Irenaeus of Lyon records the following statement in Against Heresies as a summary of the teachings of the early church. Some historians believe that this confession, The Rule of Faith, was recited by those undergoing baptism in the early church. Gnosticism taught secret knowledge, treated the God of the Bible as less than Almighty, and denied the sacrifice of Jesus. Statements like this arose partially in response to Gnostic heresy.
The Church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His [future] manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father “to gather all things in one,” and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race […].