“…he descended into hell…”

There are two things that get people’s attention when they confess the Creed. The first is the statement that Christ “descended into hell” and the second is the statement about the “holy catholic church.” Even as recently as a couple of weeks ago a woman informed the church that we are not a Christian church when she found that we confess the Creed and these two controversial statements. In an effort to maintain full disclosure, my desire to write this series stemmed from the questions I have received about these two phrases. With almost every confession of the Creed I am asked for further explanation of them. For that I am thankful because our confession of faith is to be a thoughtful one. So for those of you who have asked and for those of you who have never asked but have wanted to, here you are.

For starters, there are some who would have no qualms if the statement were dropped altogether. Wayne Grudem is clear enough, “My judgment is that there would be all gain and no loss if it were dropped from the Creed once for all” (Systematic Theology, 594). He offers three arguments to support his conclusion: 1)The origin of the phrase is a late addition and spurious at best; 2)There is little Biblical support of the phrase; 3)There are passages that flatly contradict the phrase. Let’s take up the matter of textual criticism first, that the origin of the phrase is a late addition. In so doing we need to remember that the Apostles’ Creed evolved over several centuries (A.D. 200-750). This need not be disconcerting. Evolution can be seen in documents like the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Constitution of the United States of America, just to name two. The earliest reference to this phrase seems to be late in the fourth century. The reason for this, it would seem, is “that it was inserted after a time, and did not become customary in the churches at once, but gradually” (Calvin, Institutes, I:16:513).

Better to side with Calvin when he says, “This much is certain: that it reflected the common belief of the godly; for there is no one of the fathers who does not mention in his writings Christ’s descent into hell, though their interpretations vary.”

Grudem’s argument seems to be that since it is a later addition it shouldn’t be treated as genuine. Of course, if that logic was applied across the board to other documents, not least to the Creed in other places, our hands would be perpetually cramped from all of the cutting and excising we would be forced to do in almost every document we encounter. Better to side with Calvin when he says, “This much is certain: that it reflected the common belief of the godly; for there is no one of the fathers who does not mention in his writings Christ’s descent into hell, though their interpretations vary.” Therefore, “in setting forth a summary of doctrine a place must be given to it, as it contains the useful and not-to-be despised mystery of a most important matter.” It’s to that mystery that we will turn our attention in the weeks to come. We will examine the different interpretations of the phrase and seek to articulate what the Creed is stating and why it is important.

Stay tuned.