Nicence
Creed (1)
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Commentary
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1
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I
believe …
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Often rendered “We believe” to
harmonize with the plural of 12. However, the singular is appropriate here
because it is the statement of an individual in the context of a congregation
to affirm identification with the Christian faith-community.
Contrary to atheism and
post-modernism, Christianity asserts that what a person believes makes a
difference. This is true in a practical sense because we do what we do
because of what we believe. We also tend to believe what we believe to
justify what we do, but Christianity has a particular regard for belief
because it orients the individual’s perspective toward an objective, external
truth.
Further, the fact of believing is
not enough. The important thing is what we believe in. Importantly, the
Nicene Creed does not say “I believe in my self, my abilities, my potential”,
but points the believer beyond himself to belief in God.
Luke opens his Gospel by stating
that he has written it so that the reader (Theophilus) may know the truth of
what he believes (Luke
1:1-4).
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2
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…
in one God …
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Christians, like Jews and Muslims,
believe in only One God. This is an important prelude to the following
statements concerning the relationships between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The creed states the assumption of the ancient Shema: Hear O Israel, the
Lord our God is one Lord (Deuteronomy
6:4).
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3
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…
the Father Almighty,
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Jesus calls God the “Father” and
teaches us to do the same in the “Lord’s Prayer” (Matthew
6:9 etc). Like all words, “Father” cannot fully describe God, but it does
convey the sense of some of God’s attributes, particularly the progenitor,
protector, provider and ultimate authority on all that exists.
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4
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Maker
of heaven and earth,
And
of all things visible and invisible:
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Includes the entire cosmos, even
the things we cannot detect or comprehend (Genesis
1:1). Orthodox Christianity has always discriminated between God and His
creation. Importantly, God is not bound by the laws and principles that
govern creation; He is the One who sustains these laws.
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5
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And
in one Lord Jesus Christ, …
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The Creed applies the title “LORD”
to Jesus Christ, which was applied to YHWH in the Old Testament (see “LORD
God’ in Genesis
2:4 etc). There is only One LORD, not three. Many NT authors freely apply
this appellation to the Son (Mark
16:19, Luke
24:3, John
4:1 etc., Acts
1:21, Acts
2:36 etc., Romans
1:4, James
1:1, Jude
1:4, Revelation
22:20-21)
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6
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the
only-begotten Son of God,
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The Son is in a unique
relationship with the Father. While others were sons of God in a generic or
derivative sense (see Psalm
2), Jesus is the archetypical, or original Son of God by nature.
The true (canonical) image of God
is given to us in the only-begotten Son, per John
1:18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in
the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. (NASB)
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7
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Begotten
of his Father before all worlds,
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Difficult to translate, and
sometimes rendered “Eternally begotten of the Father”. The Son was not
“created” in time, but was brought forth from the Father in eternity, beyond
and outside time. Our prepositional language uses “before”, but the phrase
“before time” is a nonsensical construction. In contrast to the Arian Heresy,
the Son was not begotten in time before the creation of everything else. As
He was begotten beyond time, he truly shares the divine nature of God.
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8
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God
of God, Light of Light, Very God of very God,
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The Arians believed that Jesus
could be called god but not true God. In other words, they believed the Logos
(the
"Word", a popular title for Jesus in early Christian
literature) was the first creation of God, necessary to mediate between the
unknowable distant God (a concept borrowed from Platonic thought) and creation(2).
As a reaction against Arianism, the Nicene Creed strenuously affirms the true
and full divinity of the Son, whilst maintaining the distinctiveness of the
persons of the Father and the Son.
The crucial inference is that (the
true) God is not distant and unknowable, but has been made known to us in the
flesh in the person of His Son. God is fully visible, accessible and
glorified in the Person of His Son.
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9
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Begotten,
not made,
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The creed tells us that just as
when a woman gives birth she does not create a child out of nothing, being
begotten of God, the Son is not created out of nothing. Since the Son's birth
from the Father occurred before time was created, begotten refers to a
permanent relationship as opposed to an event within time, hence the qualifier
that the Son was “begotten”, not “made”.(2)
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10
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Being
of one substance with the Father,
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Homoousia: God the Father and
God the Son are equally divine, united in substance and will. Father and Son
share the same substance or essence of divinity. That is, the Father and Son
both share the qualities and essential nature of God. However, sharing the
same substance does not mean they share identity of person(2).
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11
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By
whom all things were made;
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The Bible tells us that through
The Son, as Word of God, all things have been created. As Logos, the Son is
the agent and artificer of creation. (John
1:1-3, Colossians
1:16).
