Church History in Plain Language

by Bruce L. Shelley

Orthodox Christians found the Gnostics very difficult to combat. Gnostics claimed that they had some secret information. Jesus, they said, had passed on this information to the gnostic teachers of his time and had hidden it from the materially blinded Jews who founded the church. If this line of argument failed, Gnostics would appeal to a special revelation from heaven to prove their point. Yet Christians rose up to cast out the gnostic heresy, and in doing so they clarified their own orthodox convictions. The best summary of early Christian beliefs is what we call the Apostle’s Creed, to this day repeated every Sunday in many churches. It was not written by the apostles, in spite of its title, but appeared first as a baptismal confession in second-century Rome. Scholars call the early version of it the Old Roman Creed: I believe in God Almighty And in Christ Jesus, his only Son, our Lord Who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried And the third day rose from the dead Who ascended into heaven And sits on the right hand of the Father Whence he comes to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost The holy church The remission of sins The resurrection of the flesh The life everlasting.