Part One: One God, One Way, One Faith - A Defense For Why Jesus Is The Only Way of Salvation

Introduction:

I decided to break away momentarily from what has been our long-term series on the Nicene Creed to present a short series I've entitled "One God, One Way, One Faith". Why? This week our church will host a VBS that has as its theme: "One Way" here New Hope Baptist Church: Watertown, NY > Vacation Bible School 2025. Every year, we try to offer a series of adult classes that coincide with whatever the VBS is studying. What follows are notes from this year's study which I've already mentioned: "One God, One Way, One Faith".

What this study is about
    This study is about giving Scriptural,
apologetical, and historical reasons why there is only one way of salvation in Jesus Christ. Scripturally, we will turn to the doctrines of God, Christ, and saving faith to demonstrate this truth. One God, One Way, and One Faith will be our cornerstones.

As a matter of apologetics or "defense of the Christian faith", we will compare Christianity to other religions, offering  an apologetic or “defense of the Christian faith’s uniqueness”. In seeing the uniqueness of Christianity, the reader will hopefully better understand the Biblical teaching on the exclusivity of One God, One Way, One Faith. When I say “exclusivity”, I simply refer to that explicit trust in Jesus Christ, who reveals the true living God and salvation in the Gospel, as the only way of salvation (John 3:16). 

Then lastly, I will introduce the student to the historic Apostle’s Creed as a witness to Christianity’s historic confession of One God, One Way, and One faith.

Why the exclusivity of the Gospel is so important to study.

The bi-annual Ligonier State of Theology Poll conducts a survey among Evangelical Christians and the wider American population to see what they believe about key Biblical doctrines. On the survey’s website here: https://thestateoftheology.com/, we read the following:

“Key to orthodox Christianity is Jesus’ own assertion that He alone is “the way, and the truth, and the life,” and that “no one comes to the Father except through [Him]” (John 14:6, emphasis added). Trends over time and the 2022 survey results reveal an increasingly unbiblical belief among evangelicals that God is pleased by worship that comes from those outside the Christian faith.”

In one of its questions the poll asked Bible believing Christians (i.e. Evangelicals) as to whether they agree or disagree with the following: “God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.”  This poll, conducted every two years since 2016, found the following answers year by year. 2016 48% agree. 2018 51% agree. 2020 42% agree. 2022 56% agree. Our key verse is John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”  In this short series of posts, we want to look at the Bible’s rationale for affirming that there is One God, One Way, and One Faith by noting its emphasis on "One God".

A. Biblical Monotheism: God is One God in Being, Three in Person.

      The Bible affirms this fundamental truth that there is only One God. To argue for what I'll call "Biblical monotheism" is to express the foundation for why there is only one way of salvation. The argument is simple: One God leads to one way of salvation. 

    The Bible teaches “monotheism” meaning “one God”. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 “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.”  James 2:19 “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. 20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?” 

    Establishing the One God of the Bible as the basis for “One Salvation” and “One faith” is the goal of this lesson. Let’s probe further to grasp what I’ll call “Biblical monotheism”. 

    Biblical monotheism asserts that God is a “Unity in Trinity and a Trinity in Unity”. That is, God is One God in being and Three in identity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We will note two main points making up Biblical monotheism. First, that God is one God in unity. Then second, this One God is three persons in identity. Noting the Trinity lends not only to showing the uniqueness of the Christian faith, but also to why there is only one way of salvation, due to this One God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Let's unpack each of these truths in their order.

A1. One God in unity.

There are many more passages we could note as to this first main point of there being “One God”. James P. Boice, a great 19^th century Baptist theologian, lists the following headings from his “Abstracts of Systematic Theology, Chapter 4” with proof texts for God being One God.

(1.) The passages which declare explicitly that God is one: Deut. 6:4; Mal. 2:10: “Hath not one God created us?” Mark 12:29, 32; 1 Tim. 2:5; Eph. 4:5, 6; James 2:19.

(2.) Those that assert that there is none else or none beside him: Deut. 4:35, 39; 1 Sam. 2:2; 2 Sam. 7:22; 1 Kings 8:60; Isa. 44:6, 8; Isa. 45:5, 6, 21, 22; Isa. 46:9; Joel 2:27.

(3.) That he alone is God: 2 Sam. 22:32; Neh. 9:6; Ps. 18:31; 86:10; Isa. 37:16; 43:10, 12; 46:9; John 17:3; 1 Cor. 8:4-6.

A2. Three persons in identity.

Let’s establish our second main point about Biblical monotheism: God is One God who is Three Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Dr. Boice offers the following definition:

“THE Scripture doctrine of the Trinity is set forth in the abstract of principles of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in these words (Art. III.): ‘God is revealed to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, each with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence or being.’

          Dr. Boice then writes:

“The scriptural proofs of the personality and divinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit having now been considered, it is proper to notice a few passages of Scripture in which the Three are revealed distinctly, by being mentioned, or manifested together.” (See Matt. 3:17; Matt. 28:19, John 14:26, and 15:26, 1 Cor. 8:6, 12:4-6)

B. Weaknesses of non-Christian monotheistic views  and non-monotheistic views.

    As we laid out the definition and Scripture proofs for "Biblical monotheism" (i.e. the doctrine of the Trinity), lets compare and contrast it to other positions. We must note that when it comes to world religions and the philosophies of men, there have been seven general categories: 

Monotheism (One God).

