Apostles and Nicene Creeds

Apostles and Nicene Creeds

If one wants to know what we believe as Catholic Christians, they need to look no further than the Nicene Creed, the definitive statement of Christian orthodoxy (correct teaching).

Our Creed is a statement of what we believe as Catholics. The word creed comes from the Latin “credo” meaning I believe. Each Sunday we begin our Creed with the words “I believe.”

From the beginning, the apostolic Church expressed and handed on her faith in brief formulae that were to establish a standard of our faith for all.

Such formulae or summaries are called creeds or "professions of faith" since they summarize the faith that Christians profess and believe. They are also called "symbols of faith".

Our creed was born in fierce debates about what we believe. People fought and died for what they believed.

In the early Church there were many different forms of the Christian confession of faith; many different “creeds.” These creeds were used originally in relation to baptism. As time passed different places had different credal statements, all professing the identical faith, yet using different forms and expressions, with different degrees of detail and emphasis. These credal forms usually became more detailed and elaborate in those areas where questions about the faith had arisen and heresies had developed.

In a way we need to be thankful for the early heresies for they forced the Church to define more precisely what she believed.

Among all the creeds, two occupy a special place in the Church's life:

Apostle’s Creed

Nicene Creed

*See PowerPoint for comparison.

Apostles Creed

Throughout the Middle Ages it was generally believed that the Apostles, on the day of Pentecost, while still under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit, composed our present Creed between them, each of the Apostles contributing one of the twelve articles

While many still support an apostolic origin of the Apostles Creed its date of origin is felt to be later anywhere from the late 2nd to 4th centuries.

The Apostles' Creedis rightly considered to be a faithful summary of the apostles' faith. It is the ancient baptismal symbol of the Church of Rome

The Apostles Creed was written to address the heresy of Gnosticism that rejected Jesus’ humanity. Gnosticism taught enlightenment through knowledge. The body was considered evil and the spirit good. Gnostics believed since the earth was evil it could not possibly have been made by a single God. Therefore Gnosticism proposed a number of lesser gods or demiurges.

In the Roman Catholic Church we use the Apostles Creed primarily at Baptisms

Nicene Creed

The Niceno-ConstantinopolitanorNicene Creeddraws its great authority from the fact that it stems from the first two ecumenical Councils (in 325 and 381 AD). It remains common to all the great Churches of both East and West to this day.

The Nicene Creed was formulated at the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in AD 325

In the fourth century a great controversy developed in Christendom about the nature of the Son of God (also called in the Scripture the Word or Logos). Arius, a 4th century priest, held that the Son of God didn’t exist “before all ages”; Jesus was a created being, not divine. Others contended that the Son of God is eternal, divine, and uncreated. This controversy was the topic of numerous councils before being resolved at the Council of Nicaea. The controversy raged throughout the entire Christian world.

This heresy is referred to as Arianism.

Council of Constantinople

Following the controversy about the Son of God, the Divine Word, and essentially connected with it, was the dispute about the Holy Spirit.

The Nicene Creed was expanded at the Second Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in AD 381 to balance its coverage of the Trinity by including the Holy Spirit.

Niceno-ConstantinopolitanorNicene Creedis the only creed that was promulgated by any of the ecumenical councils and thus it is the only creed that is truly ecumenical and universal

First Person

If you listen closely at Mass you will here the occasional person state “we believe.” For many years the creed we recited at Mass began with the words “we believe.” In 2011 the new English translation of the Mass was introduced with new phrases that replaced the familiar words we had used for decades.

Thus, the Profession of Faith is the only part of the liturgy, which is in the first person singular. All other songs and prayers of the liturgy are plural, beginning with “we”.

While the former English translation of the creed began with "we" believe, the Greek and Latin translations begin with "I" believe. The latter is more accurate, because reciting the creed is ultimately an individual confession of belief, although the creed also expresses the collective beliefs of the Church

The CCC states, ”Whoever says "I believe" says "I pledge myself to whatwebelieve."

The Nicene Creed is the most widely accepted and used brief statements of the Christian Faith. In liturgical churches, it is said every Sunday as part of the Liturgy. It is common ground to Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Calvinists, and many other Christian groups. Many groups that do not have a tradition of using it in their services nevertheless are committed to the doctrines it teaches.

The Creed is divided into three parts: "the first part speaks of the first divine Person, God the Father, and the wonderful work of creation; the next speaks of the second divine Person, Jesus the Son of God, and the mystery of his redemption of men; the final part speaks of the third divine Person, the Holy Spirit, the origin and source of our sanctification."

