Beliefs

      C.S. Lewis once wrote about the need for good beliefs as being the need for good maps. If someone says they “experienced” God, we are not required to doubt them. However, nor should we allow them the privilege in our lives to teach significant truth.  Lewis likens this to a person who swam in the Atlantic Ocean one time giving no help to us who want to cross the entirety of the ocean. We would rightly give priority to those who have crossed, developed the maps, etc.  It is these following beliefs that Recapitulate submits as having been considered the best of the maps and well received by all through Christian history. 

 

 

Irenaeus’ – The Rule of Faith (2nd Century)

“For, as to the Church, dispersed as she is through the whole world unto the ends of the earth, yet having received from the Apostles and their disciples the Faith in One God the Father Almighty, Who made the Heaven and the Earth and the seas and all that is therein; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, Who was made flesh for our salvation; and in the Holy Ghost, Who by the Prophets declared the Economies, and the Advents, and the Birth of a Virgin, and the Passion, and the Rising from the dead, and the Bodily Ascension into Heaven of the Beloved, Christ Jesus our Lord, and His Coming from the Heavens in the glory of the Father, to sum up all things and to raise up all flesh of all human nature; that to Christ Jesus, our Lord and God, and Saviour and King, according to the good pleasure of the Invisible Father, every knee may bow, of things in heaven and in Earth and under the Earth, and that every tongue may confess to Him, and he may administer just judgment to them all...”

Against Heresies, p. 33

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Apostles Creed

I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord. 

He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. 

He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. 

He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. 

He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. 

He will come again to judge the living and the dead. 

I believe in the Holy Spirit, 

the holy catholic Church

the communion of saints

the forgiveness of sins

the resurrection of the body

and the life everlasting. Amen. 

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