THE HOLY CREEDS PROFESS THE TRIUNE GOD
Listen, Israel: Yahweh our God is the one, the only Yahweh. You must
love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all
your soul, with all your strength. Let the words I enjoin on you today stay in
your heart. You shall tell them to your children, and keep on telling them,
when you are sitting home, when you are out and about, when you are lying down,
and when you are standing up...
Deuteronomy 6:4-7 (the opening verses of the Shema)
The Shema of the Old Covenant People of God and
The Angelic Hymn of Glory
God is mentioned three times in the first line of the Old Testament text that is the opening of the ancient profession of faith known as the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4). The angelic presence that surrounds the throne of God in the heavenly Sanctuary cry out in their hymn of praise three times that God is holy (see Isaiah 6:3 and Revelation 4:8). From the very beginning of the covenant people of God, in the creed and in angelic hymns the mystery of the Trinity is present: in the first creed of the Old Covenant Church known as the Shema and in the hymn of the angels that God is thrice holy, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
THE CREEDS THAT PROFESS BELIEF IN GOD AND IN HIS PLAN OF SALVATION
The Christian professions of faith, like the Old Covenant Shema, the profession of faith found in the Sinai Covenant of the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 11:13-21; Numbers 15:37-41) and recited three times daily: in the morning, late afternoon, and before bedtime, serves both as a chant of praise (in Greek doxa) and as a witness of faith. Christians also confess before their Maker and their fellow human beings the wonders God has done for them, and the angels and saints in the heavenly Sanctuary sing a hymn of praise to the glory of Almighty God "who was and is and is to come" (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8).
Although there are differences between creeds and hymns, the two have much in common. The creed functions in the liturgy as a hymn of praise, just as many of the Hebrew psalms praising the glorious deeds of Yahweh are also creedal statements. In the words of St. Paul, we confess with our lips what we believe in our hearts (cf. Romans 10:8-10; and 2 Corinthians 4:13):
In the Mass, the Creed we profess is the link between what we have just heard in the Liturgy of the Word readings and the homily, in which the Word of God, now Incarnate, is speaking to us through His priest and to what comes next, Christ our Savior who will come to offer himself upon the altar in the Liturgy of the Eucharist. We are invited to stand up for our faith and to profess what it is we truly believe, as Jesus called us to do in Matthew 10:32 and Luke 12:8:
Our Profession of Faith in the presence of the witnesses who are the members of the congregation ensures that we have been obedient to Jesus's command that we openly declare our faith in Him; therefore, the public confession of what we believe as Catholic Christians is required in every Lord's Day Mass in the profession of faith known as the Nicene-Constantinople Creed. Our public declaration of belief in the presence of witnesses also protects us from the failure Jesus spoke of in the passages that followed the promises in Matthew 10:32 and Luke 12:8, and the terrible consequences of that failure that those who deny Christ will face when they stand before the judgment throne of God:
Our public profession should also keep us ever mindful of Jesus's promise in Revelation 3:5, Anyone who proves victorious will be dressed, like these, in white robes; I shall not blot that name out of the book of life, but acknowledge it in the presence of my Father and his angels. In our public profession, we also answer the question Jesus asked His disciples in Luke 9:20-21, "But you," he said to them, "who do you say I AM?"It is the same question He asks of each of us!
THE CREED IN THE EARLIEST YEARS OF THE CHURCH
Our English word creed' comes from the Latin word credo, "I believe." In Latin, "believe" and "heart" are derived from the same root. When we profess a creed, we profess what we believe in our hearts. Our Creed was not originally composed for use in the Mass. In the earliest days of Christianity, a profession of faith was necessary before being baptized. Originally, the profession of faith was probably as simple as the profession made by the Ethiopian eunuch when he was baptized by Philip in Acts 8:36-37, Further along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "Look, here is some water; is there anything to prevent my being baptized?" And Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he replied, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
In the writings of the apostle Paul, we can see the development of confessions of faith. Paul wrote professions of faith, the beginning of a creed, to the Christian faith communities he founded because he needed to express the significance of the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity and the mission of the Redeemer-Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, in God's plan for man's salvation. For St. Paul, this was a beautiful mystery "not the mystery of God in his inaccessible greatness but the mystery of God's great love for us. St. Paul wrote that God's love for humankind was manifested in the death and resurrection of God the Son and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Many Bible scholars believe Colossians 1:15-20 to be an early profession of faith St. Paul taught the Christians at Colossus in Greece: He is the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation, for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible, thrones, ruling forces, sovereignties, powers "all things were created through him and for him. He exists before all things and in him all things hold together, and he is the Head of the Body, that is, the Church. He is the Beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that he should be supreme in every way; because God wanted all fullness to be found in him and through him to reconcile all things to him, everything in heaven and everything on earth, by making peace through his death on the cross.
