I think

? I think so?

Let’s begin this exhibition with the first word of the Symbol, “I believe. “Alister McGrath, in his commentary on the Creed, says: “Was the Creed written in Latin and (?) His first words?Believe in Deum?translated as “I believe in God”. (?) Much more accurate translations would they be?Do I trust God? or do I just “trust in God. “Translation (?) Do you intend to express a much more vigorous statement?

• For those of Roman Catholic descent.
• What usually remains in the memory of the Creed is its automatic recitation at some point during Mass.
• The person learned the Creed through a class of catechesis and sometimes recited it without thinking.
• Without trying to understand each clause.
• This mechanical recitation ends up distorting the meaning of the first word of the Symbol.
• The first word of this text demands trust in God.
• This first word is not disconnected from the rest of the text.
• The idea here is that we can only recite the text if we trust what the text teaches us.
• Otherwise.
• Creed doesn’t make sense.
• Therefore.
• The Creed requires me to personally trust in God.
• Who comes to us as Father.
• Son.
• And Holy Spirit.
• The Creed presupposes a relationship of trust.
• Submission to those who are the material of the faith of the Creed itself.
• And what.
• I believe.
• Implies trust.
• Commitment.
• And obedience.

Since this document is a summary of the most important thing in the Bible, it means that when I place my trust in what is recited and confessed in the Creed, I pledge to follow these non-negotiable biblical doctrines and teachings that deserve our obedience in their implications. Is it because of the expression? Or “I think” according to JNDKelly, is “a fixed formula that summarizes the essential articles of the Christian faith and enjoys ecclesiastical sanction”. It is an affirmation of the essential points of the Christian faith, with which all Christians are the idea here is that I personally need to trust in the God I confess; I must hold on to the one I confess, that is, God in His revelation as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

John Wesley can serve as an example of trust and belief that clings to the object of faith. Remember that Wesley was a preacher and doctor of theology at Oxford University and had previously served at university, helped the poor and needy, and had served a mission. georgia in the thirteen colonies (which would become the United States). After doing all this, he experienced his famous and dramatic life change at the Moraves meeting in Aldersgate, London. He had just returned completely defeated from missionary work in Georgia. it was orthodox. His beliefs were Orthodox. He believed in the biblical doctrines of original sin, justification for grace and sanctification; However, something was missing; as he later said, he had the faith, but that of a slave, of a servant, not the faith exercised by a son. Until some Moorish Christians challenged him to attend his meeting in London, on this subject, he reports:

On the night [of May 24, 1738], I reluctantly went to a meeting of society on Aldersgate Street, where someone was reading the preface to Luther’s commentary on the epistle to the Romans. described the change God is making in my heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart warm strangely. I felt that I had confidence in Christ, only in Christ, for my salvation; and I was assured that he had taken away my sins, mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

This is an illustration of a man who knew intellectually the central doctrines of the Christian faith, who embraced them and who came to preach them. Did you preach sanctification as the beginning of Christian life?in fact, Wesley placed great emphasis on sanctification, which is why Wesley and Whitefield, along with other colleagues, become pejoratively called Methodists, “the Methodists. “However, despite all this, Wesley had not yet attained trust in the living God. This only changed when a person read the preface to the Roman epistle that Martin Luther had written almost two hundred years earlier. As you read this preface, did you feel Wesley’s heart strangely warm and experienced a transformation, a change in his heart?gratia alone, only fide: only by grace, only by faith. This is a very important element. When I say, “I believe in God,” the idea of the Creed is more than just an intellectual adherence to his statements. What this symbol demands and demands, echoing the biblical text, is that we confide, obey and commit ourselves to defend the statements in this document.

