The Son, who is the Word of the Father, the very and eternal God, of one substance with the Father, took man’s nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin; so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be divided; whereof is one Christ, very God and very Man, who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men.
II. Of the Word or Son of God, which was made very Man.
The Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took Man’s nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance: so that two whole and perfect Natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God, and very Man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men.
The Methodist version changes which to who in the title and first line, representing a more personal deity. The few deletions in the Methodist version are marked in boldface. The phrase begotten from everlasting of the Father is found in the Nicene Creed (begotten from the Father before all ages) but not in the Apostle’s Creed. The Methodist Church includes the Nicene Creed in its Affirmations of Faith in the Hymnal, but only the Apostle’s Creed is indicated for communion services.
There is no doubt in the Methodist Article that Jesus is indeed God and Man. By begotten means that he proceeds from the Father, but that makes Him no less God. And everlasting emphasizes his eternal nature. It emphasizes the fact that Jesus was not made God when he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, according to the Apostle’s creed. The incarnation was God made flesh. Christ is eternal and was begotten from everlasting. I favor leaving it in.
This next article is deleted from the Methodist version. He descended to hell is in the traditional Apostle’s Creed (Morning Prayer Rite I) but is modified to He descended to the dead in the modern version of Morning Prayer (Rite II) and in A Service of Word and Table I in the UMC Hymnal of 1989. The phrase is missing from its online version, relegated to a footnote. It is not unreasonable to exclude it from the Articles, as they should emphasize what is the generally accepted doctrine of the Church.
There is some controversy around whether Jesus went into hell to preach. In Ephesians, we read He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth (Eph 4:10, NASB), but this may mean no more than he was truly dead before the resurrection. A passage in 1 Peter suggests that he preached to the dead, He also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:19, NASB). However, if we take It is finished as a true statement, “references to Christ’s descent reflect simply that He truly died, experienced death fully, and was placed in the grave (Sheol/Hades), from which He was victoriously raised. This interpretation avoids the idea of a literal ‘tour’ of the underworld and sees it as a figure of speech for ‘the state of the dead.'” (BibleHub)
III. Of the going down of Christ into Hell.
As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also is it to be believed, that he went down into Hell.
Making a Difference in the World 