The Rich Man and Lazarus
-the intermediate state-
 

THE APOSTLES' CREED

Not one of the Ancient Creeds of the Church knew anything of it. Up to the seventh century they all said �And was buried� and nothing more. But the Creed used in the Church of Aquileia (A.D. 400), instead of saying �buried,� had the words ,�he descended into hell,� but only as an equivalent for �he was buried.� This was of course quite correct.

These are the words of Bishop Pearson (Exposition of the Creed, Fourth Edition 1857, pp. 402-403):

 �I observe that in the Aquileian Creed, where this article was first expressed, there was no mention of Christ's burial; but the words of their Confession ran thus, crucified under Pontius Pilate, he descended in inferna. From whence there is no question but the observation of Ruffinus (fl. 397), who first expounded it, was most true, that though the Roman and Oriental Creeds had not these words, yet they had the sense of them in the word buried. It appeareth, therefore, that the first intention of putting these words in the Creed was only to express the burial of our Saviour, or the descent of his body into the grave. In a note he adds that �the same may be observed in the Athanasian Creed, which has the descent, but not the Sepulchre (i.e. the burial)...Nor is this observable only in these two, but also in the Creed made at Sirmium, and produced at Ariminim� (A.D. 359).

By the incorporation of the words �he descended into hell� in the �Apostles' Creed� and the retention of the word �buried,� tradition obtained an additional �article of faith� quite distinct from the fact of the Lord's burial. This is not a matter of opinion, but a matter of history. Not only are these historical facts vouched for by Bishop Pearson, but by Archbishop Ussher, and in more recent times by the late Bishop Harold-Browne in his standard work on the Thirty-Nine Articles.

Those who have been brought up on �The Apostles' Creed� naturally read this spurious additional article �he descended into hell,� into Luke 23:43 and I Peter 3:19, and of course find it difficult to believe that those passages have nothing whatever to do with that �descent.� They are thus led into the serious error of substituting man's tradition for God's revelation.

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