The Apostles’ Creed at Grace Community Church

Why the Creed? 

            Creeds are not the same as Scripture, but they are ways that Christians have historically confessed the truths that are found within Scripture (the word “creed” comes from credo, or “I believe”). The Apostles’ Creed is one such creed—it is a summary of orthodox Christian beliefs that are found within Scripture, summarized within one document, that we confess together to profess our unity within the Christian faith. 

Why a Contemporary Version? 

            Creeds and confessions are often re-written over time to reflect changes in language, and the same is true of the Apostles’ Creed.

            The above rendering of the Apostles’ Creed that we confess reflects the Contemporary Version of the creed that is in use with the RCA. In particular, some versions of the Creed include the language “descended into hell” instead of “descended to the dead.” This latter choice of language far more accurately reflects the original intended meaning and biblical accuracy of the confession, so we incorporate it here. 

            Here at Grace, we also declare the Confession using the pronouns “we” instead of “I” to reflect our unity in the Confession – we declare this Confession both individually and together as a church body. We also translate the word “catholic” to “universal”—this is typically marked as a translation note, as the word “catholic” (lower case) translates to “universal” in this usage (and not “Roman Catholic” as it is often conflated with). To remove this confusion, and in keeping with the translational notation, we have simply supplied the translated word herein. 

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