Polytheism (many gods).

Pantheism (Everything is God).

Panentheism (God is in everything, the universe is His body).

Henotheism (One powerful God among lesser gods).

Atheism (no God). 

Agnosticism (we cannot know whether there is a God).

     Below I will list the weaknesses of non-Christian monotheistic views and non-monotheistic views.

Non-Christian monotheistic views and their weaknesses.

B1. Deism – God made the world and left it to itself. Weakness: Denies God’s personal involvement in our world, possibility of miracles, possibility of revelation. Not the God of the Bible.

B2. Non-Trinitarian monotheisms – Whether Islam, modern Judaism, or others, to say God is simply a unity without the Trinity makes God dependent somehow on the creation to complete Himself. The Biblical portrayal of God consistently reveals He is self-sufficient and Personal, requiring the ability to interact within Himself. 

    Also, God is a God of love, meaning there needed to be a subject to give love (the Father), a subject to receive love (the Son), and a third subject to complete the circuit of love (the Holy Spirit), see Luke 3:21-22; Romans 5:4-5; 1 John 4:8, 16. Any monotheism without the Triune persons is an incomplete monotheism.

Non-monotheistic views and their weaknesses.

B3. Polytheism – The weaknesses here are that multiple deities have different wills, which leads to conflict, which leads to the absence of objective truth and morality. When you read the polytheistic accounts of Egypt, Greece, or Rome, such systems could not consistently develop a universal sense of right or wrong or truth. 

    Even if they affirmed it, their system could not account for it. Only Biblical Monotheism, having truth and morality as grounded in God, and the Personal involvement of the Trinity, can makes sense of truth and morality. A subset of Polytheism is Dualism, which sees an evil deity and a good deity in conflict with one another. Similar weaknesses beset dualism.

B4. Henotheism. This view sees One God among lesser deities. It suffers the same problems as Polytheism.

B5. Atheism – Without One God, there is no grounding for morality, truth, meaning, or purpose in life. Sometimes a weakness in a worldview is seen in not only logical inconsistency, but also whether it is livable. Atheists will still perform burial rights for their dead loved ones, still pursue a good noble life, and follow the golden rule. Their worldview tells them there is no value to such things, yet their humanity and behavior betrays what they truly know – that God exists (see Romans 1:18-20).

B6. Agnosticism – By stating “I cannot know there is a god” or “We cannot know anything about any god” is self-defeating.

B7. Panentheism and Pantheism – I decided to lump these together, since both affirm a view of deity that is impersonal. The weakness here is that if God were impersonal, there would be no morality or truth, since moral and truth categories require personal agents (one who is the standard, the other who receives the standard). Pantheists (such as Buddhists Hindus) and Panentheists (many who believe God is evolving with history) resort to believing there are no objective truth nor morality.

C. How the Apostle’s Creed highlights One God who is Three Persons.

    Now that we have overviewed the Biblical and apologetical reasons why One God is the basis for the one way of salvation, I want to close out today's post with historical evidence for Christianity confessing the exclusivity of salvation as argued for in this opening post. The Apostle's Creed is stated below. Deriving from at least the second or third century, the Apostle's Creed represents what early Christians confessed, as well as what even earlier church fathers would had inherited from the Apostles themselves. Although the Apostles did not pen the creed, it reflects the historic Christian faith that we find in the New Testament.

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit

and born of the virgin Mary.

He suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried;

he descended to hell.

The third day he rose again from the dead.

He ascended to heaven

and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.

From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting. Amen.

      As you can see, the Church from the days of Christ and the Apostles has affirmed there is only one truly and living God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One God. One Way. One Faith. 

Conclusion:

I close with Ephesians 4:4-6, which is an early creedal expression Paul inserted under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Notice the repetition of the word “one”: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”

    In our next post we will continue with this short series, noting Biblical, apologetical, and historical arguments for why Jesus Christ is the One Way of salvation. 

 

 

 

Post #7 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - "And in one Lord, Jesus Christ"

Introduction:

    The first six posts of this current series were devoted to introducing readers to the Nicene Creed and its first section about God the Father. That first section of the Nicene Creed begins as follows:

We believe in one God,

the Father almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all things visible and invisible;

    As we prepare to move onto the second major section of the Creed, we are journeying ever deeper into the reality of God Himself as it pertains to the Person of the Son. The Apostle Peter preached to a group of Gentiles in Acts 10. In Acts 10:36 Luke records part of what Peter said in that sermon:

"The word which He sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all)".

    We find Jesus referred to as "Lord" over 300x in the New Testament. As I have learned in writing this series thus far, studying the Creed and reciting them prompts the Christian to pursue more clarity and accuracy when proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Person of the Son of God is central in the Nicene Creed.

    Kevin DeYoung's recent book "The Nicene Creed - What You Need To Know About The Most Important Creed Ever Written", page 36, notes the following about this upcoming section on the Person of the Son:1

"The historical reality is that there was no controversy surrounding the Person of the Father. Everyone agreed that God was the Father, and the Father was God. There wasn't much to debate."2

        The Creed then expands upon the Father as "Almighty God" by citing "maker of Heaven and Earth, of things visible and invisible". Deyoung continues:

"The theological reality is that Jesus Christ stands as the central figure in the storyline of Scripture. This does not mean that one Person of the Trinity is more important than another. It does mean, however, that we know the Father through the Son (John 14:6-7), while the Spirit's work is to reveal the Son (John 16:14). It makes sense both historically and theologically that the most important creed in the history of the church would be largely about the person and work of Jesus Christ."

