Statement Of Faith
Isaiah 54 Ministries publishes no specific statement of faith, although we are enthusiastic proponents of the Lausanne Covenant, a widely-adopted declaration of evangelical faith and purpose drafted in the 1980s. A copy of this covenant is available on numerous Web sites including those of the AD2000 & Beyond Movement and the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. It is also reprinted below.
Isaiah
54 Ministries' theological worldview is perhaps best defined as "conservative
charismatic." We believe that God has released His gifts and power on the earth
today, but we also believe there must be accountability to God's Word and His
church. We are convinced that prayer and spiritual warfare are an essential part
of our mission to extend Christ's kingdom on the earth, but we also know that
these practices can only remain healthy and effective if they are exercised in a
spirit of wisdom and humility.
The Lausanne
Covenant
International Congress on World Evangelization
Lausanne, Switzerland, July 1974
Introduction
We members of the Church of Jesus Christ from more than 150 nations,
participants in the International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne,
praise God for his great salvation and rejoice in the fellowship he has given us
with himself and with each other. We are deeply stirred by what God is doing in
our day, moved to penitence by our failures and challenged by the unfinished
task of evangelization. We believe the gospel is God's good news for the whole
world and we are determined by his grace to obey Christ's commission to proclaim
it to all mankind and to make disciples of every nation. We desire therefore to
affirm our faith and our resolve and to make public our covenant.
1. The Purpose of God
We affirm our belief in the one-eternal God, Creator and Lord of the
world, Father Son and Holy Spirit who governs all things according to the
purpose of his will. He has been calling out from the world a people for himself
and sending his people back into the world to be his servants and his witnesses
for the extension of his kingdom, the building up of Christ's body and the glory
of his name. We confess with shame that we have often denied our calling and
failed in our mission by becoming conformed to the world or by withdrawing from
it. Yet we rejoice that even when borne by earthen vessels the gospel is still a
precious treasure. To the task of making that treasure known in the power of the
Holy Spirit we desire to dedicate ourselves anew.
(Isa. 40:28;: Matt. 28:19; Eph. 1:11; Acts; 15:14; John 17:6, 18; Eph 4:12; 1
Cor. 5:10; Rom. 12:2, II Cor. 4:7)
2. The Authority and Power of the Bible
We affirm the divine inspiration and truthfulness and authority of both Old and
New Testament Scriptures in their entirety as the only written word of God
without error in all that it affirms and the only infallible rule of faith and
practice. We also affirm the power of God's word to accomplish his purpose of
salvation. The message of the Bible is addressed to all mankind. For God's
revelation in Christ and in Scripture is unchangeable. Through the Holy Spirit
still speaks today. He illumines the mind of God s people in every culture to
perceive its truth freshly through our own eyes and thus discloses to the whole
Church ever more of the many-colored wisdom of God.
(II Tim.3:16; II Pet. 1:21; John 10:35; Isa. 55:11; 1 Cor. 1:21; Rom. 1:16;
Matt. 5:17; Jude 3; Eph. 1:17, 18; 3:10, 18)
3. The Uniqueness and Universality of Christ
We affirm that there is only one Saviour and only one gospel although there is a
wide diversity of evangelistic approaches. We recognize that all men have some
knowledge of God through his general revelation in nature. But we deny that this
can save for men suppress the truth by their unrighteousness. We also reject as
derogatory to Christ and the gospel every kind of syncretism and dialogue which
implies that Christ speaks equally through all religions and ideologies. Jesus
Christ being himself the only God-man who gave himself as the only ransom for
sinners is the only mediator between God and man. There is no other name by
which we must be saved. All men are perishing because of sin but God loves all
men not wishing that any should perish but that all should repent. Yet those who
reject Christ repudiate the joy of salvation and condemn themselves to eternal
separation from God. To proclaim Jesus as the "Saviour of the world" is not to
affirm that all men are either automatically or ultimately saved, still less to
affirm that all religions offer salvation in Christ. Rather it is to proclaim
God's love for world of sinners and to invite all men to respond to Him as
Saviour and Lord in the wholehearted personal commitment of repentance and
faith. Jesus Christ has been exalted above every other name; we long for the day
when every knee shall bow to him and every tongue shall confess him.