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12
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Who
for us men, and for our salvation came down from heaven,
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See John
3:16. Sometimes rendered “for all”, but “for all” has been criticized for
implying Universalism. The “us men” refers to the people (male and female)
who are reciting the Creed in faith.
The prepositional language is not
intended to describe a physical downward journey, like the descent of an
elevator, but the putting off of the lofty status and privileges of heaven. Philippians
2:7 describes is as God “emptying” Himself in order to enter human
existence.
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13
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And
was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, And was made man,
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Incarnate means, literally, “in
flesh”. The Creed recognizes the vital role of Mary, and emphasizes the
absence of a human father. God truly became truly and fully human. Contrary
to early heresies such as Docetism, God did not simply don an “earth-suit” to
do some sight-seeing, but fully entered into all the constraints and
frustrations of human existence. (John
1:14, Philippians
2:5-11)
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14
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And
was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.
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See Matthew
27:11-55 etc. “Under Pontius Pilate” places Jesus in the real stream of
human history – Christianity is more than metaphysical speculation.
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15
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He
suffered and was buried, And the third day he rose again …
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Jesus truly suffered and died. He
didn’t “dodge the bullet” by swapping places with some unfortunate proxy (per
the Qur’an), nor did he slip off his earth-suit at the critical moment.
Jesus’ resurrection is many things, including triumph over the last enemy,
death itself. Ultimately, the resurrection of Christ (Matthew
28:1-10) is the vindication of God and His unstoppable commitment to
human life.
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16
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…
according to the Scriptures,
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The “Scriptures” here refers
primarily to the New Testament and enjoins believers to believe its content.
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17
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And
ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of the Father.
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Christianity does not teach that
heaven is physically “above” the dome of the sky, but the prepositional
language best describes Jesus’ return to the unseen realm of the divine, in
contrast to His descent in 12. Likewise, he is not now literally sitting next
to the Father, but shares his authority and honour, as implied in our phrase
“right-hand man”.
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18
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And
he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead:
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Affirms the belief in the return
of the King, who will judge every person who has or will ever live. All
creation is answerable to its creator, and will affirm that God is just and
true in His judgements. (Matthew
25:31-33 etc.)
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19
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Whose
kingdom shall have no end.
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Despite the efforts of all His
enemies, God’s Kingdom is unassailable. (Psalm
145:13 etc)
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20
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And
I believe in the Holy Ghost, The Lord and giver of life,
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The Hebrew concept of “spirit” is
“life-breath”, and it refers to the essential living being of a person that
dwells deep within. God’s essential “life-breath” breaths life to us all in
more ways than one. The Holy Spirit is also called “Lord”. As the Creed has
already affirmed One Lord (2, 5), it also affirms that the Holy Spirit also
shares in the divine nature of God. (Gen
2:7)
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21
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Who
proceedeth from the Father and the Son,
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The addition of the words “… and
the Son” (filioque) caused the Great Schism between the Western (Roman) and
Eastern Churches. Rendering it “from the Father through the Son” may resolve
the controversy, because it retains the monarchy of the Father in the Holy
Trinity.
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22
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Who
with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified,
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The Holy Spirit is God, as are the
Father and the Son, and worthy of the same worship due to the Father and the
Son. He is given the same name (singular) as the Father and the Son in the
Great Commission in Matthew
28:19. At the other end of the behavioral scale, sin against the Holy
Spirit is regarded as being worse than sin committed against the Father and
the Son (Matthew
12:31), which was tragically demonstrated in the sudden deaths of Ananias
and Sapphira in Acts
5:1-11.
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23
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Who
spake by the Prophets.
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The Holy Spirit inspired the
Prophets and the Bible. The role of the Prophet is to speak the Word of God.
Prophesy is much more than predicting future events with the benefit of
divinely inspired foresight; it is about making sense of the immediate
situation in the light of the Word of God (Jeremiah
1:11, 13).
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24
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And
I believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church.
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There is one Church, not many
churches. It is “Catholick” because it is universal, and “Apostolic” because
it is founded on the witness of the apostles. Other renditions include
“Holy”, meaning that the Church is the peculiar possession of God.
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25
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I
acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins.
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Not several, different Baptisms
for different purposes, and not requiring repetition after sin. God’s
cancellation of my debt of sin encompasses all my sin – past, present and
future. (Acts
2:38)
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26
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And
I look for the Resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
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Christian hope does not look
forward to being relieved of the burden of existence, but the joyous,
continued and unending celebration of life, when the cosmos is fully
reconciled to God in Jesus Christ. (Revelation
22:17)
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27
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Amen.
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I tell the truth. I agree. So be
it. Make it so.
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(1)
This version from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
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