CHAPTER X CHRIST, THE CHRISTIAN’S CREED
Sometimes members of the church of Christ say: “We have no creed.” That statement is incorrect. It is impossible for a religious body to exist without a creed. It is just as impossible as it would be for a political party to exist without a platform, or without some well-defined and clearly announced principles upon which the party stands and for the advocacy of which the party is organized. The church of Christ is not a party in the sense of being only a part of God’s children—a few Christians banded together by certain rules that distinguish them from other Christians and also wearing a distinguishing name; for the church, being the “household of God” (Ephesians 2:19), contains all of God’s children. It contains all Christians, regardless of color or race or social position, because the same thing that makes a man a Christian makes him a member of the church. Therefore, in becoming Christians, men become members of the church, which is the body of Christ. (Acts 2:38-41; Ephesians 1:18-23; Galatians 3:26-27; 1 Corinthians 12:13.) But because the church is not a “Christian denomination”, or a denomination composed of Christians or those who profess to be Christians, is no reason that it is not a body or party with definite principles. The church is a party, established to oppose other parties, too. It is opposed to all evil, and is distinct from and opposed to all other religions or churches—non-Christian religions, such as Buddhism, Confucianism and Zoroastrianism. Has this church, then, no principles that distinguish it from nonChristian parties? Do its members have no rules of life that differentiate them from worldly people—non-church members? Is there no difference between the Christian and the atheist? The answer to this question is ready in the mind of every reader. The atheist is an unbeliever and the Christian is a believer. But a belief is a creed. Whatever, therefore, a Christian believes is his creed. When a man says that the church of Christ has no creed, he means that it has no human creed; that its members do not submit to any ecclesiastical laws made by fallible men, such as pope, priests’ or bishops’ conferences, to govern their consciences or to stultify their faith. The New Testament church, however, has a creed. We are ready now to inquire—What, then, is the creed of the church? In considering this question, let there be no misunderstanding as to what church we are talking about. We are not thinking of “our denomination” or of the “Campbeilite Church” or of a denomination known as the “church of Christ.”. All denominations have their headquarters and their governing officials to whom we could easily appeal for information concerning their organization and rules of faith and practice. In fact, we could get their creed or a statement of their faith from their publishing houses. But we are not just now concerned about what any denomination believes. On the contrary, we are endeavoring to learn what was the creed of the New Testament church—what was the creed of the disciples of Christ in the days of Peter and Paul and Philip and Stephen Their creed should be our creed, and the creed of the church then should be the creed of the church now. The word “creed” is from the Latin verb credo, from which we also derive our words “credit”, “creditable”, “credible”, “credence”, etc. The verb credo means I believe. What, then, did Christ and the apostles require people to believe? Is there any stated requirements? Is there no example of a man’s saying, “I believe —”, in the New Testament? We all remember that when Philip had preached “Jesus” unto the eunuch and the eunuch demanded baptism, Philip required him to believe first. He did not say what the eunuch must believe, but it was evident that Philip meant he must believe what he had heard—what Philip had preached unto him.
’Therefore the eunuch responded (quoting from the Latin version): “Credo Pilium Dei esse Jesum Christum." Or, from the English Bible: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (Acts 8:37). Upon this statement of his creed, or his “I believe”, Philip baptized him. On the day of Pentecost, Peter required the people to believe confidently, or to “know assuredly, that God hath made that same. Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Paul required the jailer at Philippi to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shaft be saved” (Acts 16:31). And to the Romans Paul clearly stated what is to be believed: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9). And to put the matter beyond all question, John said “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book but these are written, that ye might believe (Believe what, John?) that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: (with what result, John?) and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:30-31). It is clearly settled by these passages that the creed of the New Testament church was: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” Upon this confession of faith, without any further vows or promises, persons were baptized into Christ, or into the church. But it is sometimes said that this confession or creed is not sufficient; that those who desire to become Christians or to enter the church should be put under obligations and solemn vows to live righteous lives, to support the church, and to submit to the counsel of the brethren But those who raise this objection fail to see what the confession means. Of course, when a man desires to become a member of any denomination, it is but natural that the denomination should want him to be loyal to it, to support all its departments of work and to submit to its ruling authorities; for how else could the denomination exist? No doubt, then, our denominational friends are ready to ask: Does a man agree to submit to no authorities, to be governed by no laws, when he enters the church of Christ? Most certainly he agrees to submit to the authorities of the church. Then the question arises, What is the governing authority of the church of Christ? Christ is the Head of the church. (Ephesians 1:23; Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18.) Therefore, to acknowledge Christ means to submit to the Head of the church, and then the acts of obedience by which a man enters into Christ, or into the church, which is his body, declare the man’s surrender and submission. When he is buried with Christ by baptism, he vows his allegiance to Christ; thereby is proclaimed his death to sin and his resurrection to righteousness. Such a person has died in