"And they say Creeds don't mean anything......"

I ran acrossed this last night while reading up on Gnosticism. It's a line upon line exposition of the significance of each line of the Apostles Creed in light of the Gnostic heresies that circulated during the time it was written.


"THE APOSTLES' CREED VERSUS GNOSTICISM

A creed generally emphasizes the beliefs opposing those errors that the compilers of the creed think most dangerous at the time.The Creed of the Council of Trent, which was drawn up by the RomanCatholics in the 1500's, emphasized those beliefs that RomanCatholics and Protestants were arguing about most furiously at thetime. The Nicene Creed, drawn up in the fourth century, is emphatic in affirming the Deity of Christ, since it is directed against the Arians, who denied that Christ was fully God. The Apostles' Creed,drawn up in the first or second century, emphasizes the true Humanity, including the material body, of Jesus, since that is thepoint that the heretics of the time (Gnostics, Marcionites, and later Manicheans) denied. (See 1 John 4:1-3)"


http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/history/creed.apostles.txt




And another article that is worthy of your consideration.......


The Jewishness of the Nicene Creed

"In working on the most recent issue of Christian History & Biography ("Debating Jesus' Divinity"), we once again ran into the old canard that the Nicene bishops relied more on Greek philosophical concepts than on the Bible. That is the conventional wisdom in some circles, but let's take a closer look at what those bishops did. "


http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/februaryweb-only/53.0c.html