Ancient Anglican

So what does that return look like? A return to the beatific plumb line is not a matter of your own effort to just be better tomorrow. Rather it is a true return to God Himself. If your heart is out of plumb seek him out. Be in constant prayer with God.  Words are unnecessary. Go wherever you feel his presence and simply be.

  Every week, the Creed requires that we affirm this humiliation and exaltation of Christ through which our salvation is worked.  It also provides us with the shape of our own salvation.

The paradigm that this portion of the Creed adopts is that of Jesus as a victorious conquering King. In the Resurrection he defeats death, and in the Ascension he is elevated to his position of kingly power and authority.

When the Creed speaks of the Incarnation it uses the mythic language of a descending/ascending deity.  Think through why the Creed retains this (pagan?) mythic language to describe the Incarnation. 

The promise is that we, in our very being, will be changed, for it is the kingdom of God itself that comes upon us. Matt. 12:28.  And this transformation cannot occur unless he himself becomes one of us.

If Jesus is only a man or only God, then we are still dead in our sinful corrupted nature.  It is only when the fullness of God assumes our very nature that we are redeemed and receive adoption as children of God in whom he is well pleased. Gal. 4:5.

his first part of the second article was written in opposition to the teachings of Bishop Arius who saw himself as a faithful orthodox Biblical Christian priest. If we understand his argument we should have a better understanding of what the Creed teaches.

One of the issues Johnson raises without pursuing it too far is that if we believe in one all-powerful good God, then what of evil?

As we looked at last week, the essence of God is beyond all intellectual conception, and therefore God as an Object of study is impossible. But if we begin with God as Persons with whom we can relate through our own existential, ecstatic, eros (as he defines these terms in section 6) experience of God, then we can move forward.

In speaking of “God,” we are faced with the task of putting into words that which is beyond words and beyond comprehension. Therefore, when we begin looking at the Creed, we have to begin with an infinite humility in our understanding and defining of the Divine because God transcends absolutely all meaning and all understanding. 

The Creed is a profession of faith, not merely belief. “Belief” refers only to the cognitive dimension of faith, whereas “faith” encompasses the entire human response to God. Belief, however, is the first step into faith and forms the foundation of our common faith.  The Creed provides us with this foundation.

Johnson begins his discussion of the Creed with the Jewish Shema  (Hebrew for “Hear!”) as contained in Deuteronomy 6:4-5.  Johnson shows how this basic statement of faith is Communal, Exclusive, and Personal.