UNIT 1 :

(1) INTRODUCTION TO CHIRSTIAN FAITH

- Overview of Christianity as monotheistic faith

Monotheism is belief in a single god. This is different from polytheism, which

is belief in multiple gods. Three of the most well-known monotheistic religions
are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. All three of these religions believe in the
same God, who is all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-powerful.

Christians describe their faith in “One God, in three persons”. Acceptance of

Jesus' teachings; The significance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus
for the transformed life of the believer. Prayer and worship; and • Social
justice and practical assistance to others in need.

Among the three great monotheistic religions, Christianity has a place apart
because of the trinitarian creed of this religion in its classic forms, in
contradistinction to the unitarian creed of Judaism and Islam. The Christian
Bible, including the New Testament, has no trinitarian statements or
speculations concerning the doctrine of the Trinity—only triadic liturgical
formulas invoking God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is true that
Christianity also has had its Unitarians, such as the 16th-century Italian
theologian Faustus Socinus, but this religion in its three classic forms
of Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism acknowledges
one God in three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit. According to Christian theology, this acknowledgment is a recognition
not of three gods but that these three persons are essentially one, or as
the dogmatic formulation, coined by the early Church
Father Tertullian (c. 160–after 220), has it: three Persons and one substance.
This conception was not accepted without contradiction, as is proved by
theological disputes of the 3rd and 4th centuries. It is evident that trinitarian
speculation greatly resembles the way of thinking of pluriform monotheism. It
is, of course, unlikely that there are any historical connections between these
phenomena; both, however, try to solve what is more or less the same
problem in more or less the same manner. The main distinction is that
Christianity, as a monotheistic religion, restricts itself to three Persons,
whereas primitive religions have no reason to restrict the number of possible
forms of the one divine substance. Like other religions that cover a large
territory and have a long history, Christianity appears in a multitude of
variations: there is Christian pantheism, Deism, and even, paradoxically,
Christian atheism, as exemplified in the mid-20th-century “death of God”
theologies.
- Importance of faith and reason in Christian faith

First, the Christian faith affirms that there is an objective source and
foundation for knowledge, reason, and rationality. That source and foundation
is found in a personal and rational God who is infinitely wise and all-knowing.
This God created the universe to reflect a coherent order, and he made man
in his image (with rational capacities) to discover that intelligible organization.
Logic and rationality are then expected features in the Christian theistic
worldview.

Second, Christian truth-claims do not violate the basic laws or principles of

reason. Christian faith and doctrines (for example, the Trinity and the
Incarnation), though they often transcend our finite human comprehension,
are not irrational or absurd.

Third, the Bible itself encourages the attainment of knowledge, wisdom, and
understanding (Job 28:28; Prov. 1:7) and promotes such intellectual virtues as
discernment, testing, and reflection (Acts 17:11; Col. 2:8; 1 Thess. 5:21).

Fourth, the truths of the Christian faith correspond to, and are supported by,
such things as evidence, facts, and reasons. Biblical faith (Greek: pisteuō, the
verb “believe,” and pistis, the noun “faith”) can be defined as confident trust in
a reliable, reasonable, and viable source (God or Christ). Faith (or belief) is a
necessary component of knowledge and reason since a person must believe
something in order to know it. Yet reason can be properly used to evaluate,
confirm, and buttress faith. Faith and reason therefore function in a
complementary fashion. While reason in and of itself, apart from God’s special
grace, cannot cause faith, the use of reason is normally a part of a person’s
coming to faith, and serves to support faith in innumerable ways. In summary,
faith is foundational to reason and reason can serve to evaluate or confirm
faith.

In the New Testament, faith is always focused upon an object. And the
trustworthy object of a person’s faith, according to Scripture, is God or the
Lord Jesus Christ. Even the very faith that results in salvation involves
knowledge (of the facts surrounding the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus
Christ) and discursive reasoning (as to what the facts about Jesus Christ
really mean). Saving faith then includes knowledge (of the gospel), assent (to
its truth and importance), and confident trust and reliance (upon the Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ). Such faith engages all the human faculties: mind
(knowledge), will (assent), and heart (trust).

Christian faith and reason can also be connected in another important way.
The Christian life should be marked by what the Apostle Paul calls the
renewing of the mind (Rom. 12:2). This involves the use of our cognitive
faculties to their fullest extent in our devotion to God. Augustine of Hippo (AD
354-430) called this indispensable intellectual and spiritual activity “faith
seeking understanding.” Believers should strongly endeavor to use God-given
reason to explore the depths of their faith and to discover its doctrinal truth.
Stretching mental and spiritual muscles to apprehend (yet never fully to
comprehend) such doctrines as the Triune nature of God and the Incarnation
of Jesus Christ moves one from an initial stage of faith to a deeper stage of
reflection and a greater sense of God’s majesty. Loving God with the mind is
part of fulfilling the overarching commandment to love and honor God with our
entire being (Matt. 22:37).

Thus, Christian faith, far from being arbitrary and blind, is grounded in
knowledge and reason. It is the believer’s task to represent this historic faith
graciously and accurately in an age of hardened skepticism.
(2) INTRODUCTION TO THE CREED

- Definition and purpose of the creed

.

A creed is a profession of faith. In reciting the words 'I believe' or 'We believe',
Catholics give their assent to the divine truths, revealed by God, in Sacred
Scripture and the living Tradition of the Church.