    It is to the Person of the Son that we now turn our attention in this series on the Nicene Creed. We will summarize how we see the Old Testament use various names for God, and their relevance to the Persons of the Father and the Son in the Trinity. We will then look at the New Testament's use of words for "God" and "Lord", noting how that pattern informs why the Nicene Creed begins its section on the Son with the words "And in The Lord Jesus Christ". 

The names "LORD" and "God" in the Old Testament, and what they tell us about the Father, the Son, and the oneness of the Divine nature.

"God" or "Elohim" (אֱלֹהִים)

   When you look at the two most common names for God in the Old Testament, and then compare how they are used in the New Testament, you find an interesting pattern that reveals the oneness of God's being on the one hand, and the plurality of identity on the other. Such patterns prepare us for the full revelation of the intra-trinitarian relationship of the Father and the Son. 

    In Trinitarian thought, we see the term "God" used to refer to either the totality of the Divine nature, signifying God as He is indivisibly in the Three Persons as a whole; or we observe this same term describing how each Person is truly God by nature. 

    The name "Elohim" (אֱלֹהִים) ("God" in our English Bibles) is plural in the Hebrew, with the "im" suffix signifying God's majestic power. In Hebrew, plural nouns attached to singular verbs in Divine settings will signify the majesty of God (called "plural of majesty") or hint to a plurality of identity (as in Genesis 1:26 "let us make man in our image", with a plural pronoun "us" as subject of a singular verb "make"). This name in most instances refers to God generically in the oneness of His essence.3 

          Overwhelmingly, Elohim" (אֱלֹהִים) refers generally to the Divine nature or "Godhead" of the True and living God. Providing the name "Elohim" (אֱלֹהִים) is attached to a singular verb (as we see in Genesis 1:1), the power of God is conveyed. Hebrew dictionaries define the Hebrew singular form of Elohim, "El", as meaning "Mighty One" or "Strong One". Thus, God alone has the power to create something from nothing, bring forth life from death, and forgive sin - none of which any creature can perform. 

    The Old Testament will also use this noun "Elohim" to refer to distinctions in the Godhead, whereby a Divine Person is addressing another Divine Person of the same nature. Psalm 45:7 is a good example: "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; Therefore God  , Your God (אֱלֹהִים אֱלֹהֶיךָ), has anointed You with the oil of joy above Your fellows." The writer of Hebrews, quoting Psalm 45:7, ascribes the second "Elohim" or "God" as being none other than the pre-incarnate Christ in Hebrews 1:8 "But of the Son He says, 'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.'"

"LORD" or "Yahweh" (יְהוָה)

    The other common name in the Old Testament for God is "Yahweh" (יְהוָה)or "Jehovah", translated in the Greek Old Testament and Greek New Testament as "kurios" (κυριος) or "LORD". In Exodus 3:14, we read of the following encounter between God and Moses,

"God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

    This unusual name is capitalized in our English Bibles as "LORD". The phrase "I AM WHO I AM" ("e-hayah a-sher e-hayah = אֶֽהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶֽהְיֶה) is grammatically related by root to - "Yahweh" (יְהוָה). The name "Yahweh" and the attending English translation "I AM WHO I AM" derive from the verb "hawa" (הָיָה) which means "to be, to exist".4 

    The latter part of Revelation 1:8 gives us the best unpacking of this name "Yahweh", attributing all it means to the Son, Jesus Christ, “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” 

    This name "Yahweh" reveals three overall truths about God: Sovereignty, Self-existence, and Saving power. Much like "Elohim", we see "Yahweh" used to refer to the totality of the Divine essence of the One true and living God of Israel over against the false deities of the nations (for example Isaiah 41:21-23; Isaiah 45; Jeremiah 10) or as a reference to Divine Persons with the Godhead. 

    A clear example of this is found in Psalm 110:1 "The LORD (יְהוָה) says to my Lord: 'Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.'" The first instance of "LORD" )all caps) is the Divine name of God, ascribed to a Divine Person that is speaking. In the passage, a different title of authority, also translated "Lord" (not all caps) is often used in reference to either earthly kings or God Himself is "Adonai" (אדֹנִי). English translations help us out by knowing whether we're dealing with Yahweh (LORD in all caps) or Adonai (Lord in regular letters). This second Person to whom Yahweh is speaking to is not just in reference to David, for the remainder of the Psalm is occurring in an eternal, Heavenly scene, evidently a conversation between One Divine Person to another one - i.e. the Father and pre-incarnate Son. 

    The New Testament takes this verse from Psalm 110 and ascribes the second "Yahweh" or "LORD" to be none other than the pre-incarnate Son in the passage, confirming our conclusion  (see Matthew 22:44, Mark 12:36, Luke 20:42-Luke 20:43, Acts 2:34-Acts 2:35, Hebrews 1:13). 

