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The Catechism in Questions & Answers
- Introduction
- Contents
- 29. What is a creed?
- 30. Are there biblical creeds?
- 31. How did the first Christian creeds come into being?
- 32. Which statements became part of the content of the Christian creeds?
- 33. Which are the most important of the early church creeds?
- 34. What is the text of the Apostolicum?
- 35. What is the text of the Creed of Nicaea-Constantinople?
- 36. What significance do the early church creeds have for the New Apostolic Church?
- 37. What is the text of the New Apostolic Creed?
- 38. How did the New Apostolic Creed come into being?
- 39. What is the significance of the New Apostolic Creed?
- 40. What is the structure of the New Apostolic Creed?
- 41. What is the content of the First Article of Faith?
- 42. What is the content of the Second Article of Faith?
- 43. What is the content of the Third Article of Faith?
- 44. What is the content of the Fourth Article of Faith?
- 45. What is the content of the Fifth Article of Faith?
- 46. What is the content of the Sixth Article of Faith?
- 47. What is the content of the Seventh Article of Faith?
- 48. What is the content of the Eighth Article of Faith?
- 49. What is the content of the Ninth Article of Faith?
- 50. What is the content of the Tenth Article of Faith?
31. How did the first Christian creeds come into being?
The first Christian creeds are called the “early church creeds”. They came into being between the second and fourth centuries AD. It was during this time that the doctrine of the trinity of God and the doctrine of the essence of Jesus Christ, that is, of His nature, were formulated.
This had become necessary because there had been disputes about various contents of faith. For example, there was the opinion that Jesus Christ did not really die on the cross and that He did not really resurrect. The function of the creeds was to distinguish the faith from these heresies.