The Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed proclaimed that the Christian Church is “one, holy, catholic and apostolic”. Since then, these are known as the four signs of the Church. To understand what these signs denote, we must know what the Nicene Creed is and its importance in the Church.
The early Church remained small and was persecuted to the beginning of the 4 century. In AD 312 Constantine I, the Western Roman Emperor proclaimed his conversion to Christianity. In AD 313, Constantine, jointly with Licinius of the Eastern Roman Empire made a proclamation of religious toleration for Christianity within the whole Empire. The proclamation is known as the Edict of Milan. Constantine made the declaration in February 313 and Licinius in June of the same year. But later doubting that Licinius failed purposely in executing the declaration, Constantine attacked the Eastern Empire and attached it to the Western empire. Thus the Roman Empire once again become one.
Christianity became the sole official religion of the whole Roman Empire. But gradually some heretic teachings like Arianism appeared within the church. So to define and defend the pure teachings of the Church, Constantine called a council which was held at Nicaea, a Greek city. The council started on 19 June 325. About 200 to 300 bishops, from many parts of the empire attended the council. So it was called ecumenical.
The council rejected Arianism and declared that Christ is the "true God" and "of one essence with the Father.” The council produced the original text of the Nicene Creed. The Creed was originally written in Greek.
In fact, the Creed was not a sudden defense to any particular disastrous heresy. It was developed over the centuries in response to heresies such as Gnosticism, Marcionism, Docetism, and Arianism. Allusion to these Four Signs of the Church can be found in the writings of Bishop Ignatius of Antioch, who lived in the 2nd century.
However, controversies within the Church did not end with the council of Nicaea. So in 381, Emperor Theodosius I convened the Fist Council of Constantinople. It is also known as the second ecumenical council. The council made some additions to the original Nicene Creed with the intention of defending the faith against heretic teaching that rose after the Nicaea council. Thus the council added these words as the sign of the true Church: " I (We) believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church."
It is believed that Nicene Creed got its final shape in this council. So it is also known as Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. The Creed got its final approval in the Council of Chalcedon which was held in 451. The council was convened by the Eastern Roman Emperor, Marcian. About 520 bishops or their representatives attended the council. The council gave final approval to the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed is used to this day by Christians to proclaim their belief in God, Christ and His church.
Nicene Creed is not a part of the Scripture. It is not God breathed Word. It is not infallible. It was formed to defend the God given doctrines of the Church.
The Nicene Creed proclaimed the four marks of the Church. They are, as the Creed professes, "We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church". These four signs are inseparable and intrinsically linked to each other. Our Lord Himself in founding the Church marked it with these characteristics, which reflect its essential features and mission. Through the continued guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Church fulfills these marks. These are not the characteristics that the Church creates or develops or learns by human effort. They are qualities that Jesus Christ shares with his Church through the Holy Spirit.
So the Nicene Creed proclaimed that the true Church must have four sings: oneness, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity. These words have remained in versions of the Nicene Creed to this day. But in some languages, for example, German, the Latin "catholica" was substituted by "Christian". This substitution was done by somebody, before the Reformation. Though this might be an anomaly, it exists to this day in the Creed used by some Protestant churches. So for them, the "holy catholic" becomes "holy Christian."
The Creed affirms that the Church is essential. Through the centuries, the Church might not has been pure or perfect. But it is the chosen instrument of God to which all Christians should belong. The Church is purposefully communal and intended to fulfill Christ’s mission. The Church is the only body which can witness Christ in this world. The Church is the keeper and propagator of the Holy Scripture and the revelations it contain.
The Nicene Creed fostered a widespread unity in the church that was grounded in the truth of Scripture, for many centuries. This ecumenical creed is approved by almost all Christian Churches across the globe. Some denominations use slightly different variations. And interpretation of the four signs of the Church vary among denominations.
Roman Catholics claims that the creed, "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church" is applicable only to them. They argue that Christ established only one church and the full identity of that Church is found only with the Catholic Church. They agree that some elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside her structure. But they are imperfect and out of the fold.
The Eastern Orthodox Church regards itself as the historical and organic continuation of the original Church founded by Christ and his apostles. The Oriental Orthodox Church disagrees with both of them. They claim to be the historical and organic continuation of the original Church founded by Christ and his apostles. They have always kept the true Christology and faith declared by the first three councils, the First Council of Nicaea, the First Council of Constantinople, and the Council of Ephesus. They are the only keepers of the sacred tradition.
