The Need For The Creed Part 2: Now more Than Ever

With unveiled face we behold His glory as in a glass full of grace and truth

As we behold the Lord at His Table in His glory, full of grace and truth His fire purifies what is from Him while purging what is not from Him. Its amazing and the transformation happens almost without us realizing it. His presence at The Table opens our eyes to recognize Him and what is not from Him.  

As the Good Shepherd leads us to His Table. It is set by Him for us "in the presence of our enemies".

Certainly our enemies are His enemies - but so often we don't recognize them unless He reveals them to us personally. The supreme Blessing and Miracle of encountering Jesus and being involved with the direct action of the Holy Spirit in CommunionFire also helps us to encounter what is opposed to His Presence, His Grace and the Holy Spirit. 

What is the tie between The Creed and The Table?

The Table is Central to having Communion. Christian Worship should be "Communion-Centric". Its all about Jesus and He comes to us when He blesses the bread and the wine and we partake of His Body and Blood! #reclaimingcommunion! When you experience CommunionFire, encountering the presence of the Lord, you could face opposition. (See what happened in John 6) When you do it is because you encounter opposition to The Creed. Something is added on or something is missing. This is discernible in the face of Jesus. You learn to know His voice as recently someone 'had a word' for Camille. She said I did not hear the Lord's voice nor did I recognize the presence of the Lord in what was being said. The person meant well but it was them speaking and not the Lord. Camille knew this because she knows the voice of the Lord in Communion. 

In CommunionFire Camille and I occasionally encounter what we call "severe distractions" to spending even a few moments with the Lord at His Table each day. Distractions to just getting to the table can come in small kinds of ways from spilled coffee to phones ringing. However, as CommunionFire has also become our way of life, we also encounter severe distractions in the form of (sincere) but ill-founded accusations which can be mental or come from spiritual or people. (These are not based in Jesus' love but accusing spirits, spirits of doubt and spirits that challenge us from the ,moment we wake up and even sometimes in dreams. Sometimes opposition can come from persons who are haters of God, non-christian (outside "The Creed"), or who are judgmental from faith-based error like those who "mix in the Law" As Paul says, "O silly Galatians! Who has bewitched you away from grace."). 

Its judgement from others that stems from a wrong perception of Grace at the Table and the operation of the Holy Spirit. We have found that there are three basic categories - none of which are foreign to the Church going all the way back to the "ancient days of the first Apostles". We have personally encountered all three in our first two years of being at His Table daily. Yes the names may change but the opposition is the same. If anything, there is more opposition to The Creed at The Lord's Table than at any time in Church history. There are many enemies but here are three.


From Jude 1:11 - "The Way of Cain", "The Error of Baalam", "The Rebellion of Korah" These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever."

The First: The Judaizers Confusion from Mixing Law & Grace "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?" The way of Cain is how man creates his own 'way to God'. Though the lamb was provided for Cain 'crouching at his doorway' he decided he would offer God fruits from his own labor. The Lord deemed his brothers sacrifice to be better. When we think our labor is what God is interested in it leads to death. The law demands obedience but God's love provides goodness and mercy. They don't mix. Death to self leads to life by accepting God's provision.
https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/search.html?words=judaizing 

The Second: The Gnostics Various "Knowlege/Enlightenment-based" Cultic schools/systems 
Rather than providing refreshment of bread and water Baalam cursed the people God had blessed. Those outside the realm of God's grace will seek to corrupt what God has done by the finished work of Jesus. Control, manipulation, oppression, seduction are enemies that try to corrupt our hearts to lead us to "strange water". The occult, cults and christian error are like scorpions that mesmerize and hypnotize only to strike and inject poisons that infect God's goodness and mercy with toxins. Error creates distrust and breaks down communication and Communion with the Lord. The body and blood of Jesus is the cleansing flood that restores our faith and innocence of faith in His righteousness.
https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/search.html?words=gnostic 

