The Apostles Creed

I BELIEVE in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I BELIEVE in the Holy Ghost: The holy Catholic Church; The Communion of Saints: The Forgiveness of sins: The Resurrection of the body: And the Life everlasting. Amen.

The Apostles Creed is an early baptismal confession. A form of this creed can be dated from the middle of the second century, and it is probable that what we have in all essentials comes from the Apostolic age. This creed is found in almost complete form with small differences by the end of the second century from St. Irenæus in southern Gaul and from Tertullian in Africa.

The earliest church found it necessary affirm our Lord's full humanity against the nascent Gnostic heresies, which asserted that Christ could be God, but certainly not take material form, because the 'spiritual' is what is important, and the material was to be deprecated. The apostles Creed is therefore in contrast with the exalted Christology of the Nicene Creed, which a contains more explicit declaration of His divinity.