Post #2 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - Are Creeds Such As The Nicene Creed Biblical To Use And Biblical In Content?

 

Introduction:

    In my last post I began a series of posts on the Nicene Creed here Growing Christian Resources: Post #1 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - What Are Creeds, Why They're Important, And Introducing the Nicene Creed.. My reason for doing this is because on June 19, 2025, Christians will celebrate the Creed's 1700th anniversary. I briefly defined what creeds were, offered a little bit of Biblical justification for them, noted what the Nicene Creed itself was, and then ended with the full text of the version of the creed from 325 A.D.

    In this post we will spend time laying out further evidence from the Bible for the place of creeds in Biblical faith. In the next post I'll deal with how to understand their place and authority (if any) in the life of the Christian and the local church. These considerations are important to set forth, since the goal of these posts is to introduce the Nicene Creed and to offer exposition on each of its statements. 

    Many who have never heard of the Nicene creed or who have never experienced it (or its related creed "The Apostle's Creed) recited in the church are right to ask whether such a practice is right, especially in churches that affirm sola scriptura or the Bible's unique authority to establish faith, practice, and one's understanding of God. Sola Scripture (Scripture alone) does not exclude secondary documents such as Creeds, Confessions, Church Covenants, Bylaws, and others that can aid in summarizing or explaining theological and practical matters of church life. 

    The other matter of how to understand the place and authority of creeds is a big issue, especially among Baptist people. In my own denomination, The Southern Baptist Convention, a motion was proposed last June to make the Nicene Creed part of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. It was tabled to the Executive Committee (the administrative arm of the convention) and is planned for reconsideration at this year's convention in Dallas, Texas. What will become of it remains to be seen.  

    I'll cover more about that issue in the next post. I recommend the reader to "The Center For Baptist Renewal Website", which represents pretty much my views on the importance of retrieving familiarity and use of Nicene Creed and other older confessions here Who We Are — Center For Baptist Renewal

Are creeds Biblical?

     Creeds or summary statements of the faith are embedded in the fabric of the Divinely revealed pages of God's Word. As such, creeds as found in the text of Scripture are themselves Divinely inspired and thus carry the authority of defining what Christians and church ought to be believe and teach. Creeds in the Bible, as well as their use, can provide a template for what to do with creeds and confessions outside the Bible (i.e. extra-biblical creeds such as the Nicene Creed are non-inspired, and of secondary authority in summarizing essentially what Christians everywhere believe and what anyone professing faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord should believe). 

    To remind readers, a creed is a statement of belief - a "credo" (from the Latin credo meaning "I believe"). Creeds function as summaries of the essential truths of Biblical faith once for all delivered to the saints, whether Old Testament or New.  

Sample creeds or summary statements of faith in the Old Testament, and how well the Nicene Creed Aligns With Such Statements

    In the Old Testament, the central creed of Old Testament Israel was Deuteronomy 6:4-5, called "The Great Shema" because of the Hebrew word in its opening sentence (Shema or "hear"):

“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

    Here we see affirmation of monotheism or the oneness of God's being. He is One. We also see included two of the leading Divine names for this God. He is "God" or "Elohim", the same Elohim who created the Heavens and the earth, who said "let us make man in our image", and who alone is God (see Genesis 1:1-2; 1:26-27). 

    Plurality of identity and oneness of being is embedded in that Divine name of "Elohim", since the "im" suffix in Hebrew is plural, whilst the name is often the subject of singular verbs, which is why it is often translated "God". Then we see "LORD" or Yahweh, the covenant name of this God. His self-existence as "I am who I am" means He is the living God who keeps His covenant promises for His people, who has Divine authority to raise the dead, create something out of nothing, and exercise Sovereignty over all things. 

    Elsewhere in the Old Testament we see such "creedal statements" or "faith summaries" given by God to capture the essence of what it means to follow Him. In Exodus 34:6-7, the Lord tells Moses: 

"The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth."

