What We Believe

What We Believe

Apologia Daily stands within historic, creedal Christianity — the faith summarized in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds and held in common, for nearly two thousand years, across the great branches of the Church.

We are deliberately a "mere Christianity" project, in C. S. Lewis's sense: we defend the faith that Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants share, rather than any one tradition's distinctives. Our doctrinal commitments are the historic essentials.

The faith we affirm

With the whole Church, we confess the Apostles' Creed:

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic* Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

And, with the councils of the undivided Church, the Nicene Creed (Constantinople, AD 381):

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father† [and the Son], who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

* "catholic" here means universal — the whole Church across time and place, not a single denomination.
† The bracketed "[and the Son]" (the filioque) is confessed by the Western churches; the Eastern churches keep the original "who proceeds from the Father." This is a genuine, historic East–West difference, and—true to our neutrality—we do not adjudicate it.
Creed texts: the modern-English versions of the English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC), Praying Together (1988), used with acknowledgment.

In short, with the historic creeds we hold: one God, eternally Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the full deity and full humanity of Jesus Christ; his bodily death, resurrection, and future return; the inspiration and authority of Scripture; humanity's need of rescue; and salvation as God's gift, received by grace. These are the convictions every argument on this site is meant to serve and stay within.

Where we stay neutral

On the questions that have long and sincerely divided faithful Christians — the mode and meaning of baptism, church government, the Lord's Supper, predestination and free will, the details of the end times, the age of the earth, and more — Apologia Daily takes no party line. Where these come up, our aim is to present the historic options fairly so you can think them through, not to settle them for you. Reasonable, devout believers land in different places on these matters, and we respect that.

How this shapes the content

Every argument we publish is written to fit within this creedal orthodoxy and to avoid adjudicating intra-Christian disputes. It also shapes our tone: because we believe the truth can bear scrutiny, we are free to represent critics fairly and to admit the genuine difficulties — always, as 1 Peter 3:15 puts it, "with gentleness and respect."

Faithfulness before reach

Faithfulness to Jesus Christ and to this historic, creedal orthodoxy matters more to us than the platform's reach, growth, or success — every time. Where the two ever pull apart, orthodoxy wins. Every essay, answer, and reel on this site passes an independent doctrinal review against this statement before it is published.

Found something that doesn't sit right?

We would genuinely rather hear it. If any page here reads to you as crossing a line of this creedal faith — or leaning, even slightly, toward a distortion of Christ — please tell us, and we will review it against this statement. Report a doctrinal concern →

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