HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NICENE CREED!

It was the fourth century A.D. Yes, I know the politically-correct crowd says we’re not supposed to use B.C. and A.D. anymore, because they mean “Before Christ” and “Anno Domini” (in the year of our Lord). Those terms, we are told, refer to the birth of Christ and that is offensive to some. Instead, we’re supposed to say B.C.E. (“Before the Common Era”) and C.E. (“Common Era”). But what makes the Common Era common, other than the birth of Christ? Our Founding Fathers finished the Constitution with the words “in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven.” I’ll keep saying B.C. and A.D.

Back to the fourth century. The Church was sharply divided over issues of doctrine. All professing Christians believed in Jesus Christ, but they disagreed over many issues of theology: the divinity and humanity of Jesus, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the procession of the Holy Spirit, and others. These issues threatened to divide not only the Church but the Roman Empire as well.

You see, the Roman Empire had become mostly Christian. After the pagan Emperor Diocletian died in A.D. 304, a struggle took place between Maxentius and Constantine. Before the great Battle of Milvan Bridge, Constantine saw a vision of a cross in the sky with the words “In this sign you shall conquer.” Following the cross, he and his soldiers won a great victory. By A.D. 313 Constantine was the undisputed ruler of the Empire, and he publicly embraced Christianity.

Some say Constantine’s conversion was only political, but I believe he was sincere. He ended Christian persecution but granted tolerance to pagans. He ordered confiscated property restored to Christian churches and ordered and paid for hand-lettered copies of the Scriptures to be placed in Chirstian churches. He issued orders prohibiting corruption and unchastity and abolished crucifixion as a punishment. Although he delayed baptism until shortly before his death, that was a common practice among the Montanists and Novatianists who believed (mistakenly in my opinion) that baptism covers only the sins committed before baptism.

The theological controversies that wracked the Church disturbed Constantine, not only because theology was important to him but also because they threatened the unity of the Empire. So in A.D. 325 – exactly 1,700 years ago – Constantine called a church council to be held in Nicea, a city in what is now Turkey. About 318 bishops attended the council, coming from as far east as India, north as Germany, and west as Spain. Constantine presided over the council and impressed many with his understanding of the theological issues under consideration.

The major issue was the nature and pre-existence of Jesus Christ. Arius, an influential presbyter from Alexandria, believed Jesus was the son of God but was not co-eternal with or equal to the Father. Rather, Jesus was created by the Father, and as Arius said, “there was a time when He was not.” He argued that Jesus was heteroousios (different substance) from the Father.

Athanasius, a young clerk and a very capable debater, stood in opposition to Arius. He argued that Jesus was equal to the Father and co-eternal with the Father, having existed with the Father in eternity past. Jesus, he said, was homoousios (one substance) with the Father.

The debate waged on from May to the end of July. Some of the bishops tried to advance a compromise position, that Jesus was homoiousios (similar substance) with the Father. But with Constantine’s support the Council settled on homoousios, the position of Athanasius, declaring that Jesus was “begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.”

I’d like to say this ended the controversy once and for all, but it did not. Arius was exiled, but he had powerful friends who brought him back again and again. Far from basking in victory, Athanasius was excommunicated five times, but he persevered and died in A.D. 273 in the good graces of the Church.

And the Nicene Creed prevailed and brought a measure of unity to the Church, distinguishing orthodoxy from heresy. Around A.D. 1054 the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church split, officially over another passage of the Nicene Creed (the filioque, which says the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son; Eastern Orthodoxy says He proceeds only from the Father). Even after the Reformation, Catholics and Protestants agreed on the Nicene Creed, and the Orthodox agreed on all except the filioque. Only in the modern era, with the advent of religious liberalism, modernism, progressivism, and emergent theology did the Nicene Creed become passé.

And 1,700 years later, churches still use the Nicene Creed as the test of orthodoxy, and many recite it during worship services. I urge you to recite, even memorize the Creed, saying it with your whole heart and spirit, in the knowledge that you are saying it in unity with hundreds of millions of Christians of many denominations all over the world, past, present, and future.

Don’t have a copy? Here it is:

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 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 sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

I believe in the Holy Ghost, 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.

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.

Happy Birthday, Nicene Creed!

Colonel Eidsmoe serves as Professor of Constitutional Law for the Oak Brook College of Law & Government Policy (obcl.edu), as Senior Counsel for the Foundation for Moral Law (morallaw.org), and as Pastor of Woodland Presbyterian Church of Notasulga, Alabama (woodlandpca.org). He may be contacted for speaking engagements at eidsmoeja@juno.com.

THE VIEWS OF SUBMITTED EDITORIALS MAY NOT BE THE EXPRESS VIEWS OF THE ALABAMA GAZETTE.