What Christological heresies does the Creed rebut?
What answers does the Creed provide?
“A creed is a statement of belief�usually religious belief�or faith.The word derives from the Latin credo for I believe “ [1]
A creed seeks to be an authoritative formulation of the beliefs of a religion, a community and, by extension, an individual. People tipically use a creed, or statement of faith, to define what they do, and do not believe, providing a reference point to determine the orthodoxy, or correctness of a point of view.
In 1918, the U.S House of Representatives adopted the Americas Creed to help define, what as a nation, they believed.
“I believe in the United States of America as a Government of the People, by the People, for the People; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; A democracy in a republic, a sovereign Nation of many Sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of Freedom, Equality, Justice, and Humanity for which American Patriots sacrificed their Lives and Fortunes.
I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to Love it; to Support its Constitution; to obey its laws; to Respect its Flag; and to defend it against all enemies. “ [2]
This particular formulation was a reflection of American nationalism and was seen as an opposition to the threat of Communist revolution at the time. It stands up democracy, freedom and justice as the measure of belief.
Just as this nation saw it necessary to say what they believed in a definitive article, so also did the fathers of the early Christian church. Their dilemma was that under their new found freedom and mainstream societal acceptance due to the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, a divergence of views on doctrinal matters came to the fore.
Differing opinions were nothing new, the writings of the Apostles attest to this in great length, particularly the writings of Peter and Paul, who challenged and guided how the earliest Christians saw God and the world around them.
But as the church stretched its legs in its new found freedom, once again there were people formulating doctrine that ran counter to what other Christians believed. This is what we call heresy, an opinion that goes against orthodoxy.
Around the year 318 A.D, a local church pastor in the influential Baucalis church, � presented one of these divergent views, arguing that “the Word (Logos) who assumed flesh in Jesus Christ (John 1:14) was not the true God and that he had an entirely different nature, neither eternal nor omnipotent.” [3] Rebuked by his bishop, Alexander, Arius was excommunicated and the bishop thought the matter settled. Unfortunately this was not the case. The Bishop of Nicomedia took Arius under his care and nurtured the divergent opinion.
The issue, that we will expand on later, was thought on as so divisive that the Emperor Constantine himself called upon learned scholars and leaders of the church to settle the issue once and for all. This gathering is known as the Council of Nicea and it produced a document know as the Nicene Creed to combat the divergent views of Arianism.
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; 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.
Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life; who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spake by the prophets.
And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. [4]
Most Christians have heard either parts or the whole of this statement before. Some denominations use it in baptisms and ask the baptized to affirm the points it contains. For the Council of Nicea however, it was an opportunity to clearly define what a Christian does and does not believe about the deity of Christ.
The canonization of the New Testament and the formulation of the Nicene Creed are deeply entangled with each other. All of the wording and conceptualization contained in the Nicene Creed are sourced solely from the New Testament. So much so, that it is recorded that “one of the most important debates at the Council of Nicea concerned whether it is proper to include a word in the Nicene Creed that does not occur in the New Testament.” When the time came for the Church to issue its official canon, it used the text of the Nicene Creed as the test of orthodoxy. The Creed and canon were formed together as part of the same process, which for us as Christians today, lends strength to the words it contains. [5]
To further expand on Arius position, he believed that Jesus was of God, but not God; to be rated a deity only in an approximate sense. He was a created being, not eternal. Arius wrote “The Son has a beginning, but … God is without beginning.” [6] This has the effect of making Jesus the first and most exalted of Gods creations. Secondly, Arius distinguishes Christ as being of a similar but not identical substance to the Father. [7]
Arius taught that God the Father and the Son were not always contemporary, seeing the pre-incarnate Jesus as a divine being but nonetheless created by (and consequently inferior to) the Father at some point, before which the Son did not exist. The statement makes Jesus a creature or as some have put it, a “created being”.
A proof text used for these assertions is 1 Corrinthians 8:5-6:
For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
In refutation of these points of view, the Council formulated its Creed. Each statement was carefully chosen and later expanded upon in later councils. The Creed touches on all members of the Trinity, but as necessary because of the direct charges of Arius heresy, there is a majority focus on who Jesus is and of his nature.
In answer to the charge that Jesus was a created being, “begotten by the Father” (John 3:16) the Creed states unequivocally that Jesus is “begotten, not made”:
…Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; 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.
Begotten is a curious turn of phrase in modern language, the NIV translation of the bible glosses over it with “one and only Son” (John 3:16) but it deserves further expounding.
These terms are ‘begetting’ and ‘making’, both deal with creation but from different viewpoints.
When something is begotten, it is created in the same kind as its creator. People beget human babies, ducks beget ducklings and dogs beget puppies. [8]
When something is made, it is created differently to the kind of its creator. Ducks make nests, dogs make a mess, people make cars and trains and if they are talented they can make something that looks a great deal like a person such as a statue.
Statues are different from people, they cant breath or eat or think. They are not alive.
In this very same way, a man has the shape or �likeness of God but he doesnt have the same kind of life God has. Man has been �made by God, not begotten and because of this he only resembles the divine. By extension, Jesus is of God, the very same substance as the Father. Logic allows us to follow this course, if the Father is God and Jesus is of the same substance as the Father, and we learn from Scripture that there is only one God:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” (Deut 6:4)
” For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5)
“This is what the LORD says-
Israels King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty:
I am the first and I am the last;
apart from me there is no God.” ( Isa 44:6)
Then both the Father and the Son are the same.
“The Nicene Creed’s central term, used to describe the relationship between the Father and the Son, is homoousios, meaning ‘of the same substance’ or ‘of one being’” [9].
This homoousios understanding removes any notion that Jesus is to God in an approximate sense, “…true God of true God” is a unequivical statement imparting an understanding that Jesus is fully divine, not the first and most exalted creation [10] “In short, the [Council of Nicea] placed the Son next to the Father as being fully divine” [11]
Through this study, we have seen that a creed is a statement of beliefs which can be used as a yard stick by which to measure the correctness, or orthodoxy of a certain point of view for the group that upholds the creed.
The Americas Creed does this for the American nation, providing the yardstick of democracy, freedom and justice as what the people believe in.
The church of the 4th century, when faced with controversy about the nature of Christ and the Trinitarian understanding of God, set the leaders of the church apart to formulate a creedal response to the heretical understanding of Arianism.
The result of this gathering, the Council of Nicea was the Nicene Creed which upheld the Trinitarian understanding of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit and became the orthodox yardstick for all Christians, as well as the yardstick for the formulation of the New Testament.
Arius assertions that Jesus was only �like God and was himself a created being was rebutted in strong terms by the Council and by Scripture.
They affirm that Jesus is of the same nature as God the Father, begotten, and as such, is pre-existent with God the Father.
References
Devenish, S., TCB 232 The Mission of Jesus Study Book, ACOM, 2005
Grenz , S.J., Theology for the Community of God, style=’font-size:11.0pt; line-height:200%’>Cambridge : Grand Rapids , 1994
Lewis, C.S.Mere Christianity, London: Harper Collins, 1952
Shelley, B.L., Church history in plain language, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creed/p>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianism
http://www.monksofadoration.org/arianism.html
http://www.ushistory.org/documents/creed.htm
http://www.kencollins.com/why-07.htm
CDROM: Quick Verse 7, The Early Creeds, Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Parsons Technology, Inc., 1999
