What do you believe? Do you know?
Can you describe it in detail?
Are you able to defend it? In love and truth, I ask you to examine what
you believe, and how strongly you believe it.
Americans generally believe in things like freedom,
individual rights, life, liberty, the ownership of private property, and the rule of law. Over the years many Americans have sacrificed
their lives for our liberty and that of other peoples. These beliefs have sway in the affairs of
this temporal life and for the future of our progeny.
Here, I will ask you to think beyond worldly
affairs. What do you believe about
God? Do believe in life after
death? How does that impact the way you
live your life now, and how you will spend eternity? There is considerable disagreement about the
answers to these questions. Any number
of major and minor religions and philosophies try to teach us about how we
ought to live life.
This is a Christian blog, and we will be examining
Christian beliefs. I will leave it to non-Christians to explain their religious
beliefs or philosophies; as I think it would be presumptuous for me to do so. The numbers of people in the United States
who identify themselves with other religions is growing, as is number of
atheists and agnostics. Generally, studies
show a gradual decline in attendance at religious services in recent years.
The degree to which Christians follow the faith
as the Holy Bible explains it varies widely.
A majority of people who say they are Christians do not study the Bible regularly. Some of us are fed spiritually by listening
to religious programming on the radio and television, by reading books by Christian
authors, or using other devotional materials.
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Before Johannes Gutenberg’s printing
press became operational (around 1450 AD), the common people had no access to
the scriptures, and were dependent on the priesthood (often largely ignorant of
the Word themselves) for knowledge about the faith. At least they had an excuse.
The Roman emperor Constantine (a Christian
convert) convened a conference of Bishops at Nicaea around 325 AD and forced
them to come to a consensus about what constituted Christian doctrine. One outcome of the conference was the Nicene
Creed, which was a short but accurate summary of what Christians believe. It was not all inclusive, but it was concise
enough for the common man to memorize.
The intent was to make the faithful less vulnerable to heretical
doctrines prevalent at the time, and to create a unified religion that Constantine
could use to help unify the Roman Empire.
The Nicene Creed is still widely accepted
throughout the various Christian denominations today. It follows:
Modern
Nicene Creed
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, one in Being with the Father.
Through
him all things were made.
For
us (mankind) and for our salvation he came down from heaven:
by
the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
For
our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died, and was
buried.
On
the third day he rose again in fulfillment of 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.
Comments:
The statement in parenthesis “and the Son”
is consistent with scripture. It was
added later to counter certain heretical teachings. Scripture often refers to The Holy Spirit as
the Spirit of God, or the Spirit, but there are also many passages where the
Holy Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of Christ. Examples include: 1Peter
1:10-12, and Philippians 1:19.
The word “Catholic” can have different
meanings, depending on the reader:
1. Of,
pertaining to, or designating the universal Christian church.
2. Of,
pertaining to, or designating the ancient undivided Christian church.
3. Of,
pertaining to, or designating any of those churches that have claimed to be
representative of the ancient undivided church, especially the Roman Catholic
Church.
4. Of,
pertaining to, or designating the Western Church, as opposed to the Eastern
Orthodox Church.[1]
I believe that there is one true church that
is composed of members from all denominations who are saved by faith in Jesus
Christ.
Throughout the history of the Christian
church, lot of Creeds, Confessions, and Catechisms have been written. The Creeds in particular, are not intended to
be all inclusive. Creeds are generally
summaries of the main points of the faith intended to promote orthodoxy. Some of the Confessions attempt to be more
complete, and they can be quite lengthy.
To the point, the Nicene Creed is a brief summary of what Christians
believe.
What we believe about temporal things
affects the way we live, and possibly whether we live or die. What believe about spiritual things also
affects how we live, and sometimes whether we lose our earthly lives. However, it also determines our eternal
destiny; with God in perpetual glory or burning with Satan in a lake of fire.
Please give Jesus a fair hearing. Go to Him in prayer and ask Him to reveal real
love and truth to you. Respond to His
call, and He will save you.
[1]
Reader’s Digest Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1st ed.
(Pleasantville, New York: The Reader’s Digest Association, 1987), p. 285.
