Site visitors and potential seminar hosts occasionally ask for my statements of faith:
The Symbol of Faith (the Nicene Creed)
I believe in what the historic Church has called ‘the symbol of faith,’ a doctrinal statement that was formalized in 325 and finalized in 381 – all Christians at that time agreed upon these dogmas as the essentials of our faith. I pray it regularly because I believe theology is primarily derived from prayer and worship. You will notice that it is also communal, not private, in that we say ‘we believe’:
- 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.
- 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 worshipped 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.
With the Nicene Creed, the Church came to the climax of her Christian confessions, but we cannot help but also look back further, to the Root – to Jesus himself, who alone embodied perfect theology.
