Creeds, who needs creeds? Isn’t the basics of the gospel, accept the good news, believe that Christ died for you and confess with your mouth that you believe Christ is the risen Lord, or as the book, Affirming the Apostles’ Creed, calls it the ABC method of Christianity? Shouldn’t the ABCs be enough? This begs the additional question, why was there the need for such things as the Apostle’s Creed in the first place? On page 17 of J.I. Packer’s new book he states that when a Jew became a Christian in the 1st generation after the resurrection of Christ, the Jew basically acknowledged that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah, was baptized and joined the church. However for a new Gentile believer there wasn’t an immediate understanding of what this Jewish Messiah meant, or a deep understanding of what it meant to believe that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. Though the Holy Spirit would move and people would dramatically believe and be changed, the grasp of what they believed created problems, thus (again from page 17 of Affirming the Apostles’ Creed – no external reference cited) a new Gentile Christian went through 3 years of training, then on Easter Eve was baptized and took their first communion on Easter morning. In order to easily summarize the belief and the 3 years of training what became known as the Apostles’ Creed was developed.
As an Evangelical Christian taught in the milieu of the Evangelical Protestant system in the late 20th century, I never learned the creeds, certainly not the Apostles’ Creed. Though not stated it was implied the creeds were stodgy meaningless repetition. Contrast that with my Lutheran raised wife who knows a number of the creeds parts of various catechisms running through many of them during worship services on a weekly basis. Yet neither of us values the underlying principles of the Apostles’ Creed. However it is incredibly obvious that many confessing Christians haven’t much understanding of Christianity. Illustrating the need for confessing Christians to have some idea of what they believe is often seen in shocking misunderstandings of basic doctrine. For example I was in a Bible Study at work with a lady who called herself a Christian but denied the Trinity. She would not have been able to claim the Apostles’ Creed as her own. As pointed out in the introduction to this little book, we live in an era not unlike that of the early church. I would argue that today even a practicing Jew needs some education as to what it means to claim as their own the Jewish Messiah, meaning they wouldn’t really qualify to go the quick route of believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and be saved. Thus the streamlined, pared down version of the ABCs, the “Roman Road” or whatever marketing method we currently use in our evangelism leaves large gaps in the self proclaimed Christians that occupy the pews on a Sunday morning. Or may rarely occupy the pews or any part of an organized body of Christ, yet still claim Christ as Lord and thus the name Christian.
This book is built in such a way that it would make an excellent resource for a Sunday School class, adults or even Junior / Senior High school students. It takes each clause of the Apostles’ Creed and gives the scriptural support for the statement as well as showing why the statement is even needed in a creed. Additionally a short introduction gives the meaning of the word ‘creed’ a short history of the origination of the creed. J.I. Packer writes in prose beautifully accessible to the average person, so the book doesn’t come off as a high minded study guide, but rather more along the lines of a devotional book allowing the average person the ability to mediate and ruminate their way through the deep well of inspired (not on the level of scripture, but inspired nonetheless) statements strung together provide the body of the Apostles’ Creed. I highly recommend this book to any Christian seeking to deepen their understanding of Christianity and what it means to call oneself, Christian. Those who say the Apostles’ Creed every Sunday, hopefully this brings life to something that may seem like a mindless repetition of empty words. For those who ignore the Apostles’ Creed as something outside the realm of meaningful worship, I’d challenge you to understand what you’re missing. Regardless this book provides an outstanding bulwark against “easy believism” and the pagan value system that pervades our culture.
Reviewed by Ted Anderson
