In the first century, there wasn’t any New Testament. There weren’t any gospels, epistles, or book of Revelation. For gosh sakes, the original believers still went to Temple. But they lived together, ate together, and fellowshipped together around a simple faith based on what they had seen in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now churches and ministries have statements of faith that are sometimes pages long. But in the first century, it was such a simpler time. Now there are verses that some point to as the original creeds in the New Testament. While not labeled a creed in original Christianity one creed of sorts in the book of 1 Corinthians is this:
For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures; (1 Corinthians 15:3-4 ASV)
Its simple, elegant really.
Christian radio is a ministry that reaches out to all Christians and so by nature, it has to stick with the basics of the faith common to us all. And there is a song on the radio that I think epitomizes the real Christian creed that carries forth to this day. It is the refrain for the song We Believe by the newsboys, and it goes like this:
We believe in God the Father
We believe in Jesus Christ
We believe in the Holy Spirit
And He’s given us new life
We believe in the crucifixion
We believe that He conquered death
We believe in the resurrection
And He’s comin’ back again, we believe
Two thousand years later that is still what we all believe. Amen, brothers and sisters, that is what we believe.