    So far then, we've seen how the Divine names "Elohim" ("God", "theos" = θεος) in the New Testament and "Yahweh"(יְהוָה) ("LORD", "kurios" = (κυριος) in the New Testament can refer to the One true and living God in general or a distinct Divine Person in the Old Testament revelation. These patterns set us up for the distinction and unity of the Father and Son as One God in the New Testament, which is relevant to the wording of the Creed's introduction of the Person of the Son. 

Why the Nicene Creed confesses "And in One LORD, Jesus Christ".

    So why doesn't the Creed confess Jesus Christ as "God" like we saw with the Father? In the New Testament, the revelation of the unity of God's being and distinction of Divine Persons becomes crystal clear once Jesus appears on the scene. As the early Christians came to understand Jesus as truly God in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16) from the teachings of the Apostles and Jesus Himself (compare John 8:58), they saw from the New Testament writings a careful handling of God's unity of being and distinction of identity in the relation of the Father and the Son.5

    

    The New Testament authors will use "theos" (equivalent to "Elohim" in the Old Testament) to refer to God the Father in contexts that speak of Him in combination with the Son. They then will refer to the Son with the Divine title "kurios" (which is equivalent to "Yahweh" or "Jehovah" in the Old Testament), hence our English translations of calling Jesus "Lord". 

    Take for example 1 Corinthians 8:6 "yet for us there is but one God (Theos = θεος), the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one LORD (Kurios = (κυριος), Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him." In the two lines written by Paul, The Father and Son are equivalents as touching their common Divine nature. Yet we see them distinguished as "God" and "Lord". 

    Paul displays this same pattern of equating the Father and Son in being whilst distinguishing them as Divine Persons in Philippians 2:9-11 "For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father." Paul quotes from Isaiah 45:22-24, which emphatically declares the full deity of Yahweh, presumably in context referring to the Person of the Father. Paul is doing double duty here, expressing the equality of the Son with the Father, while distinguishing Him from the Father at the same time. 

Closing thoughts for today

    It is with these Biblical patterns that the Nicene Creed expresses its opening line about the Person of the Son. In the original Greek and Latin of the Nicene Creed, the conjunction "and" is put in front of "in one Lord Jesus Christ", signaling to us the equality of essence the Son shares with the Father, the Almighty. The divine title "LORD", in keeping with the Biblical pattern, reminds us that the Son is not the Father, nor the is the Father to be confused with the Son in terms of identity. The unity and distinction language of Trinitarian theology, as already witnessed in our study of pertinent Scriptures today, is preserved and summarize by the Creed. Thus we can see thus far our journey into the Nicene Creed in today's post and the last several:

We believe in one God,

the Father almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all things visible and invisible;

And in One Lord Jesus Christ

In the next post, we will look at the lines that follow this opening affirmation about the Son to grasp how He is equal to the Father in terms of being, while distinguished from Him in terms of identity. 

Endnotes:

1. Kevin Deyoung. The Nicene Creed - What You Need To Know About The Most Important Creed Ever Written. Crossway Publishers. 2025

2. Let's pause and reflect on Deyoung's point on what the Creed says about the nature of God and the Person of the Father. Both points are without controversy. As we've seen in prior posts, the Creed's confession of "We believe in One God, the Father" is straight-forward, describing the Divine nature, of which the Father personally possess from all eternity, as being "the Almighty". 

3. A handful of occasions feature "Elohim" referring to spiritual beings or angels, as well as to the false deities worshipped by the nations.  

4. The way God expresses His name is by taking this verb and making it into a first person singular imperfect, which conveys a continual action, unending, as performed by the subject. The beauty of the imperfect verbal pattern in Hebrew is that in can often refer to ongoing action in the past, present, or future. In other words, God is saying that "I AM He who is, who always has been, and who will always be". 

5. There are of course those instances where the New Testament will use the generic term for deity, "theos" or "God" to refer to the Father and the Son, as in John 1:18 "No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him." As we saw already in the citations of the book of Hebrews above, the New Testament revelation will utilize the other common name for deity, Yahweh, by using the name "kurios" or "LORD" to refer to both the Father and the Son. 

Post #6 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - "Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible."

The above photo is the recent deep field image by the James Webb Telescope, which readers may access here Zoomable Image: Deep Field SMACS 0723 (NIRCam) | Webb

Introduction and Review of the last post:

    As we have begun our attempt to expound the Nicene Creed in lieu of its 1700th anniversary, we have so far noted the following of its statements, with blog posts devoted to each one. The links below are for the previous two posts to this current one.

"We Believe" here Growing Christian Resources: Post #4 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - "We Believe"

"in One God, the Father Almighty" here Growing Christian Resources: Post #5 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - "One God, the Father almighty"

    The Nicene Creed begins first with the Person of the Father. Interested readers may read more about past posts I've written on the person of the Father as taught in the Old Testament here Growing Christian Resources: Post #41 The Doctrine of God: The Old Testament and Jesus' Teaching On God the Father's Deity And His Relationship To The Son  . and Jesus' teaching on God the Father here  Growing Christian Resources: Post #42 The Doctrine of God: The Old Testament and Jesus' Teaching On God the Father as Creator And Redeemer. 

    The 19th century Baptist theologian J.P. Boice summarizes the importance of the Person of the Father in the doctrine of the Trinity:

"God is revealed to us as the Father; not merely in the general way in which he is called the Father of all created beings, and they his sons; nor in that in which he is the Father of those who are his sons, in virtue of the adoption, which is in Christ Jesus; but the Father as indicative of a special relation between him and another person whom the Scriptures call his only begotten Son." 

