All of these things are works of the flesh. People tend to be religious. Just look at all the religions of the world. Men want to have control over the mysteries of God. But trying to formulate a perfect "creed" is a fools errand. No one can reduce God's way in Christ to a formula.
If you knew more about church history...Creeds were used to overthrow one group that had ex-communicated another group...and a further council invented a further creed to ex-communicate the other group that had previously ex-communicated them. How can this not be according to men?
At one time there were 4 bishops of Antioch each trying to supplant the other. At one time there were 3 different popes all vying for temporal power while condemning the other 2. It's ALL the flesh posturing as something it is not. It is Babylon.
The irony in all this is by trying to force people into one religious entity, people become the most divisive of all. Not by power nor by might but by My Spirit says the Lord. Unity only comes about through a supernatural life and peace from God.
Unity of Faith!
Unity of faith can only have one arbiter of truth and the same faith!
Who is the arbiter of truth!
You can decide.
You can decide what is true.
You can decide what is truth.
You can decide right and wrong.
Not one of these are found in scripture!
Found in scripture!
Taught is found 79 times
Instructed is found 19
Instruction is found 33
Jn 14:6 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Lk 1:4 That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.
Matt 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Acts 8:31 And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.
Colossians 2:7
Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught…
Matt 18:17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
1 Tim 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
Truth must be revealed by God, and in its fullness in the sacred deposit of faith by Christ to his church! Eph 4:5 Jude 1:3 and must be taught by the church, or proposed for our belief by the apostles!
Matt 28:19-20 Lk 1:4 Jn 20:21 acts 8:31 Rom 1:5 col 2:7 1 Tim 3:15
matt 18:17
Christ and His church are one! acts 9:4 Acts 5:32 Jn 15:1-5
"Hold firmly that our faith is identical with that of the ancients. Deny this, and you dissolve the unity of the Church."
--St. Thomas Aquinas
"Neither the true faith nor eternal salvation is to be found outside the Holy Catholic Church."
--Pope Pius IX
Christ: either for me or against me!
Unity of faith!
Requirements of union in the new covenant church!
Union with Christ the only mediator!
And in communion with God and the saints!
Must believe the catholic faith, without error!
Must be baptized!
Proper intention:
Proper matter:
Proper form:
Obedience to Christ and His church!
Submission to proper authority!
Devotion to Mary the mother of our salvation and divine grace!
The new covenant unity:
Union with Christ the mediator and communion with God and the saints is based on “unity of faith”
“Thee faith” of the new covenant that all must believe without any error, false or strange doctrines foreign to “thee faith” of the new covenant!
“Thee faith” is found 31 times in the New Testament!
Obedience of faith: rom 16:26
Ephesians 4:1
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ...
Romans 12:16
Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
Romans 15:6
That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 13:11
Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.
Philippians 1:27
Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;
Philippians 2:2
Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
1 Peter 3:8
Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:
Eph 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism
2 Timothy 4:7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Jude 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
Athanasius Creed!
(From the early church)
Whoever desires to be saved must above all hold to the catholic faith.
Anyone who does not keep it whole and entire will doubtless perish eternally.
One church founded by Jesus Christ!
there is only one!
One God!
One Lord!
One savior!
One faith!
One new covenant!
One kingdom!
One household of faith!
One vineyard!
One church! (Not thousands of sects All teaching different doctrines all on the Bible alone, by the tradition of men)
Only Christ has authority to found the new covenant church! Matt 16:18-19
One shepherd one fold Jn 10:16
1 Tim 3:15 pillar and ground of truth
All men must be taught by the church!
Truth is revealed by God, fully by Christ, and must be proposed for our belief by holy mother church! Matt 28:19 Lk 1:4 Acts 8:31 eph 4:5 Jude 1:3 one faith
Unity of faith!
Four Marks of the True Church founded by Jesus Christ on Peter, the apostles, and their successors!
One, holy, catholic (universal) and apostolic (succeeding from Christ, Peter and the apostles)
The initiation or being born again into the new covenant church is baptismal regeneration!
God breathed life into Adam, gen 2:7 and we received this life from our fathers!
Christ breathed on the apostles our spiritual fathers, we receive the new covenant life of God’s grace from them thru faith & baptism! Jn 20:21-23 Mk 16:16 acts 8:36-38
Born again! Born from above!
'The Father has set his seal' on Christ (John 6:27) and also seals us in him (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:23, 4:30). Because this seal indicates the indelible effect of the anointing with the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Baptism,
Baptism indeed is the seal of eternal life." 87 The faithful Christian who has "kept the seal" until the end, remaining faithful to the demands of his Baptism, will be able to depart this life "marked with the sign of faith," 88 with his baptismal faith, in expectation of the blessed vision of God - the consummation of faith - and in the hope of resurrection.
St. Paul tells the faithful at Ephesus that they have been “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” This is in terms of an indelible character imprinted on the soul in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. It is not as if this invisible mark is simply decorative. Rather, through it, we are enabled to participate in Christ’s mission and in his offices of priest, prophet, and king. Eph 1:13
Sealed by God eph 1:13 sealed by God (ez 36:25-27) in the ark of salvation by baptism just as Noah was sealed by God in the ark of the flood gen 7:16
1 Pet 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us!
(Ark of Noah a type of the church, member of Christ and his church and salvation by baptism!)
(Outside the ark of Noah none were saved, outside the church (the ark of salvation) none are saved!)
Sealed in the ark, sealed in the church the ark of salvation by baptism!
Christ is king!
His kingdom has dominion over all!
1 Peter 4:11
If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Jude 1:8
Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
Jude 1:25
To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.