Image: The Fail Whale. Jesus Fish for the 21st century?
Recently I asked readers to consider what a Christian creed would look like if we were writing it in the context of the globalized pluralistic Church of the 21st century.
Creeds normally arise out of doubt or as a defense against heresy. In other words, they tend to be reactive rather than proactive. The most common creed in use today is some form of the Nicene creed.
As the conversation developed we began to consider what is the minimal confession possible that all Christians of various sects can agree on.
Peter Kirk suggested Paul’s κύριον Ἰησοῦν from Romans 10:9. It is a two word confession, or three in English: “Jesus is Lord.”
The writer of 1 John has another confession that he insisted upon:
Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God (1 John 4:2)
I cheated a bit and suggested this one word confession: ΙΧΘΥΣ. This word is Greek for “fish” and the letters stand for Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ. In English that would be Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior.
This is of course the origin of the famous “Jesus Fish”
The fish symbol has fallen on hard times lately mostly through crass merchandising but also through attacks by Darwinists that have rather clouded what was once a concise statement of Christian belief.
This now brings me to the meme. Can you write a meme in less than 140 characters, the equivalent of a Twitter “tweet,” that results in a statement that every Christian could confess?
If someone sincerely confessed this creed you would:
- Consider them to be a brother or sister in Christ.
- Believe that they are true believers and inheritors of eternal life.
Any language is acceptable including SMS and Leet Speke. Iconography is acceptable as is a rewriting of the traditional creed. See comments on the original post for some ideas: Christian Credo for the 21st Century: I believe in…
Wikipedia articles: Nicene Creed and English versions of the Nicene Creed in current use.
The rules of the Tweet Creed Meme are:
1. Link to this post.
2. Publish your own Tweet Creed of 140 characters of less.
3. Tag five other people.
The people I have tagged are Eddie Arthur, Henry Neufeld, David Keen, Jane Stranz and Jeff, the Scripture Zealot.
My Tweet Creed is at http://www.entish.org/wordpress/?p=728
I’ll tag people by email.
[...] Ker’s Tweet Creed Challenge! David Ker has challenged us (well, not me personally, but I took up the challenge anyway) to design a twitterable Christian [...]
Hey there David,
I liked the concept, and so took a shot at a Tweet Creed. Ended up with two. Hope they’re up to standard
.
[...] For a long time I didn’t quite know what to do with Twitter, but I’m finding as I use it more and more, I’m getting a better handle on it. I’ve an upcoming article at the Xenia Institute that discusses are shortened attention spans, but there is something succinct in Twitter I can appreciate. David Ker at Lingamish suggests using the micro-message of the tweet as the format of a new universal Christian Creed: [...]
I’m liking this. Pax Vobiscum
[...] seem to be like busses, you don’t see one for ages, then two come along at once. Lingamish has tagged me with another meme asking me to produce a basic Christian creed in 140 characters or [...]
[...] I provided David Ker with a Hippopotamus, but what he really wanted was a creed that would fit in a Tweet. [...]
[...] “Lingamish” Ker put out a call for a “Tweet Creed,” or a creedal statement in 140 characters (the limit for a ‘tweet’ or short [...]
Here’s my entry:
I try to follow Jesus (EoM)
sorry, I will get round to this eventually. No idea who to tag, so if anyone’s desperate to have a go, let me know.
Hows this (taken from 1 Corinthians 15) …
I beleive that Christ died for my sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day as the firstborn among many brothers, of which He has made me one.
Ok, so my first crack was too long for twitter. Leave it to me to get wordy about doctrine. Will this suffice?
“Christ died for my sins according to the Scriptures and was raised as the firstborn among many brothers, of which He has made me one. “
What no sisters?!
siblings?
ok here it is
http://davidkeen.blogspot.com/2008/11/condensed-creed.html
Excellent post.
Voila avec mes excuses de retard!
Sorry – didn’t even notice I’d been tagged
anyway here it is
http://stranzblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/credo-tweet-meme-for-dozey-blogger.html
Last Christmas the BBC did a condensed Nativity in 100 words I think – must try and dig it out
Thanks – I’ve sorted it in my own way – haven’t got a clue what twitter is all about – hopefully I’ll learn but I’ve put something together in 140 characters. See http://hrht-revisingreform.blogspot.com
God bless
Rachel
I’ve tagged five others.
Thanks, Rachel. I’m heading over there right now to check it out.
here’s mine
http://radical-evangelical.blogspot.com/2008/12/today-creed.html
[...] was tagged by David Ker on his Lingamish blog for this meme. As much as I don’t like memes, this one is at least pertinent to this [...]
[...] few weeks ago, David Ker challenged the blogosphere to attempt to distil Christianity into a ‘tweetable’ creed, [...]