Subject – The Christian Church – What is the Nicene Creed, Where did the Nicene Creed come from and what are the interpretation of each declaration? When Values or Creeds don’t agree or align, how did Jesus and the early disciples engaged them?- Part 6 OTAKADA.org content count 490,053 Sunday, 10th of February 2019 Blog link: https://www.otakada.org/category/blog/ Key verses: Luke 4:14-30 14 Then Jesus went back to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and the news about Him spread through the entire region. 15 And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised and glorified and honored by all. 16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me (the Messiah), Because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent Me to announce release (pardon, forgiveness) to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed (downtrodden, bruised, crushed by tragedy), 19 to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord [the day when salvation and the favor of God abound greatly].” 20 Then He rolled up the scroll [having stopped in the middle of the verse], gave it back to the attendant and sat down [to teach]; and the eyes of all those in the synagogue were [attentively] fixed on Him. 21 He began speaking to them: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing and in your presence.” 22 And [as He continued on] they all were speaking well of Him, and were in awe and were wondering about the words of grace which were coming from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” 23 So He said to them, “You will no doubt quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal Yourself! Whatever [miracles] that we heard were done [by You] in Capernaum, do here in Your hometown as well.’”24 Then He said, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. 25 But in truth I say to you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was closed up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; 26 and yet Elijah was not sent[by the Lord] to a single one of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and not one of them was cleansed [by being healed] except Naaman the Syrian.” 28 As they heard these things [about God’s grace to these two Gentiles], the people in the synagogue were filled with a great rage; 29 and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the crest of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to hurl Him down the cliff. 30 But passing [miraculously] through the crowd, He went on His way. Matthew 4:23 [ Ministry in Galilee ] And He went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the good news (gospel) of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people [demonstrating and revealing that He was indeed the promised Messiah]. Matthew 9:34 But the Pharisees were saying, “He casts out the demons by [the power of] the ruler of demons.” Matthew 16:1 [ Pharisees Test Jesus ] Now the Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus [to get something to use against Him], they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven [which would support His divine authority]. Matthew 12:14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, discussing how they could destroy Him. Mark 6:2 When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and many who listened to Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things [this knowledge and spiritual insight]? What is this wisdom [this confident understanding of the Scripture] that has been given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? Act 4:1-4 And while Peter and John were talking to the people, the priests and the captain [who was in charge of the temple area and] of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, 2 being extremely disturbed and thoroughly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in [the case of] Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3 So they arrested them and put them in jail until the next day, because it was evening. 4 But many of those who heard the message [of salvation] believed [in Jesus and accepted Him as the Christ]. And the number of the men came to be about 5,000. Acts 13:5 When Barnabas and Saul arrived at Salamis, they began to preach the word of God [proclaiming the message of eternal salvation through faith in Christ] in the synagogues of the Jews; and they also had John [Mark] as their assistant. Acts 17:2 And Paul entered the synagogue, as was his custom, and for three Sabbaths he engaged in discussion and friendly debate with them from the Scriptures, Introduction Dear brethren, welcome to the sixth part of our series on The Christian Church. Today we are looking at the Nicene Creed – What is it? What brought it about? Also, we would look at Jesus and the early disciples response to those who do not share the same values with them so we can learn in our day and age and apply without losing sight of our values, believes and going out to make disciples of ALL Nations. Our objective is to shed light on what unites us in the various Christian groups so that we can begin to engage from our closets and on the frontlines thereby making us more proactive and precise in our intercession for the body of Christ for the call to unity of Spirit just as Christ prayed in John 17. What is the Nicene Creed, Where did the Nicene Creed come? The Nicene Creed is the declaration of the Christian faith for all Catholics and Orthodox as well as many Protestants. It is also called the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, because it was defined at the Councils of Nicaea (325 A.D.) and Constantinople (381 A.D.). The Nicene Creed explains the Church’s teachings about the Trinity and affirms historical realities of Jesus’ life. The creed does not directly quote Scripture, but it is based on biblical truths. The Council of Nicaea was the first general council of the Church since the Apostolic Council of Jerusalem, which set conditions for Gentiles to join the Church. Roman persecution of Christians had just ended 12 years earlier, but now the Church was divided over the question of Jesus’ divinity. Heretics led by a priest named Arius in Alexandria, Egypt, claimed that if Jesus was begotten by God, He must have had a beginning like every other part of God’s creation – therefore, Jesus was not fully God. The theological dispute threatened the peace of the Roman empire, so Emperor Constantine – at the request of several concerned bishops – called for a meeting of all the Church’s bishops in the easily accessible town of Nicaea (present-day Iznik, Turkey), organized like the Roman Senate with himself as a non-voting observer. The council met in Senatus