Understanding the Apostles' Creed: Faith, Reason, and Revelation

The main takeaway is that the Apostles' Creed requires deep understanding beyond mere recitation to truly embody Christian faith.

### Understanding the Apostles' Creed: The Importance of Faith in Christian Belief
* 📜 The Apostles' Creed, recited weekly in many Christian churches, dates back to the early Church but was **formalized in the 5th century**.
* 🏛 Creeds like the Apostles' Creed were developed to **summarize essential Christian doctrine** and combat heresies, especially the Gnostic movement in the 2nd century.
* 🤔 The concept of faith in Christianity is complex, involving **reason, sense perception, and revelation**.
* 🧠 Faith is not blind or irrational; it involves both reason and sense perception, but also **transcends them through revelation**.
* ✝ The Reformation emphasized "**justification by faith alone**," highlighting the importance of **true faith** in Christian belief.
* 📚 The Reformers identified three key components of biblical faith: **notitia (knowledge)**, **assensus (intellectual assent)**, and **fiducia (trust and personal embrace)**.
* 🧘 Faith is not only about what we believe intellectually, but also about how that knowledge moves from the **mind to the heart**.
* 🛐 The upcoming sessions will focus on studying the Apostles' Creed to **deepen understanding** and **facilitate the transfer of knowledge from the mind to the heart**.

In this new series of Reformed Theological College sessions, we will explore something very fundamental to our Christian faith. Something we recite every week in every service, and that is our Apostles' Creed. Now I have to confess that for the most part of my early Christian life, because I grew up in a Presbyterian Church, I had been reciting it every week without really knowing what it meant, at least doctrinally. And I believe that is the case for most people. There was even a discussion among my coworkers about whether we should do away with reciting the creed weekly, or perhaps just do it once a month during the Holy Communion week. I was surprised to learn that many churches today, even the traditional ones, have stopped reciting the creed altogether.

They have stopped reciting this creed. And I suspect the reason is that many believers do not fully understand the meaning of every word and every sentence in the creed. You see, for us to do something ritually every week, we need to have a deep understanding of its significance. Now, before we delve into the content of the creed, we want to provide a bit of historical background about the creed itself. Knowing the past gives a sense of importance to what we are doing presently. In fact, I would say that these days, whenever we discuss the idea of creeds and confessional statements, there will be controversies and even hostilities. I don't know about you, but I have met Christians who simply think that the creeds and confessions are merely human inventions and should not be included in our Christian studies. Especially since the 20th century, people in the church have started asking, Why do we need creeds at all?

People in the church are starting to ask, Why do we need creeds? Shouldn't we just go back to the Bible? Now that sounds like a legitimate claim. But people who say that may be seriously short-sighted. You see, these creeds and confessions – and I say this for all, not just the Apostles' Creed – they were an attempt to crystallize the essence of doctrine found in the sacred Scripture. They were never to be seen as a substitute for Scripture or as having authority over the Scripture. Rather, they give a summary of what Christians believe as defined in terms of confessional orthodoxy. In fact, for Churches who see no purpose to learn and value each creed, does that mean they adhere to the Bible more? Now, I see most of the time, no. Because you will notice that the Churches that say, Let's go back to the Bible, they would somehow develop their own confessional statements to some degree.

Everyone will, to some extent, develop their own creed or confession. But if they don't have a significant, formulated, historically attested creed or confession that they often learn and use, then the likelihood is that their creed or confession will change quite frequently. And sometimes, it can even be based on the moods and whims of their own pastors, elders, or congregation. For example, a Church can believe so much about evangelism, or they believe so much about unity that they make it glaring in their confession, but they know so little about the doctrine of the Trinitarian God or the doctrine of their salvation, and these are all fundamental doctrines of all Church practices. So, it is important that the Church does not easily do away with historical and attested creeds just because they sound less relevant in this era or even thinking that they are too basic to recite.

Therefore, it is important that the Church does not easily discard historical and proven creeds just because creeds may not sound so important in this era or even consider them too basic to memorize. Now coming back to the Apostles' Creed, most people would probably think that this was written by the Apostles themselves, but let me clarify from the outset that it is not. It is simply a summary of their teachings, which only took shape around the fifth century. And remember, the form we have now was established in the fifth century. However, its essence has been present since the second century. Because not all ancient texts have survived, scholars have concluded that the concept of creeds emerged rather gradually. Church history has shown us that the earliest Christian creed of the New Testament Church, dating back to the early Church, was very simple.

