The Rise of “Creeds”

This period not only saw the assembling and the acknowledging of the New Testament, the canon of the New Testament, but it also saw the beginnings of what would become known as “creeds.” As we go along in this study of the history of the church, we’re seeing along the way how things developed that would eventually lead to the various types of apostasy in the church. And here is another one of those, this idea of developing certain creeds.

It’s generally felt that, like so many of the other things, some that we’ve already looked at and some we will look at as we through this study, that the development of creeds actually came from a good reason. It was believed that these were actually simple statements of faith that grew out of early baptismal services. Usually, these were something that were, maybe, a paraphrase of the good confession that Peter made there in Matthew, chapter 16 and verse 16, or perhaps, using the words of the Ethiopian eunuch before he was baptized by Philip, Acts, chapter 8 and verse 37.

And so, these were just simple statements, something like, “Jesus is Lord.” Well, is there anything wrong with that? Ah, well, no, not really, but as the doctrinal attacks and other attacks came upon the church, these creedal statements began to become more and more elaborate, started to become more and more involved in the content, and so on. And eventually, there would be developed the “Apostles’ Creed.” I’m sure that you have all heard of the Apostles’ Creed. I have a copy of it here. I thought I would share it with you. This has been revised many, many times over the years, but here is the Apostles’ Creed, which is generally accepted and used and recognized by a number of denominations these days. The Apostles’ Creed goes like this:

Well, that is the Apostle’s Creed, as I said, which is generally accepted by the Catholic church and some other denominations. Episcopalians and some others use a varied form of this, as well.

Well, as a result of the doctrinal controversies from the 4^th Century on, these creeds became more and more involved and more and more elaborate. They also came to embody very involved theological and philosophical statements, and even speculation. They also became divisive, and various and serious schisms in the church came about over these creeds. Just a turn of a phrase or two became controversial to the point where churches were separated. The first steps toward creed-making seemed like a good idea at the time, but would develop into controversy later, as was the rise of the strong “Bishop” that we talked about earlier, the development of ecclesiastical organizations. These seemingly inconsequential departures from the simplicity of the New Testament indeed had repercussions which continue to this day. We’re reminded of a phrase, which is used and is actually a secular phrase, but it’s appropriate to use oftentimes. I hear it in the Lord’s church, talking about “a slippery slope.” “Stay away from the slippery slopes,” some would say. There are some who would say, “Well, you know, we don’t need to be concerned about that. There’s nothing to be worried about in that regard.” But, I believe that these are worthy examples of the “slippery slope,” beginning something that seems to be right, that seems to be proper, that seems to, well, not really have any problems associated with it, but we can see that that’s not so.

The Rise of “Baptism” by Pouring and Sprinkling – Also Infant “Baptism.”

But here is another departure of the simplicity of the New Testament. This has to do with baptism and the rites associated with it. We know that, of course, baptism in the New Testament is very straightforward, very easily understood. In Romans 6, Paul characterizes what baptism is—the death, the burial and the resurrection. We can see that; it’s very simple; it’s very plain. We also understand who candidates for baptism are. We understand what a person must do. These things are very plain.

However, evidences begin to appear as early as the 2^nd Century that a departure can be seen from this simple, straightforward New Testament pattern for what one must do to be saved, and specifically, baptism. There was an early Christian writing, dated about AD 120 called theDidache, and it indicates that baptism by pouring water over the head of the candidate was acceptable in some cases of illness, although, if the person returned to health, they were expected to be immersed.

We also see, beginning about this same period of time, sprinkling began to be practiced, and by the end of this period, in the early 300’s, the early part of the 4^th Century, even the baptism of infants had its beginning, although many, many in the early days of this practice opposed it very strongly.