{"id":5591,"date":"2010-02-21T12:21:16","date_gmt":"2010-02-21T12:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/the-creed.html"},"modified":"2010-02-21T12:21:16","modified_gmt":"2010-02-21T12:21:16","slug":"the-creed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/the-creed.html","title":{"rendered":"The Creed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Occasionally students or others will say &#8220;I don&#8217;t believe in the Creed.&#8221; My response, usually accompanied by a startle, is this: &#8220;Which line or lines in the Creed don&#8217;t you believe.&#8221; I&#8217;ve not yet had but one or two students say they actually disagreed with any lines in the Creed, and it is a simple fact that our &#8220;orthodoxy&#8221; is defined by The Creed, and this sometimes means The Apostles&#8217; Creed or The Nicene Creed or The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. (By the way, the third title is the single-most difficult word to say in theology.) I believe in The Creed and by it we define orthodoxy. Heresy, then, is denial of The Creed.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><b>What do you think of reciting the Creed publicly? Do you think affirming the Creed is appropriate? How often should we recite the Creed? Do you think denial of the Creed is what constitutes heresy? Or denial of any line in the Creed?<\/b><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It is a downright pity that low church evangelicals ceased reciting the Creed in public. I&#8217;ll be lecturing on this at the Wheaton conference on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wheaton.edu\/Theology\/WCECS\/Gatherings.html\"><b>Evangelicals and the Early Church<\/b><\/a>. But the reason I bring up the creeds is not because of that conference, but because of a brand new set from IVP about which I am more than a little enthusiastic.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>A full sketch of what the early fathers thought about The Creed, and there are elegantly produced in an easy-to-read format in five volumes. This is a set that belongs in every pastor&#8217;s library (no kidding) and in every church&#8217;s library (no kidding either). I list the volumes here:<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0830825312?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=jescre-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0830825312\">We Believe in One God (Ancient Christian Doctrine)<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0830825312\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important;margin:0px !important\" \/>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div><em><br \/><\/em><\/div>\n<div><em><strong><\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0830825320?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=jescre-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0830825320\">We Believe in One Lord Jesus Christ (Ancient Christian Doctrine)<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0830825320\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important;margin:0px !important\" \/>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<div><em><br \/><\/em><\/div>\n<div><em><strong><\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0830825339?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=jescre-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0830825339\">We Believe in the Crucified and Risen Lord (Ancient Christian Doctrine)<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0830825339\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important;margin:0px !important\" \/>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<div><em><br \/><\/em><\/div>\n<div><em><strong><\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0830825347?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=jescre-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0830825347\">We Believe in the Holy Spirit (Ancient Christian Doctrine)<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0830825347\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important;margin:0px !important\" \/>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<div><em><br \/><\/em><\/div>\n<div><em><strong><\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0830825355?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=jescre-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0830825355\">We Believe in One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church (Ancient Christian Doctrine)<\/a><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0830825355\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" style=\"border:none !important;margin:0px !important\" \/><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Occasionally students or others will say &#8220;I don&#8217;t believe in the Creed.&#8221; My response, usually accompanied by a startle, is this: &#8220;Which line or lines in the Creed don&#8217;t you believe.&#8221; I&#8217;ve not yet had but one or two students say they actually disagreed with any lines in the Creed, and it is a simple&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-orthodox"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Creed - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/the-creed.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Creed - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Occasionally students or others will say &#8220;I don&#8217;t believe in the Creed.&#8221; My response, usually accompanied by a startle, is this: &#8220;Which line or lines in the Creed don&#8217;t you believe.&#8221; I&#8217;ve not yet had but one or two students say they actually disagreed with any lines in the Creed, and it is a simple&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/the-creed.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-02-21T12:21:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0830825312\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Creed - Jesus Creed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/the-creed.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Creed - Jesus Creed","og_description":"Occasionally students or others will say &#8220;I don&#8217;t believe in the Creed.&#8221; My response, usually accompanied by a startle, is this: &#8220;Which line or lines in the Creed don&#8217;t you believe.&#8221; I&#8217;ve not yet had but one or two students say they actually disagreed with any lines in the Creed, and it is a simple&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/the-creed.html","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2010-02-21T12:21:16+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0830825312"}],"author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/the-creed.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/the-creed.html","name":"The Creed - Jesus Creed","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/the-creed.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/the-creed.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0830825312","datePublished":"2010-02-21T12:21:16+00:00","dateModified":"2010-02-21T12:21:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/19879975236b70da80f4cbea933c59d0"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/the-creed.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/the-creed.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/the-creed.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0830825312","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jescre-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=0830825312"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/02\/the-creed.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Creed"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith for today","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/19879975236b70da80f4cbea933c59d0","name":"Scot McKnight","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/c10\/c10b0226ed6cfd8319b2b8742ac4088ax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/c10\/c10b0226ed6cfd8319b2b8742ac4088ax96.jpg","caption":"Scot McKnight"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/author\/smcknight"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}