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Is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed Scriptural?

 

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(Click the photo to get this as a PDF file.) This is the only concise summary of Christian doctrine accepted by Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and most Protestants. Most of the Creed was written in 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicea [the definition of the Holy Spirit was added to the Creed at the Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D.]. It was at Nicea where Athanasius of Alexandria led the debate against the heresy of Arianism, 68 years before the 27 books of the New Testament canon were officially recognized as Scripture in 393 A.D. at the Council of Hippo. Many holy writings were widely read and accepted by the early 300s, and in about 360 A.D. Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria composed the list of 27 books of true apostolic origin that would become the New Testament.


THE CREED
I believe in one God, (Deut. 6:4; Eph. 4:6)
the Father (Mt. 6:9) Almighty (Ex. 6:3),
Creator of Heaven and Earth (Gen. 1:1),
and of all things visible and invisible (Col. 1:15-16).
And in one Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 11:17),
the Son of God,(Mt. 14:33; Mt. 16:16),
Only-Begotten (Jn. 1:8; Jn. 3:16),
Begotten of the Father before all ages (Jn. 1:2).
Light from Light (Ps. 27:1; Jn. 8:12; Mt. 17:2 & 5),
True God from True God (Jn. 17:1-5),
Begotten, not made (Jn. 1:18),
of one essence with the Father (Jn. 10:30)
through Whom all things were made (Heb. 1:1-2);
Who for us men and for our salvation (1 Tim. 2:4-5)
came down from heaven (Jn. 6:33-35),
and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary (Lk. 1:35)
and became man (Jn. 1:15).
And He was crucified for us (Mk. 15:25; 1 Cor. 15:3)
under Pontius Pilate, (Jn. 19:6) suffered, (Mk. 8:31)
and was buried (Lk. 23:53; 1 Cor. 15:4),
And on the third day He rose again (Lk. 24:1-6),
according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:4),
and ascended into heaven (Lk. 24:51; Acts 1:10),
and sits at the right hand of the Father (Mk. 16:19; Ac. 7:55);
and He shall come again with glory (Mt. 24:27)
to judge the living and the dead; (Acts 10:42; 2 Tim. 4:1)
Whose Kingdom shall have no end (2 Pet. 1:11).
And in the Holy Spirit (Jn. 14:26),
the Lord (Acts 5:3-4) and Giver of Life (Gen. 1:2),
Who proceeds from the Father (Jn. 15:26);
Who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified (Mt. 3:16-17),
Who spoke through the prophets (1 Sam. 19:20; Ezek. 11:5 & 13).
In one (Mt. 16:18; Eph. 4:1-4) holy (1 Pet. 2:5 & 9),
catholic (Jn. 17:20-23), and Apostolic Church (Ac. 2:42; Eph. 2:19-22).
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins (Ac. 2:38; Eph. 4:5).
I look for the resurrection of the dead (Jn. 11:24; 1 Cor. 15:12-49; Heb. 6:2; Rev. 20:5),
and the life in the world to come. (Mk. 10:29-30)
Amen.

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THE TRUE CHRISTIAN FAITH

 

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Below is the Foreword from the Christian classic de fide Orthodoxa by St. John of Damascus in the eighth century. I've just finished re-editing, reformatting, updating and cleaning up the text. You can read it online and save this link for future reference: https://agape-biblia.org/literatura/#de-fide. You can also download it as a free *.epub-format e-book! Here it is:

This book, De Fide Orthodoxa in Latin, by St. John of Damascus was the first systematic theology of the whole Christian Church, and was originally written by a man who lived at the time when the Church was still united. St. John labored under Arian Muslim rule in Damascus. He produced this first systematic theology of Orthodox Christian doctrines and he is considered a saint in both Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Catholicism, and is also commemorated by the Lutherans, Anglicans, and Episcopalians.

In the seventh and eighth centuries when St. John lived, there was no "Roman Catholic Church" or "Eastern Orthodox Church" – there was just one true Christian Church and one pre-schism, pre-denominational, true Christian faith, although the East disputed the Roman claim to total papal supremacy. The words "orthodox" and "catholic" had different meanings than they do today: the word "catholic" meant "universal" in the same sense as "ecumenical" (the Ecumenical Patriarch lived in Constantinople), and "orthodox" meant "true faith" or "right praise (worship)." In other words, there was just one true faith for the Christian Church world-wide. This is the sense in which we should understand the Latin title "de Fide Orthodoxa" – one true faith of the entire Christian Church.

St. John was highly educated in the sciences of his day. With our modern instruments, we now know that the universe does not rotate around the earth, but that is how it appeared to people at that time. Today we still use words like "sunrise" and "sunset" although we know better – we still see the world from our human perspective. In St. John's day, however, people had not given up on the search for objective truth as many have done today. The Church through the oversight of the councils of bishops has remained true to the Christian Faith, even if one Christian, even a saint, may have human failings.

At the end of the Liturgy that dates back to three centuries before St. John of Damascus, we sing – "We have seen the true Light, we have received the heavenly Spirit, we have found the true faith, worshiping the Holy Trinity Who has saved us." To the modern ear, this sounds rather audacious – claiming to have the true faith. But there is the true faith, not just one of many denominations that each claim to have the truth, which has led to the worldview of relativism that says truth is relative and subjective, each person has his own truth, his own reality...

But there can be only one objective reality, one universal truth, one Supreme Being, and one true and visible Church. The idea "everything is relative, there are no absolutes, except this statement – it's absolute" is obviously absurd and thus untrue. So there must be one Absolute Truth. But finding it is not easy: we must search for it with all our heart and all our soul. This book is written in a declarative voice, no "ifs" or "perhaps" or "it seems to me" – it claims to be the "summa theologia" of true Christian faith.

The Church had been struggling for seven centuries against various false teachings – "heresies" – most notably Arianism and Iconoclasm. Arianism was the false teaching that Jesus was a good man, a moral teacher, perhaps even a prophet, that God came upon Him when He was born or baptized, He taught lofty morals, and He was crucifed and buried. Period. He was not considered to be the pre-eternal Son of God. The Arians were condemned as heretics at the First Ecumenical Council (323 A.D. – Nicea) and were exiled from the Greco-Roman Empire into the deserts of Arabia.

Iconoclasm was the heresy that God is so much higher and greater than human understanding that He cannot be depicted in an image ("ikon" in Greek), so Christ and the saints must never be depicted in images ("icons"), which contradicts the Scripture that Christ is the express image –ikon – of the Father (Hebrews 1:3). Therefore, the iconoclasts went about destroying icons and persecuting those who venerated (reverenced) icons. The iconoclasts were also exiled from the Greco-Roman Empire. Eventually these two major heresies were combined into one by an illiterate desert Arab and his followers, resulting in Islam, which turned against the Empire and eventually conquered much of it.

This is the historical context in which St. John of Damascus lived. Christians were often persecuted and killed by the Muslims, but also sometimes allowed to live as subjects to the Islamic Empire. Thus, the more highly-educated Christians might become servants directly under their Muslim rulers, just as the prophet Daniel served the king of Persia. This was the case of St. John of Damascus, who under Muslim (Arian and Iconoclast) rule served in the Muslim Caliph's court of Damascus. But because St. John refused to stop writing about the true Christian faith, he too was eventually persecuted: his hand was cut off.

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