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The Fundamental Christian Faith

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The Fundamental Christian Faith THE FUNDAMENTAL CHRISTIAN FAITH THE ORIGIN, HISTORY AND INTERPRETATION OF THE APOSTLES' AND NICENE CREEDS BY CHARLES AUGUSTUS BRIGGS, D.D., D.Litt. Charles Butler Graduate Professor of Theological Encyclopedia and Symbolics, Union Theological Seminary, New York NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1913 THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY »«TOB ItWIV »N0 TILDEN . -.l.'-OMt. P. 19:3 Copyright, 1913, by CHARLES SCR1BNER-S SONS Published March, 1013 MY DEAR FRIEND MISS EMILY OGDEN BUTLER ifi FAITHFUL DAUGHTER OF AN HONORED FATHER K, 1 PREFACE For some years the author has been engaged in teaching Symbolics in the Union Theological Sem inary. He has made a careful study of all the Sym bols of the Christian Church by the use of the best methods of Historical Criticism and Interpretation. There are several theological tendencies in these times. There is the reactionary tendency, which still insists upon the whole doctrine of the Confessions of Faith of the seventeenth century, at the cost of the perpetuation of theological warfare within the Church as well as without. There is the radical tendency, which would do away with all credal statements, and construct an eclectic, syncretistic theology out of a comparative study of all Religions and in the form of recent undigested philosophical speculations. These would give us a merely speculative theology, with no other authority to sustain it than the private opin ions of this or that writer or his school of thought, and so set us adrift on a sea of boundless speculation. There is also the wholesome Irenic tendency which seeks to reunite the separated Churches on the basis of the fundamental principles of Historical Christi anity, without intruding upon denominational pref erences, or private opinion in other matters. These principles of Faith are to be found in the ancient vii viii PREFACE Creeds, the official expression of the Faith of the an cient Church, to which all Churches, which are legiti mate descendants of Historical Christianity, adhere. I have endeavored in this volume to give an account of the origin and history of these Creeds in the light of Historical Criticism, and to explain them in ac cordance with scientific principles of interpretation in the light of the Holy Scriptures upon which they are based, and of the writings of the Christian Fathers of the time of their composition. We must apply the same principles of Criticism and Interpretation to the Creeds as to the Holy Script ures. We cannot tolerate in the one case, any more than in the other, misinterpretation in the interests of any modern theories whatever. These Creeds have their historic meaning which we must either ac cept or reject. We cannot honestly accept them in form and reject them in substance. CONTENTS PACE The Fundamental Chr1st1an Fa1th 1 PART I the apostles' creed CHAPTEX I. H1stor1cal Introduct1on 9 II. God the Father Alm1ghty 24 III. Jesus Chr1st, Son of God, Our Lord .. 38 IV. Sav1our 54 V. Born of the V1rg1n Mary 59 VI. Cruc1f1ed and Bur1ed 113 VII. R1sen from the Dead 137 VIII. Ascended 1nto Heaven 155 IX. Enthroned at the R1ght Hand of the Father 158 X. Second Advent 164 XI. The Holy Sp1r1t 173 XII. Holy Cathol1c Church 184 XIII. Rem1ss1on of S1ns 196 XIV. The Resurrect1on of the Body . 205 ix x CONTENTS PART II THE NICENE CREED CHAPTER PACE I. H1stor1cal Introduct1on 211 II. Maker of all Th1ngs, V1s1ble and In v1s1ble 224 III. Consubstant1al w1th the Father. 226 IV. The Incarnat1on 253 V. The Process1on of the Holy Sp1r1t . 257 VI. The Athanas1an Creed 268 VII. The Fa1th of Chalcedon 286 VIII. The F1nal Chr1stolog1cal Def1n1t1ons . 307 Index 321 THE FUNDAMENTAL CHRISTIAN FAITH THE FUNDAMENTAL CHRISTIAN FAITH The Christian Faith is essentially faith in Jesus Christ, God's Son, Saviour. This Faith was preached by the Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus Himself, and trained by Him for the purpose. They were specially commissioned by Jesus several times during His ministry on earth and after His resurrection, to make disciples of all nations, to teach the commands of their Lord, to baptize into His name, to celebrate the Eucharist of His body and blood, and to organize His Church for the perpetuation and propagation of the Chris tian Faith, and the maintenance of "unity and con cord." 1 The Apostles and their associates were endowed by the Holy Spirit with charisms suited to their commission both by external theophanic manifesta tion on the day of Pentecost, and subsequently by His internal presence and guidance. They imme diately acted, in the terms of their commission, under the guidance of the divine Spirit, in the organiza tion of the Church and its institutions, and in the teaching and preaching of the Christian Faith. 