Question of the Day ??

I had a friend email me a question about the Apostle's Creed. I decided to answer him the best I could, but told him I'd place the question on my blog in case any of you would like to add you own 2 cents worth to the conversation. So here's your "Question of the Day ??" for Ash Wednesday.


First, do you have a reference for the hows and whys of the Apostle's Creed? What are the Biblical references for it? I'm specifically curious about the line "from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead."

For the first part of the question do you mean the historical aspect of why was it written? If this is the case, then you should know that some believe that the Apostles actually wrote this before their death. But in fact the Apostle's Creed was a Creed of the Church that came about in response to the heretical thinking and teaching within the Church at the time. It came together sometime around the year 150 AD in Rome.

As for the Biblical References, there are a hodgepodge of references that can be found to back this up. I think you could find references for things such as God the Father and Jesus and the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit etc. The line you ask about is actually two different things. First, references to Jesus coming back can be found in different places in the Gospels and Epistles. The quick is an old word meaning living. He will come back and judge the living. References for this would include where He will come back and separate the sheep from the goats in Matthew 25. In Mark 8:38 he says that if anyone is ashamed of him, he will be ashamed of them when he comes back in the glory of his Father. This seems to suggest that he will judge. But I assume you want to know about the dead part. I would recommend you reading 1 Peter 3 and 4 in their entirety. They speak to this and the part about descending to hell.

¹Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. ²As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. ³For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. ⁴They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. ⁵But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. ⁶For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit.
1 Peter 4:1-6 (NIV)

Now we must look at this within it's context. This may be Jesus judging the literal living and dead. Or it may mean the living and dead in sin. In other words he's speaking about those who don't know Christ in the first few verses. Could this be that he means dead as in not saved by Christ yet? Either way, this is most likely where the line comes from.