“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”
(Gustav Mahler, late 19th century composer)

We are all worshippers in the church of progress. We have all believed, down to our bones, the modern dogma that we are all marching together toward the inevitable bright future of complete perfection. We view anything from the past as the regrettable, dusty relics of darker days when humans were slower, dumber, and crueler creatures. We see ourselves as the bleeding edge of progress and human advancement and if we could only cast off as many weights and chains of the past as we possibly can, we could hasten the day of our glorious arrival on the shores of utopia.

This is, however, foolish. History is full of examples of how humans have not been progressing in our intelligence or morality, but have in some ways gotten worse. History is moving forward in time but not always forward in progress. Sometimes we take a nosedive. 

Along with this “out with the old, in with the new” mentality toward morality, science, and social customs, comes a disdain for the ancient trappings of faith. In particular, the evangelical Christian faith has made a movement out of tossing away anything that smells of “tradition” or “catholicism” or “liturgy”. We treat our religious beliefs and practices like our milk, we sniff it to see if it’s past the expiration date.

But Christian belief, unlike milk, is not created to “go bad”. In fact, Jude claims that it is the duty of Christians to “to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) and Paul warns the Galatians against taking up a new gospel other than the one he already preached to them. He cries out that he is “astonished that [they] are so quickly deserting him who called [them] in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble [them] and want to distort the gospel of Christ.” (Galatians 1:6-7) In both cases any attempt to “improve” or “modernize” the Gospel is an exercise in corruption.

It is time then to “ask for the ancient paths” (Jeremiah 6:16). Now is the time to remember the noble Christian art of being “imitators” of the faithful saints who came before us (1 Corinthians 11:1) and receive the praise of Paul who honored even the Corinthian church for “maintain[ing] the traditions even as [he] delivered them” (1 Corinthians 11:2). This is the day to lean back into the ancient ways handed down to us by our forefathers and to recall to mind the deeply rooted truths they dug out of the rich soil of Scripture. Now is the time to drink deeply of the living water that is carried in the bucket of the creeds and confessions of the ancient church who first tasted from the water of life Himself whose words were still to be heard from the aging lips of the apostles.

The Apostles’ Creed is one of the most ancient creeds still in use today. Unlike many others that were written and ratified by councils, it developed over a long period between 3rd – 8th centuries. The earliest extant copy of a form of this creed appears in letters written by Irenaeus in A.D. 200, and Tertullian in A.D. 220. More full forms are found in letters written by Marcellus to Julius the Bishop of Rome in c. 341 A.D. or from Rufinus in 390 A.D. in a letter to Pope Siricus. It enjoys use in every major branch of the Christian faith around the world. It presents a very basic summary of the Christian faith that is common to all Christians across time and space.

This study in the Apostles Creed is designed to call us back into unity with the church from all ages, past, present, and future. It is a call to remember again those foundational truths that shape our redemption story and determine our faith. The Apostles Creed gives a change to go back to basics and rehearse once more the truths that make us Christian and can renew us in our faith, hope, and love. For when we return to the Apostles Creed we find not a dead faith but a living witness, that burns with the flames of the Holy Spirit’s power because it shines with the inner light of Christ’s truth. It still glows because it was forged in the fiery coals of the teachings of Scripture and the apostles’ witness to Christ, and it burns as an ember of eternal truth to this day that will refine us into the image of Christ if we will but endure its heat. We can feel in it the influence of an otherworldly power. As the 20th century Christian musician Rich Mullins declared, “I did not make it, but it is making me. It is the very truth of God, not the invention of any man.” Contained within this creed is the revealed truth of God, and we can stand on this unshakable truth to withstand the unstable times we live in today.