We get the word “Creed” from the Latin word, “Credo”, which means “I believe.” Christian statements about what we believe have been in existence from the very beginning. Our New Testament has numerous creedal statements that were developed and used in the early church. St. Paul employs them frequently in his letters, the most familiar being Philippians 2:6-11 – “Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Such a statement clearly states who Christ is and what He has done for us, and would have been used in the order of worship of the early church.
During the first 300 years of the church, creeds were developed to be used in conjunction with baptism. Newly converted would speak a creedal statement of faith prior to being baptized. Surprisingly, there wasn’t one universal creed that the church used. Most creeds were local in nature, and would be developed and used for a particular region. Of course, the content would be universally accepted as true, but the wording of these various baptismal creeds differed. Even the Apostle’s Creed, which began to be used in the first century, would only be used in Western Christianity, being virtually ignored by the Eastern Orthodox churches even to this day.
Such was the state of the church in the year 325AD when Constantine, the first Christian Roman Emperor, called a universal church council to be held in the city of Nicea. His goal was that the bishops assembled there would agree on a statement of faith that would be universal in scope and agreement. The chief doctrinal issue at the moment was that a blatantly false teaching about Jesus was being espoused by a priest named Arius. He was teaching that God the Father was alone truly God, and that Jesus was actually created by Him. According to Arius, “there was a time when Jesus was not” – in other words, only God the Father was eternal. While Arius agreed that God could be described as a three Persons, he insisted that these three Persons were utterly different beings who did not share the same essence.
As the Council of Nicea got underway on June 19, 325AD, it from the outset condemned Arius’ teaching. It was important for the 318 bishops who would ratify the Nicene Creed to include very specific language that would combat the Arian heresy. Thus, most of their energy was spent on formulating the Second Article of the Creed, which deals with the Person of Jesus. Notice how very precise language is used to describe who Jesus is. He is “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.”
The result of the Council of Nicea is that for the first time, the whole church had a universal creed to which they subscribed. Initially, the Nicene Creed was primarily used for bishops as a definition of the true faith, and it didn’t replace the various baptismal creeds that were used for the laity. But as time went on, this creed would be used regularly in worship both in the West and the East during the service of Holy Communion. (For baptisms, the West would continue to use the Apostle’s Creed while the Eastern Orthodox would only use the Nicene Creed).
Besides having a better understanding of the history behind the Nicene Creed, what use is it for us to continue to study it today? This brings us back to the first word of the creed: Credo. The Nicene Creed is not just an historical document, it is a powerful statement of faith to which each Christian must reply, “I believe!” It is not enough just to say, “I believe in (a) God.” In what God specifically do you believe? Who is He? What is His character? What exactly has He done for you? There are no more important questions than these! If you get these wrong, you get the whole faith wrong.
One last note: as the bishops left the Council of Nicea, they praised God for the universal faith described in their newly crafted creed. Little did they know that there would be more work to be done. You see, the entireThird Article of the original Nicene Creed stated, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” Because there was no debate about who the Spirit was, this simple sentence sufficed – but not for long. That will be the topic of my next article.