How simple was that? It was the simple affirmation Jesus is Lord. Now, for instance, someone wants to be baptized and join the church. Before they are accepted for baptism or membership of the church, there have to be certain catechetical questions posed to them. Say, Do you believe that Jesus is Lord? Do you believe in one God the Father Almighty, and so on? And so, the creedal statements were really either for baptism or a form of catechetical questions posed to people who wanted to join the early Christian community. I'm sure all of you have always witnessed that before the Pastor conducts baptism, I have to ask some catechetical questions to the person getting baptized. And the person getting baptized has to answer with an affirmative Yes, I believe or Amen, right? It's more or less the same for the early Church.

But as time passed, the Church began to make positive creeds rather than those interrogative creeds, the ones with the question-and-answer type. So that's one reason how the creed initially came about. But there's also another strong reason that provoked positive creeds to be made. It is because of the reason of false teachings arising in the Church. Remember the Canonization of the Scripture wasn't completed till the fourth century. And Church historians tell us that this Gnostic movement has already threatened to undermine the Christian community as early as the second century. And that provoked the Church to establish what they called the church symbol. And by the word Symbol, people would misunderstand, thinking that it's like a pictorial sign. But I don't mean a pictorial sign. It simply means a pointer to indicate what is the essence of the Church's faith.

Therefore, to counter the second-century Gnostic movement, the Church initially proposed what we call the Roman symbol. The Roman symbol has been in use since the second century, and some say it started as early as the end of the first century, which is very close to the Apostolic Era. This Roman symbol became the basic outline of the Apostles' Creed. So, I would say again that it is called the Apostles' Creed not because it was written by the apostles in the form we know now but because it has its roots in apostolic teaching through the tradition of the Church. Even though the final formulation of the Apostles' Creed came around the fifth century, its essence was already at work in the Christian community at the end of the first century.

But its essence was already operating in the Christian community at the end of the first century. So, I'm kind of done with the historical background. Alright, I have finished talking about this historical background. So let's dive into the content, alright? Now we are going to explore the content of this creed. If you are feeling overwhelmed learning about history, I have already tried to simplify the historical background as much as possible. Okay, so let's move on to the content of the creed. In today's opening session, we will discuss the word that appears most frequently throughout the entire Apostles' Creed. Can we just take a quick look at the whole Apostles' Creed? Now, with a quick glance, what is the short phrase that appears the most times in the Creed? That is I believe. That is the theme for today, okay? And that's the word we usually take most lightly, I suppose, each time we recite it. But in its most basic sense, we need to understand why it is called the Apostles' Creed.

Now, the word creed itself comes from the Latin verb credo, which means I believe. And one quick look at the Apostles' Creed, we know it is the belief in the Trinitarian God. You see, I believe in God the Father, I believe in the Son Jesus, I believe in the Holy Spirit, and I believe in what the Church entails and also what the promise of salvation entails, and so on. Of course, there is so much to say about the idea of belief. What is the whole significance of saying I believe? In fact, we cannot go on with the Apostles' Creed if we do not know what these two words entail. In fact, these two words are dealing with what faith is. In fact, so often it has been said that God didn't give us a Christian religion but God gave us a Christian faith. When we talk about it as a noun.

We use the word Faith when we talk about it as a noun; it means 信仰. When we consider it as a verb, we say I believe or to believe. But the concept of faith or believing is a very complex one because almost every form of religion talks about believing. For example, believing in some form of religious philosophy, believing in some deities, believing in some spiritual presence, and so on. And so, we really need to grasp the idea of faith or believing correctly before we proceed with the rest of the content of the Apostles' Creed. Now, to clear up the confusion created by contemporary viewpoints about the nature of faith, I will start by saying what faith is not. First, faith is NOT the absence of reason. You see, so often, we remove reason and rationality in the attempt to talk about great heroic faith.

