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2007

Faith of Our Fathers: A Study of the Nicene Creed

L. Charles Jackson

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Jackson, L. Charles, "Faith of Our Fathers: A Study of the Nicene Creed" (2007). Alumni Book Gallery. 384.
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Faith of Our Fathers: A Study of the Nicene Creed
Disciplines
Christianity | Religion | Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

Publisher
Canon Press

Publisher's Note
Taken from Faith of Our Fathers: A Study of the Nicene Creed by L. Charles Jackson, © 2007. Published by
Canon Press: Moscow, ID. Excerpt used by permission of the publisher.

ISBN
9781591280439

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 1
"No Creed but Christ"?

If one word could sum up the current theological situation, it

would be amnesia. The real problem with amnesia, of course, is
that not only does the patient forget his loved ones and friends,
but he no longer remembers who he is. Too many within church
leadership today seem to have forgotten that the building of a
foundational Christian identity is based upon that which the
church has received, preserved, and carefully transmitted to each
generation of believers. 1

What do you believe? A confident young man, attempting to

sound neutral and levelheaded, might remark, "No creed but
Christ: that's my confession of faith." He continues, "I don't
like all these divisive doctrinal questions. They just create a
negative and intolerant religious environment."
How quickly and easily this comment rolls off the lips of
so many people! You would think that rattling off this mantra
relieves a person of all the entanglements of doctrinal contro-
versy. After all, doesn't everyone know that "doctrine divides"?
This seems to be the conventional wisdom of the day. People
today are desperate to escape the snares of dogma, denomina-
tions, and other negative religiously entangling controversies.
They believe that the barnacles of doctrinal controversy have
scarred the church so badly that we should avoid dogma and
doctrine like some kind of a medieval plague.

I. D.H. Williams, Retrieving the Tradition and Renewing Evangelicalism: A Primer

far 'iusp1cious Protestants (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 9.

I
2 FAITH OF OuR FATHERS

This provokes a very important question: would avoiding

creeds and confessions really liberate us from our problems or
clear away the confusion? When you begin to tackle this ques-
tion, an irony emerges. When someone is asked the most basic
questions about Jesus Christ, they immediately begin to ar-
ticulate a creedal statement. What do you believe about Jesus?
Was He really God? Was He fully God or was He only partly
divine? I thought He was the Son of God and not God from
all eternity. How does this make any sense? How could He be
both God and man? How could He exist in one person with
two distinct natures? On one level these questions are quiet
simple. Yet, on another level these are the questions that drive
us to the very foundations of our faith. What do you believe
about Jesus? A creed of course helps to provide answers to these
simple questions.
A creed, in fact, is the result of answering these questions.
Yes, any attempt to answer these questions results in a creed
even if it is only a poorly worded or false one. Creeds, there-
fore, are unavoidable. This is too central to miss; creeds are un-
avoidable. The word creed comes from the Latin credo, meaning
"I believe." Any attempt to confess what one believes is a creed.
Saying "no creed but Christ" is just as much a creed as a writ-
ten statement is a creed. You should see the self-contradictory
problem with saying "no creed but Christ." Even though it is
short and rather ill-conceived it is nonetheless a confession or
creed. Hence, rather than liberating themselves from the snares
of creeds, those who say this have actually entangled themselves
in a poorly conceived one.
The Scriptures say in James 2: 19, "You believe that there is
one God. You do well. Even the demons believe-and tremble!
It is never enough to say that you "believe." The real question
re~ains: what do you believe about Jesus? Reality has a way of
foisting this upon us. When you consider that Islam, Judaism,
Mormonism, and a whole host of other religions all acknowl-
edge a. belief in Jesus, it should be obvious that affirming a
belief in Jesus is simply not enough.
 Chapter 1: "No Creed but Christ"? 3
In order to be organized and meaningful, even a local com-
munity club develops some kind of guidelines to distinguish
who is a member and who is not. At this point, confessions of
faith become not only necessary but also vital to the well-being
of the church. Creeds protect us from error and guide us in
truth. Knowing a creed can help to distinguish a Muslim from
a Christian. Most reasonable people would affirm that this is
helpful. Furthermore, if you assume Christianity to be true, it
is not an exaggeration to say that knowing a creed may make
the difference between heaven and hell.
The foregoing examples should make it clear that creeds
have always been a necessary and obvious part of being a fol-
lower of Christ. As one great historian of the creeds, Philip
Schaff, says,