the likeness of Christ’s death, has been buried with him, and has been raised in the likeness of his resurrection. As death has no more dominion over Christ, sin should have no more dominion over the Christjan. (Read Romans 6:1-23) Thus it is seen that the steps that put a man into Christ —into the church—constitute a very solemn and impressive dedication of the life of Christ. A person who is in this manner dedicated to Christ is, of course, under promise to follow in the footsteps of Christ, to obey all his commands. But in order to follow in the footsteps of Christ, he must be acquainted with Christ’s life, and this can be learned only from the Bible—the New Testament. To obey Christ’s commands, the Christian must know them. These, too, can be found only in the Bible. The conclusion, therefore, that the Bible becomes the Christian’s Law Book and Guide Book is inevitable. And it is ail-sufficient. The Bible was given for this very purpose, and is perfect for all the needs of the man of God. (2 Timothy 3:16.) While Christ was here on earth .he spoke many things that were intended to govern the lives of his followers. These things were after his death confirmed unto us by those who heard him. (Hebrews 2:1-4.) For Christ had strictly commanded them to teach us to observe “all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). But Christ could not make known his complete will while he was on earth, for his disciples were not capable of receiving it until the Holy Spirit came upon them. Jesus said: “I have yet many things to say, unto you, but ye can not bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide ydu into all the truth” (John 16:12-13). Therefore, that portion of Christ’s will that was not made known by him while here on earth was afterwards declared unto the apostles by the Holy Spirit and through the apostles made known unto us. And Jesus said to his apostles: “He that heareth you heareth me; and he that rejecteth you rejecteth me; and he that rejecteth me rejecteth him that sent me” (Luke 10:16; Matthew 10:40; John 13:20). Nothing is clearer than this: In order to please Christ—to obey Christ—we must be governed by all that is taught by Christ and the apostles, hence by the New Testament. And all that is included in the creed.
Sometimes young members of the church are heard .to ask: “What does our church teach on this or that?” Or, “Does our church allow dancing?” Or, "What do we believe about divorce?” Such persons should know that the church of Christ has no laws that may be suspended, repealed, altered or amended according to popular demand or to satisfy the whims of its worldly- minded members. A young lady, on being asked to obey ,the gospel, replied: “No, I am going to join the Episcopal church, because they permit their members to dance.” Of course, when people are taught to “join the church of their choice”, they are going to “choose” the one that has the things, and practices the things, they prefer. If some church would make “free love” or promiscuous sex cohabitation one of its tenets, thousands of people would “choose” it. But, according to the Bible, we have no choice, except to obey Christ and be saved or to disobey him and be eternally lost. Instead of asking, “What does our church teach?” or, “What do we believe?” young people must be taught to ask: “What is the will of Christ, my Lord, the Head of the church, and to whom I gave my life, in reference to these things?” That simple question, without any answer at all, is sufficient to knock all ideas of dancing and other sinful practices out of the minds of really conscientious young Christians. But our denominational friend is ready to ask: “Why do you include these things in your creed and catechize young people when you take them into the church?” But what he does not understand is that Christ and the apostles made the terms of admission into the church of the Lord and we have nothing to do with it. We can ,not niake any other requirements for membership in his body. But those things are included in the creed, and we should always make that plain to persons who desire to obey the Lord. “Do you mean to say,” our objectors ask, “that the simple statement that ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God’ embraces all these things? Why, everybody believes that.” We reply that the “good confession” (1 Timothy 6:12) includes all that we have mentioned and very much more. In fact, it is impossible for the finite mind to comprehend all that is included in that creed or confession of faith. If everybody believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, then everybody is born of God; for John says:
“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:1). Such a person is born of God because to believe that, as we have shown herein, means to surrender to Christ and to (they his will. John knew that every one who sincerely believes this fact has submitted to the terms of pardon as they were tabulated by Christ (Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:38), and has enthroned Christ in his heart as Cord of his life. That is what it means to believe in Christ, and that is why this simple creed is sufficient. But in order to see something of what this confession includes, let us hear John again: “He that confesseth the Son hath the Father also” (1 John 2:23). And again: “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God” (1 John 4:15). Bet the objector ponder that and tell us its full meaning if he can! But John says further: “And who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:5). In view of what thy pen of inspiration has here said about this simple yet wonderful confession, the following quotation from Alexander Campbell seems appropriate. Commenting upon Peter’s confession, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”, Campbell said:
Here, then, is the whole mystery of the Christian institution—the full confession of the Christian faith. All that is peculiar to Christianity is found in these words; not merely in embryo, but in clearly expressed outline. A cordial belief and clear conception of these two facts will make any man a Christian. He may carry them out in their vast dimensions and glorious developments to all eternity. He may ponder upon them until his spirit is transformed into the image of God—until he shines in more than angelical brightness in all the purity and beauty of heavenly lcve. Man glorified in heaven, gifted with immortality and wrapt in the ecstasies of eternal blessedness, is but a mere result of a proper appreciation of and conformity to this confession.
