In a minute
The creeds begin where the Bible begins: with one God who made everything. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1, WEBBE). Christians believe the universe is not an accident and not a god in itself. It is a gift, made freely out of love by a Creator who is beyond it and yet holds every part of it in being.
Christians call this God Father. They learned the word from Jesus, who prayed to God as Abba, the Aramaic word a child uses for a father, and taught his followers to pray "Our Father".
What it is and how it's lived
One God, the Almighty
Christianity grew from Judaism, and it keeps Israel's great conviction: there is one God, and only one. Every Christian creed begins "I believe in one God" or "I believe in God". Almighty (Greek pantokratōr, "ruler of all") means that nothing is outside God's care and power.
Maker of heaven and earth
Christians believe God made "all things visible and invisible" (Nicene Creed): stars and seeds, atoms and angels. The first chapter of the Bible repeats a refrain after each day of creation, "God saw that it was good", and at the end, "God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31, WEBBE). So Christians speak of the world as good, to be enjoyed with thanks and looked after with care.
Many Christians are also scientists. The main churches teach that faith in a Creator and the scientific study of how the universe developed answer different questions: why there is anything at all, and how it unfolds.
Made in God's image
"God created man in his own image. In God's image he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27, WEBBE). Christians take this to mean every human being, without exception, carries a dignity that no one can remove. It underlies Christian teaching on the value of every life.
A Father who loves
Calling God "Father" does not mean Christians think God is male; God is spirit, beyond male and female. It means God is personal, close, and loving like the best of parents. The Bible also uses mothering images: a mother who cannot forget her child, a hen gathering her chicks. The best-known picture is Jesus' story of the lost son (Luke 15), where the father runs down the road to welcome home the son who had wasted everything: "while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him" (Luke 15:20, WEBBE).
Its inner meaning
Belief in God the Creator changes how Christians see the ordinary. The sky, a newborn child, a field after rain: all are signs of the Maker. The Psalms say "The heavens declare the glory of God" (Psalm 19:1, WEBBE).
It also changes how Christians see themselves. If God made me and calls me his child, my worth does not depend on success, looks or what others think. St Augustine of Hippo began his Confessions with a prayer that has echoed for sixteen centuries: you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you (paraphrased; Augustine, Confessions, Book 1, chapter 1).
Key texts
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1, WEBBE)
"For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." (Psalm 139:13–14, WEBBE)
"For you didn't receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!'" (Romans 8:15, WEBBE)
Greek (Romans 8:15, the cry): Αββα ὁ πατήρ — Abba ho patēr, "Abba, Father".
"For in him we live, move, and have our being." (Acts 17:28, WEBBE — St Paul speaking to the people of Athens)
"He who doesn't love doesn't know God, for God is love." (1 John 4:8, WEBBE)
From the Christian tradition
- St Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century) wrote that the glory of God is a human being fully alive (paraphrased; Against Heresies 4.20.7).
- St Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Creatures (1225) praises God through "Brother Sun" and "Sister Moon", and is the root of the hymn "All creatures of our God and King" (paraphrased).
Common misunderstandings, answered gently
- "Christians believe in three gods." No. Christians believe in one God, and say so at the start of every creed. How the one God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit is explained on the Holy Spirit and Trinity page.
- "The Christian God is an old man in the sky." That is a picture from art, not belief. Christians believe God is spirit, everywhere present, without a body, and beyond all images.
- "The 'God of the Old Testament' is angry and the 'God of the New' is kind." Christians believe it is the same God throughout. The Hebrew Bible calls him "a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger" (Exodus 34:6, WEBBE); the New Testament speaks of judgement as well as love.
- "Believing in creation means rejecting science." Some Christians read Genesis literally, but most churches, including the Catholic Church and the Church of England, accept the scientific account of an ancient universe and see no conflict with faith in a Creator.
Across the churches
All Christian churches share this article of faith. Orthodox Christians speak of God the Father as the "source" of the Son and the Spirit. Different churches use different words for God's relationship with creation, but none differ on the essentials here.
Reflection
If the world is a gift, what is one thing you have received today that you might say thank you for?
In the other traditions
- Judaism: "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one" (Deuteronomy 6:4); Jews call God Avinu Malkeinu, "our Father, our King", and the Torah opens with the same words of creation.
- Islam: Muslims believe in one God, Allah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, who "begetteth not nor was begotten" (Qur'an 112:3, Pickthall), and is called by ninety-nine beautiful names, among them the Most Merciful.
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