The Symbol of Faith
Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed should be called the Nicene-Constantinopolitan
Creed since it was formally drawn up at the first ecumenical council in
Nicea (325) and at the second ecumenical council in Constantinople
(381).
The word creed comes from the Latin credo which means “I believe.” In the Orthodox Church the creed is usually called The Symbol of Faith which means literally the “bringing together” and the “expression” or “confession” of the faith.
In the early Church there were many different forms of the Christian
confession of faith; many different “creeds.” These creeds were always
used originally in relation to baptism. Before being baptized a person
had to state what he believed. The earliest Christian creed was probably
the simple confession of faith that Jesus is the Christ, i.e., the
Messiah; and that the Christ is Lord. By publicly confessing this
belief, the person could be baptized into Christ, dying and rising with
Him into the New Life of the Kingdom of God in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
As time passed different places had different credal statements, all
professing the identical faith, yet using different forms and
expressions, with different degrees of detail and emphasis. These credal
forms usually became more detailed and elaborate in those areas where
questions about the faith had arisen and heresies had developed.
In the fourth century a great controversy developed in Christendom about the nature of the Son of God (also called in the Scripture the Word or Logos).
Some said that the Son of God is a creature like everything else made
by God. Others contended that the Son of God is eternal, divine, and
uncreated. Many councils met and made many statements of faith about the
nature of the Son of God. The controversy raged throughout the entire
Christian world.
It was the definition of the council which the Emperor Constantine
called in the city of Nicea in the year 325 which was ultimately
accepted by the Orthodox Church as the proper Symbol of Faith. This
council is now called the first ecumenical council, and this is what it
said:
We 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 Son of God, the only-begotten, begotten of
the Father before all ages. Light of Light; true God of true God;
begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father, by whom all things
were made; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven,
and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became
man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and
was buried. And the third day He rose again, according to the
Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits at 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.
Following the controversy about the Son of God, the Divine Word, and
essentially connected with it, was the dispute about the Holy Spirit.
The following definition of the Council in Constantinople in 381, which
has come to be known as the second ecumenical council was added to the
Nicene statement:
And [we believe] in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father; who with the
Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by
the prophets. In one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge
one baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of
the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
This whole Symbol of Faith was ultimately adopted throughout the
entire Church. It was put into the first person form “I believe” and
used for the formal and official confession of faith made by a person
(or his sponsor-godparent) at his baptism. It is also used as the formal
statement of faith by a non-Orthodox Christian entering the communion
of the Orthodox Church. In the same way the creed became part of the
life of Orthodox Christians and an essential element of the Divine
Liturgy of the Orthodox Church at which each person formally and
officially accepts and renews his baptism and membership in the Church.
Thus, the Symbol of Faith is the only part of the liturgy (repeated in
another form just before Holy Communion) which is in the first person.
All other songs and prayers of the liturgy are plural, beginning with
“we”. Only the credal statement begins with “I.” This, as we shall see,
is because faith is first personal, and only then corporate and
communal.
To be an Orthodox Christian is to affirm the Orthodox Christian
faith—not merely the words, but the essential meaning of the
Nicene-Constantinopolitan symbol of faith. It means as well to affirm
all that this statement implies, and all that has been expressly
developed from it and built upon it in the history of the Orthodox
Church over the centuries down to the present day.
- From The Orthodox Church in America website
