Creeds
Without a doubt, perhaps the most important creedal formula that emerged from the early Church is what we call the Nicene Creed.
With Constantine’s gradual acceptance of Christianity and eventual stamp of approval on it, the persecuted church slowly crept out of the shadows and emerged as a public front.
As it did so, and disparate groups from across the empire began to interact, it began to become increasingly clear that there was not unanimity of voice among the Bishops of the church as to the nature and person of Christ.
The most vocal opponent of the essential Deity of Jesus Christ was a powerful teacher named Arius from the region of Alexandria. His belief was that only the Father was truly God and that the Son was essentially different from the Father in both essence and nature.
As the controversy heightened and the implications of this false teaching began to be clearly seen, the early church called a Council of all the Bishops to come to Nicaea to wrestle with the issue from Scripture in 325 A.D.
Building on the pattern laid down by the Apostles and Elders in the Book of Acts chapter 15, and the other New Testament commands to examine doctrine carefully, the Church then wrestled with ideas of Arius and his followers to measure them carefully by the lens of Revelation.
It is important to note, when the early church formulated and wrote the Nicaean Creed, they were not inventing the Doctrine of the Trinity nor the Deity of Christ, they were simply codifying what they found clearly taught in Scripture.
As a result of the council, the teachings of Arius were refuted and condemned and the Church was established on the clear teaching of the Word of God. Interestingly, Satan in his diabolical ways has often inserted the leaven of Arius’s teachings back into splinter groups of the church that lead people away from the true Jesus to a lesser one.
As we noted last week in the research done by both Lifeway and Ligonier Ministries, there is a growing lack of doctrinal discernment afoot in the church today that lends itself to leaving a vacuum for these errors to grow. So let us always be diligent to stand for the faith once delivered to the saints.
Next week we will reproduce the text of the creed so you can read it yourself.
Because of grace,
Tim
