The Nicene Creed - Visible and Invisible

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, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, Begotten of the Father before all ages, Light of Light, True God of True God, Begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father, by Whom all things were made: Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man; And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried; And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; And ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father; And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, Whose kingdom shall have no end.  
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, Who spoke by the Prophets;
And I believe in One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the Resurrection of the dead, And the Life of the age to come. Amen. 

            Orthodox Christians –not to mention most mainline branches – believe in Angels and Demons. That’s right. I said it folks. At first glance its not surprising to hear this statement in a Christian creed. Christians have always believed in the spiritual world; yet another idea taken from Judaism. However, what is surprising is the fact that very little is mentioned in the scriptures about this spiritual world and those who reside in it. Sure, there are plenty of angels showing up in the scriptures, but aside from the stories they are attached too, we really do not know a lot about their nature. This creed on the other hand, tells us that God created these angels and the realm they inhabit.

            The mention of the “invisible” in the creed does something much more for us than just bring Angels to our attention; it reminds us of two things: (1) there is a very real dichotomy between the physical and the spiritual, and (2) there is a spiritual world where Angels and Demons are at war with each other over our souls. On the first point, this is a very major theme in early Christianity as shown by the very quick rise of Monasticism. Monastics take the command of Jesus to give all you have to the poor and come follow Him, and Pauls command to pray unceasingly (which they have learned to do – more on Monastics later on in the blog). This is a biblical reality too, which just one example being St. John the Forerunner living in the wilderness eating honey and locusts and rejecting the physical pleasures of life for the far better joys of the spiritual. Some of the OT prophets would fall into the Monastic mold too. The battle against the flesh is very real.

            On the second point, it is important to remember that there is a very real reality of Angels. There is a very long tradition of angels in our faith. Angels hold a very prominent place in Orthodox theology and Iconography. They are messengers and protectors. Sometimes they came become physical, but mostly they appear in visions. I hope to discuss the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael in a later post. The tradition that every person has a guardian angel is also an old one – and a biblical one. Here are just a few:

Psalms 91:11 - For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

Matthew 18:10 - Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

Psalms 34:7 - The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.

            The reality of fallen Angels is also a very real one. They appear to monastics all the time to torment them during prayer and sleep. Some Monastics, such as St. Paisios or Elder Joseph the Hesychast, actually had brutal physical fist fights with demons throughout the night – and had the welts to prove it. The demons rarely show themselves to everyday people as to avoid causing them to actually believe there is a spiritual world and a God, and choose to be more subtle in their attacks; my favorite book on this matter is from Anglican C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters.

           All in all, this portion of the creed teaches us to remember the spiritual world and to stay vigilant. There is much much more about angels and demons than I have talked about here, but we will leave that for another time.

The Nicene Creed - The Lord is One

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, the Son of God, the only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of Light; true God of true God; begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried. And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; whose Kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. 

And I believe in one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

            In Deuteronomy 6:4, we hear one of the most important Creeds of the Old Testament, for both Jews and Christians called the Prayer of Shema: ““Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” This is important for early Christian doctrine because one of the central pillars of Christianity is the trinity, three persons, one essence, one God. Very early on, Christians were accused of Polytheism because of our belief of three distinct persons holding ultimate divinity; this would also be a point of contention with Islam in the 7^th Century. But what was astonishing to both Jews and Muslims was our steadfast belief in the Deuteronomic Creed: the LORD is one. Though we believe in the three persons of the trinity as being God, we believe they are ONE God. The councils will later give the language of “three persons, one essence.” In fact, the Hebrew word used for “Lord” in the Shema Prayer is in the plural, not the singular; some point to this as the OT proof of God in community, the Trinity. This is one of the great paradoxical Mysteries of God that we know as true and reveled by God, but that we will never understand in this life time. This mention of “one God” in the creed solidifies for all future generations the belief in the Trinity as One God.

            Additionally, we refer to God the Father as the fountain head of the trinity, in which everything flows. Christ obeys God as the Father and refers to him as such throughout the Gospels; thus, following Christ’s example, we refer to the fountain head of the Trinity as God the Father. Each of the persons in the trinity have a distinct personhood, role, and place within the Trinity; the Father’s is as fountain head by which all authority and creation flow.

            The creed tells us that God the Father is the “maker of heaven and earth,” as the opening lines of Genesis proclaim. What I would like to point out about this particular part of the creed is that God is Creator. He creates heaven, earth, the seen and unseen (ie Angels – we will talk about that next week). A very large focus in modern Evangelicalism is the question of the age of the earth and Evolution. Though it is safe to say that most Orthodox are against Darwinian Evolution in particular, this is not a dogma (as the Roman Catholics attempted to make it in the scholastic era, and particularly in the 19^th century). Because of this, it is possible to come across Orthodox who support the “scientific” approach to the issue, or even flat out do not care about the debate at all. It is important to note that the Orthodox generally do not preclude beliefs in differing theories about the age of the earth or evolutionary theories, though most would see Darwinian Evolution as inherently non-Christian and degrading to the Theology of Man. Again I will state that the Orthodox focus is on faith in God as the Creator, and NOT on the exact age of the earth, or if man and dinosaur cohabitated, or if man came from a pool of enzymes; this debate was an outgrowth between Humanist Scholastics and the Rationalistic-Scholastic Catholic Church – though the Orthodox Church is not completely absent from the discussion.

            It is important to take from this section on the Creed that we believe in One God, as opposed to three, and that He is indeed the creator of all things. This has been a Biblical and Theological truth from the very beginnings of the church, as well as stretching back to the Genesis creation account and the Prayer of Shema. 

Next week we will look at the last part of what the Creed has to say about God the Father: that he created the seen and unseen – ie the Angels and the spiritual world. Until then, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One!”

Blessings,

Devin (Athanasios) Green