Category: Theology

“And I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made; being of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made.”

One Lord Jesus Christ. “One” means there is no other Christ. “Lord” means master. Jesus is in charge. “Jesus” means Yahweh is salvation. And Christ in Greek and Messiah in Hebrew, both mean the Anointed One.

The “only-begotten Son” means that Jesus is uniquely the Son of God. He was the Son of God by nature, we are the sons and daughters of God by grace.

“Begotten of the Father before all ages” means that Jesus, the Logos of God, was the Son of God before creation. How this is so was not defined by the Creed. The issues are complex, and I think this was wise.

“Light of Light, very God of very God” is emphasizing the nature of Jesus as fully God from before time. As the next part says, he never became God but was “begotten, not made; being of one essence with the Father.”

“By whom all things were made” means that God created all things though the agency of Jesus Christ. We also know the Spirit was also involved in creation.

Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

This seems straightforward. God created the universe. But visible and invisible may have been included to make sure we understand that God created the spiritual realm.

The Gnostics

This was added to the creed to contradict many Gnostic groups who thought that the Demiurge created the universe. This was borrowed from Greek philosophy. This is the idea that some being other than the pure God created the universe.

The Logos was God

Early Christians held that God created the universe through the Logos, which is a title attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John (John 1:1-3, 14). But to Christians, Jesus is God and therefore God created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1).

This is the first of an 11 part series offering a commentary on the Nicene Creed. The original Nicene Creed was made by the first ecumenical council in Nicea (325) and the second ecumenical council in Constantinople (381). The third ecumenical council, held at Ephesus in 431, forbade the changing of this creed. I will be using the version on my website.

The Nicene Creed

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty,

I believe

Both the “I believe” and the “we believe” form of the creed is acceptable. Since my statement of faith is the original Nicene Creed, I use the “I believe” variant.

One God

The first thing expressed is the unity of God. God is one. Whole books could, and have, been written on this alone. The unity of the Godhead is an essential truth. God is non-dual. God is the One.

God

The term God is really like a blanket we throw over Ultimate Reality to give it shape. To be able to talk about the ineffable, the point to the invisible, to speak of the unspeakable. Words are merely like a finger pointing to the Moon.

The Father

God is our Father, both as our Source and our Caretaker. The masculine names and pronouns should not be taken literally. God is not a man, God is not male. God is also our Mother. The Holy Spirit in Hebrew is a feminine noun.

Almighty

God is Almighty. God is all-powerful, which is called omnipotence this is the perfect ability of God to do all things consistent with the divine character. God can do all things that can be done. God cannot do the logically impossible, like making a square circle.

The Bible is not univocal. Univocal means “having only one possible meaning” (Oxford English Dictionary).

One Great Mistake

One of the great mistakes in reading and interpreting the Bible is treating it as one book with one author. It is not. It is a library of books from over 40 very different authors writing in very different circumstances during a large time span.

Lost and Distorted

By reading the Bible as one book by one author a lot of nuances are lost. Differences are overlooked, downplayed, or simply ignored. The context is ignored, the individual writer’s intent is ignored, and therefore the message is lost or distorted.

Contradictions

It also means the contradictions and discrepancies are denied. It means that we are not handling the test honestly. We are not letting it speak for itself. The result is eisegesis instead of exegesis. Instead of drawing out the meaning of the text, we are reading into the text our own meaning.

Before Interpreting

Before interpreting a text we should understand who the author is, their particular situation, and the reason they are writing it. Textual criticism is also important, for many texts have variant readings that effect its interpretation.

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13).

When I use the word Church, I am referring to the Christian Community worldwide. I am not talking about an organization, institution, or building.

Scripture

The Bible is authoritative because the Church says it is. The Church created the Bible, the Bible didn’t create the Church. That is why the Bible is not the only source of the Christian faith. Tradition is alao authoritative.

Tradition

Paul tells his followers to live “according to the tradition that they received from us” (2 Thess. 3:6). That they are to “stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter” (2 Thess. 2:15). So oral tradition was a real thing.

Worship

But so is the manner of worship. The Latin phrase, lex orandi, lex credendi, catches this. It means that the law of what is prayed is the law of what is believed. Our relationship with God influences our beliefs.

The Didache is the oldest church manual, which tells us how the church practiced their faith. The Book of Common Prayer has had a profound effect on the Anglican Church throughout the world. All this is part of Tradition.

The Church

So the authority in Christianity lies in the Church, not in a book, a pope, or a patriarch. It is our collective voice that sets the standard for our sources of faith and practice.

We can and often do make mistakes, but the Spirit will ultimately “guide” us “into all the truth.” We must be humble and teachable and open to not only Scripture and Tradition, but also reason and personal experience. And reason includes listening to the evidence from science, history, and modern scholarship.