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Revelation 1:8
“‘I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God, ‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’”
In saying farewell to the elders of the church in Ephesus, the Apostle Paul warned them that wolves—false teachers—would creep into the church after his departure and that they would need to be resisted with biblical truth (Acts 20:17–38). Many theologians have observed that the church in every generation has to be vigilant to prevent its members from being deceived by those who claim the name of Christ but teach contrary to what He has spoken. For many centuries, Christians throughout the Western world have recognized the Apostles’ Creed as a faithful summary of biblical truth that can help us recognize and avoid false teaching that strikes at the heart of the Christian faith. To help us better understand this truth that shields us against error, we will now take a break from our study of Acts and explore this creed, using Dr. R.C. Sproul’s teaching series The Apostles’ Creed as our guide.
The Apostles’ Creed has a Trinitarian structure, featuring three sections, each focused on one of the three persons of the Holy Trinity. In the first section, we confess key truths about God the Father, starting with “I believe in God the Father, Almighty.” This phrase is so well known to those of us who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ that we might not often ponder its significance. In the ancient world, however, the notion of God as the almighty Father was revolutionary. Polytheism was everywhere and characterized every culture that Old Testament Israel encountered. Even the ancient Israelites, who were supposed to be fiercely monotheistic (see Deut. 6:4), had a troubled history of worshiping other gods alongside Yahweh, the one true God. The Old Testament tells us of Israel’s serial failures to live up to its confession of one almighty God. By the time of the New Testament, the Jews no longer struggled with worshiping other gods alongside Yahweh, but the new covenant church had to take the gospel into a world where polytheistic paganism continued to thrive.
Consequently, as we see in such episodes as Paul’s preaching at the Areopagus in Athens, the Apostles would begin their evangelism of polytheists with the core truth of monotheism (Acts 17:22–34). There is no deity alongside or above the one true God. He has no real rivals, so to worship and serve any other would-be deity is the height of foolishness. The Lord God Almighty made all things and is the only being deserving of our utmost allegiance.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
To be almighty is to be all-powerful and supreme over all. When we confess God as almighty, we are confessing that He has final authority over us and that He can and will hold to account all those who violate His law. Regularly confessing God the Father Almighty should make us diligent to serve Him in reverent fear, knowing that He is worthy of all our honor and love.
For further study
- Genesis 35:11
- Psalm 62:11
- Zechariah 14:9
- Revelation 11:17
The bible in a year
- Proverbs 19–20
- 2 Corinthians 3