If you believe, don't ask too much, don't reason too much, just obey, right? We often hear people say, If you believe, don't ask too many questions, don't reason too much, just obey. Jump into it by a leap of faith; God will lead you. You just need to cross over by faith, and God will guide you. But if it's like this, faith would only mean giving up our rationality, which is not what the Bible teaches. But then, on the other hand, we also have something called sense perception. Faith is not the absence of sense perception either. Now, what does sense perception have to do with? It has to do with something we call empiricism. Empiricism, sorry. Now, empiricism is where we deduce conclusions from sensory experience and empirical evidence. For example, through various tests or using a telescope, a microscope, what we see and hear from others and our external environment. Now, that experience we have of being in touch with the external world through our senses, we call it sense perception. Some people say we shouldn't rely on our senses if we want to live by faith. Is that true?

We should not rely on our perception, is that correct? Now let's first understand the importance of reason and sense perception in the subject of faith. Because every time we talk about faith in God, we have to be sure that we are not just talking about a transcendent God, a God who is outside human full experience, perception, or grasp. We are also talking about a God who is immanent, a God who is knowable, perceivable, or graspable. Now, talking about reason and sense perception, we are actually dealing with what we call the science of epistemology.

Now, what is epistemology? The science of epistemology always asks one question. It asks, How do we know what we know? How do we learn what we learn? For example, how do we know that the Earth is round and not flat? Or how do we know that Jesus has really resurrected?

And how do you know the means by which you draw your deduction is correct? You see, epistemology always tries to take a mixture of the relationship between reason and sense perception and put them together. And usually this is where our education goes, right? First, we are educated to think in terms of reason. We try to think in terms of logical progressions. We try to reason out things by provoking our rationality. For example, someone says, You think through, why do you think that the Earth is round and not flat? Now, if the Earth is flat, you should be able to see very far as the ship moves towards the horizon, right? Yet, you only see a ship suddenly disappear from the horizon as it moves towards it. So that signifies the Earth is not flat. So in this case, what are we using? We are using our mind, our reasoning. So you see, in the case, say, for instance, in the case of resurrection.

How do you verify it? Now you run through history, you run through facts, you make deductions on why Christianity is true, why the resurrection is true. Now you get relevant information, you collate the data, and then you go through the thought processes. And with your mind, you make sure every information and data is coherent and consistent as you draw deductions. And usually, for these people who fully depend on their mind to gain true knowledge, what do we call them? We call them rationalists. And rationalists are those people who put a heavy emphasis on the mind to seek out the source of truth. But having said that, where do the rationalists get information and data? Where do they get those facts which they process with their mind? They get it through what they see with their eyes, what they hear with their ears, smell with their nose, and so on. These are the five senses.

What they hear with their ears, what they smell with their noses, they obtain this information through their senses. You see, they observe through their senses, using telescopes and microscopes. In the case of the resurrection, where do they hear about it from? They hear it from eyewitnesses. So, we are talking about the five senses here. Therefore, any experience we have of being in touch with the external world through our senses, we call it sense perception. Modern epistemology attempts to synthesize reason and sense perception, aiming to combine the two. They gather all the evidence, collate all the data, and then input it into the computer. Nowadays, we have computers. Subsequently, they attempt to organize it into some kind of rational coherent sense and draw a rational deduction from there. So, you see the merging of reason and sense perception, right? Now, the question is, how does faith fit into this?

Now we ask the question: Does faith negate these two? The straightforward answer is no. It doesn't negate reason or sense perception. So, a lot of times when we talk about faith, we make the first mistake of setting faith in opposition to reason. And many times, we also see faith set in opposition to sense perception. We hear people say, Don't use your rationality to try to understand God and His work. God is infinite, God is supernatural. And then you hear people say, God's work cannot be seen with the naked eye. These are broad sweeping statements that have been advocated sometimes by pastors and mature believers. I don't think that the Bible teaches that faith is irrational or anti-sense perception. I don't find it in the Bible where it says to have true faith, you must function without reason or sense perception.

Let's look at a few verses together. 1 Peter 3:15 says, But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in you. So here it says, as long as you honor Christ the Lord in your hearts, when someone asks you about the reason for the hope in your heart, be prepared. You see, we are instructed to defend our faith by giving reasons. We are not instructed to simply tell our opponents, Just believe that Jesus is Lord. No questions asked because you cannot truly understand the living God with your mind. No, we are not told to do that. Look at what the Apostle Paul did in his evangelistic efforts. He engaged in reasoning and debating with the Jews. In Acts 18:28, it says, For Paul vigorously refuted his Jewish opponents in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah.