    Such a summary statement highlights the moral character of Yahweh, and is found in similar form in Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 4:31; Nehemiah 9:17; Psalms 86:15; 103:8; 108:4; 145:8 and Joel 2:13. 

    One more example of an Old Testament summary statement of faith or "creed" is when God says "I am the Lord, and there is no other". Variations on this summary statement are found particular in Isaiah 41:4,8; 43:10-11; 44:5,6,21, as well as Hosea 13:4. Such summary statements find their way into the New Testament as Jesus and the Apostles summarized what it meant to trust and follow the Lord God of Israel.

    When we look at the opening of the Nicene Creed, it avows monotheism, the Personality of God as to the First Person of the Trinity - God the Father. All that was said above is summarized beautifully in the opening of this creed...

"We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible."

Sample creeds or summary statements of faith in the New Testament

    Jesus for example cites "The Great Shema" or Deuteronomy 6:4-5 in His famous greatest commandment saying in Matthew 22:37-39 and Mark 12:30-31. It is in those places where Jesus urges his audience to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength". He does double allusion, not only to Deuteronomy 6:4-5 but to Leviticus 19:8, where He draws the second most important summary command: "you shall love your neighbor as yourself". The Apostle Paul takes his cue from Jesus in repeating Leviticus 19:8 in Galatians 5:14. 

    When we enter the Book of Acts, we find the early Church spreading Northward and Westward from its epicenter in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. Christ had already ascended. The Holy Spirit's coming at Pentecost was the premier sign of Christ's promise of He and the Father's sending of the Spirit (John 14:26-27; John 15:26-27). 

    Furthermore, the Apostle Peter testified that the arrival of the Holy Spirit gave evidence for the deity of Christ and His glorification in Heaven. 

    The Apostle Peter asserted a short, terse truth that functioned as a creed: "He is Lord of all" (Acts 10:37; also Acts 2:36). This short creed "Jesus is Lord" became so foundational that the Apostle Paul combined it with the central creed of Old Testament Judaism, The Great Shema, in 1 Corinthians 8:6 "yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him."

    As you look at the next part of the Nicene Creed, the equality and deity of the Son in conjunction with the Father is affirmed,

"And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made; of the same essence as the Father. Through him all things were made."

    As Christianity spread, it soon found itself asserting the twin truths of Monotheism on the one hand and the Deity or Lordship of Christ on the other. We find creedal statements throughout Paul's letters that were likely hymns sung by the early Christians. 

    The Holy Spirit saw fit to include these hymns or creeds. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 includes an ancient creed that affirms Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and post-resurrection appearances. Colossians 1:16-20 and Ephesians 5:22-26 affirm the deity of Christ and His Sovereign authority over creation and the Church. 

    In 1 Timothy 3:16, Paul cites a creed that states the full equality of Christ as God, as well as His incarnation and ascension into Heaven. As to Christ's incarnation and true manhood, the Apostle John warned that to deny such truths was a sign that such a person was not truly born-again (see 2 John 1:7-9). 

    Again, the Nicene Creed summarizes these truths of the incarnation of the Son, the deity of the Spirit, the role of the church, believer's baptism, and the second coming of Christ as laid out in the Scriptures above. 

"For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven; he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary, and was made human.

He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried. The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will never end.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life. He proceeds from the Father and the Son, and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified. He spoke through the prophets. 

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church. We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

We look forward to the resurrection of the dead, and to life in the world to come. Amen."

Closing thoughts

    In all, well over one dozen passages, stating fundamental truths from the deity and work of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17); to the importance and meaning of Baptism (Romans 6:5-11); to the Lord's Table (1 Corinthians 11:23-31); to the Lord's second coming (Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-16; Revelation 19); to the doctrine of the Trinity (2 Corinthians 13:14; Ephesians 2:18) are found. 

    Creeds and their use in the Bible is evident. To say that the use of creeds, confessions, and doctrinal statements is Biblical is to affirm the full testimony of Scripture, of which the above is but a sampling. In the next post, we will conclude our introductory postings about the Nicene Creed by answering whether or not Creeds should have a place in the local church, as well as what authority, if any, ought they carry in local Baptist Churches, or any church for that matter. 