(Gal. 1:6-9; Rom. 1:8-32; I Tim. 2:5-6; Acts 4:12; John 3:16-19; II Pet.3:9; II
Thess. 1:7-9; John 4:42; Matt. 11:28; Eph. 1:20-21; Phil. 2:9-11)
4. The Nature of Evangelism
To evangelize is to spread the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and
was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures and that as the reigning
Lord he now offers the forgiveness of sins and the liberating gift of the Spirit
to all who repent and believe. Our Christian presence in the world is
indispensable to evangelism and so is that kind of dialogue whose purpose is to
listen sensitively in order to understand. But evangelism itself is the
proclamation of the historical biblical Christ as Saviour and Lord with a view
of persuading people to come to him personally and so be reconciled to God. In
issuing the gospel invitation we have no liberty to conceal the cost of
discipleship Jesus still calls all who would follow him to deny themselves take
up their cross and identify themselves with his new community. The results of
evangelism include obedience to Christ, incorporation into his Church and
responsible service in the world.
(I Cor. 15:3,4; Acts 2:32-39; John 20:21; I Cor. 1:23; II Cor. 4:5; 5:11, 20;
Luke 14:25-33; Mark 8:34; Acts 2:40, 47; Mark 10:43-45)
5. Christian Social Responsibility
We affirm that God is both the Creator and the judge of all men. We therefore
should shore his concern for justice and reconciliation throughout human society
and for the liberation of men from every kind of oppression. Because mankind is
mode in the image of God every person regardless of race, religion, color,
culture, class, sex, or age has an intrinsic dignity because of which he should
be respected and served, not exploited. Here too we express penitence both for
our neglect and for having sometimes regarded evangelism and social concern as
mutually exclusive. Although reconciliation with man is not reconciliation with
God nor is social action evangelism, nor is political liberation salvation,
nevertheless we affirm that evangelism and sociopolitical involvement are both
part of our Christian duty. For both are necessary expressions of our doctrines
of God and man, our love for our neighbor and our obedience to Jesus Christ. The
message of salvation implies also a message of judgment upon every form of
alienation, oppression and discrimination and we should not be afraid to
denounce evil and injustice wherever they exist. When people receive Christ they
are born again into his kingdom and must seek not only to exhibit but also to
spread his righteousness in the midst of an unrighteous world. The salvation we
claim should be transforming us in the totality of our personal and social
responsibilities. Faith without works is dead.
(Acts 17:26 31: Gen. 18:25; Isa. 1:17; Psa. 45:7; Gen. 1:26, 27; Jas. 3:9; Lev
19:18; Luke 6:27, 35; Jas. 2:14-26; John 3:3-5; Matt. 5:20; 6:33; II Cor 3:18;
Jas. 2:20)
6. The Church and Evangelism
We affirm that Christ sends his redeemed people into the world as the Father
sent him and that this calls for a similar deep and costly penetration of the
world. We need to break out of our ecclesiastical ghettos and permeate
non-Christian society. In the Church's mission of sacrificial service evangelism
is primary. World evangelization requires the whole Church to take the whole
gospel to the whole world. The Church is at the very center of God's cosmic
purpose and is his appointed means of spreading the gospel. But a church which
preaches the cross must itself be marked by the cross. It becomes a stumbling
block to evangelism when it betrays the gospel or lacks a living faith in God, a
genuine love for people, or scrupulous honesty in all things including promotion
and finance. The church is the community of God's people rather than an
institution, and must not be identified with any particular culture, social or
political system, or human ideology.
(John 17:18; 20:21; Matt. 28:19-20; Acts 1:8; 20:27; Eph. 1:9,10; 3:9-11; Gal.
6:14; II Cor. 6:3 4; II Tim. 2:19-21; Phil. 1:27)
7. Cooperation in Evangelism
We affirm that the Church's visible unity in truth is God's purpose. Evangelism
also summons us to unity because our oneness strengthens our witness, just as
our disunity undermines our gospel of reconciliation. We recognize, however,
that organizational unity may take many forms and does not necessarily forward
evangelism. Yet we who share the same biblical faith should be closely united in
fellowship, work and witness. We confess that our testimony has sometimes been
marred by sinful individualism and needless duplication. We pledge ourselves to
seek a deeper unity in truth, worship, holiness and mission. We urge the
development of regional and functional cooperation for the furtherance of the
Church's mission for strategic planning for mutual encouragement, and for the
sharing of resources and experience.