    The Creed's confession of God as Father points to what will come later in the Creed, namely the confession of the second Person of the Trinity, The Son. Additionally, the God of revealed Scripture is One in essence, personal, and omnipotent.  

    The attribute of Divine omnipotence or God the Father being "Almighty" is a summary and representative perfection of what it means to be God by nature.1 The Father's work of creation is inseparable from the Son and Holy Spirit's union with Him as the Triune God. Rufinas, in his sixth century commentary on the Apostle's Creed (which begins nearly word-for-word like the Nicene Creed), notes about the Father and the Son in the work of creation:

"God is called Almighty because He possesses rule and dominion over all things. But the Father possesses all things by His Son, as the Apostle says, By Him were created all things, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. And again, writing to the Hebrews, he says, By Him also He made the worlds, and He appointed Him heir of all things. By 'appointed' we are to understand 'generated'. Now if the Father made the worlds by Him, and all things were created by Him, and He is heir of all things, then by Him He possesses rule also over all things."

    Throughout today's post, even though we will focus primarily on God the Father, I will show how we cannot go long without including His eternal relationship to the Divine Persons of the Son via "filiation" and Holy Spirit via "spiration". 

God the Father, Maker of Heaven and Earth, of things visible and invisible

   You'll notice in the wording of this particular part of the Creed that it utilizes what is called a "chiasm". That is, there is mention of a term, then a second term, and then those same terms or associated ideas are repeated in reverse order. This poetic device reminds us that the Creed's structure is designed for recitation and ease of memory in worship. I'll depict how this part of the Creed is operating as a "chiasm" below.

"We believe in God, the Father almighty

   ("A1 line") maker of Heaven

                  ("B1 line") and earth

                  ("B2 line") of things visible

   ("A2 line") and invisible."

     As you can see, reference to God the Father making "Heaven" or what is beyond our sight, and "Earth" or what is within our sight (borrowing from Genesis 1) is placed in parallel lines. The Creed then does the reverse order, namely what we can see ("visible") and cannot see ("invisible") (borrowing from Colossians 1:16-20). 

    The beauty of the Creed here captures the point that God the Father's actions in creation are comprehensive, originating from His power and plan (compare Isaiah 46:10; Ephesians 1:11). As we saw in previous posts, the whole Nicene Creed confesses the Three Persons of the Trinity. Thus, we cannot expound on the Father's work in creation without the reminder that He did so inseparably from the Son and the Spirit.2 

Why the doctrine of creation alone makes sense of the origin of the universe

    In the history of human thought, religion, and Biblical revelation, various options have been put forth for the universe's origin or what is called "cosmogeny". I'll just mention three. 

    The first is most famously represented by thinkers such as Aristotle and the Greeks, namely that the universe is eternal. In antiquity, the Greeks and Romans, as well as most polytheistic systems, taught that the universe was eternal, or existed in primordial chaos, with the gods and goddesses emerging and then battling for supremacy. 

    The second option for the origin of the universe or "cosmogeny" is that the universe created itself or came forth out of nothing. Secular theories of origins, such Big Bang cosmology and its variants postulate the universe sprang forth by itself, undergoing sudden inflationary cosmic expansion, whether out of nothing or from a pre-existing state of matter or another universe. Cyclical models of cosmogeny portray an infinite chain of "big bangs" and "big crunches", with the ultimate origin arising from inert matter or chance fluctuations in a quantum vacuum. 

    The third option is that God created the universe as the all-powerful, intelligent Creator. The Nicene Creed based its statement on the Creatorship of God the Father off of roughly sixty passages in the Bible that affirm Biblical creation. For example, Genesis 1:1 begins the entire Bible: "God created the Heavens and the Earth". All three Persons of the Trinity had their involvement in the creation of all things, hence God the Father (Psalm 19:1-2; Revelation 4:11), God the Son (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2-4), and God the Holy Spirit (Psalm 104:30; Job 26:13; Isaiah 40:13; 1 Cor 2:10).  

    Only this One God as "maker of Heaven and Earth", initially confessed as "The Father", explains the evidence we have from science and the Divine revelation in the Bible.3

Why is God the Father emphasized as "the maker of heaven and earth, visible and invisible"?

    So why is God the Father emphasized by the creed as "maker of Heaven and earth, of things visible and invisible?" In Trinitarian theology, a pair of doctrines work to explain how each Person of the Trinity is ascribed an aspect of either creation or redemption in our world, what is called "the doctrine of appropriations" and "the doctrine of inseparable operations". 

     The first of these doctrines is the "doctrine of appropriations", meaning that whatever is "proper" to each Person of the Godhead, a certain aspect of creation or redemption is assigned to that Divine Person. The Father is the "principle source" who communicates or "conveys" the Divine nature indivisibly, infinitely, and eternally to the Son, and with the Son does this same relating activity to the Holy Spirit. In the Father's begetting of the Son and spiration of the Spirit we what are called "two eternal relations of origin" or two eternal relating activities that distinguish what other otherwise the three co-eternal and co-equal persons of the Godhead.  

    Therefore, as the Father is the eternal font or uncaused principle within the Trinity, Scripture assigns to Him in creation as being the "Causer principle" by His decree of the lesser effects of material and immaterial realities (see Isaiah 45:6-7; 46:10; Acts 17:25-28). That's the doctrine of appropriations. 

