IS THE APOSTLES CREED – A MILE WIDE AND AN INCH DEEP
The so-called ‘Apostles Creed” was written by Ambrose, a Roman Catholic Bishop of Milan in 390 A.D., and to Pope Sinicus in Rome. This so –called creed neither mentions essential articles of the faith nor defines the terms it uses. It is just a mere mentioning of terms, not a confession of well-defined truths revealed by God for our instruction. If words are left undefined, and spoken as ritual, then they are no more a confession of God’s revealed truth than those spoken by a magician while performing his art.
For example:
1. The Creed is silent on Christ’s satisfaction of the Father’s justice. The term and concept of propitiation are absent.
2. The Creed is silent on Christ’s substitutionary death. The term and concept of Atonement are absent.
3. The Creed is silent on the purpose of Christ’s death. His death is mentioned, but an historical event, without an explanation of its meaning, is not a Christian confession. The Pharisees also believed Christ died. So do Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Roman Catholics. True Christians must confess, “Christ died for our sins.”
4. The Creed is silent on Scripture. In his summary of the Gospel, Paul wrote: “Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.” How can a Creed derive its authority from Scripture if it does not even mention it?Perhaps this is one reason why the pope can confess the Apostles’ Creed too: Belief in Scripture is omitted, but belief in the “Holy Catholic Church” is included.
5. The Creed is silent on the inspiration, the authority, the sufficiency, the necessity, the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture. etc. The Apostles’ Creed describes the “Catholic Church” as “Holy,” but not the Word of God.
6. The Creed is silent on the Trinity. Although all three Persons are mentioned, the unity of the Godhead is not expressed, and only one Person is confessed as God. The Creed is so vague that its confessors may believe in three gods, or that only God the Father is God, and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are lesser beings.
7. The Creed is silent on the Gospel. The term and concept are absent. It makes no reference to the method and means of salvation. Salvation by God’s grace alone is not mentioned.
8. The Creed is silent on justification by faith in Christ alone. One would think a creed would say something about justification and faith. The Apostles’ Creed does not.
9. The Creed is silent on predestination, and election. It contains not even a hint of an eternal divine plan for the salvation of God’s people.
10. The Creed is silent on regeneration and sanctification-the new birth and the Christian life.
11. The Creed is silent on confession of sin to God, and offers no definition of sin.
12. The Creed mentions Pontius Pilate, but is silent on the Person of the Holy Spirit. The Apostles’ Creed does not even say that the Holy Ghost is God. Amazing, isn’t it?
13. The Creed implies that only the Father is Creator. John says that “All things were made by him [the Logos].” Job and the Psalms proclaim that the Spirit “made the heavens and all the hosts of them.”
So what kind of creedal expression is the Apostles’ Creed? It is a mile wide and an inch deep and apparently designed to please everyone in the churches, except the true Christians. The Apostles’ Creed does nothing to preclude or dispel damnable heresies such as the mass, taught by the largest religious organization on the planet. Even Satan himself could affirm this creed!!
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