The Creed, do all Protestants believe it?

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puzzleannie

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If I ever thought about it at all, I would have assumed that all Protestants pray and believe the Apostle’s Creed and/or the Nicene Creed. I have attended services at churches of many denominations, since most of my family is not Catholic, and includes ministers of several denominations, and all have prayed the Creed. The exception being Salvation Army, and I don’t know if they don’t subscribe to it, or it just isn’t part of their service.

In a recent This Rock article comparing objections of Luther, Calvin and Milton to various Catholic doctrines, the point was made that Milton, the Puritan, did not believe in any formal credal statement. Is my assumption that most or all non-Catholic Christian denominations subscribe to the doctrines enunciated in the Apostle’s Creed wrong?
 
You need to distinguish between agreeing with the content of the Creeds and actually using creeds. The more radical Protestants are anti-creedal in principle–they claim that Scripture is enough (although sometimes when various 18-19th-century Protestant groups criticize creeds they actually have the Reformation confessions in mind, not the ancient Creeds). But they would still believe in the doctrines of the Apostles’ Creed.

There are anti-Trinitarian Protestants, and Milton was one of them. However, most Protestants would say that anti-Trinitarians are not meaningfully part of the same category as they are–that is to say, most Protestants would claim to have far more in common with Catholics and Orthodox than with non-Trinitarians, and even anti-Catholic fundamentalists would say that Catholics are on the same level (i.e., that both groups are “not really Christian”). So in one sense labelling non-Trinitarians “Protestant” is a bit like labelling Mormons “Protestant”–true historically but in many ways very misleading. However, Protestantism has repeatedly produced a radical wing that denied the Trinity as un-Biblical. With this exception, the only parts of the Nicene Creed that Protestants might have problems with are the article on the Church (though Protestants would claim simply to reject the Catholic interpretation of that article but to accept the article itself) and the article on baptism (though Lutherans, Campbellite Restorationists, most Anglicans, and some Methodists accept the article without qualifications, and many other Protestants would say that they accept it in a conditional sense). Most Protestant denominations would claim to accept the doctrines of both creeds–even the Plymouth Brethren in Romania, who are as ultra-Protestant as you can get, make this claim.

In Christ,

Edwin
 
Some prots substitute “Christian” instead of “One Holy Catholic” very tricky. Others retort by saying catholic just means universal of course it means that and much more as in marks of the catholic church what about one church? What about apostolic church? I can see why Christian is used as a word substitute. Newer denoms no longer use the creeds in their liturgy some use some their very own wacko creed.
 
i have a question due fundamentalist have the same creed we as catholic have. and is that so do they said it on sunday service. thank you.:blessyou:
 
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Contarini:
There are anti-Trinitarian Protestants, and Milton was one of them.
In Christ,

Edwin
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so Milton was the first Unitarian? man, bet he is rolling over in his grave
 
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puzzleannie:
If I ever thought about it at all, I would have assumed that all Protestants pray and believe the Apostle’s Creed and/or the Nicene Creed. I have attended services at churches of many denominations, since most of my family is not Catholic, and includes ministers of several denominations, and all have prayed the Creed. The exception being Salvation Army, and I don’t know if they don’t subscribe to it, or it just isn’t part of their service.

In a recent This Rock article comparing objections of Luther, Calvin and Milton to various Catholic doctrines, the point was made that Milton, the Puritan, did not believe in any formal credal statement. Is my assumption that most or all non-Catholic Christian denominations subscribe to the doctrines enunciated in the Apostle’s Creed wrong?
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Puzzle,

Baptists, Pentecostals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Adventists, Mormons, Church of Christ, etc etc do not say any creeds during worship nor hold to them as binding on their consciences.

Services generally revolve around general prayer (not a standard prayer - but ones improvised), singing and the sermon/message. There’s no liturgy to speak of.

I would venture to guess (guess - mind you) that the majority believe the truths/principles of the Apostles Creed because they are deduced from Scripture. But - since the Apostles Creed isn’t “Scripture”, it is not regarded as binding on the conscience of the congregation or denomination.
 
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Maccabees:
Some prots substitute “Christian” instead of “One Holy Catholic” very tricky. Others retort by saying catholic just means universal of course it means that and much more as in marks of the catholic church what about one church? What about apostolic church? I can see why Christian is used as a word substitute. Newer denoms no longer use the creeds in their liturgy some use some their very own wacko creed.
Click to expand...
I believe Luther was probably the first the substitute “Catholic” for “Christian”. In his larger and smaller catechism - it is so substituted. Most denoms do not use any creeds. They actually have church mottos - such as “To Know Christ and to Make Him Known”. That was the motto of at least two of the churches I’ve attended in my life.
 
