Tag Archives: Nicene

Biblical Nuggets: The Nicene Creed


The Nicene Creed

We believe in one God the Father, all-Sovereign 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 the Father before all the ages, light of light, true God of true God begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, through whom all things were made: who for us men and for our salvation came down from the heavens, and was made flesh of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man, and was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was burried and rose again on the third day according to the scriptures, and ascended into the heavens, and sits on the right hand of the Father, and comes again with glory to judge living and dead, of whose kingdom there shall be no end:

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and the Life-giver, that proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped together and glorified together, who spoke through the prophets.

In one holy Catholic and Apostolic church:

We acknowledge one baptism unto remission of sins. We look for a resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come.

Council of Constantinople, 381 A.D.

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Sunday Terminology: Docetism


Docetism: A term used to refer to a theological perspective among some in the early church who regarded the sufferings and the human aspects of Christ as imaginary or apparent instead of being part of a real incarnation. The basic thesis of such docetics was that if Christ suffered he was not divine, and if he was God he could not suffer. The combination of the two natures, Son of David, and Son of God, affirmed by Paul in Rom. 1:3-4 was apparently already under attack in the Johannine community (see 1John 4:2; 2John 7)). Dosetic thinking became an integral part of the perspective of Gnostics, who viewed Jesus as the alien messenger from outside the present evil world and one who was untouched by the evil creator. This alien Jesus came to awaken Gnostics to their destiny outside the realm of creation. While the framers of the Apostle’s and Nicene Creeds, were opposed to docetic teaching and clearly assumed the two natures of Jesus, the drafters of the Definition of Chalcedon (AD 451) made explicit the Christian teaching concerning Jesus Christ as “truly God and truly man.”[1]


[1] Elwell, Walter A. Evangelical dictionary of theology (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1984), 326. Print..