Apostles and Nicene Creeds

18 Pages·2014·0.21 MB·English

by  Diver, Kerry C.

Apostles and Nicene Creeds
If one wants to know what we believe as Catholic Christians, they need to
look no further than the Nicene Creed, the definitive statement of Christian
orthodoxy (correct teaching).
Our Creed is a statement of what we believe as Catholics. The word creed
comes from the Latin “credo” meaning I believe. Each Sunday we begin our
Creed with the words “I believe.”
From the beginning, the apostolic Church expressed and handed on her
faith in brief formulae that were to establish a standard of our faith for all.

Such formulae or summaries are called creeds or "professions of faith"
since they summarize the faith that Christians profess and believe. They
are also called "symbols of faith".

Our creed was born in fierce debates about what we believe. People fought
and died for what they believed.
In the early Church there were many different forms of the Christian
confession of faith; many different “creeds.” These creeds were used
originally in relation to baptism. As time passed different places had
different credal statements, all professing the identical faith, yet using
different forms and expressions, with different degrees of detail and
emphasis. These credal forms usually became more detailed and elaborate
in those areas where questions about the faith had arisen and heresies had
developed.
In a way we need to be thankful for the early heresies for they forced the
Church to define more precisely what she believed.
Among all the creeds, two occupy a special place in the Church's life:

Apostle’s Creed
Nicene Creed
Apostles Creed

Throughout the Middle Ages it was generally believed that the Apostles, on
the day of Pentecost, while still under the direct inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, composed our present Creed between them, each of the Apostles
contributing one of the twelve articles

While many still support an apostolic origin of the Apostles Creed its date of
origin is felt to be later anywhere from the late 2nd to 4th centuries.

The Apostles' Creed is rightly considered to be a faithful summary of the
apostles' faith. It is the ancient baptismal symbol of the Church of Rome

The Apostles Creed was written to address the heresy of Gnosticism that
rejected Jesus’ humanity. Gnosticism taught enlightenment through
knowledge. The body was considered evil and the spirit good. Gnostics
believed since the earth was evil it could not possibly have been made by a
single God. Therefore Gnosticism proposed a number of lesser gods or
demiurges.

In the Roman Catholic Church we use the Apostles Creed primarily at
Baptisms

Nicene Creed

The Niceno-Constantinopolitan or Nicene Creed draws its great authority
from the fact that it stems from the first two ecumenical Councils (in 325
and 381 AD). It remains common to all the great Churches of both East and
West to this day.
The Nicene Creed was formulated at the First Ecumenical Council at
Nicaea in AD 325
In the fourth century a great controversy developed in Christendom about
the nature of the Son of God (also called in the Scripture the Word or
Logos). Arius, a 4th century priest, held that the Son of God didn’t exist
“before all ages”; Jesus was a created being, not divine. Others contended
that the Son of God is eternal, divine, and uncreated. This controversy was
the topic of numerous councils before being resolved at the Council of
Nicaea. The controversy raged throughout the entire Christian world.
This heresy is referred to as Arianism.

Council of Constantinople
Following the controversy about the Son of God, the Divine Word, and
essentially connected with it, was the dispute about the Holy Spirit.
The Nicene Creed was expanded at the Second Ecumenical Council at
Constantinople in AD 381 to balance its coverage of the Trinity by including
the Holy Spirit.

Niceno-Constantinopolitan or Nicene Creed is the only creed that was
promulgated by any of the ecumenical councils and thus it is the only creed
that is truly ecumenical and universal

First Person
If you listen closely at Mass you will here the occasional person state “we
believe.” For many years the creed we recited at Mass began with the
words “we believe.” In 2011 the new English translation of the Mass was
introduced with new phrases that replaced the familiar words we had used
for decades.
Thus, the Profession of Faith is the only part of the liturgy, which is in the
first person. All other songs and prayers of the liturgy are plural, beginning
with “we”.
While the former English translation of the creed began with "we" believe,
the Greek and Latin translations begin with "I" believe. The latter is more
accurate, because reciting the creed is ultimately an individual confession
of belief, although the creed also expresses the collective beliefs of the
Church
The CCC states, ”Whoever says "I believe" says "I pledge myself to
what we believe."

The Nicene Creed is the most widely accepted and used brief
statements of the Christian Faith. In liturgical churches, it is said every
Sunday as part of the Liturgy. It is common ground to East Orthodox,
Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Calvinists, and many other
Christian groups. Many groups that do not have a tradition of using it in
their services nevertheless are committed to the doctrines it teaches.

