A Relational God
Another implication of our confession of God as Father is that He is not solitary. This is an extension of the thought about Father being a relational concept. But we need to be clear about this. All the descriptive names and titles for God - Creator, Sustainer, Protector, Provider, Redeemer, etc. - pertain to His relationship with creation, with us. But His designation as Father pertains to His relationship with the only begotten Son.
From all eternity, before there was any created thing, there was God the Father; and there was the Son, the only begotten of the Father, with the Spirit living in an eternal relationship of unfathomable joy. And if all creation, visible and invisible, suddenly ceased to exist there would still be the Son saying "Father" and the Father saying "My Son...".
We should emphasize that because Father describes the relationship between the first and second persons of the Godhead it is not simply a helpful analogy that humans have come up with as in "To me, God is a lot like dear old Dad..." - an analogy which may be helpful in one's understanding of Him, but if not can be swapped for a different one you like better - like "Mother" or "Architect" or whatever. Rather than an analogy, the word Father gets at who God really is in Himself.
In other words, this confession of God as Father - here at the outset of the Apostle's Creed and revealed so plainly in scripture - opens the door to a uniquely Christian monotheism - a Trinitarian monotheism that recognizes a plurality of persons in the unity of the Godhead.
So, while the confession "I believe in God..." is true, it is much too generic. The additional designation of God as Father immediately gives Christians a unique and powerful witness in the world, for people crave intimacy but are estranged from the God who, because of the Triune nature of His being, is the fountain of all relationship. This stands in stark contrast, by the way, to the monotheism of Islam where Allah being an absolute One - existing alone from all eternity - can know nothing of a personal relationship.