As the Universal (Catholic) Church grew, different communities developed their own creeds of faith, for example, the confessions of faith written by Irenaeus of Lyon (c. AD 125-202), the "Homily on the Passion" by Melito, Bishop of Sardis in his 2nd century AD, oldest surviving Easter homily, and the Athanasian Creed, recited in the Eastern Rite churches. One of our oldest fixed creeds is the Apostles's Creed, the Creed of the Roman Church, which the 3rd century Fathers of the Church identified as having been "handed down to us by the Apostles themselves." Even though modern-day scholars refute the claim that Jesus's Apostles wrote that creed, the truth is that we can neither prove nor disprove that our oldest creed comes directly from them. There is evidence to support that a creed was written by the Apostles, or at least by St. Peter, in the profession of faith that he gave at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit inspired him to proclaim what the Apostles had seen and heard and felt.
St. Peter's proclamation in Acts 2:14-36, in Greek, kerygma, was, in fact, a profession of faith. Peter definitely outlined the beliefs that were to become the fundamentals of Christianity. He proclaimed that the day of the Lord foretold by the prophets was at hand (Acts 2:14-20); it had been ushered in by "Jesus of Nazareth, a man sent by God" whose credentials were His words and works (Acts 2:22). Peter declared that this Jesus, by the set plan of God, was crucified and killed by the pagans, but death could not hold Him. God raised Jesus to life (Acts 2:23-24)! Peter announced that Jesus fulfilled the vision of King David, who had predicted the resurrection of the Messiah (Acts 2:25-28). Then, St. Peter concluded, For this reason, the whole house of Israel can be certain that the Lord and Christ whom God has made is this Jesus whom you crucified. Whether or not the Apostle's Creed we recite today is word-for-word what the Apostles professed, it undoubtedly carries in it the seeds of their original words.
By the 2nd century AD, in the time of St. Justin Martyr (circa AD 150), formalized professions of faith seem to have come into use in the formal teachings of the Church and the Sacrament of Baptism. There are many variations, but the basic confession is the same. The person being baptized was asked standard questions to which they responded, "I believe." St. Hippolytus gave an example of this early "interrogatory" form of the creed in his writings (c. AD 200). St. Hippolytus compiled a sacramentary known in history as the Apostolic Tradition. In it, he describes liturgical practice in Rome at the beginning of the 3rd century and provides a detailed account of the rite of Christian Baptism. The profession of faith made by the candidate for baptism followed the interrogatory form.
By the 4th century AD, a "declaratory" form of the creed similar to the one we use today was commonly professed. Instead of "do you believe?," declaratory creeds are framed as statements that use the first person: "I believe," or "We believe." Although we have fragments of declaratory creeds that go back to the 100s AD, by the 300s, this form was used everywhere in the catechetical system in preparation for the Sacrament of Baptism. Later, the creeds found their way into the liturgical celebration and Eucharist.
The Nicene Creed
In the 4th century AD, a priest named Arius, an influential theologian in the church at Alexandria, Egypt, was able to twist the Biblical texts to suit his own theological agenda. He manipulated Sacred Scripture to make the Son less than the Father, spreading the heresy that Jesus was a man who was later made divine but was not begotten by God as fully man and fully God. In an effort to state the Church's faith more precisely regarding the relationship of the Father and Son, a worldwide Ecumenical Council of the Church was called to the imperial palace at Nicaea in Bithynia (on the Black Sea). This worldwide meeting of the Bishops of the Church is known as the Council of Nicaea. When the council opened on the 20th of May in 325 AD, 250 bishops were present; before its last session, this number had grown to 318. Pope Sylvester was absent due to infirmities of age, but he sent his representatives, and the first Christian Emperor of the Roman Empire, Constantine I, opened the session.
The bishops decided that
it was not enough to condemn the heresy of Arius, but that it was necessary to
define the Church's position with reference to the controversy by means of a
clear-cut statement of the Catholic faith in the Divinity of Christ. They
decided that the Greek term homo-ousios, which means "of the same essence or
substance" (Latin = consubstantialis), was needed to profess the essential
unity of the Father and the Son. After four weeks of deliberation, the bishop
delegates and the Pope's representatives, working with the leadership of St.
Athanasius, had drawn up a creed. In AD 325, a document attesting to the final
Creed was signed by all the bishops except for two and has been known ever
since as the Nicene Creed:
We believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Creator
of all things visible and invisible; and in One Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, begotten as the only-begotten of the Father, this is, from the essence
(ousia) of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten, not created, consubstantial (homo-ousios) with the Father, through
Whom all things were made, both in heaven and earth; Who for us men and for our
salvation came down and was incarnate, was made Man; Who suffered and rose
again on the third day, ascended into heaven, and shall come again to judge the
living and the dead; and in the Holy Spirit. But to those who say, There was a
time when He was not, and before he was begotten He was not, and He came into
existence out of what was not'; or who say, He is of a different nature and
essence from the Father,' or the Son of God is created or capable of change,'
let them be anathema.
