Lord’s Day 8
Q23. What are these articles?
I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, our Lord; he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit; the holy catholic church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.
Commentary — Zacharias Ursinus (1616)
The term symbol or creed ("symbolum") signifies in general a sign or mark by which one person or thing is distinguished from another, as a military symbol is a sign which distinguishes allies from enemies. The German has it: "ein Feldzeichen, oder Losung". Or, it ("symbola") signifies a collation or bringing together, as to a feast—"zusammen schiessen". In the sense of the church, it signifies a brief and summary form of Christian faith, which distinguishes the church and her members from all the various sects. There are those who suppose that this summary of our Christian faith, as just recited, is called a symbol, or creed, because it was collated or formed by the Apostles, each one furnishing a certain portion of it. This, however, cannot be proven. It is more probable that it was so called because these articles constitute a certain form or rule with which the faith of all orthodox Christians should agree and conform. It is called apostolic, because it contains the substance of the doctrine of the Apostles, which the catechumens were required to believe and profess; or because the Apostles delivered this sum of Christian doctrine to their disciples, and the church afterwards received it from them. It is called "Catholic", because it is the one faith of all Christians.
We must here inquire, Why were other creeds, as the Nicene, the Athanasian, the Ephesian, and Chalcedonian, formed and received in the church after the Apostles' creed? To this we would reply, that these are not properly other creeds differing in substance from the Apostles' creed, but are merely a repetition and clearer enunciation of its meaning, in which some words are added, by way of explanation, on account of heretics, who took advantage of its brevity, and corrupted it. There is, therefore, no change as it respects the matter or substance of the Apostles' creed in those of a later date, but merely a difference in the form in which the doctrines are expressed.
There are other weighty reasons which may have led and compelled the Bishops and teachers of the ancient church to form and construct these brief formulas of confession, especially when churches were multiplying, and heresies were springing up in different places. Among these reasons we may mention the following: