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Introduction:
As we return to our extended series on observing 1700 years of the Nicene Creed, we come to the section that treats confession about the Third Person of the Trinity - the Holy Spirit. As I have pointed out in previous posts in this series, the original Creed of Nicaea from 325 A.D. and the Nicene Creed of 381 A.D. do differ from one another in several respects.
Perhaps the two most notable features first involve the wording about the confession of the Son and anathemas for denial of His deity being removed from the 381 version. The second difference between the two versions of the creed involve an expanded section on the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. It is this latter difference that will occupy our time in this post and the next several ones.
Those that opposed the Holy Spirit and the need to fight for His importance.
The Creed of Nicaea 325 A.D. stated the following about the Holy Spirit:
"And in the Holy Ghost."
The Nicene Creed of 381 greatly expanded the confession of pneumatology, or the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as follows:
"And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets."
What transpired in the fifty or so years between the councils of Nicaea and Constantinople? This expansion on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit was precipitated by the doctrinal challenge leading up to the Council of Constantinople in 381.
The focus of the 325 council was not the canon of Scripture (as some try to allege) but rather dealing with the heresy of Arius who denied the co-equality and deity of the Son. I've dealt with this in more detail in previous posts (see part 15 of this series here for more details on the Arian heresy Growing Christian Resources: Post #15 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - What Is Meant By The Son Being "One Substance With The Father" ).
Arianism's core teaching was that the Son was a lesser nature than the Father, making Him to be the highest created being according to the heresy. Arius' common tagline for his error was the statement "there was a time when the Son was not".
A side entailment of Arianism was that the Holy Spirit was even less than the Son, not so much a Person as a "force" emanating from the Father. Followers of Arius such as Eunomius would perpetuate this false teaching which was roundly condemned at Nicaea in 325.
As with all doctrinal heresies there is a tendency for them to rear their ugly heads. In 370's A.D., shortly after the main defender of Christ's deity at the Council of Nicaea, Athanasius, had died in 373, a theologian from Caesarea named Basil (later known as "Basil the Great" for his defense of orthodox Christianity) took up the responsibility of continuing to preach and defend what had been fought for at the Council of Nicaea. Author Michael A.G. Haykin [Southern Baptist Journal of Theology. Volume 07:3, Fall 2003, Page 75] notes of Basil's work in this time:
"Basil was not only a Christian activist, he was also a clear-headed theologian. When Athanasius (c.299–373), the great defender of Trinitarian Christianity, died, Basil inherited his mantle. Arianism, which Athanasius combated, was still widespread in the eastern Mediterranean. There is little doubt that Basil played a key role in this region of the Roman Empire in the victory of orthodox Trinitarianism over Arianism, which denied the deity of both the Son and the Holy Spirit."
Suffice to say, there was a heretical group challenging the Personhood and Deity of the Holy Spirit that was a warmed-over error precipitated by the Arian controversy that sparked the need for expanding the original Creed of Nicaea's confession of the Holy Spirit
How the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381 fought for the importance of the Holy Spirit
What the 381 A.D. addition did was to assert the importance of the Holy Spirit in our overall confession of the Triune God. As mentioned already about Basil, he had to deal with a new wave of error perpetrated by a group known as "the Spirit-fighters". This movement taught that the Father and the Son were co-equal and co-eternal - good so far as it goes. However the "spirit-fighters" latched on to Arianism's denial of the Holy Spirit's deity.
For Basil, this was painful on two fronts. Not only did he have to engage an old heresy that refused to die, but he also found out that the "Spirit-fighters" was led by a former friend and mentor. Author Michael Haykin notes of this in the same article I cited earlier:
"Leading these “fighters against the Spirit” (Pneumatomachi), as they came to be called, was one of his former friends, indeed the man who had been his mentor when he first became a Christian in 356, Eustathius of Sebaste (c.300–377). The dispute between Basil and Eustathius, from one perspective a part of the larger Arian Controversy, has become known as the Pneumatomachian Controversy."
Basil grieved over his former friend's actions but knew the truth of God's Word had to be defended. In the mid-370s A.D. Basil wrote a book that is a precursor to the famous Council of Constantinople called "On the Holy Spirit". Far from being a dry treatise on theology, Basil wrote the book to a young protege by the name of "Amphilochius" who needed discipled on the right understanding of God and who needed wisdom for daily Christian living.
When I read "On the Holy Spirit", it reminded me of how Luke wrote his Gospel to Theophilus with the aim to present the historically accurate retelling of Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Of interesting note too in Luke's Gospel and his second volume, "Acts of the Apostles", he mentions the Holy Spirit's work more than any other author in the New Testament.
In the first eight chapters of "On the Holy Spirit", Basil rehearsed the doctrine of the Trinity, particularly the equality of deity shared by the Father and the Son. It is then beginning at chapter nine all the way to chapter twenty-nine that Basil lays out the Biblical and theological reasons for the Holy Spirit being as much God and as much of a Divine Person as the Father and the Son.
It would be this work that would lay the ground for what would be the by-product of the Council of Constantinople in 381 - the Niceno-Constanipolitan Creed that is our focus in this series. To quote Haykin one last time: "The article on the Spirit is deeply indebted to Basil’s On the Holy Spirit." The church had to fight for the importance of the Holy Spirit as taught in the Bible - a battle thankfully won.
Summarizing the Nicene Creed of 381 in its teaching on the Holy Spirit
I'll offer four headings to the 381 Nicene Creed's statement about the Holy Spirit.
1. The Deity of the Holy Spirit.
"And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life.
2. The Divine relation of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son.
" who proceeds from the Father and the Son".
3. The Divine equality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son.
"who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified."
4. The Divine Author of the Scriptures.
"who spoke by the prophets."
Closing thoughts:
In the next few posts of this series we intend to unpack these four main areas of the Nicene Creed's confession of the Holy Spirit. My hope is readers will find the posts insightful and honoring to the Lord.