In a certain sense it may be said chat the Christian Church

has never been without a creed (Ecclesia sine symbolis nulla).
The baptismal formula and the words of institution of the
Lord's Supper are creeds; these and the confession of Peter
antedate even the birth of the Christian Church on the day
of Pentecost. The Creed is indeed not founded on symbols,
but on Christ; not on any words of man, but on the word of
God; yet it is founded on Christ as confessed by men. 2

As Schaff notes, the concept of confessing God by means of

a creed was not the invention of the Christian Church. Indeed,
some have even argued that God Himself required the ancient
Jews to confess him by means of a creed called the shema. The
shema is a kind of primal creed found in Deuteronomy [Link]
"H ear, 0 Israel: the Lord our God the Lord is one." God re-
quired this creed and Jesus Himself used it to answer various
people when He was confronted with basic questions. 3
reeds are not only necessary; they are also helpful. reeds
help us answer very old and very difficult questions. Too many
2. Philip chaff The Creeds of Christendom: With a History and Critical Notes, Vol.
I: 'Ihe History of Creeds (Baker Grand Rapids: Baker, 1990 [1931 ]), 5.
3. See Jaroslav Pelikan, Credo: Historical and 7heofogical Guide to Creeds and
Confenions of forth tn the Christian Tradttton (Yale Univ. Pres~, 2003), 374.
4 FAITH OF OuR FATHERS

people today try to answer these questions as if they were the

first person to face the issue. The sad truth is that they are like
the frustrated little boy who wonders how he can make one of
his toys move faster. He begins to wonder if he could stop drag-
ging his toy along the ground and make it move more smooth-
ly. He asks himself, "What would help my toys move faster and
what would it look like? What shape would it take? How could
things move faster than being dragged on the ground? The ago-
nizing problem seems laughable to those of us who desperately
want the little fellow to take a look at the wheels on his father's
car. Wouldn't that help? Creeds help us like this. They keep us
from trying to reinvent the wheel.
The ancient creeds of the church are God's gift to us; they
are not doctrinal entanglements. Ironically, they are not the
cause of doctrinal controversy; they are the answer to it. We
should be happy to know that the ancient creeds of [Link]
can liberate us from the frustrations of doctrinal controversy.
They ease the burden of reinventing the wheel and lift us onto
the shoulders of men who have gone before us. This is a great
benefit. This gives us a very good advantage. For instance, in-
stead of trying to create a wheel, we can move on to other
things. We can, for example, work on fine-tuning the engine or
make the interior more comfortable.
Creeds are like lights in a dark world. There is always a lot
of theological work to be done, but it is easier to do the work
in the light rather than in the dark. We don't need to turn off
the lights and grope around in the darkness. Creeds can act like
lights in dark times. In the middle of a difficult controversy,
creeds can help to clear away the confusion and provide us with
guidance. In certain settings, groping in the dark can be quite
dangerous. Thus, to ignore the light and guidance of creeds
would be folly and arrogance.
I have heard some people say that they don't want to depend
on other people for truth. They would prefer to work it out on
their qwn. "All I need," they say, "is Jesus and my Bible." They
act as if depending on the work of others diminishes indepe'n-
 Chapter 1: "No Creed but Christ"? 5
dence of thought. This, however, is not the Christian approach
to life. Indeed, it is nothing more than arrogance cloaked in
false piety.
Looking to the past reveals both wisdom and humility. We
should humbly look to the past for help and we should not be
embarrassed to do so. It is as obvious as asking your parents
a question about something that you know they have already
confronted and overcome. Wouldn't a wise son ask his father
for help? Men who have lived before us are just as much our
parents in the faith as those who live today. This is partly why
the men of the ancient church are called the "fathers." The Bi-
ble tells us to honor our fathers. It is a sign of due and proper
humility to ask people who already know the answers rather
than to tackle the problem all on our own.
It is not a sign of humility to rely solely on yourself. To
the contrary, it reeks of arrogance. Charles Spurgeon says the
following:

You are not such wiseacres as to think or say that you can ex-
pound the Scripture without the assistance from the works
of divine and learned men who have labored before you in
the field of exposition .... It seems odd that certain men who
talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves,
should think so little of what he has revealed to others. 4

Creeds not only provide us with help, guidance, and humil-

ity-they are also an excellent witness to a needy world. In the
Great Commission in Matthew 28, Christ commands Chris-
tians to make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them all
that He commanded them. Creeds help us teach others the
faith. Indeed, Christ also tells His followers in Matthew 10:32
to "confess" him before men. Paul says the same thing in Ro-
mans [Link] "If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus
hrist and believe in your heart that God has raised him from
the dead, you shall be saved."