He was using the Scripture to prove to people. There was a lot of reasoning and debating going on. I think we are greatly mistaken if we are told to crucify our mind and rationality in the subject of faith. So, if someone tells us to abandon our thoughts and rationality in matters of faith, that is absolutely wrong. Now, as Saint Augustine said centuries ago, how can you receive any knowledge from God if it is not intelligible to the mind? I mean, can you even say that Jesus is Lord without having some understanding of the concept of what Lord is? How can you say, I believe in the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth? So, what constitutes the attributes of Almightiness? What is the concept of a Creator? You have to understand with your mind first, right? So, as RC Sproul says, you can't even hear the Gospel without hearing it first in the mind.

You can't hear the Gospel without hearing it first in the mind and understanding it to a certain degree. If you don't first hear the Gospel in your mind and understand it to a certain degree, you can't hear the Gospel. You see, Christianity is a faith that has a book which contains teachings and doctrines designed for our human understanding. Biblical faith doesn't make sense if it bypasses reason. On the other hand, it is the same for sense perception. The Lord leaves us evident clues of His incarnation, death, and resurrection. Now, listen to what Peter says, For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were what? Eyewitnesses of His majesty. The key word is eyewitnesses. So, eyewitness is the main phrase.

You see it's sensorial, so this is our perception. Look up 1 Corinthians 15:5-6. Now, a quick look at this verse. Have we ever wondered why our Lord Jesus, after His resurrection, has to show Himself not only to Peter but then also to the twelve, and then even after that to five hundred brothers and sisters at the same time? That's because the Lord cares about our sense perception. He cares about the empirical evidence being shown to us. He makes sure not only one person saw Him at one time because that can be deemed as a hallucination. But He makes sure many people see Him alive and resurrected at the very same time. You see, the Lord leaves His disciples with clear concrete evidence of His resurrection. He doesn't want them to have a faith that is imaginary or blurry. The Lord wants their experience to be real so that their faith rests on reality.

So that their confidence can be built on reality. And then someone may ask, Then why did the Lord rebuke Thomas for doubting? You know the Scripture, I'm sure you remember the Lord rebuked Thomas for doubting, right? And then Jesus, because he doubted, Jesus after a week appeared to him again. And Jesus said, Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Verses like these cause people to presume faith negates sense perception. Now, the problem with Thomas is not that he requested sense perception. First of all, our Lord is not demanding blind faith from Thomas. Our Lord has, in fact, given him ample eyewitnesses. Not only one disciple, but the rest of the eleven disciples had testified to him that they had seen the Lord. But Thomas stubbornly refused to believe. Now, the fact is that the Lord does leave us.

With evidence of His resurrection, His presence has indeed left us with evidence. And we are not told to just negate anything that appeals to our senses. You know, recently when I was in America, I visited the Creation Museum in Kentucky. There was so much empirical evidence given for a young earth and how creatures came from God's creation rather than evolution. Now, if you go to the States, you should spend a day there. There is so much to read about. I saw everything, the fossils in relation to Noah's flood, for example, the historical account of different people's groups, the biological and genetic information to show that we all came from one man, and even the radioactive decay was all taken into account to back up a creation theory. You see, there are traits of empirical evidence that God has left behind to convince us. You see, some people talk about faith as if it is blind faith.

It's as if he has blind faith. We hear people say, just take a leap of faith. Now, what does blind faith mean? Do you know? It simply means a faith that has its eyes shut. A faith that can't see anything at all. A faith that's negating the senses. The Bible nowhere tells us it is a heroic faith. However, such kind of faith has been glamorized and romanticized in our age, and it has sometimes even been propagated by the Word-Faith movement. Do you know the Word-Faith movement? What do they claim? Just believe, and it will be given to you. And this is where we always need to go back to sound reasoning by asking, Believe what? In my opinion, such movements have blatantly introduced irrational faith to the church. For example, it's irrational to just claim that because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so just as He does supernatural miracles during apostolic times, He will do it today, and He has to do it today.