    The second doctrine is "the doctrine of inseparable operations", meaning that the Father never does anything apart from the Son and the Holy Spirit. Thus, we know that the Father planned creation through His decree as just described. The Son, we could say, "put together" creation by the Word of His power (Hebrews 1:3). Then as to the Holy Spirit, He "placed the finishing touches" upon the creation by infusing our world with life (Genesis 1:2; Psalm 104:30). What both these doctrines do is highlight how the Triune God in His Personal distinctions and eternal union demonstrates who He is as the Creator.

Final applications of "Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible

    We have delved into the second line of the Nicene Creed, which stated the Father's involvement in the creating of heaven and earth, of things visible and invisible. As we close out this post, I refer to Thomas Aquinas' commentary on the Apostle's Creed, wherein he offered five benefits of reflecting on the statement concerning God the Father's work in creation (reminding ourselves that we cannot separate Him from the Son and the Holy Spirit, all being One God).4

(1) "We are led to a knowledge of the divine majesty. Now, if a maker is greater than the things he makes, then God is greater than all things which He has made."

(2) "We are led to give thanks to God. Because God is the Creator of all things, it is certain that what we are and what we have is from God: 'What do you have that you did not receive?' [1 Cor 4:7].

(3) "We are led to bear our troubles in patience. Although every created thing is from God and is good according to its nature, yet, if something harms us or brings us pain, we believe that such comes from God, not as a fault in Him, but because God permits no evil that is not for good."

(4) "We are led to a right use of created things. Thus, we ought to use created things as having been made by God for two purposes: for His glory, 'since all things are made for Himself' [Prov 16:4]  

(5) "We are led also to acknowledge the great dignity of man. God made all things for man: 'You subjected all things under his feet' [Ps 8:8], and man is more like to God than all other creatures save the Angels: 'Let us make man to Our image and likeness' [Gen 1:26].

Endnotes:

1. The Nicene Creed uses the Greek term for almighty, "pantokratora" (παντοκράτορα) and the Latin term whence our English "omnipotence" (omnipotentem). This term in the Greek is used on a number of occasions to refer to the Universal Sovereign of the universe (see 2 Co 6:18, Re 1:8 4:8 11:17 15:3 16:7, 14 9:6, 15 21:22.) 

As I expounded more at length on this term in the last post, "Almighty" is representative shorthand that includes all perfections that come with being God by nature. The Father is without origin by nature as God, and communicates this unoriginated nature to the Son and the Spirit, resulting in the One God revealed in three Persons of sacred Scripture.

2. John Calvin in His "Institutes of the Christian Religion, chapter 14, section 1, describes God as Creator:

"Hence God was pleased that a history of the creation should exist—a history on which the faith of the Church might lean without seeking any other God than Him whom Moses sets forth as the Creator and Architect of the world."

The 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith puts it this way:

"In the beginning it pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, to create or make the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days, and all very good."

3. A self-created universe is a contradiction, since the first two laws of thermodynamics tell us that matter cannot be created or destroyed on its own and that all usable energy in the universe is in a state of "entropy" or continuously becoming more and more disorganized. The second law of thermodynamics tells us the universe began in a highly organized, perfectly balance set of initial conditions; and the first law tells us that energy in the universe is constant, meaning that on its own it could not had derived outside energy from a material source. 

    Those two laws of science alone tell us the universe had a beginning, and it could not had begun itself, thus we have that confession: "I believe in God, the Father maker of Heaven and Earth, of things visible and invisible".

4. This is from a combined commentary featuring the sixth century church father Rufinas and comments from the eleventh century theologian Thomas Aquinas' commentary on the Apostle's Creed entitled "Exposito super Symbolum Apostolorum" ("Commentary on the Apostle's Creed"). See more about the resource here apostles-creed-wm.pdf

Post #5 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - "One God, the Father almighty"

Introduction:

    In the last post we began to expound on the Nicene Creed's first opening words "We believe" here Growing Christian Resources: Post #4 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - "We Believe". We now move to the first article or division of the Nicene Creed, namely the affirmation of the Person of God the Father. As we will see, the Biblical, and thus Christian view of the nature of God is inseparable from consideration of the Divine Persons of the Trinity. 

    Why begin with the Father? Jesus gave this Biblical definition of salvation the following in John 17:3 "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." Knowing God personally is the chief end of salvation. An unbeliever only knows God as their Creator to whom they are accountable and stand to face in judgment (Romans 1:18-20). All humanity descended from Adam know "about" God but do not "know" Him as Father. The Person of the Father and born-again sinners are reconciled by the Son. The phrase "the true God" in the passage speaks of the Divine Person of the Father. Thus, the Nicene Creed begins with consideration of the Father. 

The seven-fold structure of the Nicene Creed centered around the Trinity.

    Before we get to the phrase "One God, the Father almighty", it may help us to grasp the major divisions of the Creed. The Nicene Creed's 34 lines (per the Greek and Latin texts) are centered on the doctrine of the Trinity.1 Below I have put the headings, along with the text of the Nicene Creed in smaller print. For interested readers, I've placed additional comments in endnotes. 

I. God the Father

We believe in one God,

the Father almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all things visible and invisible

II. God the Son in His Godhood and manhood.2

And in one Lord, Jesus Christ,

the only begotten Son of God,

begotten from the Father before all ages,

light from light,

true God from true God,

begotten not made,

of one substance with the Father,

through Whom all things came into existence,

Who because of us men and because of our salvation came down from the heavens,

and was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary

and became man,

and was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate,

and suffered and was buried,

and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures

and ascended to heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father,

and will come again with glory to judge living and dead,

of Whose kingdom there will be no end;

III. God the Holy Spirit 3

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.

    Note: Let the reader see that the remaining four articles of the Creed touch upon what are by-products appropriated or "properly credited" to the Holy Spirit's work done inseparably with the Father and the Son as One Triune God.

IV. The Spirit's speaking through the Prophets, reminding us of Divine authorship of Scripture.

He spoke through the prophets.

V. The Spirit of God is responsible for birthing forth the Church, which is affirmed as "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church."

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.

VI. The Spirit of God is the agent involved in the regeneration of the human soul in saving faith. The Nicene Creed's "baptism for remission of sins" is directly from Peter's words in Acts 2:38.4

We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

VII. The Holy Spirit will also be the Agent responsible for the resurrection of saints and of making it possible for them to rule and reign with Jesus Christ in His Kingdom and into the New Heavens and New Earth. 

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

    Now that we've overviewed the Creed, let's consider the opening line about God the Father.

One God, the Father almighty

    As we turn our attention to this opening line in the Creed, we are confronted with three interrelated truths. First, the oneness of God in His essence or being. Second, the Divine Person of the Father. Third, a key perfection or attribute which summarizes the totality of what it means to be God. Let's take these truths in their order, with the aim to show how belong together.

We believe in One God,

   The Nicene Creed first states the oneness of God in His being. This affirmation of "monotheism" is constant throughout the Bible (see for instance Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and 1 Corinthians 8:6-7). Rufinas, a fifth century church father, wrote a commentary on the Apostle's Creed, which begins similarly to the Nicene Creed: "I believe in God the Father Almighty". In His comments he writes:

"When you hear the word God, you must understand thereby a substance without beginning, without end, simple, uncompounded, invisible, incorporeal, ineffable, inappreciable, which has in it nothing which has been either added or created. For He is without cause who is absolutely the cause of all things." 

    The Westminster Short Catechism's Question 4 gives us a summary of God in His nature:

"Q. 4. What is God?

A. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth."

    There is God, and then there is everything else. Although God is incomprehensible in this way, He nonetheless has made Himself knowable through creation, His Word, and the incarnate Son of God. In the Old Testament, the Father is revealed as "God", "LORD", and other Divine names.5 In most of the 5766 places within the Hebrew Bible where we observe the personal name of God, Yahweh"/"LORD", as well as most of the 2706 places where we see the more general name "Elohim" mentioned, unless otherwise indicated, God the Father is the Divine Person connected to those terms.6 

     As we shall see in later posts, to affirm the oneness of God means that sameness of deity in its quality and perfections is equal and undivided among the Father, Son, and Spirit. Thus, "We believe in One God,"

We believe in One God, the Father 

    In our English translations, as well as the Latin version of the Creed, a comma is placed after "in One God,". A comma may not seem like a big deal. However, commas indicate the carrying on whatever came before the comma and thereafter. To put it plainly, we cannot separate the "essence" or "being of God" from the Persons of the Trinity. It's not like we have the Three Persons of the Trinity in one corner and a "fourth piece of God" in another. 

    By nature, God is what we call "Divinely simple", meaning He is not composed of "parts". A "part" is an element or quality that is less than the whole. My arm for example is a part of me, yet it is not I. When a composer writes music, he or she includes notes, a score, and melody. Each of those are "parts" and are put together by the composer. God is not composed by anyone. His attributes are not "pieces" of His nature. By nature, God is love, is holy, is wise, and so forth. Divine simplicity preserves two other significant doctrines of God's Divine nature - the fact He never changes or "immutability" (Malachi 3:6); and the fact He is truly One in being, incapable of division or diminishment in power. 

    How then do we get from "One God" to "The Father"? Two truths necessarily follow from this opening statement about the Father. 

1. First, as God by nature, the Father has never not been "the Father", since as God He is eternal, without beginning nor origin. Being God by nature tells us "what" the Father is - "God".7 

2. A second implication in confessing "I believe in One God, the Father" is that as "Father", there must also be "The Son". The eternal relation of the Father begetting the Son tells us that the Son has always been the Son, having communicated to Him the eternal Divine essence from the Father, both of which are co-eternal, co-equal Divine Persons, one in being (see Psalm 2:7; John 5:26; 10:30; 1 Corinthians 8:6).8 

    We have seen so far the confession of "One God, the Father". 

"One God the Father, the almighty"

    We come to our third and final term in our exposition on the opening line of the Creed - "Almighty". The beauty of this opening phrase is it begins with the oneness of God's nature, ties it to the Divine Personhood of the Father, and then loops back to a core perfection of the Divine nature. Out of all the attributes the Council of Nicaea chose to use, why refer to God, the Father Almighty? Why omnipotence? 

Author Charles T. Grant, in the Winter 2002 edition of "The Emmaus Journal", writing an article entitled "Our Heavenly Father", notes of Divine omnipotence,

"Omnipotence means that God can do whatever He desires to do. “My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please” (Isa. 46:10). “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him” (Ps. 115:3). It does not mean that God’s actions are without rational or moral restraint. Rather it implies that God is able to do everything which is consistent with His nature." 

