A NEW CREED
I think Christians need a new creed.
How many young people can you see worshiping in your sanctuary - 18 to 35 years of age - single people or newly married?
I would guess there aren't that many. Those who do attend are likely to have one foot firmly planted in the secular culture and the other foot barely nudging open the door of the sanctuary.
Talk to your own children about why they do not attend worship. My guess is, it's because of the theology - the church does not give them credible statements of faith.
In the beginning of this revolt against church, young people said worship was boring. Some of us might agree. But later the mutiny against church became intellectual and the debate suddenly turned from what's boring to what's believable.
So they come to church and the first statement in the creed sticks in their mind. It says that God made heaven and earth. That's contrary to scientific evidence.
The second statement about Jesus tells us that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. "How did that happen?" one might wonder.
The statements pile up - that "he descended into hell" and then "ascended into heaven" and then was bodily raised from the dead. Until finally at the end, we must promise to "believe in the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come."
Younger Christians might be wondering if the "life of the world to come" would still be considered reality if the planet were destroyed by a nuclear device. What are the limits of the Nicene and Apostle Creed?
Was the Apostle's Creed really written by the apostles? Historical dating sets the origin at the 16th century. So, sometime in the 1500s a bunch of theologians got together and wrote a new creed, using the ancient Nicene creed as a model. We've been using those two statements exclusively for hundreds of years.
In fact the Nicene Creed is believed to be a statement created in the year 325. It would be another 900 years before the Magna Carta, which is the foundation for law in the Western world. There was very little medicine in 325, and few people became learned enough to even read and write.
Yet that primitive statement of faith is what we use on most fancy Sundays when Protestants and Catholics celebrate the eucharistic meal, holy communion, with it's extended liturgy.
And we are forced to say one of the creeds every Sunday of the church year. The modern emphasis on love is left out of both creeds. They say nothing about joy, grace, kindness and all the other claims that Christians make in the modern day.
What is the true evidence of our faith? Now is the time to know what we believe.
Clark D. Morphew
Posted For 4-10-02