The Orthodox Faith – The Symbol of Faith (16b)

After this long-winded discussion of the infallibility of the Pope versus the infallibility of the whole church we now come to the famous “filioque” disagreement between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church and how it reflects a differing understanding of authority in the Church.

At every Divine Liturgy and Baptism we say or sing the Creed, commonly called the Nicene Creed, although this is not completely accurate, as we will see.

In the early 4th century AD in the city of Alexandria in Egypt, a priest names Arius was teaching that Jesus was not truly God. Arius was willing to say that Christ was the first-made creature, the greatest being ever created. He was willing to say that Jesus was the Word of God, the Son of God, but not truly God.

Strangely, many Christians agreed, including high-ranking priests and bishops, because they thought if there is only one God anyone else, including Jesus Christ, could not be God, but must be a creature. This is a development of pagan ideas of the oneness of God. Although we Christians believe in one God through our faith we know that Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are truly God. This challenges human reasoning, but this is the faith of the Church.  This denial of the divinity of Christ created a storm of controversy within the church, but also within Roman society, so much so that the Emperor Constantine called a council of bishops in 325 AD to settle the matter. After intense debate the bishops compiled the Creed which we recite at every Liturgy. The bishops were meeting in the city of Nicea so this Creed is called the Nicene Creed.

This is the text of that Creed:

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not made, being of one essence with the Father; By whom all things were made; Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; He suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Spirit.

This Creed clearly states the divinity of Christ. Jesus Christ is called “true God of true God, begotten, not made, light of light, of one essence with the Father…” The bishops debated whether the term “essence” should be used because it is not in the Bible, but the council fathers decided that the word expresses the church’s belief in the divinity of Christ. If someone denies this teaching that person is not an Orthodox Christian.

Looking at the Creed we see that it ends with the words “And the Holy Spirit.” The reason the Creed ends so abruptly with these words is because the subject of the council’s work was to affirm the divinity of Christ. The Holy Spirit was not the primary subject of discussion.

However, after the adoption of the Nicene Creed late in the 4th century AD some people began to question the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Some were say the Spirit is a lesser divinity. Therefore, a council was called in Constantinople in 381 AD to discuss and settle this issue. An addition was made to the Nicene Creed:

…. And 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. In one holy catholic and apostolic Church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

As we can clearly see, the divinity of the Holy Spirit is expressed. Therefore, these two parts of the Creed are called the Nicene Creed, although more properly it should be the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. The Creed is often called the Symbol of Faith. It is the fundamental expression of the Orthodox faith, held by Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism and many Protestants. Again, if one does not accept the Creed one is simply not a traditional Christian.

One would have thought that this common confession of faith would have settled all dogmatic questions, but unfortunately it has led to more controversy among Christians, leading to schism, which still exists at the present time as we shall see in the next article.

Fr. John

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