UNIT J: We believe . . .

Contents

UNIT J: We believe ...... J

Reading before Session 1...... J

Further reading before Session 1...... J

Session 1 : God in Trinity...... J

Preparation for Session 2 : God in Trinity...... J

Further (optional) reading for session 2 : We believe in One God...... J

Session 2 : God in Trinity: God the Father Almighty...... J

Preparation for Session 3: God in Trinity - The Holy Spirit...... J

Session 3 : God in Trinity - The Holy Spirit...... J

Preparation for Session 4...... J

Session 4 : The Life of the Church...... J

Preparation for Session 5. The Future Hope...... J

Session 5 : The Future Hope...... J

Assignments:...... J

We believe

Introduction: This unit will look at what Christians declare that they believe and at some of the objections that have been raised against Christianity. You will be encouraged to think about what you believe, and whether those around you may agree or disagree with this.

Pattern of each session:

We will begin each session with a look at the Trinity, the distinctive belief of Christians. In the light of belief in one God in three persons, we will then look at God, creating, redeeming and sustaining the world in the first three sessions. Building on this, the remaining two sessions will examine what Christians believe about the Church and about the future.

Do listen out for what you hear about the Christian faith from people around you and in the media, so that our understanding of how to explain our faith is responding to the questions people ask.

Outline of Sessions

1. God in Trinity : The Lord Jesus Christ

2. God in Trinity : God the Father, Almighty, Creator

3. God in Trinity : The Holy Spirit

4. The Life of the Church

5. The Future Hope

Further Suggested Reading to follow up the work of this Unit

  • Alister E. McGrath, Theology for Amateurs, Hodder and Stoughton, 1999. Lively and Engaging.
  • Richard Holloway, Crossfire: Faith and Doubt in an Age of Certainty (Collins 1988). The author describes this as ‘an attempt to give a personal account of the Christian religion, to show the way in which one man holds it’.
  • Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction (Blackwell, 2nd edition 1997). A scholarly book, invaluable for those who are interested in the history of theology and doctrine. A useful reference book, rather than for reading from cover to cover.
  • Brian Hebblethwaite, The Essence of Christianity: A Fresh Look at the Nicene Creed (SPCK 1996). A clearly written book, up-to-date and fairly accessible.
  • Timothy Keller, The Reason for God, Belief in an Age of Scepticism (Hodder 2008) A modern defender of Christian faith
  • Francis Spufford Unapologetic, Why, despite everything, Christianity can still make surprising emotional sense (Faber and Faber, 2013) Witty, personal defence of why Christianity works as a way of life.
  • Paul Fiddes Participating in God (Darton Longman and Todd, 2000) is a beautifully written book that describes how the believer joins in the life of the Trinity.
  • Wm. Paul Young, The Shack (Hodder, 2008) Controversial, Stimulating, Read it for yourself!

Reading before Session 1

Sources of Revelation: You may remember from the first unit of this course we can expect to learn from God in four ways. As the Church of England was formed in the 16th and 17th centuries,

  • Scripture was important as part of the Reformed character of the Church; it was the authority against which certain Roman Catholic practices were measured and found to be wrong. The Thirty-Nine Articles affirmed that ‘Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation’ (Article VI).
  • Tradition was important; it was used both to assert that the Church of England lacked no essential part of the faith and order of the worldwide church; and to prevent the more extreme Protestants, or Puritans, from demanding a complete break from the past. The leaders of the emerging Church of England examined the work of the theologians of the early centuries of the Church more than any other church in Europe. Tradition is seen, though, in canon law[1] as subsidiary to Scripture: ‘The doctrine of the Church of England is grounded in the holy scriptures and in such teachings of the ancient fathers and councils of the Church as are agreeable to the said scriptures’ (Canon A5).
  • Reason was important as an element of the culture of the post-Reformation world. Some of the first Anglican thinkers – such as Richard Hooker (died 1600), John Locke (1632–1704) and Samuel Butler (1612–80) – used sound principles of rational learning, along with moderation in argument, to defend the Anglican position against its enemies both within and without. It is founded in the belief that our brains are God given and, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, may be used in God’s service.