4. Charles H. Spurgeon, Commenting and Commentaries, Lecture 1.

6 FAITH OF OuR FATHER

This means chat creeds can be a useful part of our liturgy. As

we confess our God, we also experience the blessing of doing
so with ochers who share chis faith with us. Thus too we corpo-
rately confess our faith to the watching world. Creeds assist us
to worship in a way chat is decent and orderly. What a blessing
to our children who grow up hearing chis truth over and over
again-they are more likely to remember and believe it. Philip
Schaff reminds us,

There is an express duty, when we are received into the

membership of the Christian Church, and on every proper
occasion, to profess the faith within us, to make ourselves
known as followers of Christ, and to lead others to him by
the influence of our testimony. 5

This express duty is running into conflict with popular no-

tions about growing the church. There seems to be nothing less
than an obsession to diminish doctrine so chat the church can
grow. After all, people may not agree with doctrine, and what
really matters is that they just believe in Jesus. I hope you can
see how this raises the obvious question, "What do you believe
about Jesus? '!
Are you really being sensitive to those who are "seeking"
answers if you avoid "reaching them whatever Jesus has com-
manded you" as He says in the Great Commission? Is growing
the church really the only thing that Jesus requires in the Great
Commission? You may be able to grow a large congregation,
but are you being faithful to the Great Commission, which
requires "teaching" people what they must confess-or in other
words, teaching them creeds? Jesus pushed Peter to this very
point when He insisted that Peter answer the question, "Yes,
but who do you say that I am?" Sooner or later, in this world
or in the next, we will be responsible for how we answer this
question.
While the whole world seems to be going insane over the
notion of tolerance, Christians need to strive to make sense of
5. chaff, Creeds of Christendom, 4.
 Chapter I: ''No Creed but Christ"? 7
the master's demands. We should not be afraid of taking the
time to cultivate substance and excellence in how we confess
our Lord. Creeds can even help us do this. Though directed to
a somewhat different point, Alexis de Tocqueville's words are
appropriate when he says,

All who aspire to literary excellence in democratic nations

ought frequently to refresh themselves at the springs of an-
cient literature; there is no more wholesome medicine for
the mind .... I think that they have some special merits, ad-
mirably calculated to counterbalance our peculiar defects. 6

Of course if we are either ignorant or arrogant, we won't

admit that we have any "peculiar defects." Still, if this sage ad-
vice is true of the uninspired literature of antiquity, how much
more aptly does it direct us to the creeds of our faith? Those of
us who long for Christian excellence in a creedless and chaotic
age must drink deeply from the refreshing springs of our an-
cient confessions. There is no more wholesome medicine to the
soul. To ignore them would not only be arrogant, it would be
tragic and deadly.
Creeds protect us from danger. If you were walking along
a forest path, wouldn't you appreciate it if someone warned
you of a dangerous animal further down the trail? If you were
about to drive a car with no brakes, wouldn't you appreciate it
if someone warned you? Creeds offer us this kind of a warning
so we can avoid potential dangers. This is precisely why the
icene Creed was written. Ir was forged in the heat of danger-
ous controversy.
The Council of icea was convened becau e of prevailing
questions about the nature of the relationship between Jesus
Christ and od the Father. These were no small questions. Ac-
cording to T. F. Torrance,

rlhe basic. decision taken at Nicaea [sic] made it clear chat

the eternal relation between the Father and the on in the
G, Alexis de Tocqueville, Democrary in America, vol. 2 (New York: Vimage Books,
1990), 62.
8 FAITH OF OuR FATHERS

Godhead was regarded in the Church as the supreme truth

upon which everything else in the Gospel depends .... Thus
the very essence of the Gospel and the whole of the Chris-
tian faith depend on the centrality and primacy of the rela-
tion in being and agency between Jesus Christ and God the
Facher. 7

When someone says they have "no creed but Christ," they
may think it sounds tolerant and wise, but it is neither. It is not
only unwise, but it is the height of arrogance and foolishness.
Worse yet, it is not only personally foolish, it is dangerous to
the whole Christian community. The question is never if you
have a confession; the question is always what your confession
is. This is where the Nicene Creed offers us light in the darkness
and guidance in dangerous times.

STUDY QUESTIONS
1. Why do some people avoid creeds?
2. Why are creeds unavoidable?
3. What does the word credo mean?
4. Why isn't it enough to believe in one God?
5. Were creeds the invention of the church?
6. What Bible references speak of confessing the faith?
7. List several ways that creeds can help us.
8. How does using creeds express humility?
9. What was the main issue of the Council of Nicea?
10. Find some Bible passages not cited in che chapter chat are rel-
evant to these issues.

