Category: This We Believe

This is my first book. I never really intended to write a book at all. DeCourcy H. Rayner, the editor of The Presbyterian Record, asked me to write a series of articles for him on the Apostles’ Creed. “Something different,” he said, “something a layman can read.” I think he…

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.

When I stand shoulder to shoulder with Christians, all declaring our common faith in the words of the Apostles’ Creed, something very deep stirs within me. I feel like a tree out in the great forest, surrounded by other trees all reaching up together from the same ground, all swept…

What I believe is very important, for one belief is not as good as another. If I grope my way in the dark to the medicine cabinet and take poison pills, believing them to be good for me, it’s disastrous! My utmost sincerity won’t save me. All accidents, failures, mistakes,…

No matter how many good reasons I might give for believing in the God I see in Christ, none of these can compel anyone else to believe in him. To tell the truth, I didn’t really come to my belief by a lot of close observations and hard thinking. I…

The dignity of God doesn’t depend on what I think of him. Any crown he wears wasn’t placed there by me or any other man. Jesus’ rank was not conferred upon him by councils of people like me. God himself pronounced Jesus to be utterly worthy of living forever, wielding…

Although I believe in God, that doesn’t mean that I know everything about him. It used to bother me when people asked me big questions about God that I couldn’t answer. Now I’m glad that I couldn’t answer them. Any god I could know everything about would be far too…

The Apostles’ Creed has lasted throughout the centuries because God has always been the creed’s kind of God, and because Christians have always been going through the same experiences as the first Christians who set up the Creed. God has always been the creator, the only true creator, and he…

When Jesus of Nazareth addressed the almighty Creator of the universe as “Father,” he said what he meant and meant what he said. Pagans were always inventing tales about gods with their families of godlings. Sometimes poets dreamed that some men were somehow divine offspring. The prophets of Israel believed…

If I believe in my Father I must behave like a child of the Father. I must be childlike in the best sense, but not childish. I must recognize how dependent I am upon my Father and trust him to arrange things to provide for my needs. I may not…