The Christian churches drew up several creeds, The Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed. Why do you suppose the church felt it necessary to draw up these statements of faith??? It is always good to try and understand why we believe what we believe.......any answers tonight ??
2007-11-03 12:08:04 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Because the Christian church had spread out throughout Europe and grew rapidly, some organization was needed. This is the same way that the Puritans flooded New England and because they spread so rapidly they needed some organization and drafted the Body of Liberties. You had pockets in Europe following certain parts of scripture. Some areas may have been believers who based their beliefs from the book of Matthew, others from the book of John. Factions were beginning to grow so they needed to decide what they universally believed, what they could all agree on.
2007-11-03 12:23:40 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because there was alot of infighting within the Christian community over the definition of Christ. Stories were told in early writings of fist fights breaking out in market places as such as to whether Jesus was like substance as God or same Substance (I envision a tastes great/less filling type of argument). It was finally decided that "indecisiveness" was tearing the community apart.
Constintine at the time not a Christian invited everyone together. He had permitted Christianity to be practiced in his kingdom and decreed they had to settle their arguments. Unlike some would express Constitine did not care which way anything turned out because it suited his interests far more to remain pagan and his opinions changed based on who he was talking to. He just wanted it settled. You cannot have a great empire with infighting. The different creeds are named after the different locations the councils were held..
The Apostles Creed came much later
2007-11-03 19:18:26 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The early church wrote the creeds to help the Christians get their "faith" right. As the gospel was preached in different contexts, there developed some weird teachings promoted by influential people, so the hierarchy decided to write out the orthodox faith now enshrined in the creeds.
2007-11-03 19:20:24 · answer #3 · answered by Averell A 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They were "codifying" what was already believed, which was extremely important at the time because the church was in a period of rapid growth and expansion.
It was important to ensure that all people calling themselves Christians were believing the same thing.
2007-11-03 19:15:43 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I believe they were just stating what they believe. I belong to some groups. We affirm what we believe so as to be a homogeneous part.
2007-11-03 19:38:36 · answer #5 · answered by RB 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