(John 17:21, Eph. 4:3, 4: John 13:35; Phil. 1:27; John 17:11-23)
8. Churches in Evangelistic Partnership
We rejoice that a new missionary era has dawned. The dominant role of Western
missions is fast disappearing. God is raising up from the younger churches a
great new resource for world evangelization and is thus demonstrating that the
responsibility to evangelize belongs to the whole body of Christ. All churches
should therefore be asking God and themselves what they should be doing both to
reach their own area and to send missionaries to other parts of the world. A
reevaluation of our missionary responsibility and role should be continuous.
Thus a growing partnership of churches will develop and the universal character
of Christ's Church will be more clearly exhibited. We also thank God for
agencies which labour in Bible translation and theological education, the mass
media, Christian literature, evangelism, missions, church renewal and other
specialist fields. They, too should engage in constant self-examination to
evaluate their effectiveness as part of the Church's mission.
(Rom. 1:8; Phil. 1:5; 4:15; Acts 13:3; I Thess. 1:6-8 )
9. The Urgency of the Evangelistic Task
More than 2,700 million people which is more than two thirds of mankind have yet
to be evangelized. We are ashamed that so many have been neglected it is a
standing rebuke to us and to the whole Church. There is now, however in many
parts of the world an unprecedented receptivity to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are
convinced that this is the time for churches and para-church agencies to pray
earnestly for the salvation of the unreached and to launch new efforts to
achieve world evangelization. A reduction of foreign missionaries and money in
an evangelized country may sometimes be necessary to facilitate the national
church's growth in self reliance and to release resources for unevangelized
areas. Missionaries should flow ever more freely from and to all six continents
in a spirit of humble service. The goal should be, by all available means and of
the earliest possible time, that every person will have the opportunity to hear
understand, and receive the good news. We cannot hope to attain this goal
without sacrifice. All of us are shocked by the poverty of millions and
disturbed by the injustices which cause it. Those of us who live in affluent
circumstances accept our duty to develop a simple lifestyle in order to
contribute more generously to both relief and evangelism.
(John 9:4 Matt. 9:35-38; Rom. 9:1-3; I Cor. 9:19-23; Mark 16:15; Isa. 58:6, 7;
Jas. 1:27: 2: 1-9; Matt. 25:31-46; Acts 2:44, 45; 4:34 35)
10. Evangelism and Culture
The development of strategies for world evangelization calls for imaginative
pioneering methods. Under God, the result will be the rise of churches deeply
rooted in Christ and closely related to their culture. Culture must always be
tested and judged by Scripture. Because man is God's creature, some of his
culture is rich in beauty and goodness. Because he is fallen, all of it is
tainted with sin and some of it is demonic. The gospel does not presuppose the
superiority of any culture to another, but evaluates all cultures according to
its own criteria of truth and righteousness and insists on moral absolutes in
every culture. Missions all too frequently have exported with the gospel on
alien culture and churches have sometimes been in bondage to culture rather than
to the Scripture. Christ's evangelists must humbly seek to empty themselves of
all but their personal authenticity in order to become the servants of others
and churches must seek to transform and enrich culture, all for the glory of
God.
(Mark 7:8, 9, 13; Gen. 4:21-22; I Cor. 9:19-23; Phil. 2:5-7; II Cor. 4:5)
11. Education and Leadership
We confess that we have sometimes pursued church growth at the expense of church
depth and divorced evangelism from Christian nurture. We also acknowledge that
some of our missions have been too slow to equip and encourage national leaders
to assume their rightful responsibilities. Yet we are committed to indigenous
principles, and long that every church will have national leaders who manifest a
Christian style of leadership in terms not of domination but of service. We
recognize that there is a great need to improve theological education especially
for church leaders. In every nation and culture there should be an effective
training program for pastors and laity in doctrine, discipleship, evangelism,
nurture and service. Such training programs should not rely on any stereotyped
methodology but should be developed by creative local initiative according to
biblical standards
(Col 1:27, 28; Acts 14:23; Tit. 1:5,9; Mark 10:42-45; Eph. 4:11, 12)
12. Spiritual Conflict
We believe that we are engaged in constant spiritual warfare with the
principalities and powers of evil, who are seeking to overthrow the Church and
frustrate its task of world evangelization. We know our need to equip ourselves
with God's armor and to fight this battle with the spiritual weapons of truth
and prayer. For we detect the activity of our enemy, not only in false
ideologies outside the Church, but also inside it in false gospels which twist
Scripture and put man in the place of God. We need both watchfulness and
discernment to safeguard the biblical gospel. We acknowledge that we ourselves
are not immune to worldliness of thought and action, that is a surrender to
secularism. For example although careful studies of church growth both numerical
and spiritual are right and valuable we have sometimes neglected them. At other
times desirous to ensure a response to the gospel we have compromised our
message, manipulated our hearers through pressure techniques and become unduly
preoccupied with statistics or even dishonest in our use of them. All this is
worldly. The Church must be in the world; the world must not be in the Church.
