APC-02 God the Father

Many religions worship a being they refer to as “God.” And this brings up an interesting question: Are they all worshiping the same being, just by different names? Or are they worshiping different gods altogether? Well, the Bible explains that although many different religions use the same word — “God” — they mean very different things by it. Scripture insists that there is only one true God — the one worshiped by Christians. And that means that the gods of the other religions are imposters, idols, false gods. This is why Christianity has always placed such a strong emphasis on knowing the God of the Bible. He is the only true God, the only one who has the power to create, to destroy, and to save.

This is the second lesson in our series The Apostles’ Creed, and we have entitled it “God the Father.” In this lesson, we will focus on the first article of faith in the Apostles’ Creed — the article that affirms belief in God the Father, the first person of the Trinity. As we saw in a prior lesson, the Apostles’ Creed appeared in various forms during the early centuries of the church. But it was standardized by about A.D. 700 in Latin. A popular modern English translation reads as follows:

Maker of heaven and earth.

And born of the virgin Mary.

He descended into hell.

The third day he rose again from the dead.

And is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

And the life everlasting. Amen.

You will recall that in these lessons we have divided the Apostles’ Creed into five main sections: The first three sections deal with the three persons of God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These are followed by a section on the church, and then a section on salvation. In this lesson, we will focus on the first of these five sections, which consists of only one article of faith:

Maker of heaven and earth.

There are many ways we might divide the topics mentioned in this article of faith. But in this lesson, we will focus on three themes that have been central to Christian theology: the idea of God, the person of the Father Almighty, and his role as the Maker of all creation.