The Apostles’ Creed

A creed is a short, agreed statement of belief (from Latin credo, “I believe”). The Apostles’ Creed is recited at baptisms and in daily prayer across the Western churches, and it is the syllabus’s chosen summary of Christian belief. It opens:

Notice its shape: it is in three sections — Father, Son, Holy Spirit. That is not an accident. The Creed is Trinitarian by design, and its middle section is by far the longest, because Christians define themselves by what they believe about Jesus.

Impact on daily life: saying the Creed together each week reminds worshippers that faith is shared, not private opinion. It also gives converts something concrete to affirm at baptism, and it settles what a church will and will not teach.

The shape of the Creed

The Trinity — and those who reject it

Christians are monotheists: there is one God. But they believe that the one God is three persons in one being:

The word “Trinity” is not in the Bible, but Christians point to passages such as the baptismal command to baptise “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19), and to Jesus’ baptism, where the Spirit descends and the Father’s voice is heard (Mark 1:9–11).

Non-trinitarian Christians exist and the syllabus expects you to know it. Unitarians, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christadelphians reject the Trinity, arguing that it is a later doctrine that compromises the oneness of God. Trinitarian Christians reply that Scripture speaks of Jesus and the Spirit in terms that only God could bear.

The virgin birth and the Incarnation

• The virgin birth — Matthew (1:18–25) and Luke (1:26–38) both record that Mary conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit while a virgin. In Luke, the angel Gabriel announces it and Mary answers, “I am the Lord’s servant… may your word to me be fulfilled” (Luke 1:38).
• The Incarnation (literally “in the flesh”) — the belief that in Jesus, God took on human form. John puts it starkly: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14). Jesus is held to be fully God and fully human, not half of each.

Why it matters: if God has genuinely entered human life, then God understands suffering from the inside. And only one who is both God and human, Christians argue, could reconcile the two.

Different views: most Christians treat the virgin birth as a historical fact and recite it in the Creed. Some liberal Christians read it as a theological statement rather than biology — a way of saying that Jesus’ origin is from God — while still affirming the Incarnation. Conservative Christians reply that if you surrender the virgin birth you have begun to surrender the Incarnation with it.

What is the Incarnation?

Jesus: the story, and what it achieves

The syllabus wants the Gospel arc: birth → suffering → death → resurrection → ascension → the promise of the Holy Spirit. Then it wants to know what Christians believe it accomplished.

• Messiah (Hebrew) / Christ (Greek) — the “Chosen One”, the anointed king promised to Israel. Christians believe Jesus is he, though not the military liberator many expected.
• Salvation and forgiveness of sins — Jesus says the Son of Man came “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). His death is understood as dealing with human sin, so that people can be reconciled to God.
• The New Covenant — a new relationship between God and people. At the Last Supper Jesus says of the cup, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). Where the old covenant was made with one nation at Sinai, the new one is open to all.
• The promise of the Holy Spirit — Jesus promises that the Father will give “another advocate to help you and be with you for ever” (John 14:16), fulfilled at Pentecost.

Which belief belongs where?

Tap a belief, then tap the C2 sub-topic it belongs to. Getting the syllabus map into your head is worth real marks in part (a).

The New Covenant

The Last Supper and the washing of feet

On the night before he died, Jesus shared a Passover meal with the Twelve. Three things happened that the syllabus names:

• The institution of the Eucharist — he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and said “this is my body”; and took the cup, saying “this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many” (Mark 14:22–25). Paul passes on the same tradition with the command “do this in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:23–26). Every Mass, Divine Liturgy and Communion service since then repeats these words.
• The washing of the disciples’ feet — John 13:1–17. Jesus takes the role of the lowest household slave, then says: “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” Leadership, in his kingdom, is service. Churches re-enact this on Maundy Thursday, and the Pope traditionally washes feet on that day.
• Predictions of his death and betrayal — Jesus says plainly that one of those eating with him will betray him, and that Peter will deny him three times before the cock crows.