(Eph. 6:12, II Cor. 4:3,4; Eph. 6:11, 13-18, II Cor. 10:3-5; 1 John 2:18-26;
4:1-3; Gal. 1:6-9; II cor. 2:17; 4:2, John 17:15)
13. Freedom and Persecution
It is the God-appointed duty of every government to secure conditions of peace
justice and liberty in which the Church may obey God, serve the Lord Christ, and
preach the gospel without interference. We therefore pray for the leaders of the
nations and call upon them to guarantee freedom of thought and conscience and
freedom to practice and propagate religion in accordance with the will of God
and as set forth in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We also express
our deep concern for all who have been unjustly imprisoned and especially for
our brethren who are suffering for their testimony to the Lord Jesus. We promise
to pray and work for their freedom. At the some time we refuse to be intimidated
by their fate. God helping us, we too will seek to stand against injustice and
to remain faithful to the gospel whatever the cost. We do not forget the
warnings of Jesus that persecution is inevitable.
(I Tim. 1:1-4; Acts 4:19; 5:19; Col. 3:24; Heb. 13:1-3; Luke 4:18; Gal. 5:11:
6:12; Matt. 5:10-12; John 15:18-21)
14. The Power of the Holy Spirit
We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Father sent his Spirit to bear
witness to his Son without his witness, ours is futile. Conviction of sin, faith
in Christ, new birth and Christian growth are all his work. Further the Holy
Spirit is a missionary spirit; thus evangelism should arise spontaneously from a
Spirit-filled church. A church that is not a missionary church is contradicting
itself and quenching the Spirit. Worldwide evangelization will become realistic
possibility only when the Spirit renews the Church in truth and wisdom, faith,
holiness, love and power. We therefore call upon all Christians to pray for such
a visitation of the sovereign Spirit of God that all his fruit may appear in all
his people and that all his gifts may enrich the body of Christ. Only then will
the whole Church become a fit instrument in his hands, that the whole earth may
hear his voice.
(II Cor. 2:4; John 15:26, 27; 16:8-11; I Cor. 12:3; John 3:68; II Cor. 3:18;
John 7:37-39; I Thess. 5:19; Acts 1:8; Psa. 85:4-7; 67:1-3; Gal. 5:22-23; I Cor.
12:4-31; Rom. 12:3-8)
15. The Return of Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in power and
glory to consummate his salvation and his judgment. This promise of his coming
is a further spur to our evangelism for we remember his words that the gospel
must first be preached to all nations. We believe that the interim period
between Christ's ascension and return is to be filled with the mission of the
people of God, who have no liberty to stop before the End. We also remember his
warning that false Christs and false prophets will arise as precursors of the
final Antichrist. We therefore reject as a proud self-confident dream the notion
that man can ever build a utopia on earth. Our Christian conscience is that God
will perfect his kingdom and we look forward with eager anticipation to that
day, and to the new heaven and earth in which righteousness will dwell and God
will reign forever. Meanwhile, we rededicate ourselves to the service of Christ
and of men, in joyful submission to his authority over the whole of our lives.
(Mark 14:62; Heb. 9:28; Mark 13:10; Acts 1:8-11; Matt. 28:20; Mark 13:21-23;
John 2:18; 4:1-3; Luke 12:32; Rev. 21:1-5; II Pet. 3:13; Matt. 28:18)
Conclusion
Therefore, in the light of this our faith and our resolve we enter into a solemn
covenant with God and with each other to pray, to plan and to work together for
the evangelization of the whole world. We call upon others to join us. May God
help us by his grace and for his glory to be faithful to this our covenant!
Amen
Alleluia!
The Nicene Creed
Isaiah 54 Ministries also adheres to "The Nicene Creed"
The Following Information About The Nicene Creed Was Copied From:
http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/nicene.htm
The Nicene Creed is the most
widely accepted and used brief statements of the Christian Faith. In liturgical
churches, it is said every Sunday as part of the Liturgy. It is Common Ground to
East Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Calvinists, and many other
Christian groups. Many groups that do not have a tradition of using it in their
services nevertheless are committed to the doctrines it teaches.