If you believe that just claiming that because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, He should perform supernatural miracles like He did in the apostles' time, if you believe He would do the same today, this claim is unreasonable. Now, a rational faith will make us ask, Why would God still do this in this age? What is the purpose of doing it? Just because you believe a miracle should happen, then it will happen for you? You see, this is irrational. But why would Christians ever think like that? Because we've been conditioned not to think through the truths but to be led by our desires. We are not led to understand that the sufferings of this world can actually lead people to salvation or lead Christians to sanctification. We are only led to believe what we desire. And this is where we see more and more believers starting to lose a sound mind.

So we see more and more believers losing sound reason and developing a skewed sense perception in their faith. Now I'm going to talk about something of utmost importance. Although faith involves rationality and sense perception, an important question is: can we solely rely on these two attributes to understand all the realities of God? This is another perspective. I mentioned earlier that faith involves reason and sense perception. Faith is not irrational, nor is it against sense perception. But can we only rely on these two to understand everything about God? Can Einstein gather all the data about the universe, atoms, every matter, use his most analytical mind, and deduce who God is? Can Emmanuel Kant activate his most rigorous religious philosophical mind and deduce the meaning of the cross of Christ?

Kant could activate his most rigorous religious philosophical mind to infer the cross of Christ? Of course not. You see, pure reason alone is not going to get you to the Christian faith. How about sense perception? We all know how limited human senses are. What could be perceivable to us may be totally imperceivable to another person. Now let's read Hebrews 11:1, okay? Hebrews 11:1 defines faith this way: I read from the King James Version. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now, I've just said God can be seen. He can appeal to our sense perception. Yet, Hebrews over here also tells us faith is assurance about what we do not see. So, it kind of sounds contradictory now. So again, can God be seen or not be seen? The way to understand this is...

God can be seen in one sense, but He cannot be seen in another sense. We need to understand it this way: God is visible in a certain sense, but invisible in another sense. The Psalmist says, The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands (Psalm 19:1). And John Calvin says, The entire world is a general revelation, a theater in which the majesty of God is displayed. So, in this sense, God can be seen through what is shown in the universe. He can be seen through His creation. Yet, has anyone really seen God face to face? Has anyone had a visible experience with the Lord? No one, no man can see the Lord face to face and live, said Isaiah. Yet, we believe He is there. We not only believe in His unseen presence, but we also believe in unseen things He tells us about. For example, we haven't seen our departed loved ones in heaven. Have you?

We have not seen our deceased loved ones in heaven yet, but God tells us they are there. We haven't seen Abraham, David, Peter, Paul, and others, but God tells us they are like clouds surrounding us at this moment. So clearly, we cannot see the Creator Himself, but we can see Him through His creation and His actions. We can understand what has happened in church history. This leads us to draw conclusions about faith. While we talk about perception and reason, where should faith be? Now, faith is more than reason and more than sense perception. This brings us to a higher category in our Christian faith. And what is this higher category when we talk about faith? That is Revelation. I always say Christianity is unique in that it is a revealed faith.

The uniqueness of Christianity lies in the fact that it is a revealed faith. I say it again, revealed faith. God not only reveals Himself through nature, but also through His spoken word. Now, as Francis Schaeffer said, we don't just believe in a God who is there; we also believe in a God who has spoken. God has spoken clearly to us about who He really is, without which our faith in Him can never transcend our limited and fallen understanding. So, when Hebrews 11:1 talks about faith as the evidence of things not seen, we know it is talking about a dimension of reality that we cannot completely rationalize or make sense of. But I would say it is not entirely irrational, nor unscientific. It is simply what we call a mystery. Something that the rationalist cannot rationalize and the empiricist cannot verify.

Also, something that an empiricist cannot prove. So, while there are certain things about God we can rationalize or deduce by our sensorial means, there are some mysteries that can only be accepted by sheer faith. That is why when people ask, How can the universe come into being from nothing? You mean simply through creation? Show me, show me. Show me how it can happen scientifically and empirically. Well, the biblical answer to that is that it is not possible because creation is a massive miracle that cannot be repeated. I can only show you by reason and empirical data why evolution is not possible. But things like the virgin birth cannot be replicated. Resurrection cannot be replicated. We only have eyewitnesses, but to have it happen again is not possible. And to understand how this can happen scientifically is not possible.