Creed, an authoritative formulation of the beliefs of a religious community (or,

by transference, of individuals). The terms “creed” and “confession of faith”
are sometimes used interchangeably, but when distinguished “creed” refers to
a brief affirmation of faith employed in public worship or initiation rites, while
“confession of faith” is generally used to refer to a longer, more detailed, and
systematic doctrinal declaration. The latter term is usually restricted to such
declarations within the Christian faith and is especially associated with
churches of the Protestant Reformation. Both creeds and confessions
of faith were historically called symbols, and the teachings they contain are
termed articles of faith or, sometimes, dogmas.

The role of belief within religion is interpreted differently in the

various empirical disciplines and by the proponents of particular theological or
philosophical positions. Traditionally, it has been considered the primary
factor in religion, but some modern scholars often regard beliefs as rationales
for ritual, that is to say, as secondary expressions of religious experience or
as a posteriori ideological sanctions for social and cultural patterns. The
present article follows a current anthropological and sociological tendency to
define religion as a symbolic system in which ideas and
their concomitant attitudinal aspects and actions provide to an individual or
group a model of itself and its world. From this perspective, every religion
involves distinctive views or beliefs regarding the nature of ultimate reality.
- Historical Development of the Nicene creed and apostles

The Nicene Creed was originally formulated at the first Ecumenical Council of
the Catholic Church held in Nicea in 325C. E. and was later amplified,
adopted and authorised as a true expression of the Faith at the second
Ecumenical Council in Constantinople in 381C.

According to tradition, it was composed by the 12 Apostles, but it actually

developed from early interrogations of catechumens (persons receiving
instructions in order to be baptized) by the bishop. An example of such
interrogations used in Rome about 200 has been preserved in the Apostolic
Tradition of Hippolytus.

The Council of Nicea simply adopted a baptismal creed and made it more
precise to confront the Arian heresy. The Apostles' Creed is probably older
than the Nicene Creed, since it is based on the baptismal profession of the
early Roman Church. Both creeds, however, have the same ancient origin.
(3) TEACHING THE CREED

- Explanation of the key doctrines

We identify a Key Doctrine in every session of Explore the Bible Adults. Each
featured Key Doctrine is set off in some way so they are noticed and not
ignored. They include a doctrinal category, a statement, and a couple of Bible
passages. The category points to a broad idea usually addressed in a
doctrinal document. The categories could be God, the Scriptures, salvation,
last things, and variety of other topics. The statement presents a truth related
to the identified category. This statement connects to the lesson in some way.
The verses listed at the end of the Key Doctrine give a biblical basis for the
statement.

One of the frequent questions asked is the source of these categories and
statements. Lifeway is an agency of the Southern Baptist Convention which
has a distinct doctrinal statement. That doctrinal statement is known as The
Baptist Faith and Message, 2000. This current statement was revised and
adopted by the annual meeting of Southern Baptist that was held in the
summer of 2000, thus the date designation. This document is the source of
the Key Doctrine categories, statements, and passages. We realize that each
individual statement is dependent on the other statements in a category but
that does not negate the truth of a specific statement. Most sentences can
stand alone, which is what one finds in the Key Doctrine features in Explore
the Bible.

The Key Doctrine serves as a tool for teaching doctrine in a non-threatening

way. We include suggestions in the group plans for using the Key Doctrine for
this very reason. Those suggestions give the teacher an opportunity to explain
a critical doctrine and show how that truth is illustrated or affirmed in the
passage being studied. Connections between other passages also point to
the unity of Scripture and help the group come to see how doctrinal
statements serve as useful tools when trying to understand the whole of
Scripture.

To help people better understand the ideas included in this doctrinal

statement, a study guide was developed that walks an individual or group
through each section, statement by statement. This study guide entitled The
Baptist Faith and Message would be a great tool for personal reference. It
could also be used by a group of teachers as a part of their personal
development and training.
- Importance of the creed and defining christian identity

Thus, creeds are “theological mirrors of the Bible’s fundamental doctrine.”[2]

Likewise, “They are the product of many centuries of Bible study by a great
company of believers. They are a kind of spiritual ‘road map’ of the teaching
of the Bible, already worked out and proved by others before us.”[3] They
provide a “concise rending of the Christian story and . . . vision of reality,”
being instruments “that can at once define the community of faith and
challenge alternative stories and visions of reality.”[4] Therefore, for these
reasons and many more, creeds are useful, reliable, and even authoritative
truths that every Christian should know and be able to say from the heart. In
our ever-more-anti-confessional age (with its many creedless churches),
these ancient but timeless documents are essential to Christianity’s stability
and spiritual growth. While the postmodern world balks at religious truth as
implausible and distasteful, we boast in Christ as “God of God . . . who . . . for
our salvation came down from heaven.”

Christian Identity is a religious ideology popular in extreme right-wing circles.

Adherents believe that whites of European descent can be traced back to the
"Lost Tribes of Israel." Many consider Jews to be the Satanic offspring of Eve
and the Serpent, while non-whites are "mud peoples" created before Adam
and Eve. Its virulent racist and anti-Semitic beliefs are usually accompanied
by extreme anti-government sentiments. Despite its small size, Christian
Identity influences virtually all white supremacist and extreme anti-government
movements. It has also informed criminal behavior ranging from hate crimes
to acts of terrorism.