To these three sources of revelation, John Wesley added a fourth:

  • Experience Wesley believed that we cannot have reasonable confidence about something unless we have experienced it personally and he was assured of both justification and sanctification because he had experienced them in his own life. As the healed blind man said: "One thing I know; I was blind, but now I see." (John 9:25).

The experience of communities, not only of individuals has been very influential in the development of understanding about the Christian faith. When we listen to the voices of believers around the world and to groups who have been marginalised we understand that God speaks in and to particular contexts and experiences. The varieties of creeds that follow demonstrate this. As you read them try to imagine the kind of Christian community that would say them.

(a)I believe in Jesus Christ,
Born of a common woman,
Who was ridiculed, disfigured and executed,
Who on the third day rose and fought back;
He storms the highest councils of men,
Where he overturns the iron rule of injustice.
From henceforth he shall continue
To judge the hatred and arrogance of men.

(Creed written by Canaan Banana, former president of Zimbabwe)

(b) An African Creed

We believe in the one High God, who out of love created the beautiful world and everything good in it. He created man and wanted man to be happy in the world. God loves the world and every nation and tribe on the earth. We have known this High God in the darkness and now we know him in the light. God promised in the book of his word, the bible, that he would save the world and all the nations and tribes.

We believe that God made good his promise by sending his son, Jesus Christ, a man in the flesh, a Jew by tribe, born poor in a little village, who left his home and was always on safari doing good, curing people by the power of God, teaching about God and man, showing that the meaning of religion is love. He was rejected by his people, tortured and nailed hands and feet to a cross, and died. He lay buried in the grave but the hyenas did not touch him, and on the third day he rose from the grave. He ascended to the skies. He is the Lord.

We believe that all our sins are forgiven through him. All who have faith in him must be sorry for their sins, be baptised in the Holy Spirit of God, live the rules of love and share the bread together in love, to announce the good news to others until Jesus comes again. We are waiting for Him. He is alive. He lives. This we believe. Amen.

Donovan Christianity Rediscovered SCM, 1982 (second edition) p. 163.

(c)We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven,
was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

(The Nicene Creed, written in AD 381)

(d) We believe in God
Maker, Redeemer and Sustainer of Life
without beginning or end,
whose life-giving love was let loose on the first Easter Sunday
and whose life-giving love we share and proclaim here today.

We believe in God
who gave up the divine life and submitted to the darkness and terror of the grave
and who enters with us into every darkness and terror we shall ever face.

We believe in God
who raised Christ from the death of the grave to glorious new life
and who raises our lives from sin and despair to newness and hope again.

We believe in God
who met the grief-stricken Mary in the garden and called her into hope by the uttering of her name,
and who meets us in our grief and gives us courage to hope
again by tenderly calling our name.

We believe in God
who sent Mary out from the garden to be a witness and apostle of the resurrection,
and who commissions us like Mary, to be bearers of hope
and good news to the world.

We believe in God
Maker, Redeemer and Sustainer of Life,
without beginning or end,
whose life-giving love was let loose on the first Easter Sunday
and whose life-giving love we share and proclaim today
to all women and men, wherever and whoever they are,
loved, blessed and called by God,
without beginning or end.

(From the St Hilda Community, The New Women Included)

(e) A Creed from Iona

We believe in God,
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus to reconcile
and to make all things new.
We trust God,
who calls us to be the Church;
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and to resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus,
crucified, dead and risen;
our judge and our hope.
In life,
in death,
in life beyond death,
God is with us:
we are not alone.
Thanks be to God.

(f) A Worker’s Creed

I believe in you, worker Christ, light of light and true only begotten of God, who to save the world in the humble and pure womb of Mary was incarnated.

I believe you were beaten, mocked and tortured, martyred on the cross while Pilate was praetor, the Roman imperialist, unscrupulous and soul-less, who by washing his hands wanted to erase the mistake.

I believe in you, friend, human Christ, worker Christ, victor over death with the immense sacrifice, you engendered new hope for liberation.

You are risen again in each arm that is raised to defend the people from the rule of the exploiter in the factory, in the school.

I believe in your struggle without truce. I believe in your resurrection.