I believe in one God,

"I believe in God": this first affirmation of the Creed is also the most fundamental. The whole Creed speaks of God, and when it also speaks of man and of the world it does so in relation to God. The other articles of the Creed all depend on the first,

In the midst of a culture that worshipped many gods, Yahweh revealed Himself to Abraham and Moses as the one, true God

Christians, like Jews and Muslims, believe that only one God exists. The creed states the assumption of the ancient Shema: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.”

The confession of God's oneness, which has its roots in the divine revelation of the Old Covenant, is inseparable from the profession of God's existence and is equally fundamental. God is unique; there is only one God: "The Christian faith confesses that God is one in nature, substance and essence."

the Father almighty,

By calling God “Father,” the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children.

Jesus frequently calls God "Father" in the Scriptures, and this usage tells us that God is a loving God active within His creation.

He is not an impersonal God who just set us in motion, but rather a God who cares for us

God the Father is the first person within the Godhead.

God is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father in relation to his only Son, who is eternally Son only in relation to his Father: “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Almighty

Of all the divine attributes, only God’s omnipotence is named in the Creed: to confess this power has great bearing on our lives.

We believe that his might is universal, for God who created everything also rules everything and can do everything.

Nothing is impossible with God, who disposes his works according to his will. His creative power is unlimited.

God is the Father Almighty, whose fatherhood and power shed light on one another: God reveals his fatherly omnipotence by the way he takes care of our needs; by the filial adoption that he gives us (“I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”) finally by his infinite mercy and love, for he displays his power at its height by freely forgiving sins.

maker of heaven and earth,

Holy Scripture begins with these solemn words. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

The Scriptural expression “heaven and earth” means all that exists, creation in its entirety. It also indicates the bond, deep within creation, that both unites heaven and earth and distinguishes the one from the other.

of all things visible and invisible.

Catholics believe that God created the visible world (created matter) and the invisible one (spiritual world of angels, etc). Thus, God created everything. Some early sects, the Gnostics and Marcionites, believed that God the Father created the spirit world, but that an "evil" god (called the demiurge) created the similarly evil material world. The creed dispels such a notion.

Creation is the foundation of “all God’s saving plans,” the “beginning of the history of salvation” that culminates in Christ.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,

Jesus means in Hebrew: “God saves.” At the annunciation, the angel Gabriel gave him the name Jesus as his proper name, which expresses both his identity and his mission.

The word “Christ” comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah, which means “anointed.” It became the name proper to Jesus only because he accomplished perfectly the divine mission that “Christ” signifies. He was the fulfillment of all the messianic prophecies.

Jesus Christ is the Lord of all. The title Lord means that Jesus is master of all, and has connotations of deity, since the Hebrew word Adonai and Greek word kyrios (both meaning Lord) were applied to Yahweh in the Old Testament.

the Only Begotten Son of God,

Jesus is in a unique relationship with God the Father. While Hebrew kings were sons of God symbolically (see Psalm 2), Jesus is the only Son of God by nature.

born of the Father before all ages.

Begotten has the meaning of born, generated, or produced. God the Son is born out of the essence of God the Father. Just as a child shares the same humanness as his or her parents, the Son shares the essential nature of God with the Father. Since God is eternal, the Son, being begotten of God, is also eternal.

God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,

The Church uses the language God from God, light from light to show that Jesus is the perfect image of the Father. There is no imperfection between the Father and the Son.

God the Son exists in relation to God the Father. The Son is not the Father, but they both are God. Just as a torch is lit one to another, the Father and Son are distinct, but both light.

True God from True God

God the Son is not a half-god or inferior to God the Father. God the Son is fully and utterly God, distinct from the Father, yet not divided from the Father. The ancient 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 and creation.

begotten, not made,

There is a very important difference between begotten and made

When a man and woman conceive a child, it shares in the similarities of the parents. However the child is a separate, independent being; it has its own unique nature. This is not true with Jesus. He was not just similar to the Father, He was one in being with the Father

We use the term Consubstantial meaning of the same substance or essence

Begotten means bringing forth something of the same nature or substance

Some Christians today (Jehovah's Witnesses) and in the past (Arians) have suggested that Jesus was a creation of God. 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.

consubstantial with the Father;

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 that make one in reality God. However, sharing the same substance does not mean they share identity of person.

through him all things were made.

The Bible tells us that through The Son, as Word of God, all things have been created. As Logos, the Son is the agent of creation.

Through him all things were made

Jesus existed from all eternity with the Father even though he had not become man (taken on flesh)

This emphasizes the point that God cannot be separated.

For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,

The Incarnation was solely for our salvation. Man could not save himself

Jesus came from heaven, from a reality other than our own. While the creed says "down," it is important to remember that our language is limited by time and spatiality. Heaven is not "up," just as God is not a biologically male father. However, due to the limits of language, we are forced to describe heaven symbolically and spatially