(Someone may ask, "What about the Apostles' Creed?" Traditionally, in the West,
the Apostles' Creed is used at Baptisms, and the Nicene Creed at the Eucharist
[AKA the Mass, the Liturgy, the Lord's Supper, or the Holy Communion.] The East
uses only the Nicene Creed.)
I here present the Nicene Creed in two English translations, The first is the
traditional one, in use with minor variations since 1549, The second is a modern
version, that of The Interdenominational Committee on Liturgical Texts. Notes
and comment by [James E. Kiefer] follow.
Traditional Wording
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 only begotten Son of God,
begotten of his Father before all worlds,
God of God, Light of Light,
very God of very God,
begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father;
by whom all things were made;
who for us men and for our salvation
came down from heaven,
and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost
of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man;
and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered and was buried;
and the third day he rose again
according to the Scriptures,
and ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of the Father;
and he shall come again, with glory,
to judge both the quick and the dead;
whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord, and Giver of Life,
who proceedeth from the Father [and the Son];
who with the Father and the Son together
is worshipped and glorified;
who spake by the Prophets.
And I believe one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church;
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins;
and I look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. AMEN.
Modern Wording
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father [and the Son].
With the Father and the Son
he is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. AMEN.
NOTE: The notes
that appear in small type on this page were written by James E. Kiefer, and
originally posted to Christia.
NOTES AND COMMENT:
When the Apostles' Creed was drawn up, the chief enemy was
Gnosticism, which denied that Jesus was truly Man; and the emphases of the
Apostles' Creed reflect a concern with repudiating this error.
When the Nicene Creed was drawn up, the chief enemy was Arianism, which denied
that Jesus was fully God. Arius was a presbyter (elder) in Alexandria in Egypt,
in the early 300's. He taught that the Father, in the beginning, created (or
begot) the Son, and that the Son, in conjunction with the Father, then proceeded
to create the world. The result of this was to make the Son a created being, and
hence not God in any meaningful sense. It was also suspiciously like the
theories of those Gnostics and pagans who held that God was too perfect to
create something like a material world, and so introduced one or more
intermediate beings between God and the world. God created A, who created B, who
created C, . . . who created Z, who created the world. Alexander, Bishop of
Alexandria, sent for Arius and questioned him. Arius stuck to his position, and
was finally excommunicated by a council of Egyptian bishops. He went to
Nicomedia in Asia, where he wrote letters defending his position to various
bishops. Finally, the Emperor Constantine summoned a council of Bishops in Nicea
(across the straits from modern Istanbul), and there in 325 the Bishops of the
Church, by a decided majority, repudiated Arius and produced the first draft of
what is now called the Nicene Creed. A chief spokesman for the full deity of
Christ was Athanasius, deacon of Alexandria, assistant (and later successor) to
the aging Alexander. The Arian position has been revived in our own day by the
Watchtower Society (the JW's), who explicitly hail Arius as a great witness to
the truth.
I here print the Creed modern wording) a second time, with notes inserted.
* We believe in one God,
* the Father, the Almighty,
* maker of heaven and earth,
* of all that is, seen and unseen.
* We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
* the only son of God,
Here and elsewhere (such as John 1:14) where the Greek has MONOGENETOS HUIOS, an
English translation may read either "only Son" or "only begotten Son." The Greek
is ambiguous. The root GEN is found in words like "genital, genetics,
generation," and suggests begetting. However, it is also found in words like
"genus" and suggests family or sort or kind. Accordingly, we may take
MONOGENETOS to mean either "only begotten" or "one-of-a-kind, only, sole,
unique."
* eternally begotten of the Father,
Here the older translation has "begotten of the Father before all worlds." One
might suppose that this means, "before the galaxies were formed," or something
of the kind. But in fact the English word "world" used to mean something a
little different. It is related to "were" (pronounced "weer"), an old word for
"man," as in "werewolf" or "weregild." (Compare with Latin VIR.) Hence a "world"
was originally a span of time equal to the normal lifespan of a man. Often in
the KJV Bible, one finds "world" translating the Greek AION ("eon"), and a
better translation today would be "age." (Thus, for example, in Matthew 24:3,
the question is one of "the end of the age," which makes it possible to
understand what follows as a description of the destruction of Jerusalem in the
year 70, and of the end of an era in the spiritual history of mankind. But I
digress.) So here we have "begotten of the Father before all times, before all
ages." Arius was fond of saying, "The Logos is not eternal. God begat him, and
before he was begotten, he did not exist." The Athanasians replied that the
begetting of the Logos was not an event in time, but an eternal relationship.