There are things that cannot be verified in a scientific laboratory because these are once-off supernatural miracles that cannot be replicated again. But we put our faith in that because God has spoken. His spoken words have revealed it, and therefore as HE speaks I believe. Because in this sense, faith is the evidence of things not seen. And true faith should not demand every single mystery about God can be rationalized or scientifically verified. Because true faith in God also recognizes human limitation. Now for instance, how can we make perfect sense of the Trinitarian God? How can three persons be of one essence? How can one essence be in the form of three different persons? So this is where we know faith transcends reason and sense perception.

Now, the real opposite of biblical faith is not reason or sense perception but credulity. Credulity is that we believe too easily, and then the other side of the coin is superstition. Credulity and superstition are two sides of a coin. And remember how Paul rebuked the people of Athens when he came and found a city given to idolatry? He said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in all these worshiping of gods you are too superstitious. Now, don't think superstitious people are those who worship deities in the shrine or on the mountains. Sometimes superstitions can be found right in the Church. It can easily creep into our Christian faith if we are not careful. We can end up believing in absurd things that we want to believe.

We may end up believing in something very absurd. We might believe in some magical things that have nothing to do with the Word of God. So let's conclude this session with the true meaning of the Christian faith. This is a reformed class, we all know, right? Do you all know what the central issue of the Protestant Reformation is? Do you remember that? What triggered Martin Luther to start the religious reform movement? The central issue is justification by faith alone, remember? When the reformer said justification is by faith alone, that raised all sorts of questions. And one of the immediate questions that arose was, what kind of faith justifies? Simply put, what is true faith? What is true belief in Biblical Christianity, so to speak? I believe that the 16th-century reformers had given more thought to the concept of faith than anyone else in Church history.

More than anyone in church history. Now I vividly remember I've covered this in the first series of RTC. There are three distinguishable elements to biblical faith. So this is basically a recap as we are talking about faith now. Now the Reformers set them forth in Latin. The first word that they used to talk about faith is Notitia. In English, we simply call it information or data. This Notitia refers to knowledge. When we talk about justification by faith, we are not talking about being sincere and pious in terms of believing, but first, we talk about believing in what? What am I called to believe in? There is a Christian content by which Christ is the Son of God. He is the Savior who died for my sins and rose from the dead, and there is no other name given under heaven by which we could be saved.

So you see, there is this data. There is this Christian content which the Apostles preached before calling on people to believe. Before I can believe it and submit to it, first of all, I have to be able to understand it with my head. Now listen. Today, as you sit down in the Church and listen to the Word of God, what goes into your heart must first go through your mind, isn't it? Now we all know that the heart is where the saving faith finally finds its place. And even as we live out the Christian faith, it has everything to do with the heart. Now, Proverbs 4:23 says, Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. So you wouldn't be able to submit to God if there is no change of heart. But what we are talking about now is data, information. It has to do with the mind.

It's the mind component, not the heart. And that's where many people are confused now. You know, is the heart more important or the mind more important? Because even I would say Christians think that the Christian faith is about the heart believing. And some even think if you can provoke a person's heart to believe in Christ, then he is saved. That's what the Arminians believe. But listen very carefully to what I'm going to say here. Listen very carefully, okay? Now let me quote RC Sproul on this. Okay, this is what he said: The Christian Faith is about the primacy of the heart, but the Christian faith is also about the primacy of the mind. Now again, you find this contradictory. Why? Because how can you have two primacies, right? You can only have one primary and one secondary.

You can only have one primary and one secondary. So when he said Christian faith is a primacy of the heart and mind, it means it is the primacy of the heart and the mind in different senses. So, the meaning of Schleiermacher is that the heart and mind have primacy in different aspects. When we say Christian faith is the primacy of the heart, it is primacy in terms of importance. So, in terms of importance, Christian faith is paramount in the heart. Importance as in saving faith yields the heart to God. It is important because saving faith must make the heart submit to God. The heart that does not yield to God is not saved. So, from this perspective, the heart is the most important. But Christian faith is also about the primacy of the mind. However, Christian faith also concerns the primacy of the mind. But it is the primacy of the mind in terms of order. Because before the Word of God, before the gospel gets to the heart, it has to convince the mind first. Listen, the heart cannot believe something that the mind resists. You can deceive yourself, saying I believe, but when your mind resists it, you are deceiving yourself.

