Statement of Faith
Saying that we believe in the authority of the Bible and the divinity of Jesus is usually not enough for skeptics. Rather than write a new document, we offer as our statement of faith the Nicene Creed.
Background
This creed is the oldest of the Christian creeds, being one of the documents produced by the Council of Nicea in about 325 AD. This creed is the only creed used by the Eastern, Roman, and Protestant branches of Christianity. It was the first attempt to codify, in a one page, easy to memorize form, the basic beliefs of the Christian faith.
The version here has been voted on by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) as a modernized English version of the creed. The major objection many have of this specific wording is the change from the traditional "I" to "we." It should be left as used traditionally, with "I".
Contemporary Version of the Nicene Creed
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.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicene_Creed
Notes on this creed
The word catholic is deliberately not capitalized. This use is not the name of the Catholic Church. This is the standard Protestant use of the word catholic. As used here the word means the universal body of believers in Jesus Christ, including those believers who belong to the Catholic Church. This refers to those people whom Jesus has saved through his blood shed at Calvary.
The upper case Catholic is to the church like IBM was once to the Personal Computer. They picked for themselves a name as generic as possible to take over in the minds of the unaware.
This creed is a good one for the Bible Time project since it points specifically at Jesus’ return in glory to judge the living and dead, and because it points at our own bodily resurrection and our eventual home in a "world to come." Bodily resurrection is rarely mentioned in modern Christian circles but it is a central part of the New Covenant. This point was not missed in the 4th century.
This creed also makes the point that Jesus’ kingdom will have no end this is a point often missed in modern Christian debates about the millennium.