Lutheran Churches traditionally hold that they represent the true visible Church. In the Augsburg Confession presented before the Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor in 1530, claimed that "the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new, but the true catholic faith, and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church.”
“Few church bodies today give much regard to being Apostolic. Fewer still seem concerned with the dimension of the holy. When these two qualities become irrelevant to the minds of church people, it is a mere chimera to speak of catholicity and unity.” (R.C. Sproul)
So to understand
the true meaning of the creed, "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic
Church" we must undertake a careful study examining the claims of
different Christian denominations.
One Church
The first
mark of the true Christian Church is that the Church is one. This means, it is
single, united and global which has its basis in Christ Jesus. The Church
believes in “one God” and “in one Lord Jesus Christ,”. The oneness of the
Church was explicitly stated by Jesus Christ in the High Priestly Prayer.
John 17:20, 21
20 "I do not pray for these
alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
21 "that they all may be one,
as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that
the world may believe that You sent Me.
Unity and
oneness of the Church are derived from the very essence of the God. It is not
our organizational structure but our belief in the one true God. In Him we are
united as one.
Apostle Paul revealed
the oneness of the Church when he wrote these words to Corinthian church.
1 Corinthians 15: 9 For I
am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God.
Apostle Paul,
before his conversion persecuted the church at Jerusalem. But he says that the
persecution was against the Church as one body. When he persecuted the church
at Jerusalem, he was persecuting the church at Corinth also. The suffering of a
local church is the suffering of the whole church, because the church is one
body.
He repeats this
truth in other letters also. Though these words are about the relation of one
member to the church, it explains how a local church is connected to the one
Church all around the world.
1 Corinthians 12: 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.
1 Corinthians 12: 12, 13, 14
12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of
that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--whether Jews
or Greeks, whether slaves or free--and have all been made to drink into one
Spirit.
14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.
Ephesians 4: 4, 5, 6
4 There
is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your
calling;
5 one
Lord, one faith, one baptism;
6 one
God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Galatians 3: 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither
slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ
Jesus.
All
Christians and all local churches in the world are one body, one church. And
what they have in common is one Christ, one faith and one baptism. That means,
the faith in Christ and His ordinances unites Christians and the local churches
as one.
From the book
of Acts and the Epistles we understand that the local churches during the early
period considered them as one body. There was no institutional structure with
one human authority for all the churches. But they were bound together by the
spiritual head of the church which was Jesus Christ. They greeted each other,
loved all, sent preachers to other local churches, accepted preachers from
other churches, supported each other financially and lived as model for other
churches.
Romans 16: 16 “… The churches of Christ greet you.”
1 Corinthians 16: 19 “The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and
Priscilla greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their
house.
Ephesians 1: 15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in
the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,
2 Corinthians 8: 18 And we have sent with him the brother whose
praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches,
“the brother”
in this verse is not definitely identified. Some scholars suppose it was Luke,
who wrote a gospel; others think it was Silas, Barnabas, Mark and Apollos.
Whoever it may be, we understand from this verse that the early church did sent
preachers and missionaries from local churches to other.
The early
churches also were inspired to imitate one another in Christian living:
1 Thessalonians 2: 14 For you, brethren, became imitators of the
churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the
same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans,
They
supported one another financially:
Romans 15: 25, 26
25 But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints.
26 For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain
contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem.
The
Catholics, Orthodox, Methodist, Anglican, Pentecostals and others claim that
they are the only true one church that is visible.
The Catechism
of the Catholic Church says that the Church is one for three reasons (Catechism
# 813):
1.
Source - the
Holy Trinity, a perfect unity of three divine persons - Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit
2.
Founder - Jesus
Christ, who came to reconcile all mankind through the blood of the cross
3.
Soul - The
Holy Spirit that dwells in the souls of the faithful. He unites all of the
faithful into one communion of believers, and guides the Church
According to
Orthodox doctrine, the Church is indivisible. One may be in it or out of it,
but none can divide it. The unity of the Church is not established by any human
authority or judicial power, but by God alone.
Another
acceptable argument for the unity of the church is that, she is Christ's
mystical body. Christ cannot be divided and so His body. So there is one
Church, not many. Church it is united, not divided. The unity of the Church is not the physical unity of all
churches under one head or organization. It is a spiritual unity.
