A creed (also known as a confession, symbol, or statement of faith) is a statement of the shared beliefs of a religious community in the form of a fixed formula summarizing core understandings.
It is likely that some form of the Apostles’ Creed was developing by about 150CE. Whilst statements of faith were used by the early apostles, the Creed probably wasn’t finalised until a few centuries later. It developed out of the practice of the apostles asking people to profess their faith before being admitted to baptism and later became part of baptismal liturgies of Western Christianity.
It is important to remember that we can reflect our own faith into these early prayers, however in the days of the early church there was no standard lifestyle, culture or language. There was a variety of ways of expressing Christian belief due to the varying situations in different Christian communities. The importance is that the early apostles believed in expressions of faith which have eventually led to the creeds that we have today.
"The New Testament reveals that in the presence of a unity of belief among early Christians there was also some diversity. However, as time went on, the first Christians had to deal with false ideas…In order to set the record straight…the Christian leaders eventually saw the necessity for stating the correct doctrine in formulas...these formulas only came into being after a long period of development.” (Woods, L The Christian Story 1995, ACU Press, p.186).
The prayer includes a Trinitarian statement (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), beliefs about Jesus Christ and statements of faith.
I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and 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 into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come 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 life everlasting. Amen.