Historic Church Documents: The Rule of Faith

July is Historic Church Document Month here.

Very early on, the Church Fathers wrote about the Rule of Faith--a summary statement of all the things that a true Christian needed to believe. There wasn't a uniform set of words included in the Rule of Faith--at least not yet--but the things included in the various forms of the Rule were fairly consistent.

Here is the Rule of Faith in one of the forms given to us by Irenaeus.

....this faith: in one God, the Father Almighty, who made the heaven and the earth and the seas and all the things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was made flesh for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who made known through the prophets the plan of salvation, and the coming, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the bodily ascension into heaven of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and his future appearing from heaven in the glory of the Father to sum up all things and to raise anew all flesh of the whole human race....