The Nicene-Constantinople Creed
In AD 381, the bishops of the Universal Council of Constantinople reaffirmed the theological pronouncements of the Council of Nicaea and the document of the Nicene Creed. However, they added to the content of the earlier creed to clarify the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the other Divine Persons of the Trinity and to declare that the members of the Universal Church confess our belief in ONE HOLY CATHOLIC AND APOLOSTIC CHURCH. With this clause, the bishops declared that the faithful share the faith of the first Christian community; in that sense, our faith is that of the Apostles. By attributing its contents to "The Twelve," acting under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Church clearly implied that wherever Christians recite the "Apostles Creed" or the "Nicene Creed," they profess the same faith as that of the ancient Church. From that time forward, the Holy Catholic Church officially recognized only those two creeds. The reformulated Nicene Creed from the Council of Constantinople is the creed that we recite today in the Liturgy of the Mass and is known as the Nicene-Constantinople Creed. Although the Church had to convene a council to affirm the divinity of Jesus and His eternal unity with the Father, it was not establishing a new doctrine. It was defending what it had always believed, experienced, and taught from the time of the Apostles.
Questions for Discussion
Question: List three reasons why you believe the profession of
faith in a formal creed is necessary.
Suggested Answers:
Question: Does the Nicene Creed meet the needs of the Church
today? Do you think we need to rewrite the creed to be more reflective of
culture in the new millennium?
Possible Answer: Although the Apostles's Creed and Nicene-Constantinople
Creed are the official creeds of the Catholic Church, the Church has composed
creeds for the benefit of the faithful from the very earliest years of the New
Covenant people of God. These ancient creeds include the Athanasian Creed, the
professions of faith of various councils, and, in our own day, the Credo of
the People of God published in 1968 by Pope Paul VI. The Catechism
states: "None of the creeds from the different stages in the Church's life can
be considered superseded or irrelevant. They help us today to attain and deepen
the faith of all times by means of different summaries" (Catechism of the Catholic
Church # 193). Part I of the Catechism is organized according to the plan of
the Apostles's Creed. It is often helpful for individuals to write out a
personal profession of faith as an exercise of re-commitment to the obedience
of faith to which Baptism binds the New Covenant believer.
Question: The creed begins with the words: "I believe." What do you mean when you say "I believe?" Look up the definition of "believe" in a dictionary and write it out.
Question: The inspired writer of the Letter to the Hebrews
wrote: It is impossible to please God without faith, since anyone who comes to
Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who try to find Him (Hebrews 11:6). What are the differences between "faith" and "belief"? In what way are
"knowledge" and "reason" part of the belief experience?
Possible Answer: "Faith" is an inner orientation of outlook and values
based on certitude and trust. "Beliefs" are the language in which faith is
expressed; faith is the form, and beliefs are the contents. To say "I believe
in" presupposes that one knows, in an experiential way, and has existential
knowledge of God. The Council of Vatican I distinguished between two kinds of
knowledge: knowledge that one gains by reason, and knowledge that comes with
faith. St. James also distinguished between these two kinds of knowledge in his
letter to the Church in James 2:19. The ancient Israelites had no word that
corresponded precisely to the word "intellect." For them, knowledge was as much
a matter of the heart as of the mind. To "know" meant to experience, "to
possess as." For example, when the Bible uses the word "know" to describe both the
intimacy of sexual intercourse and also to "know" in the sense of the
experience of God, as a personal relationship, and through the liturgical
experience of worship as a member of the covenant family.
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 1991; revised 2025 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.
A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE TWO CREEDS
| NICENE-CONSTANTINOPLE CREED | APOSTLES' CREED |
| We believe in one God, | I believe in God, |
| the Father, the Almighty | the Father almighty, |
| maker of heaven and earth | creator of heaven and earth. |
| of all that is seen and unseen. | |
| We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, | I believe in Jesus Christ, |
| the only Son of God. | His only Son, our Lord. |
| God from God, Light from Light, | |
| true God from true God, | |
| begotten, not made, one in Being | Eternally begotten of the Father, |
| with the Father. Through him all things were made, for us and for our salvation He came down from heaven: | |
| by the Power of the Holy Spirit. | He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit |
| He was born of the Virgin Mary, | and born of the Virgin Mary. |
| and became man. | |
| For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, died, and was buried. | He suffered under Pontius Pilate, He suffered, died, and was buried. |
| He descended to the dead. | |
| On the third day He rose again. | On the third day he rose again |
| in fulfillment of the Scriptures; | |
| He ascended into heaven and is seated on the right hand of the Father. | He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. |
| He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, | He will come again to judge the living and the dead. |
| and His kingdom will have no end. | |
| We believe in the Holy Spirit, | I believe in the Holy Spirit, |
| The Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. | |
| We believe in one holy Catholic and | the holy Catholic Church, |
| Apostolic Church. | |
| the communion of Saints, | |
| We acknowledge one baptism for | |
| the forgiveness of sins, | the forgiveness of sins |
| We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen | the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. |