1 V. Briggs, Apostolic Commission, in Studies in Honor of Basil L. Gilder sleeve, 1902. 1 2 FUNDAMENTAL CHRISTIAN FAITH St. Paul, the highly educated and gifted Jewish rabbi and zealous persecutor of Christians, was con verted by the christophany on the journey to Damas cus into a Christian scholar and ardent missionary of the Gospel; and by our Lord's own special appoint ment, as well as that of the church at Antioch, com missioned as the apostle to the Gentiles. Other apos tles, evangelists, and teachers were ordained by the Apostles to share in their ministry. The primitive disciples received their Faith from the oral teaching of the Apostles and their associates, confirmed by miracles and manifestations of the di vine Spirit, both objective and subjective. They were as Jews already instructed in the Old Testa ment Scriptures, which became to Christians as to Jews a divinely inspired and authoritative Canon. In the latter half of the first century, written in- st tion was added to the oral, at first in the epis- tl s of St. Paul and other teachers, then in the Gos pel- and other writings of the New Testament. Many o hese passed through several revisions at the hanua of the Apostles and their pupils. Gradu ally those writings that were apostolic and divinely inspired were eliminated from others and collected as the Canon of the New Testament; the Gospels before the middle of the second century, the Epistles before the close of that century.1 The Church held to the apostolic teaching as the norm of Faith and Life, whether recorded in the Canon of the Old and New Testaments, or attested 1 Briggs, General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture, p. 134. FUNDAMENTAL CHRISTIAN FAITH 3 by the consensus of the churches established by the Apostles. Out of this tradition there gradually emerged a rule of Faith, a symbol or Creed, which was required of candidates for Christian baptism. This was based upon the Baptismal formula, and the Symbol of the Fish, which latter represented to prim itive Christians the essential element of their Faith, Jesus Christ, God*s Son, Saviour. This Rule of Faith was, therefore, essentially the same in all Christian churches throughout the world, though differing to some extent in the number of articles and in phrase ology. This Baptismal Faith eventually became fixed in the form known as the Apostles' Creed, which may first be detected as the Roman Creed of the middle of the second century. ^ In the third century there was a great conflict of opinion as to the divinity of Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity; and therefore the Church had to de fine the Christian Faith over against heresies which arose with respect to these doctrines. The Council of Nicaea (325) adopted the Nicene Creed for this purpose, which at once became the Eucharistic Sym bol throughout the Christian world. It was subse quently enlarged by taking up into itself the Eastern form of the Apostles' Creed, and so superseded it in the East as a baptismal symbol also. This Creed was regarded as a sufficient statement of the Christian Faith by the early Church; and is still so regarded by the Greek and Anglican Churches, if rightly in terpreted in accordance with the New Testament and apostolic tradition. But its statements, as those 4 FUNDAMENTAL CHRISTIAN FAITH of all human documents, were capable of various other interpretations than the normal ones. Ac cordingly, when these erroneous interpretations arose in the form of serious heresies, it became necessary for the Church to rule out these heresies and to give the official, historical interpretation of the Apostolic Faith by oecumenical councils assembled for the pur pose, in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries. Another Creed was composed by some unknown author, probably of the School of Lerins in Gaul in the fifth century. Though private in its origin, it won its way to official acceptance, and was ranked with the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed dur ing the Middle Ages in the West, and by the three great Churches of the Reformation as well as the Roman Church, as a third authoritative symbol. It adds nothing to the Faith of the Church, but puts it in a more dogmatic and Western form. It never received recognition in the East, not because of any objection to its doctrines, but because the East had no part in its composition, and it never gained any circulation there. There is no reason therefore to doubt its oecumenical character, if not in formal acknowledgment, at least in doctrinal consensus. These three Creeds, as officially interpreted by an cient oecumenical councils, constitute the fundamen tal Christian Faith. They express officially the Faith of the Church in that stage of the development of its definitions which had been reached at the time they were composed.
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