The Apostles Creed-The Catholic Catechism

It is interesting to note that the Catholic Catechism is written and based on the Apostles Creed, which
has its roots in biblical traditions, the teachings of the Apostles.
The Creed summarizes the history of Christianity and its foundation. As you can tell, they all
believed in the "Communion of the Saints", as we do today. The belief that those in heaven can and do
pray for us. And we can and do ask for their prayers. The Apostle's Creed is also known as the Rule of
Faith. The Apostle's Creed was created to represent a uniform statement of Christian belief. To prevent God's
word as getting lost as impostors interjected false teachings. Church leaders wanted one simple
statement that would define Christianity and stay true to Christian traditions.Although it is a uniform
belief of all Christians, the Apostle's Creed does vary slightly between religious denominations.
Additions and changes were made to pertain to the different denominations. For example, "he descended
into Hell" is not found in the Catholic version of the Apostle's Creed, but is found in the Lutheran
faith version. Why a creed?
Some Christians ask, "Why do we need creeds when we have the Bible?" If the Word of God comes down to
us through the Bible, why do we need anything else? The answer is found in Scripture itself. In I Corinthians 15:1-4, Paul writes: "Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, . . ."
This quote is from one of the earliest epistles, written about AD 57, before many other New Testament books had been written and long before the New Testament canon was finally settled. If the New Testament as a whole did not exist when Paul wrote his letter, what "gospel" is he talking about?

Apparently he had preached to them some standard summary of the Christian message, a message he had "received" just as they in turn "received it." Later, in Romans 6:17 he says,"I urge you, brothers and
sisters, to keep an eye on those who cause dissensions and offenses, in opposition to the teaching that
you have learned; avoid them." The word "teaching" can also be translated "doctrine." These first
Christians had doctrine or teaching prior to having a complete New Testament. What was this teaching or
doctrine? It was a summary of the basics of the Christian message—of the good news of Jesus Christ. And
already at the time of Paul's writing there were some who were distorting the words of the Old Testament Scriptures and the words of the apostles, leading people astray. The purpose of a creed or
doctrine is to summarize the meaning of the many words of Scripture and apostolic teaching. Whenever we try to explain Christianity to someone else we partake in this same summarizing action. This summary of
faith was used by the early church to 1) evangelize, 2) teach new converts, and 3) protect the church from distorted teaching. Christians today have the same three needs for a concise statement of the Christian faith. How did the Creed arise?
According to "the great commission" found in Matthew 28:18-20, an important part of being a Christian in the early church was teaching others and baptizing them in the name of the Triune God. A concise
summary of the Christian faith would help in both these tasks. In the table below, compare the version
of the Apostles' Creed we have from AD 336 with the baptismal formula Hippolytus of Rome used with new
converts by the year AD 215. The key point is that Christians were doing this BEFORE the New Testament was finalized. So rather than the first creeds being tacked on AFTER the Bible was written, the
evidence we have points toward basic creeds similar to the Apostles' Creed existing in the earliest churches. . We call it the Apostles' Creed not because the apostles themselves wrote it, but rather
because the early churches viewed it as an accurate summary of the apostles' teaching.

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[opsvideo2008]

The Apostles' Creed is catholic in origin & no bible believing protestant christian should have anything to do with it because article 9 of this creed states ...." I believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints." No bible believing protestant christian believes in what the catholic church is teaching such as praying to idols and dead saints, asking forgiveness from a catholic priest.. etc. Therefore they should not be duped into thinking this is a christian confession.

[stevesilvia]

@opsvideo2008 the Apostles Creed is just as it 's name says...Your facts are all wrong, mixed with gossip and lies that you heard somewhere. If you have a question, just ask. I only explain the truth, backed up with facts and bible.

[farsight001]

@opsvideo2008 I must also point out, FOR THE THIRD TIME, that the Catholic Church is, quite obviously, not the only Church that has done this. Protestant Oliver Cromwell and his army killed and tortured innumerable Catholics in Ireland. "Good Queen Bess" had over 3000 Catholics tortured and killed. Puritans performed witch burnings. There was even an entire Protestant Inquisition.

[farsight001]

@opsvideo2008 In what world are they lies? The world's foremost expert on the subject, recognized by pretty much all other historians as the foremost expert is a liar? Do you have any evidence of this? No? I didn't think so. No offense to you, but I'm siding with the world's leading expert over some random stranger on the internet. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and your claim that more than the entire population of Europe were killed by Catholics is quite extraordinary.

[TastetheTeardrops]

@TastetheTeardrops Oops, sorry, that was supposed to be a response to opsvideo2008.

[TastetheTeardrops]

@farsight001 Judas Iscariot was one of the first members of the early Church. Jesus said "have I not chosen all of you, and one of you is the devil?" Because of Judas's actions the Son of God was betrayed and turned over to His persecuters. This did not cause the others to "abandon" ship. Judas committed the most atrocious act, and yet, the Church remained. We can't abandon ship every time one of the members, or several, is disobedient. The truth still remains in the Church.

[drdst17]

@opsvideo2008 Protestants have killed many Catholics, too. Convenient that you overlook that in your hatred of Christ's Church.

People are sinners, blame them.

[stevesilvia]

@opsvideo2008 more gossip from a protestant, who doesn't know his history, and the fact that the protestants did the same thing...If a sin makes a religion false, then they also have declared themselves a false religion...

[opsvideo2008]

@farsight001 Like I said earlier you can continue on believing the lies. It is 75 million people killed by the catholic church over 12 centuries or 1200 years, not at any point of time in history. By the way, the catholic church is also the only " church " in the history of mankind that tortures in the name of God. Go research what barbaric torture tools they used and go read the whole bible to see if God or Jesus commanded His followers to torture others. Go figure out & be dumbstruck.

[farsight001]

@opsvideo2008 Yes, 10k people. That is actually the high estimate. The world's foremost expert on the subject actually estimates 2000, and says that number may even be too high. Regardless, 75 million is literally impossible. With all the wars, the black plague killing 1/3rd of Europe, and famine killing millions more, there were not 75 million people to kill.

As for being the only church in history that kills in the name of God, I have already provided proof that this is not true.

[opsvideo2008]

@farsight001 Yeah. only 10K people over 12 centuries. You can go on believing the lies. Just in case you missed my point : your catholic church is the only so-called "church" in the history of mankind that kills people in the name of God. And if you are still clueless, go read what the the 6th commandment of God says in the bible.

[farsight001]

@opsvideo2008 You have missed the point. You used the killings of the Catholic Church as an argument against it's validity. I responded by pointing out the killings of the Protestants, because if killings makes a denomination false, then logically all denominations are false.

As for 75 million - not the highest number I have heard, but still severely bloated. Current scholarly estimates put the death toll due to the Inquisition at under 10k people - a slower execution rate than Texas today.