What we believe as Christians
... and HOW we believe as Christians
What do Christians believe?
That has always been a question - and it’s never had an easy answer!
Here at Your Life With God, our focus is on how we believe. How we live into ‘whole life discipleship’.
It seems reasonable to start with what Christians believe.
There have been billions of Christians, over thousands of years. None of us have ever believed exactly the same things about who Jesus is, and what that means for our lives and the world.
So we decided to go back to the beginning, and define Christian belief guided by some of the first people who tried to do that. In a way that has endured for centuries.
Relying on the Word of God, and the ancient tradition of the faith, we’re using very first Christian creeds as the foundation of what Christians believe - and annotating them with passages from the Bible on which they are based.
Throughout the 4th century, church leaders gathered in councils - big conferences! - to try and come up with a unified statement of faith. The councils at Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381) produced what we generally understand as the Nicene Creed.
We’ve produced it here, with as close to the original language as possible, embedded with links to the parts the Bible each line comes from. We’re trying to make clear what the earliest church leaders were trying to make clear - this is what Christians believe and why.
There are (at least!) 100 direct references to Scripture in the Creeds, from the first words of the Bible (Genesis 1:1) to the last (Revelation 22:21).
So to answer the question - what do Christians believe? - we offer this reference.
It’s not what all Christians believe, it may not be what any given individual Christian believes on any given day.
But it is the generally understood ‘outline of faith’ for Christians since the very first Christians believed, and it is consolidated from the Word of God.
The Nicene Creed
as it was produced in 325, embedded Scripture references
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,
and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten,
begotten of the Father before all ages;
Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made,
of one essence with the Father; by whom all things were made .
who for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven,
and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became man.
And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate,
and suffered and was buried.
And the third day He rose again, in accordance with the Scriptures;
and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father;
and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead;
whose kingdom shall have no end.
(added at Constantinople in 381):
And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life;
Who proceeds from the Father; who with the Father and the Son
together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.
In one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church
In one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church
(repeated to get all the links to Scripture in. Each line has different references)
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.
I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Your Life with God aims to take what we believe, and ask the question: how are we believers?
How are our lives - how is your life - patterned, changed, transformed, and offered as a follower of Jesus Christ?
Join us for the journey.