The Third: Arians Heretical influences by those within church-structure, but outside "the Creed"
https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/search.html?words=arian The strange fire and strange behavior of those who challenged the authority of God were those involved in the Tabernacle of meeting. They challenged the very authority of the One they served. They simply "opposed" those chosen by the Lord to serve His people. Their arrogance manifested in rebellion. When the line was drawn, the earth swallowed up 250 well known community leaders, their families and possessions. Arrogance, insolence and pride are manifested when our authority stems from our own concepts of faith and the faithful. We come by personal invitation empty handed, hungry and thirsty to the Table of the Lord. He alone is holy. His grace is sufficient and His holiness has been given to us. He exchanged His life to give us life and we exchange our life to receive His life. God's Kingdom is under the total and absolute rule of our Servant King, Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. By Him we are invited to share His gift of eternal life and are adopted into His family to share the relationship and life He has purchased for us by His own blood. 
http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/search.html?words=arianism&x=14&y=4
http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_author/8/St._Athanasius.html

The Need for The Creed is about the many statements of faith (creeds) determined by Church Counsels throughout the past 2,000 years. All are meant to create the "Christian Norm" or what is called Orthodoxy and Orthopraxis. Orthodoxy means 'right believing' which means there can be 'wrong believing'. If you believe 'rightly' then you will (Orthopraxy) live or practice faith 'rightly'. (Praxis means the practice of Orthodoxy.) Another description says that Orthodoxy is  like a river's banks. The banks determine where the river will flow. If something of faith is outside the river then it is not part of Orthodoxy and thereby should not influence Orthopraxis.

What does that mean to you? It means there is a certain humility in faith that gives the Lord permission to lead us into all truth (and He is the truth and His presence defines His true eternal reality). It also allows us to identify through His eyes what forces there are that might distract, cause us to forget and ultimately forsake His Table. The first thing Jesus invites us to do is to sit at His Table to Eat His Body "to remember" and Drink His Blood "to remember". No matter the opposition however small or great, plan to get to the Table of the Lord. There you encounter the eternal loving presence of your Savior and true lover of your soul who feeds you with His life, peace and joy. Your relationship with Jesus is the anchor of your soul and is the center of your faith. 

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The Athanasian Creed

One of the symbols of the Faith approved by the Church and given a place in her liturgy, is a short, clear exposition of the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, with a passing reference to several other dogmas. Unlike most of the other creeds, or symbols, it deals almost exclusively with these two fundamental truths, which it states and restates in terse and varied forms so as to bring out unmistakably the trinity of the Persons of God, and the twofold nature in the one Divine Person of Jesus Christ. At various points the author calls attention to the penalty incurred by those who refuse to accept any of the articles therein set down. The following is the Marquess of Bute's English translation of the text of the Creed:

Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic Faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all One, the Glory Equal, the Majesty Co-Eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father Uncreate, the Son Uncreate, and the Holy Ghost Uncreate. The Father Incomprehensible, the Son Incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible. The Father Eternal, the Son Eternal, and the Holy Ghost Eternal and yet they are not Three Eternals but One Eternal. As also there are not Three Uncreated, nor Three Incomprehensibles, but One Uncreated, and One Incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not Three Almighties but One Almighty.So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not Three Gods, but One God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord. And yet not Three Lords but One Lord. For, like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Personby Himself to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the Catholic Religion to say, there be ThreeGods or Three Lords. The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone; not made, nor created, but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the Father, and of the Sonneither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

So there is One Father, not Three Fathers; one Son, not Three Sons; One Holy Ghost, not Three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity none is a fore or after Other, None is greater or less than Another, but the whole Three Persons are Co-eternal together, and Co-equal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, is to be worshiped. He therefore that will be saved, must thus think of the Trinity.

Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting Salvation, that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man.

God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the substance of His mother, born into the world. Perfect God and Perfect Man, of a reasonable Soul and human Flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His Manhood. Who, although He be God and Man, yet He is not two, but One Christ. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into Flesh, but by taking of the Manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by Unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one Man, so God and Man is one Christ. Who suffered for our salvation, descended into Hell, rose again the third day from the dead. He ascended into Heaven, He sitteth on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies, and shall give account for their own works. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting, and they that have done evil into everlasting fire. This is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.

CommunionFire Blog Notes On This Subject
http://www.communionfire.com/communionfire-blog-notes/need-for-the-creed-notes-from-scripture-church-councils

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