Do you understand? That's the makeup of our inner selves. Yeah, it's true that some people do recognize God's words in their minds, but they never believe in their hearts. But a person will never believe in God in their heart if the Word of God doesn't first enter their mind. So, the way to lead people to genuine or strong faith is to first ensure they have the correct and complete information. We must deliver complete truths, not half-truths. By preaching the whole counsel of God, we can guide people to genuine faith. I hope you understand this point. The second phase of faith is what the reformers call Assensus, or intellectual assent. So, if I ask you, do you believe that LKY is the founding father of Singapore?

Do you believe he built Singapore? Do you believe it? You believe that? Yeah, of course, he believes that. Now, I haven't asked you if you would put your personal trust in LKY. Now I am just asking you as a matter of historical reality. Do you believe that there is a man by the name of LKY and along with him his contributions to Singapore? And you said yes, I believe them. That's true. I assent to that proposition. And so when the early Christians witness Christ, they ask the question, Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God? Some people said no, I don't. But some people said yes, I do. But for those who said yes, I do, is it enough to make them a Christian? And do you believe Jesus is resurrected? Yes, I do. Well, His body cannot be found, and there is scientific reason to believe that.

Because we cannot find His body, there is scientific evidence to believe this. But does that make you a Christian? Not necessarily, right? So this is where James makes a striking statement about faith. He says, You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that. I'm sure you remember the man who was possessed by a legion of demons. When he saw Jesus, he acknowledged that Jesus is the Son of the Most High God. The Son of God, what do you have to do with us? Why have you come to torture us? You see, the Satan within him acknowledges the fact that Jesus is the Son of God. But the demons hated this fact. So while assent is essential to believing faith, it doesn't give you the complete sense of what believing faith actually is. And that is why Luther and the Reformers said there has got to be a third dimension to faith.

This is why Luther and the reformers said that faith must have a third dimension, which they called Fiducia in Latin. It simply means a personal trust and embracement in the one they believe in. You see, this involves the will, and fundamentally, it involves the heart, which Jonathan Edwards called the religious affection. Now, I not only acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, but I trust Him, I adore Him, and love Him as my Lord. I used to be estranged from Him and was hostile towards Him, but now I embrace Him with my heart. Above that, I also embrace the victory and the triumph of Christ. And that's what a statement of faith is. I don't just recite a creed and say, Yeah, I think that's true. Historically, it's true. I don't say, Oh, it's true because it's true he suffered under Pontius Pilate and was crucified.

And being nailed to the cross. When we talk about Fiducia, the point I'm making is: what does Jesus' crucifixion do to my heart? How does it set me free and yield my Lordship to Jesus? Surely, that faith is more than intellectual assent. It is definitely more than data, knowledge. It is not less; it is more. You get what I mean? But that involves the work of the Holy Spirit. Listen, the Holy Spirit is the principal agent of biblical revelation, illumination, and persuasion. And then He brings about the conviction, regeneration, and transformation of the hearts of sinners when sinners hear the gospel. In the case of redemption, He applies the saving work of the Son to the hearts and lives of the elect. And that is when we become united with Christ. Now we know that. That's the work of the Spirit, right? But now, the last question I want to ask is for the born-again believers.

Who recites the creed every week? What I want to ask now is, for the reborn believers who recite the Apostles' Creed every week, how does the knowledge of that creed move from my mind to my heart? Because for the next five sessions, we're going to learn about it. We're going to learn about the creed with understanding it in our minds, right? Learning it. In the next five lessons, we will study the content and knowledge of this creed. And I had also said that the order by which the Christian faith made its way to the heart is through what? Through the mind, right? And that is why for the next five sessions, we are going to teach the creed clearly and rightly so that we understand the content in totality and in its essence. Okay, but now one last question remains. You're going to discuss it later, okay? But is there anything else I can do for my heart to be illuminated and edified by what I've learned in my mind? Okay, we're going to learn about that in the next five sessions. We're going to learn everything about the Apostles' Creed. Put it here.

