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For its first 500 years the Christian Church struggled to develop a clear creed which articulated the fundamentals of what the Church believed. This process of elaboration has differentiated Christianity from almost every other world religion. Judaism has the Sh’ma, “Hear O Israel, the Lord, thy God, the Lord is one. Islam has the shahada, “There is no god but God; Muhammad is the messenger of God.” Both are simple declarative statements. Few other faiths have a deep, complex statement laying out the basis of their faith. The very idea of having a creed is alien to Buddhism and other Eastern religions, because Eastern religions have always emphasized behavior more than acceptance of certain beliefs and dogma.
As Christianity evolved from its New Testament origins to a more organizational and wide-flung church, its theology was also evolving, as the early church struggled to differentiate itself from Judaism on the one hand and the prevailing Hellenic culture on the other. There were long and contentious debates over the very fundamentals of its beliefs. Who was Jesus? Was Jesus man or god or man-god? What was the trinity? What were the relationships among the three Persons of the Godhead? What was the nature of reality –material or spiritual or something of both? What must man do to be saved? Who initiates salvation –man or God? Is man (woman) basically good or evil?
The most important development of this centuries-long struggle against heresy was the Nicene Creed, agreed upon at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. This statement of the foundation of the Christian faith has been the dogma of the Catholic Church as well as most Protestant denominations for 1,700 years. It deals with a number of questions concerning the divinity of Christ and the nature of the Holy Spirit.
Test your knowledge of the basic truths of Christianity by answering the following six questions drafted by Ligonier Ministries as part of a survey of Evangelicals. Answer “true” or “false.”
1. God the Father and Jesus Christ are equally divine.
2. Jesus is a hybrid, partially divine and partially human.
3. God the Son is uncreated.
4. The Holy Spirit is a force
5. The Holy Spirit is less divine than the Father and the Son.
6. “Father,” “Son,” and “Holy Spirit” are three different names for one divine person.
Answers:
1. True. The Council of Nicaea in 325 affirmed that the Father and the Son are of the same divine essence, that “Jesus Christ is God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God… of one Being with the Father”.
2. False. Apollinarianism, condemned at the Council of Constantinople in 381, taught that Jesus is not equally human and divine, but is one person with one nature. Jesus has a human body and soul, but a divine mind.
3. True. The Council of Nicaea affirmed that the Son is coeternal with the Father, and condemned Arianism, which taught that the Son was created by God before time. The Nicene Creed holds that Christ was “begotten, not made.”
4. False. The Council of Constantinople affirmed that the Spirit is coequal to the Father and Son, and condemned Pneumatomachianism, which taught that the Spirit was a created force or power, not a person of the Trinity. The creed says, “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
5. False. Subordinationism, ruled out by the Nicene Creed, teaches that the Spirit is inferior to the Father and the Son. The Creed says, “With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.”
6. False. Modalism, ruled out by the Nicene Creed, teaches that God’s names (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) change with his roles or “modes of being” (like a chameleon). The Nicene Creed identifies and describes each of the persons of the Trinity as separate and equally worthy of worship.
The orthodox teaching on these issues can be summed up as follows:
1. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are coeternal and coequal in essence, power, authority, and glory. The three persons are distinct yet are of one substance or nature.
2. Jesus is fully human and fully divine. Being one person, his divine and human natures remain unconfused, unchanged, indivisible, and inseparable; the properties of each nature are preserved in this union.
The next post will discuss whether Christians understand both the nuances of their their faith and its implications for their behavior in any depth.
To explore the First council at Nicaea further go to https://prezi.com/9bhvovujvewd/first-council-of-nicaea/
To read the Nicene Creed in English (Episcopal Church Book of Common Prayer translation) go to https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicene_Creed_(ECUSA_Book_of_Common_Prayer)