An non-trinitarian could not, in all fairness, be considered Christian. They could be considered pseudo-Christian, like the Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gnostics, and more recently, Oneness Pentacostals. While most Protestants would agree to the precepts contained in the Apostle’s Creed, they would argue that “I believe in the catholic church” means the invisible church of all believers, not the RCC. Even Anglicans and high-church Lutherans use the Nicene Creed, and the line “I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church” in effect means the same thing. However, there is only one Church that is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, and that IS the RCC.
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Contarini:
You need to distinguish between agreeing with the content of the Creeds and actually using creeds. The more radical Protestants are anti-creedal in principle–they claim that Scripture is enough (although sometimes when various 18-19th-century Protestant groups criticize creeds they actually have the Reformation confessions in mind, not the ancient Creeds). But they would still believe in the doctrines of the Apostles’ Creed.

There are anti-Trinitarian Protestants, and Milton was one of them. However, most Protestants would say that anti-Trinitarians are not meaningfully part of the same category as they are–that is to say, most Protestants would claim to have far more in common with Catholics and Orthodox than with non-Trinitarians, and even anti-Catholic fundamentalists would say that Catholics are on the same level (i.e., that both groups are “not really Christian”). So in one sense labelling non-Trinitarians “Protestant” is a bit like labelling Mormons “Protestant”–true historically but in many ways very misleading. However, Protestantism has repeatedly produced a radical wing that denied the Trinity as un-Biblical. With this exception, the only parts of the Nicene Creed that Protestants might have problems with are the article on the Church (though Protestants would claim simply to reject the Catholic interpretation of that article but to accept the article itself) and the article on baptism (though Lutherans, Campbellite Restorationists, most Anglicans, and some Methodists accept the article without qualifications, and many other Protestants would say that they accept it in a conditional sense). Most Protestant denominations would claim to accept the doctrines of both creeds–even the Plymouth Brethren in Romania, who are as ultra-Protestant as you can get, make this claim.

In Christ,

Edwin
Click to expand...
 
No, Milton was not the first Unitarian. Some form of Unitarianism dates back to the 16th century–it’s more or less as old as Protestantism. That is to say, once Protestants started questioning things, some of them decided that the Trinity was among the traditions that needed to be discarded. They were, of course, regarded as heretics by other Protestants. One of the very few people ever burned at the stake by a Protestant government was an anti-Trinitarian, Michael Servetus.

Edwin
 
mayra hart:
i have a question due fundamentalist have the same creed we as catholic have. and is that so do they said it on sunday service. thank you.:blessyou:
Click to expand...
Fundamentalists have no “creeds” that Catholics have - that they hold as indicative of their beliefs. They have “statements of faith” which describe what they generally believe, but those statements are not binding on an individual. The Scripture alone is binding.

The Sunday service in the Baptist, Pentecostal, etc. churches are much different than the Catholic masses I’ve attended.

The general service goes something like this (in my experiences):
Announcements
Singing songs
Maybe a brief Scriptural passage
Prayer (Spontaneous - not structured)
Sermon
Prayer
Altar Call (opportunity for confession of sins, prayer, profession of faith)

This was a little off topic, but wanted you to understand how different the services were.

Peace…
 
mayra hart:
i have a question due fundamentalist have the same creed we as catholic have. and is that so do they said it on sunday service. thank you.:blessyou:
Click to expand...
Fundamentalists usually do not accept the use of creeds. One slogan has that “anything shorter than the Bible has changed God’s Word. Anything longer than the Bible has changed God’s Word. Anything simpler than the Bible has changed God’s Word. One must never change the Word of God”. Fudnamentalists and Evangelicals accept the points of doctrine of the Creeds—they just don’t believe that one should set up man-made forulae as equal to or greater than Scripture. When I asked about the Trinity in the independent Christian Church I was raised in, I was told that we 'don’t use non-Bible words for Bible things". I was then given a string of Bible texts which established that in fact, they DID believe in the Trinity. They simply decline to use the word or to use non-biblical language to define it.

Anglicans use a different English translation of the Nicene Creed, but the creed is based upon the same Latin text. No significant difference, and ECUSA Anglicans are now using the same text as the Novus Ordo, I think. So you will find some translations of some creeds which are different than those recited in your Mass.
 
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