* God from God, Light from Light,
A favorite analogy of the Athanasians was the following: Light is continuously
streaming forth from the sun. (In those days, it was generally assumed that
light was instantaneous, so that there was no delay at all between the time that
a ray of light left the sun and the time it struck the earth.) The rays of light
are derived from the sun, and not vice versa. But it is not the case that first
the sun existed and afterwards the Light. It is possible to imagine that the sun
has always existed, and always emitted light. The Light, then, is derived from
the sun, but the Light and the sun exist simultaneously throughout eternity.
They are co-eternal. Just so, the Son exists because the Father exists, but
there was never a time before the Father produced the Son. The analogy is
further appropriate because we can know the sun only through the rays of light
that it emits. To see the sunlight is to see the sun. Just so, Jesus says, "He
who has seen me has seen the Father." (John 14:9)
* true God from true God,
* begotten, not made,
This line was inserted by way of repudiating Arius' teaching that the Son was
the first thing that the Father created, and that to say that the Father begets
the Son is simply another way of saying that the Father has created the Son.
Arius said that if the Father has begotten the Son, then the Son must be
inferior to the Father, as a prince is inferior to a king. Athanasius replied
that a son is precisely the same sort of being as his father, and that the only
son of a king is destined himself to be a king. It is true that an earthly son
is younger than his father, and that there is a time when he is not yet what he
will be. But God is not in time. Time, like distance, is a relation between
physical events, and has meaning only in the context of the physical universe.
When we say that the Son is begotten of the Father, we do not refer to an event
in the remote past, but to an eternal and timeless relation between the Persons
of the Godhead. Thus, while we say of an earthly prince that he may some day
hope to become what his father is now, we say of God the Son that He is
eternally what God the Father is eternally.
* of one being with the Father.
This line: "of one essence with the Father, of one substance with the Father,
consubstantial with the Father," (in Greek, HOMO-OUSIOS TW PATRI) was the
crucial one, the acid test. It was the one formula that the Arians could not
interpret as meaning what they believed. Without it, they would have continued
to teach that the Son is good, and glorious, and holy, and a Mighty Power, and
God's chief agent in creating the world, and the means by which God chiefly
reveals Himself to us, and therefore deserving in some sense to be called
divine. But they would have continued to deny that the Son was God in the same
sense in which the Father is God. And they would have pointed out that, since
the Council of Nicea had not issued any declaration that they could not accept,
it followed that there was room for their position inside the tent of Christian
doctrine, as that tent had been defined at Nicea. Arius and his immediate
followers would have denied that they were reducing the Son to the position of a
high-ranking angel. But their doctrine left no safeguard against it, and if they
had triumphed at Nicea, even in the negative sense of having their position
acknowledged as a permissible one within the limits of Christian orthodoxy, the
damage to the Christian witness to Christ as God made flesh would have been
irreparable.
Incidentally, HOMOOUSIOS is generally written without the hyphen. The OU (in
Greek as in French) is pronounced as in "soup", "group", and so on, and the word
has five syllables HO-mo-OU-si-os, with accents on first and third, as shown.
The Greek root HOMO, meaning "same," is found in English words like "homosexual"
and "homogenized", and is not to be confused with the Latin word HOMO, meaning
"man, human".
The language finally adopted in the East was that the Trinity consists of three
HYPOSTASES (singular HYPOSTASIS) united in one OUSIA. The formula used in the
West, and going back at least to Tertullian (who wrote around 200, and whose
writings are the oldest surviving Christian treatises written in Latin), is that
the Trinity consists of three PERSONAE (singular PERSONA) united in one
SUBSTANTIA. In English, we say "Three Persons in one Substance." Unfortunately,
the Greek HYPO-STASIS and the Latin SUB-STANTIA each consists of an element
meaning "under, below" (as in "hypodermic", "hypothermia", etc) followed by an
element meaning "stand". Thus it was natural for a Greek-speaker, reading a
Latin document that referred to One SUBSTANTIA to substitute mentally a
reference to One HYPOSTASIS, and to be very uncomfortable, while a Latin-speaker
would have the same problem in reverse. Thus the seeds were sown for a breakdown
of communication.