    

    

Post #1 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - What Are Creeds, Why They're Important, And Introducing the Nicene Creed.

 

Introduction: Doctrinal statements, confessions, and creeds. What are they?

    When we look at the history of the Christian church, we discover that almost every generation of Christians had doctrinal statements, confessions, and creeds. Doctrinal statements are the latest development in how Christians express their faith. A doctrinal statement serves as a defensive statement of a church or Christian institution in expressing its distinctive beliefs about the teachings of Scripture. 

    Confessions are the next oldest form of doctrinal expression.1 We see confessions emerge during the 16th century Protestant Reformation as Roman Catholics and Protestants attempt to distinguish themselves from one another and lay out what is deemed the crucial elements of the Christian faith. 

    Creeds are the oldest expression of doctrinal commitment. As I'll explain momentarily, the term creed means "I believe". Creeds came into use during the days of Jesus and the Apostles. The Holy Spirit chose to use those creeds in His production of the Divinely inspired books of the New Testament. 2

Seeing creedal statements in the New Testament.

    For example, when Peter preached to a group of Gentile believers in Acts 10:36, he expressed a very short creed: "Jesus is Lord". Paul expressed an early Christian creed in the opening of his argument for the resurrection of Jesus from the dead in 1 Corinthians 15:2-4, affirming that: 

"Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried, and He was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures". 

    Paul then included various sightings of the post-resurrected Christ in the remainder of the passage.3 Once the New Testament authors incorporated those creeds, they became part of the Divinely inspired text of the New Testament. Creeds formed after the New Testament are not Divinely inspired, and must be viewed as important witnesses and summaries of Scripture compared to their Divinely inspired counterparts in the Bible, the Word of God. 

What functions do creeds have? Why are they necessary for Christians today?

    The word "creed" derives from the Latin verb "credo" and means "I believe". In two of the most well-known creeds, the Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed, the Latin versions of the each of these begin with that Latin verb "credo". Creeds served three purposes.

A. Creeds are tools for making disciples. 

    First, a creed was what a new believer confessed before the church prior to their baptism. To express a creed was to affirm "this is what I believe". We could say that creeds were originally the first tool used in making disciples.

B. Creeds summarize the essentials of the Christian faith. 

   Secondly, Creeds functioned to articulate the church's faith and summary of the teachings of Scripture in the face of heresy and controversy.

C. Creeds are used in the worship of God's people 

   Lastly, and of most importance, Creeds served as part of the worship services in the early church. We see this especially in the use of the Apostle's Creed and its much bigger cousin, the Nicene Creed.  

The necessity of Creeds for Christianity. 

   As we saw earlier, creeds became part of the inspired New Testament record. As subsequent generations of Christians spread the Gospel, made disciples, and defended the faith, they no doubt affirmed the foundation of God's Word as the final standard for faith and practice. With that affirmation, early Christians did not exclude the need for statements of faith like Creeds to clarify what the Scriptures taught and what they believed. 4

What is the Nicene Creed?

    June 19, 2025 will mark 1,700 years since the early church convened the historic "Council of Nicaea" in ancient Bithynia (modern day Turkey). The point of the council and its consequent creed was to deal with the error of Arius, a bishop at that time, who denied the deity of Christ, the personality of the Holy Spirit, and asserted that the Father alone was truly God in the fullest sense.5 

    As the dust settled after that extraordinary gathering of 325 bishops, Arius was deemed a heretic. It seemed the doctrine of Christ's deity was safeguarded. However, it didn't take long until Arius' teaching began to seep back into the empire. In 381 A.D. a second major council (also called an "ecumenical council") was convened in Constantinople to expand on the original Nicene Creed's statements. This council, known as the "Council of Constantinople", expanded particularly on the Nicene Creed's affirmation of the Holy Spirit to fight a heretical group called the "Spirit-fighters" or "Pneumatomachians". These people denied the deity of Christ and aligned closely with the lingering teachings of Arius. Consequently, the Council of Constantinople's outcome and additions to the Nicene Creed of 325 A.D. led to what is called today the "Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed". It is this Creed that is confessed the world-over in vast stretches of Christian churches. 