St. Augustine advocated
a distinction between the visible church and the invisible Church. Augustine
believed that the invisible church is found within the visible church. He took
this perspective from the parable of wheat and tares. Jesus in that parable
said that the church in this world will be a mixed body that include “tares”
along with the “wheat.” This is a condition where we can say where the Church is but we cannot say where she is not. On the Day of Judgment and glorification, they will be separated. The
true church will inherit the kingdom of God and tares will be thrown to the
fire.
At the end of the
Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke about this spiritual truth in a plainer
manner.
Matthew 7:
21-23
21 "Not
everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but
he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22 "Many
will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name,
cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'
23 "And
then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who
practice lawlessness!'
Jesus is dismissing
these false church members because they have never been a part of His true
Church. These are not onetime sheep who became goats. They were unbelievers
from the beginning. Jesus used the word “many” to speak about the unregenerate
members of the visible church. That means, the number of the unregenerate in
the visible church will not be negligible.
A person’s profession
of faith is not a sign of regeneration. It is not the fruit. And even the fruit
can be deceptive. God, and God alone, can read the human heart. Our gaze cannot
penetrate beyond the outward appearance.
So in the present
scenario of the church, believers co-exist with unbelievers, the regenerate
alongside the unregenerate. So Augustine described the church as a “mixed body”
(corpus permixtum). But the invisible Church consist only true believers. It is
the Church comprised of the regenerate, or as Augustine observed, the “elect.”
Augustine also said
that the invisible Church exists substantially within the visible church. At
rare occasions, a true believer may not be connected to a visible church by
providence or some other reason. The thief on the cross never had the
opportunity to attend a local church. Many martyrs of the early Church period
did not live long enough to receive baptism and attend a local church. But they
are all members of the true invisible church of Christ.
And also, it is not
necessary that all truly regenerate believers should belong to one local church
or a particular denomination. They may belong to different congregations. Still
all of them are united in one, true, invisible Church of Christ.
The union of believers
is grounded in the mystical union of Christ and His Church. When a person is
regenerated, he is “in Christ” and Christ starts living in him. That means, we
are all in Christ and He lives in us. This creates a profound unity among the
truly regenerated Christians. It is a common bond grounded in one Lord, one
faith, and one baptism.
This mystery is expressed
by Jesus Christ in His High Priestly Prayer.
John 17: 22 "And the glory which You gave Me I have given them,
that they may be one just as We are one:
But unity is not uniformity.
There can be diversity within the oneness. Unity is being one body while
uniformity is being the same in appearance and structure. Uniformity is the
same in the same way. Unity is abstract, uniformity is concrete. Unity is
mystical, uniformity is visible.
Philippians 2: 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same
love, being of one accord, of one mind.
Holy Church
The second
sign of the true Church is that it is holy. The Church is holy because its
head, Jesus Christ is holy. Church is the holy body of Christ. Holiness of the
Church is not that all members of the visible Church are sin free. It means
that the Church and her ordinances are holy. The Church helps the faithful to
live a holy life.
Holiness is “set
apart” for a special purpose by and for God. The Church is set apart to fulfill
God's mission on this earth. The Church is set apart as his possession,
sanctifying it and making it clean for the purposes of his own glory, filling
it with his holiness.
God wants his
Church to be holy as He is holy. It is not imitating God’s holiness. It is not
equating to the holiness of God. It is being holy by obeying His ordinances and
commands. Just like the oneness of the church comes from God’s own unity, the
holiness of the church comes from the holiness of God. Holiness is partaking
the holiness of God. The church is holy because a holy God is present in
it.
Our Lord,
Jesus Christ is the source of holiness. The Church lives in union with Jesus
Christ. Through the Holy Spirit the Church enables its faithful members to live
in the holiness of God.
A holy church can be
identified by its power to witness Jesus Christ. The holy church is a channel that
disseminate the presence of Jesus and His kingdom in this world. Being holy in
this world is to embody a difference from the world that can be seen and
replicated.
Catholic Church
Catholic, as
it is used in the Nicene Creed, means universal. The church is a reality that
is pertinent to everyone universally. The role of the Church is to spread the
Word of God universally across the world. The church is for all irrespective of
their cast, creed, race or nationality. Their admission to the church is
secured by the blood of Jesus Christ.