* Through him all things were made.
This is a direct quote from John 1:3. Before the insertion of the HOMO-OUSIOS
clause, this line immediately followed "begotten, not made." The two lines go
naturally together. The Son is not a created thing. Rather, He is the agent
through Whom all created things come to be. Inserting the HOMO-OUSIOS at this
point breaks up the flow, and if I had been present at the Council of Nicea, I
would have urged the bishops to insert it one line further down instead. In the
older translation, in particular, someone reading the Creed is likely to
understand it as referring to "The Father by whom all things were made." The
newer translation, by revising the English wording, makes this misreading less
likely.
* For us and for our salvation
The older translation has, "for us men." Now, while English has in common
current usage the one word "man" to do duty both for gender-inclusive ("human")
and for gender-specific ("male"), Latin has "homo, homin-" for gender-inclusive
and "vir" for gender-specific, while Greek has "anthropos" for gender-inclusive
and "aner, andro-" for gender-specific. (Given the demand for a similar
distinction in English, I have been arguing for a gender-inclusive use of "man",
and the revival of the older word "were" (as in "werewolf" and "weregild") in
the gender-specific sense. But so far I have had but scant success.) Where the
older translation of the Creed is used, with its "for us men" at this point, a
feminist might consider complaining of sexist language. But the Greek and Latin
wording here are both gender-inclusive, and so a feminist, reading the Creed in
either of those languages, ought to find nothing that will upset him.
* he came down from heaven:
* by the power of the Holy Spirit
* he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
* and was made man.
* For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
* he suffered death and was buried.
You will note that the older translation has here simply, "He suffered and was
buried" (Latin, "passus et sepultus est"). Apparently by the time of Nicea, it
was no longer necessary to emphasize, to spell out unmistakably, that Christ had
really died at Calvary, as it had been spelled out in the Apostles' Creed. And
indeed, I have never heard anyone try to argue that the Creed here leaves a
loophole for those who want to believe that Jesus merely swooned on the Cross.
So apparently the Nicene Fathers were right in supposing that their language
would not be misunderstood. However, the framers of the new translation decided
to make the meaning unmistakable and to close this particular loophole. And I
for one am not sorry.
* On the third day he rose again
* in accordance with the Scriptures;
The wording here is borrowed from 1 Corinthians 15:4. The older translation has
"according to the Scriptures," which in terms of modern language is misleading.
Today, when we say, "It will rain tomorrow, according to the weatherman," we
mean, "The weatherman says that it will rain, but whether he is right is another
question." And this is clearly not what either St. Paul or the Nicene Fathers
had in mind. The newer translation is an improvement. I would have suggested,
"in fulfillment of the Scriptures," which is clearly what is meant.
* he ascended into heaven
* and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
* He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
* and his kingdom will have no end.
*
* We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
* who proceeds from the Father [and the Son].
The words shown in brackets, "and from the Son," are a Western addition to the
Creed as it was originally agreed on by a Council representing the whole Church,
East and West. They correspond to the Latin word FILIOQUE (FILI = Son, -O =
from, -QUE = and; pronounced with accent on the O), and the controversy about
them is accordingly known as the Filioque controversy.
If we are looking for a statement that can be taken as common ground by all
Christians, East and West alike, it clearly cannot include the FILIOQUE. On the
other hand, Western Christians will be unwilling to have it supposed that they
are repudiating the statement that the Spirit proceeds jointly from Father and
Son. I accordingly suggest that we print the Creed with the FILIOQUE either in
brackets or omitted altogether, but with the understanding that, while assenting
to the resulting statement does not commit anyone to belief in the Dual
Procession of the Spirit, neither does it commit anyone to disbelief in the Dual
Procession.
I reserve extensive comments on the Dual Procession, the history of the belief,
and the reasons for and against believing in it, for a separate essay, called
CREED FILIOQUE.
* With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.
* He has spoken through the Prophets.
This line was directed against the view that the Holy Spirit did not exist, or
was not active, before Pentecost.
* We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
Many Christians from various backgrounds will want to know, "Precisely what
would I be agreeing to if I signed this?" The definition of catholic and
catholicity is contained in the introduction to this book.
(Isaiah54 note: catholic means universal Church, or in
other words, "the entire Body of Christ as seen physically through the lives of
all True Believers)
* We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
* We look for the resurrection of the dead,
* and the life of the world to come. AMEN.
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