Palace (which now lies under Lake Iznik). An estimated 318 bishops came from Rome, Jerusalem and Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Greece, Asia Minor, Persia, Georgia, Armenia, Gaul, Hispania and the Danube. Among them were Pope St. Silvester, St. Nicholas of Myra, St. Eusebius of Caesarea (considered the Church’s first historian), St. Athanasius and St. Alexander of Alexandria. Each bishop could bring up to two priests and three deacons, so the total attendance could have been as many as 1,800. Many of the bishops had the marks of persecution on their faces – they had faced the threat of death for their faith and they were sensitive to details of doctrine. These were not wishy-washy men. The council’s main purpose was to quash the Arian heresy and settle the doctrine of the Trinity – that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit were three divine persons in complete union. The term “Trinity” was not new, of course. Besides Jesus’ references to it in Scripture, many early Church fathers had written about it from the 1st century onward. Besides the Arian heresy, the council fathers wanted to settle the date for celebrating Easter, and they had to contend with various practical problems such as usury and self-castration. On May 20, 325, the council opened. It is likely they had a draft from Bishop Hosius of Cordova to consider, as several creeds were already in use by Christians to identify themselves, and as a means of inclusion and recognition, especially at baptism. In Rome, for example, the Apostles’ Creed was popular. After being in session for an entire month, the council promulgated on June 19 the original Nicene Creed, written in Greek. All but two of the bishops, who were Arian sympathizers, approved the text. Those two bishops, as well as Arius, were excommunicated and exiled. Besides the creed, the council decided that the date for Easter should be calculated uniformly and separate from the Jewish calendar, using the lunar calendar instead. But it took centuries for the calculations to be worked out in practice, and disagreement remains between Catholics in the West and Orthodox in the East. The council also promulgated 20 new church laws, called canons. These included: prohibiting self-castration (which some had thought was a path to greater holiness), prohibiting young women from entering a cleric’s home; requiring bishops to be ordained in the presence of at least three other bishops; prohibiting the removal of priests; forbidding usury among the clergy; determining the order of bishops, then priests, then deacons receiving Holy Communion; declaring invalid any baptisms done by heretics; acknowledging the special authority of the patriarchs of Rome, Alexandria and Antioch in their respective regions; and setting a minimum time frame for catechumens to prepare for baptism. The long-term effects of the Council of Nicaea were significant. For the first time, leaders of the Church convened to agree on a doctrinal statement. In the short term, however, the council did not stamp out the heresy it was convened to discuss, and upheaval continued for some time even after Arius himself died. It was only a few years after the Council of Nicaea that Arius returned to Constantinople and asked to be readmitted to the Church. But Arius did not renounce his heresy, so the Church refused. Emperor Constantine intervened in the dispute, setting a date for Arius to attend Mass and be forcibly readmitted to Communion. While he was waiting for Constantine to arrive so he could go into Mass, Arius stopped to relieve himself. His bowels burst out of his body, and he died instantly. The Nicene Creed did not become a part of Mass until the early 6th century, when Patriarch Timothy of Constantinople started the practice to combat heresy. Its popularity spread throughout the Byzantine Empire, then to Spain, France and northern Europe. In 1114 Emperor Henry II, who had come to Rome for his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor, was surprised that they did not recite the creed. He was told that since Rome had never erred in matters of faith there was no need for the Romans to proclaim it at Mass. However, it was included in deference to the new emperor and has pretty much remained ever since – not at daily Mass, but on Sundays and feast days. The Nicene Creed expressed what the early leaders of the Church found to be Biblical, traditional and orthodox in their Christian faith – a faith in Jesus Christ that we continue to proclaim 1,700 years later. What is the interpretation of each declaration line? I BELIEVE IN ONE 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.” It begins with “I believe,” because reciting the creed is ultimately an individual confession of belief, although the creed also expresses the collective beliefs of the Church. THE FATHER ALMIGHTY Jesus frequently calls God “Father” in the Scriptures, and this usage tells us that God is a loving God active within His creation. God the Father is the first person (Greek “hypostasis,” “individual reality”), or distinction, within the Godhead. The Father is the “origin” or “source” of the Trinity. As such, God the Father is often called “God Unbegotten” in early Christian thought. MAKER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, OF ALL THINGS VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE The Christian church 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, such as the Gnostics, 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. I BELIEVE IN ONE LORD JESUS CHRIST 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. However, unlike earthly rulers, Jesus is a friend to the oppressed and a servant. 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 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. Some Christians, called Sabellians or Modalists, wrongly said that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were one God who changes roles. So when God creates, He is Father, while on earth, He is Son, and so forth. However, the Scriptures have all three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – interacting at the same time, as shown at Jesus’ baptism. St. Athanasius, writing during the Nicene era, said the Father and Son are one as “the sight of two eyes is one.” 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 Arians said Jesus could be called god but not true God. In other words, they wrongly believed the Logos (the “Word,” a popular title for Jesus in early Christian literature) was the first creation of God. BEGOTTEN, NOT MADE Some Christians today (Jehovah’s Witnesses) and in the past (Arians) have suggested God created Jesus like God would an angel. 