The
original rule of faith in the Early Christian Church as Irenaeus knew
it, included the following:
". . . this
faith:
in one God, the Father
Almighty, who made the
heaven and the earth and the seas and all the things that are in them;
and in one Christ
Jesus, the Son of God, who was
made flesh for our salvation;
and in the Holy
Spirit, who made known through the
prophets the plan of salvation,
and the coming, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the
resurrection from the dead,
and the bodily ascension into heaven of the beloved Christ Jesus, our
Lord,
and his future appearing from heaven in the glory of the Father
to sum up all things and to raise anew all flesh of the whole human
race . . ."