The Nicene Creed, Study 1

The Nicene Creed

These studies are an expanded version of a series of three sermons given by Douglas Miller in Wesley Church on Sundays October 28th, November 4th & 11th, 2007. This is the first sermon.

Why the Nicene Creed?

This is the first of three studies on the Nicene Creed. In some parts of the Uniting Church it is quite controversial to say the Nicene Creed each week in worship as we have been doing here. Some would say it is obsolete and full of expressions we barely understand. They raise questions like:

Those are important questions, which we will return to address in the third study.

Before we look at them, we need to look at the two essential issues that the Nicene Creed addresses. The Basis of Union of the Uniting Church commits us to using the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds in worship, as a sign that the Uniting Church adheres to the faith of the whole church. It says, "The Uniting Church enters into unity with the Church throughout the ages by its use of the confessions known as the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed. The Uniting Church receives these as authoritative statements of the Catholic Faith, framed in the language of their day and used by Christians in many days, to declare and to guard the right understanding of that faith. The Uniting Church commits its ministers and instructors to careful study of these creeds and to the discipline of interpreting their teaching in a later age. It commends to ministers and congregations their use for instruction in the faith, and their use in worship as acts of allegiance to the Holy Trinity".

Similarly, the Uniting Church's worship book, "Uniting in Worship" uses the Nicene Creed as a normal part of the worship on the Lord’s Day. When we say it, we are affirming that we hold the one Christian faith, together with the Eastern Orthodox, the Roman Catholic, and also the Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Methodist and several other Protestant traditions. When we use these creeds, we stress that we are not following a distinctive Uniting Church Faith, we are adhering to the Catholic faith, that is, the faith of the whole church.

The origin of the Apostles' Creed

Where did these creeds come from? The earliest documented form of the Apostles' Creed, is given by an early Christian writer Hippolytus, about 200 AD. He explains the worship practices of the church in Rome. He says that when people were baptised, the Presbyter would ask the people being baptised:

"Do you believe in God, the Father almighty?"
and the person would answer, "I believe".

Then he would ask:

"Do you believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God,
who was born by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary,
and was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
and was dead and buried,
and rose again the third day, alive from the dead,
and ascended into heaven,
and sat at the right hand of the Father,
and will come to judge the living and the dead?
and the person would answer, "I believe".

Then he would ask:

"Do you believe in the Holy Spirit; in the Holy Church,
and in the resurrection of the flesh?"
and the person would answer, "I believe".

And the person had water poured over them three times, once after each section.

A translation of Hippolytus' work can be found here.

Now there are some variations in wording, but that is pretty close to the Apostles' Creed as we know it. Notice it was used when a person was baptised. Today we use the Apostles' Creed to ask the same three questions of the whole congregation when a person is baptised.

Why the Nicene Creed was written

The Nicene Creed was composed over a hundred years later. In 315 AD, Constantine became Emperor of the Western half of the Roman Empire, declared himself to be Christian, and ended the persecutions of Christians. Eight years later he gained control of the Eastern half of the Empire and found a huge controversy raging among Christians there about what Christians really believe.

The controversy began when a person called Arius, a presbyter in Egypt, offered an account of the Christian faith designed to address intellectual problems that Greeks had with the Christian faith, and intended to make sense to people coming from a Greek philosophical background.

The problem for Greek people is that God is infinite, eternal, unchangable, and utterly beyond description in words, while human beings have a shape, walk around for a while, and then die. God is one thing. Humans are something else. It is not possible for God to become human. So what does the Christian faith teach? Arius said, that Christ is a created being, a god in the Greek sense, a kind of superman, but not the infinite, eternal, indescribable God, creator of the cosmos. And this superman had appeared on earth, taking the form of a human being. Many people took up Arius' solution with great enthusiasm, because it made sense to them. It seemed to answer their intellectual problems.

But the problem with Arius' views arose when you stood back and looked at the big picture. What was he actually saying? At the end of the day, he was saying that someone who was not God, came to earth and became something that was not human. So where is the good news, the message that God has entered our world to accept us? It really wasn't there.

Anyway Constantine invited bishops from all over the Eastern half of the empire, the people who had led the church through a lifetime of persecution, and he asked them to come together at Nicea, which is now the town of Iznik in Turkey. He asked them to come up with a creed that they could all agree on, so the whole church could affirm the essentials of the one faith. They seem to have started with a creed used in Jerusalem, and used it as their basis. The result of their work is the Nicene Creed of 325 AD.

It was revised at a few points by the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD.

The Holy Trinity

When you read the Nicene Creed, it is important you don't get stuck on the detail, but to look at the big picture of what it is saying.

Essentially the Creed is making three points.

The first point is the Holy Trinity. The three sections are:

The point is that in the New Testament writings, these three persons are distinct from each other, and yet completely related to each other. Each are co-eternal. Each are truly God. Each are to be worshipped.

In particular the Creed points out that all three persons are involved together in the creation of the universe. The Father is "the creator of heaven and earth" (echoing Genesis 1), the Son is the one "through whom all things were made" (echoing John 1), and the Holy Spirit is "the Lord, the giver of life" (echoing Psalm 104), so that creation is the work of the three persons working together. Indeed you could say that everything God does is the work of the three persons working together, in full co-operation, sharing one purpose of love towards humanity.

Notice that the Creed does not offer a concept or description of God. In the Christian faith, the only concept of God we can have is a blank sheet of paper. The only words that describe God are silence. We cannot describe God in human words, and the Creed does not do so. It only speaks about what God has done in human history.

Sometimes people talk about the Trinity as if it were a mysterious, almost unintelligible concept. It is not so. It is basically quite a simple idea. We believe in the three persons who freely and fully share one purpose of love for humanity, and fully co-operate together. Because it is one purpose, we speak of one God.

So the first point was the Holy Trinity. The three persons who are God, who are to be worshipped.

Other issues

We will consider the second point next study. The second point is Christ’s real deity and real humanity. That the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, co-eternal with the Father, became truly human, born of a human mother, grew up in a human society, felt human struggles as we do, died and was buried, and then raised from the dead. He who is truly God became truly human.

We will consider the third point in the third study, and also about some problems people have with the creeds.

The third point is the belief in the one Holy Spirit leads to belief in the one Holy Catholic church that includes us all, the one baptism into that community, and belief that we will be included in Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

But the essential point from this study is that, when we say the Nicene Creed, we are affirming that:

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