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.
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I again
would like to apologize for the longer than usual (maybe its turning into the
new usual) blog this week; I would like to finish with the over view of the
Creed so we can discuss some of the more presence issues between Orthodox &
Protestantism/Evangelicalism.
The
second section of the creed deals exclusively with the second person of the
Trinity, Jesus Christ. This is arguably the most important section of the Creed
as it outlines in detail what a Christian is to believe about the person of
Christ; to teach something different than what the Creed says about Christ is
tantamount to heresy. The 4th Century was a chaotic place; not at
all the “golden age” of the Church that many moderns would like to call it. The
Church was defending the personhood and the divinity of Christ on all fronts.
As discussed in other blogs, the Creed did not create these doctrines, it was a
response to these heresies that were popping up; something needed to be
officially stated by the church about what Christians have always believed
about Christ in order to quail the false teachers. The Creed made the Doctrine
of the Son of God a permanent fixture of orthodox Christian teaching for all
times (as well as the other doctrines taught by the creed). Later councils
fine-tuned the language of what it meant to be fully divine and fully man, but
served only to affirm this foundational Creed and defend the Christian from yet
new heresies in their own times.
…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…
This first statement is one of the biggest reasons the First
Ecumenical Council (the starting place of the formation of the Creed) was
called: to combat the heresy of Arius, known as Ariansim. Arius was a priest
from Alexandria, that taught Christ was indeed divine and indeed man, but he
was a created creature, not at all on equal with God when it came to divinity.
Arians used scripture verses that speak about Christ being “the first born of
creation,” to substantiate their claim; let this be a warning to us when we try
to use a single verse to substantiate our own claims, instead of the full
council of scripture and teaching of the church from all ages. The common Arian
chant in the streets was “…there was a time when the Son of Man was not.” More
on this during our studies of the Seven Ecumenical Councils.
Mosaic Icon of Christ in Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (Istanbul)
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
Next we begin
the story of the life of Christ and his direct impact upon his arrival. (1) He
came for our salvation; and came down from heaven no less. This was not a
vacation trip for God. He had a specific mission in mind: You and Me.
(2) He was incarnate of
the Holy Spirit. Jesus is divine, He is not the product of one man and one
woman. In fact, this was also used to discredit a pagan heresy at the time (one
that has resurfaced in our own time again). It was being taught that Jesus was
just another Demi-god. There are many stories in the pagan religion about God
coming to earth, having intimate relations with mankind, and thus giving birth
to a half-man half God. This Creed says different. This isn’t just the
offspring of God, this is God himself. God incarnate. God came down Himself.
(3) The Virgin Mary.
This is a must for the Christian faith. The prophecy’s stated that Christ would
come via the Virgin. Many had their doubts at the time, so it was important to
include this. With the exception of the last 150-200 years, Christianity has
always taught that she was a virgin when she gave birth miraculously, and
stayed a virgin for the rest of her life on earth. More on that when we move to
discuss the Theotokos.
"More Spacious than the Heavens," speaking of the womb that held God incarnate
4) Was made man. With
all the claims of Jesus being god incarnate and fully divine, we also need to
remember he was made a man; this was the great and glorious mystery. Later
councils would discuss and affirm to what degree, but Jesus was indeed man.
This also was included to combat a heresy known as Deism (one of the types of
Gnostics). Deism taught that all physical matter was evil and thus Jesus was
only a spirit, and had no physical body, and thus did not physically die. The
fact that he became man refutes this- as well as other portions of the section
that we will discuss next week.
One last interesting
thing about the incarnation I would like to point out is the reason for the
incarnation. Yes he came and died for our sins on the Cross, but there is more
too it. When God became Man, he glorified and forever blessed physical nature and
human flesh. My own Name sake St. Athanasios (Athanasius, as he
is more commonly known in English.) in his book On the Incarnation makes this point often. Christ came to save
Humanity by saving human nature and flesh itself, conquering death by death, the
hymn says. Think about it. He came down from heaven and took on flesh, then he
resurrected that flesh, then He ascended into heaven and the flesh of a human
being now sits as the right had of God (He did not loose his 100% Humanity when
He ascended.) He conquered death by death via the Cross, but he also saved
mankind first by becoming Man himself, then by resurrecting Christ, then by
sitting at the right hand of God. This is meant to show us that it is possible
to obey Gods command “be Holy for I am holy,” because He came and did it while
keeping his humanity. Point 1 for Humanity. Now get out there and follow His
example, and be Holy saints!
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