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. 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. FOR US MEN AND FOR OUR SALVATION, HE CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN Jesus came from heaven, from a spiritual 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. AND BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, WAS INCARNATE OF THE VIRGIN MARY, AND BECAME MAN God the Son became incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. He was born of a virgin through the Holy Spirit. God truly became human in Jesus Christ. Catholics believe that Jesus of Nazareth was and is a real human being, not simply a spirit or ghost. The incarnation of God in Christ is the ultimate act of love, because rather than sending an angel or good human to accomplish the redemption and restoration of creation, God Himself became human. FOR OUR SAKE HE WAS CRUCIFIED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE; HE SUFFERED DEATH AND WAS BURIED Jesus died on a cross, suffered as humans do, truly died, and was laid in a tomb. Despite what some critics will level against it, the Nicene Creed is more than just metaphysical speculation, and includes important historical confessions. Notice that in addition to being “true God from true God,” Jesus is fully human as well. The early Docetists, named from the Greek word “dokeo” (“to seem”), heretically believed Jesus only seemed to be human, but was not. AND ROSE AGAIN ON THE THIRD DAY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE SCRIPTURES Jesus was resurrected bodily, as the Scriptures say. Just as Jesus truly died, He truly rose from the dead three days later. The bodily resurrection is the keystone of Christian doctrine and experience. However, Jesus was not just physically resuscitated (as was Lazarus), but rather His body was transformed at the Resurrection. The word “again” is used because Jesus’ first “rising” was His birth. To “rise again” is be alive again. HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN AND IS SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE FATHER In ancient science, heaven was thought to be situated above the sky dome. So in the Scriptures, Jesus is said to ascend to heaven. Whatever happened that day, Luke had to render the event into his own scientific paradigm, so he said Jesus “went up” to heaven. HE WILL COME AGAIN IN GLORY TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD, AND HIS KINGDOM WILL HAVE NO END Jesus is coming again to righteously judge the living and dead. His kingdom cannot be destroyed, despite all of humanity’s efforts. The creed says Jesus is coming; it does not say when or how, nor does it say to speculate on the date of His return. I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE LORD, THE GIVER OF LIFE The Holy Spirit is also called “Lord.” The Holy Spirit sustains our lives as Christians, illuminating us after the new birth. The original Creed of Nicaea simply ended with “We believe in the Holy Spirit.” The other additions were approved at the Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D. However, most scholars believe that the text of the full creed dates prior to this council, and that the bishops simply gave their approval to a local creed already in use. The reason these additions were included in the Nicene Creed is that some heretics of the 4th century denied the full divinity of the Holy Spirit. WHO PROCEEDS FROM THE FATHER AND THE SON The Son is said to be begotten, while the Spirit is said to proceed. Both words convey that the Son and Spirit are in special relationships to the Father, yet also fully divine. The phrase “and the Son” (in Latin, “filioque,”) was not in the original text of the creed, but was added in many Western Churches in the late 6th century. The addition likely developed over time as a tool against Arianism. There are theological and historical justifications for the addition or exclusion of the filioque. The Eastern Churches oppose the addition of the filioque, while many Western churches accept it. Actually, despite current division on the matter, the issue has been pretty much theologically resolved. WHO WITH THE FATHER AND THE SON IS ADORED AND GLORIFIED The Holy Spirit is God as are the Father and the Son, and worthy of the same worship. WHO HAS SPOKEN THROUGH THE PROPHETS The Spirit inspired the prophets of old and inspires the Church today. I BELIEVE IN ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH The creed requires belief in the Catholic (universal) Church, whose origins go back to the Apostles themselves. The Church is “holy” on account of Christ’s holiness and grace, and not because its members or leaders are perfect. In fact, at times throughout history, the Church has remained holy in spite of its members. I CONFESS ONE BAPTISM FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS This belief is universally acknowledged in early Christian writings. If someone has been validly baptized in the name of the Trinity, re-baptism is unnecessary. AND I LOOK FORWARD TO THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD, AND THE LIFE OF THE WORLD TO COME. AMEN. Christians always hope for the end of this fractured system, when the universe is fully reconciled to God in Christ Jesus. The Nicene Creed affirms both the existence of a soul-filled heaven and the later resurrection of the dead when soul meets glorified body. Conclusion and Prayer: Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior engaged on all fronts.. preached and taught in the synagogue, debated in the synagogue, casted out demons in the synagogues and on the streets, engaged with sinners, despite opposition and attack on His life even in the synagogues, He continued to engaged them, pushing His agenda on all fronts until He was crucified. You would have thought the disciples will flee the synagogues because of what they did to their master, but no, the gospel of Jesus Christ was not something to be hidden from anyone including the opposition the enemy has blinded their eyes. They disciples went on the offensive, preaching and teaching in the synagogues and on the street and in homes. Paul preached, debated, was persecuted in the synagogue but these did no deter him. How can we be effective in pushing the agenda of Christ in our day and age if we do not step out of the four walls of our cute churches, of our creeds, our values and engage on all fronts? May the Lord open our hearts and minds to receive what is in the mind of the Spirit in our day and age in Jesus name, Amen Shalom! Monday Ogwuojo Ogbe – E-discipleship @ - org
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