The word
catholic is derived from the Ancient Greek adjective καθολικός (romanized:
katholikos), meaning "general", or "universal". It is
associated with the Greek adverb καθόλου (katholou), meaning "according to
the whole", "entirely", or "in general", a combination
of the preposition κατά meaning "according to" and the adjective ὅλος
meaning "whole".
The Church
being catholic, should proclaim the wholeness of the Christian faith, full and
complete, all-embracing, and with nothing lacking, to all people in this world.
The church should not exclude any race, linguistic group, cast, creed, nation
from the gospel. This can be fulfilled only by the church that is spread across
the world.
The term
catholic was used to define the church as early as the first decades of the
second century. The Church was not yet spread across the world at that time. It
was used to denote quality not quantity. It defined what the Church is, in the
sense it is full, complete, all embracing and lacking nothing.
Originally
catholicity of the church did not mean universality. Universality is the idea
that the Christian faith is for all men. But originally the word catholic
distinguished the true church among a growing horde of heretics. The heretics
were selective in doctrines and elements of faith. They were not whole and
complete. So in the second century, when the term began to be used, catholicity
of the church marked the quality of the church. The church was whole in faith
and doctrines handed down from the apostles.
Roman Emperor
Theodosius I restricted the term "catholic Christians" to who
believed in "the one deity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, in
equal majesty and in a holy Trinity". He called others "heretics".
(Edict of Thessalonica of 27 February 380). He was emphasizing on the quality
of the church not on the universality.
But St.
Ignatius of Antioch (died: 108 AD, Rome,
Italy) in his “Letter to the Smyrnaens”, used the word catholic in the
sense "universal" to describe the Church.
The Church is
catholic or universal in two ways.
1.
All regenerated
and baptized people are part of the Church. The church everywhere preach the
salvation through Jesus as the only means for it.
2.
The mission
of the Church is universal. The Church is commissioned to proclaim Christ to
the entire human race.
Matthew 28: 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit,
The Church is
Catholic because Christ is universally present in the Church. It is universal,
whole and complete. Catholic is fullness, perfection and wholeness. The
presence of Jesus Christ as the head of it makes it universal. As St. Ignatius
of Antioch said, “Where there is Christ Jesus, there is the catholic Church.” The
Church is whole and complete because it has the fullness of the truth.
At the same
time church is local also. All local churches are at the same time local in the
sense of serving a locality and catholic or universal being a part of the one
Church.
Since the Church is
catholic in the sense of universal, it is not bound to a particular human
authority. It is not merely a federation of local congregations. It is catholic
as it possesses the unity in orthodoxy despite varied locations, languages,
ethnicities, races, or denominations.
Apostolic Church
The fourth
sign of a true church is that it is apostolic. Apostolic means that the church
is rooted in the historic teachings of the apostles. The Church is founded in
the Scripture given to her through the apostles, which convey the faith once and
for all.
The episcopal
churches believe in the apostolic succession. They believe that the bishops
represent a direct, uninterrupted line of continuity and special powers from
the first Apostles of Jesus Christ. They have authority to confirm church
members, to ordain priests, to consecrate other bishops, and to rule over the
clergy and church members in their diocese.
The origin of
this doctrine is obscure. The episcopal churches interprets the New Testament
records in this connection, variously. While the Roman Catholic Church believes
that the first disciple of Jesus Christ is Peter, the Orthodox Church argues
that it is Andrew.
Different
denominations who accept apostolic succession as necessary for a valid ministry
has their own arguments. Their arguments are as follows:
It was
necessary for Christ to establish a ministry to carry out his work. So Christ
commissioned Apostles to continue His ministry. (Matthew 28:19, 20). The
Apostles in turn consecrated others to assist them and to continue the work. Thus
they created a hierarchical order of bishops and patriarchs. The bishops derive
their authority through a direct line of laying on of hands from the apostles.
Episcopal
churches also argue that there are evidences to prove that this doctrine was
accepted in the very early church. About AD 95 St. Clement, bishop of Rome, in
his letter to the church in Corinth (First Letter of Clement), expressed the
view that bishops succeeded the Apostles.
In Roman
Catholicism the doctrine of apostolic succession is strengthened by the Petrine
theory. Petrine theory argues that Jesus designated St. Peter, His disciple, as
the first apostle and His representative on earth. Jesus appointed Peter as the
leader of the church. His ministry was passed on to Peter’s successors as
bishops of Rome. Peter received this authority, according to the theory, when
Jesus referred to him as the rock of the church.