Gethsemane, trial, death and burial

• Gethsemane (Mark 14:32–42) — in the garden Jesus prays in anguish, “Abba, Father… take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” The disciples fall asleep. Judas arrives with an armed crowd and identifies Jesus with a kiss. This is where the passion — the suffering — begins.
• The trials — Jesus is taken first before the Jewish council, then to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, who alone can impose a death sentence. Pilate hands him over to be crucified.
• The crucifixion (Mark 15) — Jesus is mocked, crowned with thorns, and crucified at Golgotha, “the place of the skull”, between two criminals. He cries out and dies; the curtain of the Temple is torn in two.
• The burial — Joseph of Arimathea asks Pilate for the body and lays it in a rock-cut tomb, with a stone rolled across the entrance.

Why Christians dwell on this: the suffering is not an embarrassment to be hurried past. Christians hold that God, in Christ, chose to endure the worst that human cruelty could do — which is why the crucifix, not a picture of a teacher, hangs at the front of so many churches.

The prayer in the garden

The significance of Mary

Mary, the mother of Jesus, appears at the Annunciation, the birth, the wedding at Cana, and at the foot of the cross, where Jesus entrusts her to the beloved disciple (John 19:26–27). In the Magnificat she sings that God “has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble” (Luke 1:46–55).

• Catholic Christians honour her as the Blessed Virgin Mary and Theotokos (“God-bearer”). They ask for her prayers, pray the rosary, and keep Marian feast days. Catholics stress that this is veneration, not worship — worship belongs to God alone.
• Orthodox Christians similarly venerate her as Theotokos; her icon stands in every church.
• Protestant Christians generally honour Mary as an example of obedient faith but do not pray to her, arguing that Christ is the only mediator and that the practice is not found in Scripture.

Handle this respectfully in an exam. Neither side is “worshipping a woman” or “ignoring Jesus’ mother”. The disagreement is about how honour should be shown, and a strong part (c) answer says so.

The Holy Spirit: fruits and gifts

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God at work on earth — God’s power given to believers. The Spirit comes upon the apostles at Pentecost with a sound like a rushing wind and what seemed to be tongues of fire (Acts 2:1–4).

• The fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23) — “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”. These are character: the qualities the Spirit grows in an ordinary Christian over a lifetime.
• The gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4–11) — abilities given for the good of the whole church: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues.

A major fault line. Pentecostal and charismatic Christians expect the dramatic gifts — healing, prophecy, speaking in tongues — in worship today. Cessationists (many conservative evangelicals) hold that those gifts belonged to the apostolic age and have ceased, and that the Spirit now works chiefly through Scripture and the fruit of transformed character. Both would insist the Spirit is fully at work; they disagree about how.

Fruit, gift or event?

Tap an item on the left, then the description that fits it on the right.

The Bible: authority, revelation and morals

• A source of authority — Christians turn to Scripture to settle what to believe and how to live. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).
• A revelation from God — not merely a human record, but the means by which God has made himself known.
• A source of moral principles, which the syllabus divides into:
  • Requirements — things Christians should do. The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–12) bless the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and the persecuted. The Ten Commandments also require honouring parents (Exodus 20:12) and keeping the Sabbath holy.
  • Restrictions — things Christians should not do. The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1–17) forbid other gods, idols, misuse of God’s name, murder, adultery, theft, false testimony and covetousness.

How Christians interpret it — three broad positions. Literalists take the text as literally and directly true, word for word. Conservative Christians hold it is inspired and without error in what it teaches, but read genre carefully (poetry as poetry, parable as parable). Liberal Christians see it as a human record of encounters with God, shaped by its authors’ own time, to be interpreted afresh in ours. For Catholics, Scripture is read within the living tradition and teaching authority of the Church, not alone.

Requirements and restrictions

Answering the 8-mark evaluation

Part (c) is worth 8 of the 20 marks and is assessed on AO2 Evaluation. Try this one:

Marker’s tip: “different points of view” does not have to mean agree/disagree. Two Christians who both say “yes, but for different reasons” are still different points of view — and using real denominational differences is what lifts an answer into the top level.

The big ideas to know

That is the whole of C2. Press Finish to see your score.