“First Nicene Creed”

March 12, 2008
Wednesday

Near the end of our journey, we traveled to the city of Nicea, where the seven councils of Nicea were held. First we visited the church in which Councils 3-7 were held. When we asked where the first two councils were held, our guide pointed at the lake. “It’s out there, off the point.” (If you go to the website you’ll see a picture of it!)
The First Nicene Council, some 300 strong, gathered in 325 to discuss the heresy of Arius, (Arianism) which denied the divinity of Christ. In response, the Council created the Nicene Creed. The second council crafted the Nicene Creed that many of us know. Below are the words of the first Creed. By what statement of faith do we live?

“We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, that is, of the substance [ek tes ousias] of the Father, God of God, light of light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of the same substance with the Father [homoousion to patri], through whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth; who for us men and our salvation descended, was incarnate, and was made man, suffered and rose again the third day, ascended into heaven and cometh to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost. Those who say: There was a time when He was not, and He was not before He was begotten; and that He was made out of nothing (ex ouk onton); or who maintain that He is of another hypostasis or another substance [than the Father], or that the Son of God is created, or mutable, or subject to change, [them] the Catholic Church anathematizes.”