Although the Apostles’ Creed was written in a simple way, it implies the considerable thoroughness of the research done by the church fathers and the great depth of their study of the Word. Following the Apostles’ Creed is the Nicene Creed, which was instituted in the Council of Nicaea assembled by Constantine the Great in A.D. 325. In those days Christianity already had a great influence in the regions around the Mediterranean Sea which were under the control of the Roman Empire. However, the church leaders were in discord due to disputes concerning the truth; hence, there were divisions among them. At that time, although the Roman Empire ruled over the surrounding regions of the Mediterranean Sea, it was difficult to achieve unity due to the differences in nationalities, languages, and customs. During the reign of Constantine the Great, with his ambition and power he had the intention to rule over the Roman Empire to the extent of achieving unity not only politically but also religiously. He believed that the unity within territories of the Roman Empire hinged on the unity of the Christians because of their influential power within the empire. If the Christians could not be one, then there could not be oneness among the people of the Roman Empire. For this reason, he issued an edict to convene the Council of Nicaea. With himself acting as the moderator, he assembled all the bishops, the interpreters of the Bible, who were within the Roman Empire with the expectation of resolving the disputes regarding the truth.
In the assembly the bishops were urged by Constantine to present their opinions, and decisions were made based upon the Apostles’ Creed. Eventually, the so-called Nicene Creed was instituted and its main contents are as follows: “I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things, both visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ....And in the Holy Ghost.” The Nicene Creed asserts that we believe “in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, only begotten, that is of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, both those in heaven and those on earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down and was incarnate, was made Man, suffered, and rose the third day, ascended into heaven, is coming to judge the quick and dead.”
We can see that the shortcoming of the Apostles’ Creed was not corrected in the Nicene Creed. Furthermore, although the Nicene Creed contains no heresy and is actually not bad, it is still incomplete in its contents, since there were seven books that had not yet been authenticated as authoritative.
After the making of the Nicene Creed, it was recognized by the “catholic church,” the predecessor of the Roman Catholic Church. Both the so-called catholic church and the Roman Catholic Church considered themselves as the unified and universal church; hence, it is called the “Catholic Church.” To this day, the Roman Catholic Church still calls herself officially the “Catholic Church.” Why is the Roman Catholic Church also called the “Church of the Lord of Heaven” among the Chinese? This is because when the Western missionaries came to China, they gave a great deal of consideration in the translation of the word God. They believed that the Chinese word Shen for God is ambiguous and thus cannot express the original meaning, so they decided to render God as T’ien Chu, the “Lord of heaven.” Later, based upon this, people began to call the Roman Catholic Church T’ien Chu Chiao, the “Church of the Lord of Heaven.” In my youth I saw T’ien Chu T’ang, the “hall of the Lord of Heaven,” written on their place of worship; this proves that they also accepted this designation. However, they are not happy to be called the Romish Church.
After the Council of Nicaea, the Roman Empire was gradually divided politically into the Eastern Empire and the Western Empire. The capital of the Western Empire was the city of Rome; the capital of the Eastern Empire was Constantinople, situated at the border of Europe and Asia, and is called Istanbul today. It was built up by Constantine as the eastern capital of the Roman Empire. After the division of the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church was also divided into the Eastern Orthodox Church and the western Roman Catholic Church. Besides the political factor, the division was also caused by a strong controversy involving the Divine Trinity. Apparently, the reason for division was that the Eastern Orthodox Church would not recognize the authority of the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church; actually, the intrinsic reason was the theological dispute. The Eastern Orthodox Church would not admit that they teach tritheism, yet according to the grounds of their arguments, they were actually teaching tritheism. The Roman Catholic Church is superior, in a sense, in that they believe in the Triune God.
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