Matthew 16: 18, 19
18 "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I
will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
19 "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and
whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on
earth will be loosed in heaven."
So the Roman
Catholic Church considered Peter as the first Pope. They believe that the
papacy is a continuous line of apostolic succession.
Matthew 16:
18, 19 raise some questions that should be answered to establish the apostolic
succession theory.
1.
What was
Jesus talking about - the visible church or invisible church?
2.
The true
church is visible or invisible? What did Jesus wish to establish?
3.
Can the
invisible church be founded on a human being?
4.
Did Jesus
really mean that He would build the Church on Peter?
In verse 18,
Matthew used two different Greek words to say Peter and “rock”. For Peter
Matthew wrote “petros” (pet'-ros). This word signifies a material. It means “a rock, a stone, a detached but large fragment”.
Matthew used the Greek word “petra” (pet'-ra) to say rock. This word
signifies a person. It means, “a rock, a large stone, the massive living rock”.
Since Matthew used two different words to say Peter and rock, we may
rightly assume that, he wanted to covey different meanings. Jesus was not
talking about one and the same thing, by “Peter” and “rock”.
Not only that, neither in the Acts of the Apostles nor in the epistles
we find any reference to the primacy of Peter above others. No scripture
mention that Peter was the head of the whole church. Peter never claimed such a
position.
In Acts 2: 47 it is written that, “And
the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” It is not that
Peter, being the head of the church, added those who believed. Afterwards, many
joined the Church through the ministry of Apostles and evangelists. None was
granted membership by Peter. Those who believed, saved and baptized were added
to the Church.
The Roman
Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, Assyrian Church of the
East, Swedish Lutheran and Anglican churches accept the doctrine of apostolic
succession. They all believe that the only valid ministry is based on bishops
whose office has descended from the Apostles. They do not accepts the
ministries of the other denominations as valid. Roman Catholics generally
regard the ministry of the Eastern Orthodox churches as valid. But they do not
accept the Anglican ministry. Some Anglicans, on the other hand, consider episcopacy
necessary to the “well-being” but not to the “being” of the church.
The majority
of the Protest groups do not accept apostolic succession. They believe in the
succession of the apostolic doctrines. The New Testament gives no clear
direction concerning the ministry or the governance of the church. Various
types of ministers existed even in the early church. So the apostolic
succession, as taught by the episcopal churches cannot be established
historically. There is no scripture to support the theory of apostolic
succession through bishops. The true apostolic succession is spiritual and
doctrinal rather than ritualistic.
Apostle Paul
advised the Thessalonian church to hold fast on the traditions taught by him by
word and epistles, not on a hierarchical order of human succession.
2 Thessalonians 2: 15 Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the
traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.
Here, the
Greek word paradosis (par-ad'-os-is) is used for “traditions”. The word signify
“a giving over which is done by word of mouth
or in writing. It is tradition by instruction, narrative, precept”. It has a
similarity with the Jewish traditional oral laws. It is not about any cultural,
social or human traditions.
So the word
“traditions” here signifies anything delivered in the way of teaching by the
apostle. It is obviously the doctrines delivered by the apostle to the Thessalonians,
through his preaching, private conversation and the epistles. They were revelations
from God, spoken or written by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It
is not refereeing to the apostolic succession practiced by the episcopal churches.
Paul is here admonishing the church at Thessalonica to adhere and practice the
traditions of the apostle’s teachings.
The Church is
apostolic both in a traditional and a prophetic sense. The Church’s foundational beliefs continue in the living traditions
of the apostles of Jesus. The apostolic
tradition is the continuity of the teachings and morals of the apostles as
revealed in the Bible. The apostolic
continuity is preserved by the Scripture. A church is apostolic if it believes
and practices the supreme authority of the apostolic scriptures. Prophetic apostolicity is the renewal by the continued work of the Holy
Spirit. Holy Spirit enables the Church to preserve and continue the
teachings of the apostles.
Let me sum up this
brief discussion with some words of the great theologian R.C. Sproul (13 February 1939 - 14 December 2017). The Nicene Creed remains a key confessional statement of Christian
faith. The “one holy catholic and
apostolic Church” reminds us that we are members of a body of believers
extending across time and many lands.
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