In A.D. 381, fifty-six years after the Nicene Council, those who used the Nicene Creed felt that its statements were oversimplified, not being detailed enough. Therefore, they revised its contents, added some new items to it, and called it “A Revision of the Nicene Creed.” The main contents of this creed are as follows: “I 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....And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, and Giver of life; who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spake by the Prophets. And I believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic Church; I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.”
The revised Nicene Creed declared that we believe “in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who, for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.”
However, even though this revised creed is richer than the earlier Nicene Creed in contents and likewise contains no error or heresy, it is still incomplete in that seven books of the New Testament had yet to be recognized.
In A.D. 397, in the third general Council, held at Carthage in North Africa, the final seven books of the New Testament were officially recognized. In A.D. 451, the emperor of Rome convoked the fourth general Council of Chalcedonia. Chalcedonia and Constantinople were sister cities separated only by a strait. In this Council, the contents of the Nicene Creed were greatly increased to make the original Creed more exhaustive. The result was a new creed called “The Chalcedonian Confession of Faith”; its contents are as follows: “Following the holy fathers, we unanimously teach one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, complete as to his Godhead, and complete as to his manhood; truly God, and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and human flesh subsisting; consubstantial with the Father as to his Godhead, and consubstantial also with us as to his manhood; like unto us in all things, yet without sin; as to his Godhead begotten of the Father before all worlds, but as to his manhood, in these last days born, for us men and for our salvation, of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, known in (of) two natures, without confusion, without conversion, without severance, and without division; the distinction of the natures being in no wise abolished by their union, but the peculiarity of each nature being maintained, and both concurring in one person and hypostasis. We confess not a Son divided and sundered into two persons, but one and the same Son, and Only-begotten, and God-Logos, our Lord Jesus Christ, even as the prophets had before proclaimed concerning him, and he himself hath taught us, and the symbol of the fathers hath handed down to us.”
However, the expansion of the contents brought in a great heresy. Concerning the origin of the Lord Jesus Christ, the adopters of this creed stated that “as to his manhood, in these last days born, for us men and for our salvation, of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God.” This means that they considered Mary “the Mother of God”; this is truly a great heresy.
Now we come to the fifth creed, the Athanasian Creed. This creed was attributed to Athanasius, though it was not written by him. Athanasius was an attendant of the Nicene Council who served as an assistant (comparable to today’s secretary) to one of the bishops who participated in the Council. He became famous, however, for speaking out against the teachings of the great heretic Arius. Arius erroneously taught that Christ was not the eternal God but an extraordinary, noble man who was later deified by God. Furthermore, Arius also had a wrong understanding of Colossians 1:15 and maintained that Christ is not the Creator since He is the Firstborn of all creation. This is a great heresy. Hence, in that council Arius encountered severe oppositions and thenceforth was condemned and exiled abroad. Because Athanasius was the most powerful antagonist of the Arians, some considered the creed adopted by the Nicene Council as his writing.
Home | First | Prev | Next