Share this. What Is the Nicene Creed? Its Significance in Church History Christianity. Its Significance in Church History. What Is the Meaning of AD?
Today on Christianity. Is Thanksgiving Truly a Christian Holiday? About Christianity. These were concepts that conveyed something was sure to be fulfilled at the appointed time, not that they had actually occurred as yet. CCC However, this way of thinking does not correspond to the paradox of Revelation 13, and so the objection fails. Likewise, by adding just one word into the mouth of Christ where it does not belong, Catholicism is guilty of breaking all the laws of infallibility.
The same principle applies here in evaluating the claim of infallibility. Each of our respective cases must be based primarily on the biblical data without the need to put words in the mouth of our Savior 2 Tim ANSWER: Anyone who knowingly paraphrases is obligated to reveal their intention at the get-go to prepare their audience for what follows. What Trent has done is to invite an argument, and we happily accept their invitation. But by doing so, they are guilty of adding to the Text.
Would you consider that a dishonest paraphrase of what you meant? No harm done. On the other hand, while professing to be under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Council of Trent made God out to be a liar. It follows then that he would desire all disputation be based squarely on fact so the better argument is made manifest to all 1 Kings ; Proverbs ; 1 Cor This is dishonest. In John , we read of a rumor that was going around based on something Jesus supposedly said. But in the next breath, the Text reports that he did not actually say that at all.
It is conclusive therefore, that this essay is in perfect harmony with the Spirit of Truth who is in favor of what Jesus actually said, rather than what he supposedly said. Hence, the controlling factor behind the Council of Trent was certainly not the Holy Spirit, but rather, only their raw emotions. But our Host at the Last Supper did not do this, and therefore, Trent was over-reacting and subsequently misrepresented Jesus a second time. If the grandiose claim of Transubstantiation is on course, it should stand out like a ship in the night with the floodlights of Scripture to guide it without misquoting Christ.
Those of us in life rafts looking for salvation would then be more than happy to anchor our soul in the ocean of its truth. Typically, all hands on deck refuse to even interact with the voluminous evidence against them, and throws it overboard. Through the incarnation, the Creator of Heaven and Earth takes on the form of a servant, not the form of bread and wine. This is precisely what the biblical evidence proves happens in the New Testament!
Making matters worse for the Catholic position is the indisputable fact that God is represented as being a treasure, a rock, a shield, a horn, a shadow, a light, a branch, a root, a vine, a tower, a temple, a fortress and on and on! Never was he any of these things in actual fact, and thus the bread and wine never were or ever shall be, his actual body and blood!
To rightly divide the word of truth would be to allow the bread and wine to take their place alongside all the other places where God is represented by an inanimate object and thus, do away with Transubstantiation. But this they do not do. They proceed to compound their error by misquoting Christ. That said, the gift of infallibility was no more given to the church of Rome than there is a man in the moon, and that being so, the entire Roman Catholic faith is to be rejected per Deuteronomy and Jeremiah It is not that Christians are expected to have a perfectly precise Trinitarian theology to be considered orthodox, but since questions about the relationship between Jesus and God the Father are inevitable, they needed to be answered well.
The Nicene Creed encapsulates what Scripture says about that relationship and acknowledges the mystery of it. If Christianity had agreed with Arius that Jesus could be a lesser god—if it had failed to defend monotheism, if it had fallen into the trench of professing three unrelated deities—it may have dissolved into the religion of Rome and its pantheons of false gods.
No mere man, nor half god, could possibly intervene to save fallen and sinful humanity, let alone restore all of creation. Only the Creator can enter creation to fix its brokenness and redeem its original, latent purpose. Athanasius explored this truth in On the Incarnation , defending the claim that the Father and the Son share one common substance homoousios. Only the Creator can recreate. Only the Maker can remake. Only God can save us from our sins. Because the Father and the Son are one substance, we can also be assured that we actually know God in Jesus Christ.
Without confidence that Jesus is God, united in substance with the Father, we could not be sure that Jesus can speak for God, forgive sins for God, declare righteousness for God, or do anything to make us children of the Father. This post is adapted from material found in the Know the Creeds and Councils online course, taught by Justin Holcomb.
Take a look at the free introductory video:. The Nicene Creed: Where it came from and why it still matters. You may unsubscribe from these email communications at any time. If you have any questions, please review our Privacy Policy or email us at yourprivacy harpercollins. ZA Blog Books and articles that equip you for deeply biblical thinking and ministry. Holcomb In every generation, the Christian church must interpret and restate its bedrock beliefs, answering the challenges and concerns of the day.
Catholics believe that sacramentally, through the waters of baptism, God forgives us of our sins, and we are born again. This belief is universally acknowledged in early Christian writings. If someone has been validly baptized in the name of the Trinity, re-baptism is unnecessary. Christians always hope for the end of this fractured system, when the universe is fully reconciled to God in Christ Jesus. The Nicene Creed affirms both the existence of a soul-filled heaven and the later resurrection of the dead when soul meets glorified body.
The Nicene Creed is the declaration of the Christian faith for all Catholics and Orthodox as well as many Protestants. The Nicene Creed explains the Church's teachings about the Trinity and affirms historical realities of Jesus' life. The creed does not directly quote Scripture, but it is based on biblical truths. The Council of Nicaea was the first general council of the Church since the Apostolic Council of Jerusalem, which set conditions for Gentiles to join the Church.
Roman persecution of Christians had just ended 12 years earlier, but now the Church was divided over the question of Jesus' divinity. Heretics led by a priest named Arius in Alexandria, Egypt, claimed that if Jesus was begotten by God, He must have had a beginning like every other part of God's creation — therefore, Jesus was not fully God. The theological dispute threatened the peace of the Roman empire, so Emperor Constantine — at the request of several concerned bishops — called for a meeting of all the Church's bishops in the easily accessible town of Nicaea present-day Iznik, Turkey , organized like the Roman Senate with himself as a non-voting observer.
The council met in Senatus Palace which now lies under Lake Iznik. Among them were Pope St. Silvester, St. Nicholas of Myra, St. Eusebius of Caesarea considered the Church's first historian , St. Athanasius and St. Alexander of Alexandria. Each bishop could bring up to two priests and three deacons, so the total attendance could have been as many as 1, Many of the bishops had the marks of persecution on their faces — they had faced the threat of death for their faith and they were sensitive to details of doctrine.
These were not wishy-washy men. The council's main purpose was to quash the Arian heresy and settle the doctrine of the Trinity — that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit were three divine persons in complete union.
The term "Trinity" was not new, of course. Besides Jesus' references to it in Scripture, many early Church fathers had written about it from the 1st century onward. Besides the Arian heresy, the council fathers wanted to settle the date for celebrating Easter, and they had to contend with various practical problems such as usury and self-castration. On May 20, , the council opened. It is likely they had a draft from Bishop Hosius of Cordova to consider, as several creeds were already in use by Christians to identify themselves, and as a means of inclusion and recognition, especially at baptism.
In Rome, for example, the Apostles' Creed was popular. After being in session for an entire month, the council promulgated on June 19 the original Nicene Creed, written in Greek.
All but two of the bishops, who were Arian sympathizers, approved the text.
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