-------------------------My Beliefs------------------------------- Credo I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Creator and Sustainer of heaven and earth, and of all that is, or ever was, or ever will be, whether visible or invisible. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, the Redeemer, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us human beings and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he was incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and became truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Advocate and Helper, the giver of life, who is sent by the Father in the name of the Son. With the Father and the Son he is to be worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the prophets. I believe that those divinely revealed realities which are contained and presented in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments have been committed to writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Since everything asserted by the inspired authors must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching firmly, faithfully, and without error that truth which God wanted to put into the sacred writings for our salvation: whatsoever is not found therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of anyone as an article of faith, nor to be regarded as necessary for salvation. I believe that all those who confess Jesus Christ as God, Saviour and Lord, according to the Scriptures, form one holy, universal, Christian church. We should work together in love, accepting each other as Christ has accepted us, to extend his kingdom. I believe that in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments God has given us an authoritative disclosure of his character and will, his redemptive acts and their meaning, and his mandate for mission. I believe that evangelism and socio-political involvement are both part of our Christian duty, for both are necessary expressions of our doctrines of God and humankind, our love for our neighbour, and our obedience to Jesus Christ. I believe that inherent within the Gospel is the need for God's people to work for a world where peace and justice are pursued, and whose environment is preserved. I believe that the proclamation of God's kingdom of justice and peace demands the denunciation of all injustice and oppression, both personal and structural, and that we must demonstrate God's love visibly by caring for those who are deprived of justice, dignity, food and shelter. I acknowledge one baptism as a symbol of the forgiveness of sins. I look towards the resurrection of the dead, and life in the ages to come.

A good statement. Two minor comments: 1. You've avoided using sexist (masculine) pronouns for God in some part of this but not others. 2. The two separate statements about Scripture could perhaps be joined.

The first half has the 'feel' of the ancient creeds, which tended to be propositional rather than incarnational/relational; dogmatic rather than dynamic; creedal rather than covenantal (etc. etc. - see the relevant similar articles on our website). The latter half has the feel of the Lausanne Covenant.

An interesting question always for me is: how would a Third World person, theologically trained outside Western seminaries, express their 'credal/covenantal' beliefs? (Probably, for a start, they'd avoid the notion of creed and adopt the more prominent biblical notion of covenant)...

But this is an excellent start...

Rowland.