Question 31: What do we think true faith is?
Everything was taught to us by the gospel. The Apostolic Creed expresses what we believe in the following words: We believe in God the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under the power of Pontius Pilate, was crucified, killed, and buried; descended to Hades; He ascended to heaven and sat at the right hand of God the Almighty Father, from where he will come to judge the living and dead We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the flesh and eternal life.
- When I was very diligent in writing to you about our common salvation.
- It was because I felt compelled to correspond with you.
- Ingesting you to diligently fight for the faith that was once and for all given to the Saints.
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JOHN WESLEY
But what is faith? It is not an opinion, no more than a set of words; nor many opinions gathered together, however true; several opinions do not constitute the Christian faith, just as a pearl necklace does not represent Christian holiness; it is not simply about adhering to some opinion or a series of A Man can agree with three or 23 beliefs: can he agree with the whole Old and New Testaments (at least as far as he can understand), but not have a Christian faith at all?The Christian faith is the divine test or conviction in the heart that God has reconciled with me by his Son; that I am inseparably bound to trust in Him, as a merciful and reconciled Father, as in all things, especially in all those good things that are invisible and eternal. In the Christian sense, believing is therefore walking in the light of eternity; have a clear vision and trust in the Almighty, reconciled with me by the Son of his love.
A. CARSON
“We believe in God the Father, almighty, creator of heaven and earth. Thus begins the universally known Apostolic Creed. Strictly speaking, it was not formulated by the apostles. It appeared in the 2nd century. It is called the Apostolic Creed because the summary of what is given in the creed reflects the doctrine of the apostles, the doctrine of the New Testament in a nut words. It is one of the first confessions of the Christian faith. But it is so primitive, and has been so widely used by so many Christian denominations around the world, that it is one of the few things that uniessote all Christians into one belief.
If you read carefully and slowly, you will see an explicit mention of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, of creation, of virginal birth, of the coming of Christ, of his resurrection among the dead, who are Christians, what it means to have the Holy Spirit operating in us, and so on, all in a brief extent that millions and millions of Christians have memorized or recited every Sunday , or who have sometimes used it as part of their private worship.
It is important to remember that beliefs are formed, at least in part, the moment they are formulated, not because the Bible changes, but because the questions we ask about the Bible change slightly from time to time. occasionally. Other statements of belief, for example, made during the Reformation era, in the 16th century, ask and answer questions in a slightly different way. But the Apostolic Creed is regularly declared by Christians around the world because it was written so far back that it was in use long before major doctrinal divisions were established. In this context, he cleverly summarizes the Gospel in a few sentences. In a way, it’s a second-century attempt to recap what we read, for example, in the first verses of 1 Corinthians 15, which itself is a very simple creed. Paul asks: What is the gospel? Now, did Christ first die for our sins according to the Scriptures, and then many things are added and added and added, until we have a summary of the great good news and its content? that God, in the fullness of time, sent his Son to die on the cross, to rise from the dead, and to bring to himself a great number of people whom Paul calls a new humanity.
So when we gather for Saturday public service and recite the creed, remember that two thousand years of Christian history are hidden behind these simple words. The creed serves to connect Christians with cultures, languages, a space and a time when we all say together that we believe in God the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.
Creator of heaven and earth, he gives life to the astonishing affirmations of our faith. Do not let us separate the theological truth from the history of our salvation, which occurred in time and space. Let us not be unbelievers, rest our lives from the truth that you resurrect the dead. Amen.
Basic questions and answers about biblical doctrine
The? The Catechism of the New City is a present, gospel-centered resource that presents important doctrines of Christianity through 52 questions and answers and also offers a devotion that helps the reader transform through these doctrines. Designed to be used in various contexts, it is a very useful resource to help Christians meditate on the doctrines that are at the heart of the Christian faith.