The apostles' creed ii

Samuel Ong/W-Hope/23.9.12

The Apostles’ Creed III Believe InGod the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth

Abbey of St. Boniface, Munich, Germany.


Jesus did many other miraculous signs, in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written *that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and **that by believing ***you may have life in his name. John 20:30, 31.


I. I BELIEVE …

HEAD: To believe is to inform the mind that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

HEART: To believe is to be drawn into a living and vital relationship with Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

HANDS & FEET: To believe is to be transformed as persons - from darkness to light, death to life, emptiness to fullness – to reflect and live out in ever greater measure the glory and image of God.

True-blooded Christian belief is FULL-BODIED - one that engages the head, heart, hands and feet or it is nothing.


II. I Believe in GOD

When the Creed speaks of God, it means “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. 1 Pet. 1:3.

God simply is. “In the beginning God”. Gen. 1:1.

“I AM WHO I AM (I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE)”, Ex. 3:14.

“God requires nothing to supplement his being. He is his own cause, He is his own reason. He is his own wisdom. He is his own activity. He is maximally perfect, so there can be no possible way for God to improve himself.” (Coleman, 2011).


III. I Believe in GOD –the FATHER Almighty

There is only one God.‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one”, Deut. 6:4; Mark 12:29.

“There is one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Eph. 4:6.

God is One, yet a complex unity.Then God said, “Let US make human beings in OUR image, in OUR likeness” … So God created human beings in HIS own image, in the God he created them …, Gen. 1:26, 27

Apostles’ Creed: I Believe in …God the Father

Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.

The Holy Spirit


The Trinity – An Inexplicable Reality

God in his universal relations as the Father, unveiling himself as the Son, and in operation as the Spirit.

God beyond us as the Father, among us as the Son, and within us as the Spirit.

Electricity: Father (dynamo), Son (wire), Spirit (power)

Isosceles triangle

Sun (Father), light (Son), warmth (Spirit)

Water – ice, liquid, vapor.


I Believe in GOD –the FATHER Almighty

He is creator and provider“Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live.” 1 Cor. 8:6.

He shows his love and compassion“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” Hosea 11:1.

He exercises his providence and care“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.” Psalm 68:5.

He disciplines and corrects“Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.” Deut. 8:5

He adopts believers into his family“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12.


GOD as Mother

Problems with the image of God as fatherOur human fathers - absent, abusive, uncaring …

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” Isaiah 49:15

“As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.” Isaiah 66:13.


Implications of the Fatherhood of God

Character: Children are to produce the Father’s likeness.

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matt. 5:28.

Unity: One Father means one family.“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Eph. 4:3-6.

Status: Believers are related to Jesus Christ.“For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Matt. 12:50.


Implications of the Fatherhood of God

Inheritance: Believers are heirs of the Father’s kingdom.

“Now if we are children, then we are heir – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” Rom. 8:17.

Submission: Believers are to revere the Father.

“Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear.” 1 Pet. 1:17.


I Believe in GOD –the Father ALMIGHTY

God is all-powerful and his able to do whatever he wills.

“Nothing is impossible with God”. Luke 1:37.

God’s power is limited only by his character.

God cannot deny himself. 2 Tim. 2:13

God cannot tolerate evil. Hab. 1:13

God cannot be tempted. James 1:13

God cannot lie. Numbers 23:19


IV. I Believe in GOD – MAKER OF HEAVEN AND

EARTHGod simply is.

“In the beginning God”. Gen. 1:1.

“I AM WHO I AM (I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE)”, Ex. 3:14.

God made everything that is non-God.“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Gen. 1:1.

He is Creator, all the rest is creation (created, creatures).


I Believe in GOD –MAKER OF HEAVEN AND

EARTHGod spoke, and it came to being.

“And God said”, Gen. 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 29.

A God who speaks to reveal himself, and communicate.

Everything that God makes is good - very good.

“It was good”, Gen. 1:4, 9, 12, 18, 21, 24.

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening and morning - the sixth day.” Gen. 1:31.


Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created human beings in his own image, in the God he created them; male and female he created them. Gen. 1:26, 27

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Gen. 2:15.


I Believe in GOD – MAKER OF HEAVEN AND

EARTHGod made human beings, in His image.

God made human beings, male and female.

God made human beings, to care for the rest of God’s creation

Rule, Gen. 1:26; work and take care, Gen. 2:15

God made human beings, innocent.The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. Gen. 2:25.


I Believe in GOD – MAKER OF HEAVEN AND

EARTHGod comes to an end of his creative work, and he rests.

Thus the heavens and the earth (1:1) were completed in their vast array (1:3-31). By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, be cause on the seventh day he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. Gen. 2:1-2.

Holy = separate. Work-Rest cycle; the rhythms of life.

Not Deism.


I Believe in GOD –MAKER OF HEAVEN AND

EARTHThe creation proclaims his greatness and glory.

The heavens declares the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. Psalm 19:1-4.

Witness and Worship


Challenges to the idea of God

Atheism and secularism – No god!Richard Dawkins – The God Delusion (2006), Atheist Bus Campaign (2008)

Singapore Humanist Society, Malaysian Atheists, Freethinkers and Agnostics (MAFA) and Unscientific Malaysia.

New Age – I am god!

Polytheism – many gods!Different gods for different places, situations, peoples

Pantheism – everything is a god!

Deism – the absent god!

Monotheism – one God, but whose God?Christianity (Jesus the God-Messiah), Judaism (No Jesus), Islam (Jesus the prophet)


Paul in Athens, Acts 17:16-33

The SituationThe city was full of idols, 17:16

They were religious people, 17:22 (Athenians, foreigners, Epicureans, Stoics – 17:18, 21)

Even an altar to “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD”, 17:23


BLANK



Paul’s MethodsReasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the market place day by day with those who happened to be there. 17:17

Preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection, 17:19.

Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. 17:24 ( to a meeting in the Areopagus, 17:19).



Paul’s Message (Content)God who made heaven and earth, including all human beings and every nation of men, 17:24, 26

Lord of heaven and earth, 17:24

Does not live in temples built by hands and not served by human hands as if he needed anything, 17:24-25

He did this so that men would seek him, reach out for him, and find him, 17:27, “for in him we live and move and have our being”, 17:28



Paul’s Message (Content)God is not like gold or silver or stone – an image made by man’s design and skill, 17:29.

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands people all everywhere to repent. 17:30

For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. 17:31a.

He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead. 17:31b.



ResponseWhen they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, 17:32

But others said, We want to hear you again on this subject. 17:33

A few men became followers of Paul and believed – Dionysius, Damaris and a number of others. 17:34

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The apostles' creed ii