When I was a kid growing up in the Presbyterian Church, I remember reciting the ancient Christian creeds on a regular basis. In particular, the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed were commonly read during the church service. One vivid memory of mine, was having difficulty with the line in the Apostles’ Creed that states "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church . . ." "What?! I’m protestant! I can’t say that," my principled 10 year old mind would think and so I would remain silent when it came to reading that part of the creed. During that time, no one explained to me that the word "catholic" was used by the early Christian church to refer to the entire body of believers world wide.

WikiAnswers.com defines a creed as a set of fundamental beliefs usually expressed by a follower of a religion. A Creed is a tool that allows us to state what we believe in a nutshell. Although not scriptural themselves, creeds are based on Biblical truths found in scripture. Like catechisms, Creeds help to bring everything together doctrinally and give us grounding.

Creeds were developed out of necessity during the first several centuries of church history in order to combat certain heresies. With a revival of such ancient heresies as Gnositism (think DiVinci Code) and others, I believe today it as essential as anytime in the past to teach believers the creeds.  They are not only meaty – full of solid, essential, Biblical doctrine – they are also very beautiful and historic.   I love the sense of solidarity I have when they are recited.  I not only feel united with other believers today, but also with believers in ages past – throughout 1800 years of history.