Table comparing the two:

Apostles Creed Nicene Creed

I believe in God, I believe in one God, the Father the
Father almighty almighty, maker of heaven and creator
of heaven and earth. Earth, of all things visible and
invisible.
I believe in Jesus Christ, I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, his
only Son, our Lord. The Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, light from light, true
God from True God, begotten not
made, consubstantial with the
Father. Through him all things
were made. For us men and for
our salvation he came down from
heaven

He was conceived by the power and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of
the of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary and became man.
Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, For our sake he was crucified under
was crucified, died and was buried. Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and
He descended into hell. was buried,

On the third day he rose again. and rose again on the third day in
accordance with the scriptures.

He ascended into heaven and is He ascended into heaven and is seated
seated at the right hand of the at the right hand of the Father. He will
Father. He will come again to come again in glory to judge the living
judge the living and dead. and the dead and his kingdom will have
no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the
holy catholic Church, the communion giver of life, who proceeds from the
of saints, the forgiveness of sins, Father and the Son, who with the Father
the resurrection of the body, and and Son is adored and glorified, who
the life everlasting. Has spoken through the prophets.
Amen.
I believe in one, holy, catholic, and
apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism
for the forgiveness of sins and I look
forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen

The Creed is divided into three parts: "the first part speaks of the first divine
Person, God the Father, and the wonderful work of creation; the next
speaks of the second divine Person, Jesus the Son of God, and the
mystery of his redemption of men; the final part speaks of the third divine
Person, the Holy Spirit, the origin and source of our sanctification."

I believe in one God,

"I believe in God": this first affirmation of the Creed is also the most
fundamental. The whole Creed speaks of God, and when it also speaks of
man and of the world it does so in relation to God. The other articles of the
Creed all depend on the first,

In the midst of a culture that worshipped many gods, Yahweh revealed
Himself to Abraham and Moses as the one, true 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.”
The confession of God's oneness, which has its roots in the divine
revelation of the Old Covenant, is inseparable from the profession of God's
existence and is equally fundamental. God is unique; there is only one
God: "The Christian faith confesses that God is one in nature, substance
and essence."

the Father almighty,

By calling God “Father,” the language of faith indicates two main things:
that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that
he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his children.
Jesus frequently calls God "Father" in the Scriptures, and this usage tells
us that God is a loving God active within His creation.
He is not an impersonal God who just set us in motion, but rather a God
who cares for us

God the Father is the first person within the Godhead.
God is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father in relation to
his only Son, who is eternally Son only in relation to his Father: “No one
knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the
Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Almighty
Of all the divine attributes, only God’s omnipotence is named in the Creed:
to confess this power has great bearing on our lives.
We believe that his might is universal, for God who created everything also
rules everything and can do everything.
Nothing is impossible with God, who disposes his works according to his
will. His creative power is unlimited.
God is the Father Almighty, whose fatherhood and power shed light on
one another: God reveals his fatherly omnipotence by the way he takes
care of our needs; by the filial adoption that he gives us (“I will be a father
to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”)
finally by his infinite mercy and love, for he displays his power at its height
by freely forgiving sins.

maker of heaven and earth,
Holy Scripture begins with these solemn words. “In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth.”
The Scriptural expression “heaven and earth” means all that exists,
creation in its entirety.
It also indicates the bond, deep within creation, that both unites heaven and
earth and distinguishes the one from the other.

of all things visible and invisible.
Catholics 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, the Gnostics and Marcionites, 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.
Creation is the foundation of “all God’s saving plans,” the “beginning of the
history of salvation” that culminates in Christ.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
Jesus means in Hebrew: “God saves.” At the annunciation, the angel
Gabriel gave him the name Jesus as his proper name, which expresses
both his identity and his mission.
The word “Christ” comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew
Messiah, which means “anointed.” It became the name proper to Jesus
only because he accomplished perfectly the divine mission that “Christ”
signifies. He was the fulfillment of all the messianic prophecies.
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.

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,
true God from true God,

The Church uses the language God from God, light from light to show that
Jesus is the perfect image of the Father. There is no imperfection between
the Father and the Son.
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.

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 ancient Arians believed that Jesus could be called "god" but
not true God. In other words, they believed the Logos (the "Word," a
popular title for Jesus in early Christian literature) was the first creation of
God, necessary to mediate between the unknowable distant God and
creation.

begotten, not made,
There is a very important difference between begotten and made
When a man and woman conceive a child, it shares in the similarities of the
parents. However the child is a separate, independent being; it has its own
unique nature. This is not true with Jesus. He was not just similar to the
Father, He was one in being with the Father
We use the term Consubstantial meaning of the same substance or
essence
Begotten means bringing forth something of the same nature or substance
Some Christians today (Jehovah's Witnesses) and in the past (Arians)
have suggested that Jesus was a creation of God. 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