Why do we have more than one creed?
Last month we discussed how the Apostles’ Creed is a baptismal creed. It was used to instruct new converts in the essentials of the faith. This month, we will consider the Nicene Creed. I consider it the jewel of the creeds. Technically, the Creed we say is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, but more about that in a minute.
The Nicene Creed is a result of Christianity becoming a legal religion in the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine I in 313 AD. Until then Christians were heavily persecuted. In 313, Constantine battled with rivals be become the sole emperor of the Roman Empire. Before the battle, Constantine saw a cross in the sky and interpreted it as a vision of the Christian God to fight in his name. So he had the letters chi painted on the letter rho, ☧, on his soldiers his soldiers’ shields. (These are the first two Greek letters in the name Christ, the ch and the r.) Soon after he won the battle, the emperor declared Christianity legal.
The emperor noticed a growing theological dispute in his newly adopted religion. A teacher named Arius taught a controversial teaching concerning Jesus. In simple terms, he taught that Jesus was not God in the same sense as the Father; he was a lesser god or demigod. This teaching said, “there was time when Jesus was not.”
So the emperor convened a council of the church’s bishop to resolve the matter. The council met in the town of Nicaea. (A similar council, which was held in Jerusalem, is recorded in the Acts 15:6-29.) They wrote a document stating what was believed. They started with a baptismal creed, similar to the Apostles’ Creed, to frame the statement. To this, the added language that specified Jesus’ relationship to the Father. One of these is that Jesus is “of one being with the Father.” These descriptions excluded the Arian way of reading the Scriptures.
In 381 AD, a different Roman emperor convened the second ecumenical council at Constantinople; hence the official name as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. This council dealt with lingering heretical beliefs and reaffirmed the statement of Nicaea. They did this by expanding the third article on the Holy Spirit; thus clarifying the Spirit’s relation to the Father and the Son.
I recommend that you place the Apostles’ Creed next to the Nicene Creed and find the differences. These differences highlight how the Creed answers questions being asked of the church.
All three creeds are faithful readings of Scripture that aid us in reading Holy Scripture.