon the proper understanding of what G.o.d has revealed to us of Himself. The Bible is the record of His Revelation. The references in Chapter xi. are amongst the vast number of such pa.s.sages which might be adduced.