(From The Nicaraguan Campesinos Mass)

(g) Creed of Transformation

I believe in God
Who didn’t create the world as something finished
as a thing which has to remain the same for ever
who doesn’t rule by eternal laws
which are irrevocable
nor by natural order of poor and rich
experts and uninformed
rulers and helpless.
I believe in God
who wants the conflict among the living
and the transformation of the existing
by our work
by our politics.
I believe in Jesus Christ
who was right when he,
an individual who cannot do anything,
like ourselves,
worked on the transformation of all things in existence
and perished doing it.
Looking at him I realise
how our intelligence is crippled
our fantasy suffocated, our efforts wasted
because we don’t live the way he lived.
/ Every day I fear that he died in vain
because he is buried in our churches
because we have betrayed his revolution
in obedience and fear of the authorities.
I believe in Jesus Christ
Who rises into our lives
in order that we may be freed
from prejudice and arrogance,
from fear and hatred,
and may carry forward his revolution
towards his kingdom.
I believe in the spirit
who came with Jesus into the world,
in the community of all nations
and in our responsibility
for what will become of the earth,
a valley of misery, starvation and violence
or the city of God.
I believe in just peace
which can be achieved
in the possibility of a meaningful life
for all men
in the future of this world of God.
(by Dorothee Sölle)

(h) A Canadian Creed

We are not alone, we live in God’s world.

We believe in God:
who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus,
the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make all things new,
who works in us and others
by the Spirit.
We trust in God.

We are called to be the Church
to celebrate God’s presence,
to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil,
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope.

In life, in death, in life beyond death,
God is with us.

We are not alone,
Thanks be to God.

(From the Anglican Church in Canada)

Further reading before Session 1

1. God in Trinity

Distinctiveness of Christian faith: Trinity

It has often been argued that the Trinitarian nature of God is discernible in both Old and New Testaments, even though the doctrine is not explicitly set out in the Bible. So in the Old Testament, we find the distinct persons of God described as:

  • The Word of God – God’s speech is presented as existing separately from God, yet originating from God. The Word of God confronts people with God’s will and purpose, bringing guidance, judgement and salvation (e.g. Psalm 119:89; Psalm 147:15–20; Isaiah 55:10–11).
  • The Spirit of God – used in the Old Testament to refer to God’s presence and power within creation (e.g. Gen 1:2).
  • Wisdom (especially in Proverbs, Job and Ecclesiastes), a female figure, separate from God yet dependent on him (e.g. Proverbs 1:20–23; 9:1–6; Job 28:12–28), portrayed as active in creation (especially in the apocryphal book of Sirach, chapter 24).

The Jewish people, however, were distinctive in their conviction that there was only one God, though they used different names at different times and circumstances. The Shema, fundamental to Jewish faith, recited at morning and evening services, at the end of each day and at the time of death is “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is One Lord.” (Deuteronomy 6: 4). This was the tradition in which Jesus and his followers were raised.

As Jesus’ followers listened to Jesus they believed at first that he had come to reform Judaism, not to overturn or replace it. And Jesus himself taught them that he had come to fulfil the Law, (Matt: 5, 17-20). In the end it was such a radical reform that the Jewish Christian community was not able to sustain its links with other Jews and by the end of the 1st century the distinction between Judaism and the followers of Jesus was clear. But Christians believe there is continuity and that when we say we believe in ‘God the Father’ we are affirming our belief in the God of the Jews, and so the God of what is for us the Old Testament, and the God whom Jesus called ‘Father.’

The radical, earth shattering new awareness of Jesus’ followers was that Jesus shared in the divine nature and that the Spirit sent from God to give life was also divine. The writers of the New Testament had begun to think in this terms – see Romans chapter 8, for example – but it took several centuries for the Church to agree on what it wanted to say about God. See the additional reading ‘We believe in one God’ pp for an account of this.

Refreshing your memory by looking back at the notes from Units C and D on the person of Jesus is also recommended at this point.

Language - To talk of ‘three persons’ is misleading if we think of human persons, each with a separate physical body. When we talk of God as ‘Father’ or ‘Son’ or ‘Spirit’ we are using language we can understand to describe God who is greater than our language can cope with. It is helpful, though, to realise that each of those words are not names like Elizabeth or Mark, but relationships and describe how they relate to each other and to us. We are not expected to understand God, as though God were some kind of puzzle we are meant to be solving, but to join in that relationship in God’s life and God’s mission.