Nowhere in Scripture have canonical authors tried to prove the existence of God since creation. The Bible already assumes that God exists, and assuming the existence of God in the sacred text requires faith. There is no middle ground. Either the one who is reached by the biblical message believes the one who inspired the biblical text, or he remains in disobedience and rebellion. Even in Romans 1: 18-31, Paul does not discuss the existence of God outside of creation, the degrees of beauty in creation, God as the prime mover, or the use of a similar argument. Paul simply finds that God’s revelation in creation is clear and that because of our sin human beings have distorted this revelation, preferring to worship the creature rather than the Creator, and therefore we are all equally the target of anger and discontent. God. Paul does not dispute the existence of God since creation. It reminds us that creation already presupposes the existence of God. The Holy, the Almighty, the Invisible, but Real. And what we are doing is twisting that revelation by preferring to worship birds, quadrupeds, reptiles and the human being himself.

What the scriptures teach is that faith is required from those who approach God. Don’t the scriptures make the slightest attempt to prove God’s existence?Faith is required of those who approach God. is, “I believe, help me in my lack of faith!”?” (Mk 9. 24).

By demanding faith and trust in the gospel? Since the Creed offers us the gospel, stating that Christ died for our sins, was he buried and resurrected on the third day of the dead?We are reminded that everything we have comes from God Himself Faith, for the Creed, is not a meritorial work, but a self-denunciation; when the Christian confesses his faith, he makes it clear that he is a sinner and depends on the grace of God; In this way, faith, for the Creed, recalls Luther’s last words: “We are beggars, it is the truth. “

In this context, it is important to affirm that, following the Catechism of the Catholic Church, this faith that is required of us is a grace bestowed upon us by God: When Peter confesses that Jesus is Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus declares that this revelation comes not from “flesh and blood”, but from “my Father who is in heaven” [Mt 16:17; See. Gal 1. 15-16; Mt 11. 25]. Faith is a gift from God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. “To provide this adherence to faith, the prior and concomitant help of divine grace and the inner help of the Holy Spirit, which moves and turns the heart into God, is needed. , opens the eyes of understanding and gives “to all the sweetness of accepting and believing the truth”.

Therefore, such faith that affirms “I believe in God” is a gift given and supported by the Holy Ghost (Acts 13. 48; Ephesians 2. 89; Heb 12. 2).

We have to make a provocative moment at this point. The Creed doesn’t have a word about the human being. He speaks of God as creator, but he does not speak of the human being, as part of creation. The central point of the Creed is God: who is God, God’s work in eternity, God’s work in Christ, God’s work by the Spirit in the Christian community. So the idea is that when we confess the Creed, together with our brothers and sisters, we confess that we depend on revelation; what we confess is a matter of revelation, which comes from God in the scriptures; we are beggars, we need to dress in the mantle of Christ, we are unable to reasonably deduce, in the light of creation, these truths declared by the Creed.

Believing is beyond what we can know through tradition, experience, and reason. Augustin of Hippo wrote: “So I believe everything I understand, but not everything I think I understand as well. I know everything I understand, but not everything I think I know. Agustín’s climax is brilliant. On the one hand, we are called to believe, to confess. However, we will not be able to rationally explain everything we confess. Some elements of our faith are beyond reason. We must recognize that there are paradoxes in Scripture and that there is an element of mystery in some Christian dogmas. God dwells in inaccessible light and we are always in darkness. We are still groping. Thus, Augustine, with great insight, recalls that certain Christian truths are, as it were, suprational. They are not contradictory, but they are beyond our ability to understand them. Therefore, we must confess: “I believe in God”, “I trust God”, “I obey the revelation given by him”. So, believing goes beyond tradition, experience, and reason. Sometimes we even believe against our own experience and even believe without fully understanding the statements of our faith. A certain level of mystery must be maintained when we confess the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith.

Scripture is the Word of God. Beliefs and confessions are faith’s response to God’s revelation in the scriptures. This understanding is vital to understanding the correct relationship between beliefs and the Bible and is the author’s starting point in this work. Ferreira proposes here a doctrinal and practical study of the Apostles’ Creed, which affirms the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. The Creed is presented here as a guide to lead the Christian safely in his confession of faith and Christian life, and as a document that preserves a true Christian identity today.

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