How did the Creed of the Church evolve?

In the apostolic era, as the Church set out to evangelize and preach salvation to the world, it was required of the catechumens to publicly confess their faith using a brief formula before being received as members of the body of Christ; that is, immediately before their baptism.

276Anne Fremantle (ed.), A Treasury of Early Christianity (Viking Press, 1953): p. 325.

277 F. L. Cross, The Early Christian Fathers (London: G. Duckworth, 1960): p. 89. The Apostles’ Creed is a different text to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed used by the Coptic Orthodox Church.

278 Patrology — the study of the Church Fathers’ lives and writings. Also known as patristics .

279 Dom Gregory Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy (Bloomsbury, 2005): pp. 485–488; Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church , Vol. II, Ch. 12; W. K. Lowther Clarke and Charles Harris, Liturgy and Worship (London: SPCK, 1932).

This is what the Ethiopian eunuch did (Acts 8:37) when he declared his wish to be baptized, confessing, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” The creed of the Church thus arose as a formula for the purpose of baptism , confessed by those seeking baptism, declaring their acceptance of the truth, and their entry into “the life in Christ Jesus.”

With the emergence of non-orthodox Gnosticisms that espoused dualism , despising physical matter and distorting the reality of the divine incarnation, the creed in its primitive form was no longer sufficient. It became necessary to include confessions of the conception of the Lord Christ by the Holy Spirit, His birth from the Virgin Mary, His suffering during the reign of Pontius Pilate, His death, burial, and ascension (not — as the Gnostics held — that He was snatched up to heaven from the cross or before His crucifixion), and that the Holy Spirit descended upon the Church. This development appears clearly in the baptismal Creed of St. Hippolytus , in which the seeker of baptism is asked three questions and answers them:²⁸⁰ (The seeker of baptism) descends into the water, and the baptizer puts his hand on his head, saying, “Do you believe in God, the Pantocrator?²⁸¹ ” The one who is baptized says, “I believe.” Then he baptizes him (dipping him) once while his hand is on his head. Then he says to him, “Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, was crucified in the reign of Pontius Pilate, died, arose from the dead on the third day, ascended into the heavens, and sat at the right hand of the Father, who is coming again to judge the living and the dead?” And when he says, “I believe,” he baptizes him once again. Again, he says to him, “Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Church, and the resurrection of the body?” The baptized says, “I believe,” and is then baptized the third time.

As heresies began to spread , the creed came to be no longer used just for those seeking baptism, but a necessary part of both liturgical and personal worship. The Ecumenical Councils began to develop the creed for defensive and educational purposes. Thus, at the Council of Nicaea, a Creed was laid down to fight Arianism.

This Creed resembles the older baptismal creed of Jerusalem, but it adds the following formula to the second section which speaks about the Lord Christ: “Light out of light, true God out of true God, begotten not created, of one essence with the Father.” This formula was unacceptable to the Arians, and thus differentiated them from the faithful. Thus, the Council of Nicaea gave the Church a simplified theological formula that declares the faith of the Church; which Christians confess, sing, and pray; and not just a formula for those seeking Baptism.

The Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, in 381 A.D., was convened to address the beliefs of Macedonius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who the denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit, but not of the Lord Christ. This Council added the following formula

280 E. C. Whitaker, Documents of the Baptismal Liturgy (3rd ed.) (Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2003): p. 5.

281 I.e., the Almighty, the Ruler of All.

referring to the Holy Spirit to the Creed of Nicaea: “The Lord, the life giver, who proceeds from the Father, who, with the Father and the Son, is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets ...” Thus, the Creed came to be a summary of the Orthodox faith rather than a confession repeated by those seeking baptism.