Norma Normata: A Rule That Is Ruled

By: J. Daniel Spratlin The Latin word

credo

means simply “I believe.” It represents the firstword of the Apostle’s Creed. Throughout church history it has beennecessary for the church to adopt and embrace creedal statements to clarifythe Christian faith and to distinguish true content from error and falserepresentations of the faith. Such creeds are distinguished from Scripture asthe Scripture is

norma normans

(“the rule that rules”), while the creeds are

norma normata

(“a rule that is ruled”).Historically, Christian creeds have included everything from brief affirmations to comprehensive statements. The earliest Christian creed isfound in the New Testament, which declares, “Jesus is Lord.” The New Testament makes a somewhat cryptic statement about this affirmation,namely, that no one can make the statement except by the Holy Spirit. Whatare we to understand by this? On the one hand, the New Testament tells usthat people can honor God with their lips while their hearts are far from Him. That is to say, people can recite creeds and make definitive affirmations of faith without truly believing those affirmations. So, then, why would the New Testament say that no one can make this confession save by the Holy Spirit?Perhaps it was because of the cost associated with making that creedalstatement in the context of ancient Rome. The loyalty oath required by Roman citizens to demonstrate theirallegiance to the empire in general and to the emperor in particular was tosay publicly, “

Kaisar

Kurios

,” that is “Caesar is lord.” In the first-centurychurch, Christians bent over backward to be obedient to civil magistrates,including the oppressive measures of Caesar, and yet, when it came tomaking the public affirmation that Caesar is lord, Christians could not do soin good conscience. As a substitute for the phrase, “Caesar is lord,” the earlyChristians made their affirmation by saying, “Jesus is Lord.” To do that wasto provoke the wrath of the Roman government, and in many cases, it costthe Christian his life. Therefore, people tended not to make that publicaffirmation unless they were moved by the Holy Spirit to do so. The simplecreed, “Jesus is Lord,” or more full statements, such as the Apostle’s Creedgive an outline of basic, essential teachings. The creeds summarize New Testament content. The creeds also used that summary content to exclude the heretics of the fourth century. In the affirmation of the Nicene Creed, the churchaffirmed categorically its belief in the deity of Christ and in the doctrine of the Trinity. These affirmations were seen as essential truths of the Christianfaith. They were essential because without inclusion of these truths, anyclaim to Christianity would be considered a false claim.At the time of the Reformation, there was a proliferation of creeds asthe

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