    As I mentioned already, the term "creed" derives from the Latin "credo" meaning "I believe". It is the first word in this historic creed. Although not the only creed of course (there is the historic Apostle's Creed, for example), the Nicene Creed is recited and affirmed nearly every Sunday throughout vast stretches of the Christian church. 325 bishops convened on June 19, 325 A.D. to debate the heretical notions of Arius, to hear the learned arguments of Athanasius, and to dispute among themselves what ought be the declaration of the Christian faith for that era. 

    Little did they imagine that this Creed (and its subsequent fuller version, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381) would find generations of Christian reciting it and using it even to this day. I close out this post with the full Nicene Creed of 325 A.D. I plan to offer further teaching about this creed in future posts in commemoration of this extraordinary 2,500th anniversary of it. 

Conclusion: The Nicene Creed of 325 A.D.

    I reproduce below the original Nicene Creed of 325 A.D. as it is found in Phillip Schaff's "The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church" here Philip Schaff: NPNF2-14. The Seven Ecumenical Councils - Christian Classics Ethereal Library

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten of his Father, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father. By whom all things were made, both which be in heaven and in earth.  

Who for us men and for our salvation came down [from heaven] and was incarnate and was made man.  He suffered and the third day he rose again, and ascended into heaven.  And he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead.  

And [we believe] in the Holy Ghost.  And whosoever shall say that there was a time when the Son of God was not or that before he was begotten he was not, or that he was made of things that were not, or that he is of a different substance or essence [from the Father] or that he is a creature, or subject to change or conversion—all that so say, the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes (or curses) them."

More next post

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Endnotes:

1. When we look at confessions of faith (such as the Lutheran Augsburg Confession, or Westminster Confession of Faith, or 2nd London Baptist Confession of 1689, or the Baptist Faith and Message 2000), they serve not to defend, but to proclaim and go on the offense concerning what a particular denomination or Christian movement holds. 

2. When the New Testament canon closed, creeds outside Scripture were formulated for use by new converts getting baptized. As heresies and persecution arose, the early Christians saw creeds as shorthand for summarizing the essentials of Christianity, as well as keeping in mind what the Bible taught. 

3. New Testament scholars today agree that Paul utilized a creed that is traceable to within five years of the events of the empty tomb, making it the oldest evidence we have of Christ's resurrection, pre-dating the Gospels by twenty-five years.

4. The early Christians quickly saw it wasn't enough to say "I believe in Jesus", since there were other heretics (such as Marcion of the second century) and movements (like Gnosticism of the second century) who also claimed belief in Jesus and used the New Testament to back up their aberrant views. 

    Creeds became necessary to affirm what each Bible believing church taught and to clarify what they did not teach (for instance, denying Marcion's claim that the God of the Old Testament was evil for creating the material world, and that Jesus was a good lesser deity; or Gnosticism, which denied the true humanity of Christ while affirming him to be a deity among other deities). 

    As I will argue for in the next two posts, Creeds such as The Apostle's Creed, the Nicene Creed, and other major Creeds are important to know, retain, and if need be, recite in the life of the church. Why? The proliferation of the errors of Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons on the Person of Christ requires us to state clearly why they don't have a Biblical view of the Savior, and why a tried and tested summary of Scripture's teaching on Jesus Christ yields that He is truly God and truly man, and that He, along with the Father and Holy Spirit are one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity. You have to have the right Jesus if you're going to be right with God. 

5. This council came together after a heated seven-year debate between the older Arius, his superior Alexander (Bishop of Alexandria Egypt), and the chief defender of Christ's deity and the doctrine of the Trinity, Athanasius (who served as a Deacon under Alexander but then later became himself Bishop of Alexandria). I won't get into the details today about what led up to this council. We can note one other important fact tied to the Nicene Creed.