But is there anything else I can do to have what I have here to bring it down here to my heart? Okay? So in the next five lessons, we will learn the knowledge in our minds about the content of the Apostles' Creed. But how do we transfer the knowledge in our minds to our hearts? This is one of the critical questions that we are going to discuss later in the forum. I'm not giving you the answer here. This is one of the very key questions to be discussed in the upcoming discussion. So for the rest of the session, we're going to examine the content of the Apostles' Creed, which dates back to the earliest Christian Church, and discuss the essence of the Christian faith. Now let me say this, I would say the contents of the Apostles' Creed cross over denominational boundaries. So in studying it, we won't get into the distinctives of Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, or Baptist beliefs. And no worries about the difference between Calvinism and Arminianism. Never mind if you are still an Arminian.

The Creed itself possesses the classical information that all Christians have affirmed throughout Church history. This is something we will come to look at in subsequent lessons, alright? Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you so much. You know it's the quickening of Your Spirit in our lives that gives us the believing faith in You, in Your Son, such that none of us here can boast. We are all saved by grace, by Your works. And so, Lord, as we come again to study something very basic in our faith, that is the Apostle's Creed, open our minds to the understanding of the creed. And we really want to get serious with what we are reciting every week, every service. Help us, Lord, to have clarification of what we are doing ritually every week.

And we pray for a very fruitful time of forum later. In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen.

The Apostles' Creed Series 使徒信经系列: Message 信息 1 - I Believe... (我信...)

The Life Church and Missions

The Significance of the Apostles' Creed in Christian Faith

Many people recite the Apostles' Creed without fully understanding its doctrinal meaning, leading to a debate about its frequency in church services.

The creed, along with other confessional statements, aims to summarize the essential doctrines found in the sacred Scripture and is not meant to replace or have authority over the Scripture.

The Apostles' Creed, although not written by the Apostles themselves, has its essence dating back to the second century and was initially a simple affirmation used in the early Church for baptism and catechetical questions.

The Origin and Essence of the Apostles' Creed

The Apostles' Creed was established in response to the Gnostic movement and false teachings in the early Christian community.

It is named after the apostles due to its roots in apostolic teaching and tradition, rather than being written by them.

The creed centers around the concept of "I believe," emphasizing the importance of understanding the nature of faith as a complex and rational concept, not the absence of reason or sense perception.

The Role of Reason and Sense Perception in Faith

Faith in God encompasses both a transcendent and immanent God, requiring a balance of reason and sense perception.

Epistemology explores how we acquire knowledge through reason and sense perception, often merging the two.

Faith does not oppose reason or sense perception, as biblical teachings emphasize the use of reason to defend one's faith and the example of early evangelists engaging in debate and reasoning.

The Importance of Reason and Evidence in Faith

Using reason and rationality in matters of faith is crucial, as faith should be intelligible to the mind.

Christianity emphasizes the importance of sensory perception and concrete evidence, as seen in the emphasis on eyewitnesses of Jesus's resurrection.

The concept of blind faith, as promoted by some movements, is criticized, with an emphasis on the need for sound reasoning and evidence in the practice of faith.

The Role of Reason and Perception in Christian Faith

Faith in supernatural miracles in modern times is deemed unreasonable, as it is driven by desire rather than rationality.

The limitations of pure reason and sense perception in understanding the realities of God are highlighted, emphasizing the need for a higher category of faith: Revelation.

Christianity is portrayed as a unique and revealed faith, where God's spoken word transcends human understanding, representing a dimension of reality that is a mystery beyond rationalization and empirical verification.

The Nature of Faith and Its Relationship to Reason

Faith involves accepting mysteries that cannot be proven empirically, such as the virgin birth and resurrection.

It transcends reason and sense perception, acknowledging human limitations in understanding the supernatural.

True faith is based on knowledge and understanding, as it involves the acceptance of Christian content before a change of heart can occur.

The Significance of the Heart and Mind in the Christian Faith

The Christian faith emphasizes the importance of both the heart and the mind, with the heart being paramount in terms of saving faith and submission to God.

The mind, on the other hand, is crucial in terms of processing the Word of God and is essential in leading to genuine and strong faith.

The three dimensions of faith, including assent and personal trust, are highlighted as crucial components of true belief in the Christian faith.

The Holy Spirit plays a crucial role in the transformation of believers' hearts through biblical revelation and the knowledge of the creed.

The upcoming sessions will focus on understanding and transferring the knowledge of the Apostles' Creed from the mind to the heart.

The Creed's universal significance unites Christians across denominational boundaries and will be studied in subsequent lessons.