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The
Nicene Creed
The original Nicene Creed in
325 grew out of the immediate necessity of
safeguarding the apostolic teachings concerning the deity of Christ
against the Arian heresy. Emperor Constantine called for the First
Ecumenical Council to meet in Nicaea in Asia Minor in 325 to deal with
these concerns. The calling of a Council was an accepted method for
seeking accord on major divisive issues and other urgent problems which
concerned the whole Church. The Arians presented a statement on their
positions, but their positions aroused violent opposition. Eusebius of
Caesarea took a middle position and suggested as a statement to which
all might agree, the creed which was in use in his own episcopate see
and which he said had come down from his predecessors in the Caesarean
episcopate and was taught cathecumens and to which assent was required
at baptism. This seemed to win general assent, including the
endorsement of the Emperor. It became, therefore, the basis of what has
since been known as the Nicene Creed.
Christians of that day
were working their way through statements for a clarification of what
was presented to the world by the tremendous historical fact of the
Christ. At Nicaea it was more and more becoming apparent to them that
God must also be the Redeemer and yet, by a seeming paradox, the
Redeemer must also be man. The distinguishing affirmation of
Christianity was that Jesus Christ was "true God and from true God', or
put in more familiar language of the day ,"very God of very God", who
"was made man". A century later in 451 the Council of Chalcedon
accepted changes made by an earlier Constantinopolitan Creed, ascribed
to by 150 bishops brought together by Theodosius at Constantinople in
381. The Council of Chalcedon made minor changes to the Nicene Creed of
325 and made an extension of the 3rd article by asserting the true
divinity of the Holy Spirit. The 3rd form of the Nicene creed differs
by the inclusion of the word filioque emphasizing the Holy Spirit
proceeding from the Father and the Son (filioque), not just proceeding
from the Father. When the Roman church added the word filioque to the
Nicene Creed in the 11th century, the permanent schism between the
Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church occurred. The
Nicene Creed which is use today is thus a further development from the
one which was adopted at Nicaea in 325.
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