7. T. F. Torrance, 1he Trinitarian Faith: 1he Evangelical 1heology of the Ancient

Catholic Church (Edinburgh: T &T Clark, 1988), 3, 5.
 2 A Corporate Confession
We believe ...

In Greek, the first word of the Nicene Creed is the verb

pistuomen, which means "we believe." While the Apostle's
Creed begins with the words, "I believe," the Nicene Creed
begins with the first person plural pronoun: "We believe." This
strikes some people as a distinctive and an improper use of the
first person plural. Why did the fathers begin with the pro-
noun we? After all, isn't it more personal to speak of what I
believe as an individual Christian rather than what we believe
as Christians?
Though some in the Middle Ages proposed that the apostles
themselves created the Apostle's Creed, it was not a creed for-
mulated officially in the courts or councils of the church. This
may partially account for the first person singular pronoun of
the apostle's creed. However, there is a wealth of wisdom in the
powerful little word we.
As the church's first "official" ecumenical creed, the Nicene
Creed was not the expression of an individual, but of the cor-
porate body of Christ; the church. In this sense, both histori-
cally and doctrinally the creed reflects something pointedly
Christian regarding the corporate character of the faith. There
is an important unifying and communal character to the first
word of the icene Creed.
The creed expresses the Christian belief that the faith we
possess is "our" faith, not primarily "my" faith. The faith that
we believe as hristians is the faith given to us from our Father

9
10 FAITH OF OuR FATHERS

in heaven. Hence, there is a unity and diversity properly ac-

knowledged in the first word of the creed. All those who would
follow after Christ must join with others who also believe what
Christ requires us to believe. There is one God who is gathering
unto Himself a people, the church. This one God is gather-
ing His people together in the truth that He has given to His
people collectively or corporately.
As such the creed establishes that Christianity is most defi-
nitely not an individualistic religion. It is personal, yes, but
not individualistic. Individualism creates splintering, centrifu-
gal forces, which cause nations, churches and families to fly
wildly apart. Christianity, on the other hand, has always been
a vital force for social unity and cultural coherence. Hence, the
creed starts with an antidote to individualism using the potent
phrase "We believe."
The Nicene Creed is not something an individual believes ,
in isolation from the church. The authors of the creed did not
believe they were expressing the collected thoughts of isolated
individuals. No, they truly believed that the creed expressed
quite literally the God-breathed faith of the Scriptures as given
to the church. This is why they referred to the creed as express-
ing "the divine and apostolic faith." 1
The truth of this creed is not something new nor is it some-
thing optional. It is simply what Christians believe. If one is a
Christian, then this is the faith that one must confess. It is also
the faith one shares with others as members of this one body.
Individuals are not free to modify, restructure, or change the
faith in order to suit their individual tastes. This is the objective
faith to which each individual must submit and to which each
individual must subscribe as that which joins all those who fol-
low Christ.
This is radically different from the pervasive individualism
of our times. Because he or she tends to define the ultimate
meaning of life entirely in terms of "individual" choice, the
individualist is quite uncomfortable with the corporate or cov-
1. T. F. Torrance, The Trinitarian Faith, 14.
 Chapter 2: A Corporate Confession 11

enantal aspect of Christianity. The "we" statement of the creed

unifies individuals and strikes an aggressive pose against indi-
vidualism, which by definition isolates rather than unifies.
Alexis de Tocqueville noted the isolating tendencies of indi-
vidualism in his insightful work Democracy in America:

Individualism is a calm and considered feeling which dis-

poses each citizen to isolate himself from the mass of his
fellows and withdraw into the circle of family and friends;
with this little society formed to his tastes, he gladly leaves
the greater society to look after itself. . . . They form the
habit of chinking of themselves in isolation and imagine chat
their whole destiny is in their hands ... . Each man is forever
thrown back on himself alone, and there is a danger chat he
may be shut up in the solitude of his own heart. 2

De Tocqueville points us to the isolation that God declared

"not good" in the Garden of Eden. If expressing oneself, as a
human being is an individual issue, then God's design for men
must have been mistaken. God deliberately created Adam first
so He could establish several things, not the least of which was
the fact of Adam's solitary existence prior to Eve's creation. God
said, "It is not good for man to be alone." Isolation and indi-
vidualism countermands God's creation design. Consequently,
individualism creates the opposite of what it pretends to of-
fer. Rather than providing the personal fulfillment of which it
falsely boasts, it actually yields chaos, insecurity and frustra-
tion. It is precisely this kind of chaos and frustration for which
hristianity provide the cure.
We cannot fall prey to the false divi ion between what is
individual and what is personal. We are ocial creatures. We
can, therefore, believe something personally while sharing thi
personal belief with others. Individualism violates a veritabl
maxim of the faith, as one preacher, B njamin Morgan Palmer,
note:

2. De locquevillt, Democmcy in Amenw.

12 FAITH OF OuR FATHERS

That man, endowed with a social nature, cannot attain the

perfection which is possible to him, in the privacy and in-
sulation of his own being .... [I] t is not true that religion
contemplates man as an insulated being. On the contrary, it
penetrates every faculty of his complex nature, and pervades
every relation in which he stands. & the moon's motion
round the earth does not impede the common and wider
motion of both around the sun, so neither does the connec-
tion between God and the conscience become less intimate,
when the worshipper lifts his voice in the great congrega-
tion, than when he breathes his prayer in the whispers of
the closer. 3

Many people assume as a matter of fact that individualism is

the only acceptable approach to personal fulfillment. With the
advent of this way of thinking the ideas and practices that were
once standard elements of social cohesion have flown apart.
This is contrary to the created order and hence to God's design.
Consequently, individualism cannot provide the happiness it
pretends to furnish.
Individualism breeds isolation and selfishness, while Chris-
tianity demands the opposite. The "we" of Christianity requires
unity and it demands a concern for others. The Christian must
live for the glory of God and the welfare of his neighbor. Sin
disrupted this original design, but Christ has come to repair
the ruins of our fallen parents.
Thus the "we" of the creed's opening statement not only de-
mands unity, but also implies obligation and responsibility to
one's neighbor. Individualism ranks as perhaps the most petu-
lant problem of modern and postmodern times. Individualism
creates impulses of selfish disregard for other people. This isn't
merely the raving of "religious" leaders. This is something that
most thoughtful observers are noting. Political leaders, educa-

3. Benjamin Morgan Palmer, "The Warrant and Nature of Public Worship," a

sermon 'preached on 9 O ctober 1853 in Columbia, ouch Carolina. Reproduced
online at <[Link]/newslecc/actualNLs/[Link]>.
 Chapter 2: A Corporate Confession 13
tors, and sociologists of all stripes recognize the harmful, isolat-
ing forces of individualism. One study notes,

If the entire social world is made up of individuals, each

endowed with the right to be free of others' demands, it be-
comes hard to forge bonds of attachment to or cooperation
with, other people, since such bonds would imply obliga-
tions that necessarily impinge on one's freedom. 4

It is precisely this kind of obligation that Christianity de-

mands. Christ came not to be served, but to serve. This He
demands of His followers as well:

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit,

but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than
himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own inter-
ests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in
you which was also in Christ Jesus, who ... made Himself of
no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and com-
ing in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance
as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the
point of death, even the death of the cross. (Phil. 2:3-8)

Jesus came to save sinners; He came to be a servant to the

needy. Of the multiple teachings of Christianity one basic prin-
ciple is the call to live an "others-oriented" existence. Jesus is
our great example, and hence, the creed says, He "for us and for
our salvation came down from heaven and became man." Jesus
became a human being so that He could save His people; He
loved n eedy sinner and it follows nece sarily that tho e who
love him must also serve others as well.
While some people and some cultures nourish individual-
ism as a virtue, hristianity assaults it as a curse. The Nicene
form ula helps us to appreciate that hristianity in its most ba-
sic form attacks individualism like antibodies attack germs in
the bod y. The in arnation destroys individuali m , whi hi why

4. Robert . Bellah, et. al, eds , Habtts ofthe He11rt: lndw1dur1Lrsm and Commmnent
m Ameriow I ,ft ( ew York: Harper & Row), 23.
14 FAITH OF OuR FATHERS

our first ecumenical creed at Nicea begins with the profoundly

important pronoun we. Christianity is corporate and demands
living in selfless community after the pattern of and under the
person of Jesus Christ. This and much more is unleashed in the
simple but staggeringly potent opening phrase of the Nicene
Creed: "We believe."

S TUDY Q UESTIONS
1. How does the Nicene Creed's introduction differ from chat of
the Apostle's Creed?
2. What could account for this difference?
3. What is individualism?
4. Explain why Christianity is not individualistic.
5. Are individuals free co modify or change Christian beliefs?
6. How does individualism tend co isolate rather than unite?
7. Is there a necessary contrast between something personal and
something corporate?
8. Can something be corporate and personal at the same time?
9. How is individualism contrary co divine design?
10. According co the author, what does the "we" of Christianity
imply?
11. How does Jesus' example help us?
12. Find some Bible passages not cited in the chapter chat are rel-
evant co these issues.