    When we talk of omnipotence, we must qualify the term with reference to what God can and cannot do. Scripture tells us that God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). Why? God is a God of truth - i.e. the "True and Living God" (Jeremiah 10:10; 1 Thessalonians 1:9). God cannot change His essential nature (Malachi 3:6). We know that God cannot be unfaithful to His promises, since He is always faithful (2 Timothy 2:13). 

    These qualifiers do not cancel out Divine omnipotence, but rather serve to underscore what the Bible says on the subject. The Father, being truly God by nature, can do all He pleases, which means such attributes as His eternality, immensity, omniscience, omnipresence, and Divine independence help us to see how the power of God is indeed unlimited. 

    Since the Father is Almighty, the same applies to the Son and the Holy Spirit, with whom He communicates and shares the undivided essence. 

    It doesn't take much to find God's omnipotence in the Scripture. Near the end of the New Testament we find the following glorious statement of God's omnipotence,

"Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns." 

    In bringing the true practical meaning of this attribute home to the Christian, A.W. Tozer writes, 

"Omnipotence is not a name given to the sum of all power, but an attribute of a personal God whom we Christians believe to be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and of all who believe on Him to eternal life. The worshiping man finds this knowledge as source of wonderful strength for his inner life. His faith rises to take the great leap upward into the fellowship of Him who can do whatever He wills to do, for whom nothing is hard or difficult because He possesses power absolute." 

Putting it all together: "We believe in One God, the Father Almighty"

    We've seen today that the Creed starts off with an affirmation of the oneness of God's being - monotheism. The undivided Divine nature is inconsiderable apart from the Triune Persons, since the Divine nature itself is wholly possessed by them. 

    The attribute of omnipotence or God the Father being "almighty" makes possible all the other perfections that the Bible ascribes to God in His essence. The Father's relation of begetting the Son and the procession of the Spirit from the Father and the Son mean that all three Persons, beginning with the Father, are the One Almighty God. 

Endnotes:

1. The Nicene Creed in total is 34 lines in length, of which 29 are devoted to summarizing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in their eternal relationship and activity within the Godhead. The remaining five lines deal with acts for which the Holy Spirit is the chief agent, along with the understanding that His agency in the inspiration of the Scriptures, the Church, the new birth, and the forthcoming resurrection and the world to come is inseparably done with the Father and the Son as One Triune God.  

2. The Creed expresses the Person of the Son under two subdivisions - His deity and humanity. The Godhood of the Son means He is equal with the Father in terms of being or essence, begotten of Him from eternity. The term "begotten" speaks of the relational property that is unique to the Son or what makes the Son "the Son" and not the Father. 

     The manhood of the Son deals with His incarnation through the virgin Mary, His life, death, resurrection, ascension, and return.

3.  The Holy Spirit is equal in power and glory with the Father and the Son. He is worthy of worship alongside the Father and the Son as One true and living God. The Holy Spirit is also "LORD and Giver of Life", with "LORD" stating His equality with the Son, and "Giver of Life" showing His equality with the Father. 

    The Holy Spirit, like the Son, is equal in power and glory to the Father, sharing in the whole Divine nature. The Holy Spirit's "procession from the Father and the Son" shows His distinction from them as a Divine Person in the Godhead, not being the Father nor the Son. 

4. Baptism here refers to water baptism, which is a visible sign, administered to a new believer who has already been born again in saving faith by the Holy Spirit. Baptism is used by the Spirit of God to reinforce in the disciple's mind and heart their prior, born-again experience of saving faith (see Colossians 2:12; 1 Peter 3:21). 

5. We see God the Father in the following Old Testament examples. Isaiah 63:15 "Look down from heaven and see from Your holy and glorious habitation....". Then Isaiah 63:16 "For You are our Father....". In Daniel 7:9, the Father is "The Ancient of Days". In Malachi 1:6 and 2:10, we see reference to "The Father", as the "LORD of Hosts“. 

6. Deuteronomy 32:6 gives first clear mention of the Father's  involvement in the salvation of His people (other examples include Isaiah 43:10-11; 63:8, 15-19; 64:6-9). Passages such as Job 38:8; Psalm 33:6,9; and Malachi 2:10 indicate God the Father as having the capability to create. No doubt Jesus, in His many mentions of the Father throughout the Gospel, taught this very same truth (see Matthew 19:1-7; John 5:25-29). Jesus no doubt taught this truth in His expression of the Father sending Him, the Son, to be the Savior of the world (John 3:16). 

7. Theologians will often refer to the Father as "the principle without principle", meaning He as God had no beginning. As to His subsistence or "eternal standing" within the Divine nature, the Father is God by nature, eternal, without beginning.

8. By nature the Father is eternally God. By identity, the Father shares or conveys the eternal, undivided nature with the Son, which Scripture describes as the Father "begetting the Son" (Psalm 110; John 1:14; 1:18; 3:16 and others). To put it plainly, unless the Son has always eternally been begotten by the Father, there is no Fatherness (what theologians call "Paternity") to speak of with regards to the First Person of the Trinity. True Biblical faith cannot confess the One True and Living God without beginning with affirmation of the Father.