DOCTRINES 2-4: the CREEDS the Creeds Are Early Christian Statements of Belief
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The Nicene Creed in the Church David R
Concordia Journal Volume 41 | Number 1 Article 3 2015 The iceN ne Creed in the Church David Maxwell Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholar.csl.edu/cj Part of the Practical Theology Commons Recommended Citation Maxwell, David (2015) "The icN ene Creed in the Church," Concordia Journal: Vol. 41: No. 1, Article 3. Available at: http://scholar.csl.edu/cj/vol41/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Concordia Journal by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Maxwell: The Nicene Creed The Nicene Creed in the Church David R. Maxwell Pastors often introduce the recitation of the Nicene Creed with the phrase, “Let us confess our Christian faith in the words of the Nicene Creed.” But what do we mean when we identify the content of the faith with the words of the creed? And how does that summary of the faith actually function in the church? After all, if we are to be creedal Christians in any meaningful sense, we would like to see the creed play a more profound role in the church than merely as a text to be recited. But, from the position of one sitting in the pew, it is not always clear what that role would be. Therefore, I will identify and explore three of the ways the creed has functioned and still functions in the church. -
21.05.30 the Holy Trinity
TRINITY SUNDAY 135 NE Randolph Avenue, Peoria, Illinois 61606 Online: www.trinitypeoria.com ~ (309) 676-4609 The Holy Trinity May 30, 2021 Sunday Worship 8:00, 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. WELCOME IN THE NAME OF OUR RISEN LORD Welcome to Trinity! Today in the Divine Service God proclaims to us through Word and Sacrament the forgiveness, love, and salvation that He has won for us through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. LARGE PRINT BULLETINS are available from an usher for persons with vision difficulties. WORSHIPPING WITH OUR CHILDREN This week we celebrate God as the Trinity. The word “Trinity” means “three.” For Christians the word helps us understand that God shows Himself to us as “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” He is three persons in one God. Only He can do that! It is hard for us to understand exactly how God works but the one thing we know for sure is that God the Father loves us so much that God the Son, Jesus, was sent to give His life to pay for our sins and then rose to life again so that we could live forever. God the Holy Spirit, many times shown as a dove, gives us faith to believe that God loves us this much! See how many triangles you can find in church. Ideas adapted from Kids in the Divine Service by Christopher I. Thoma. ©2000 by the Commission on Worship of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. All rights reserved. Divine Service - Setting Two + We Come Into God’s Presence + In celebration of Trinity Sunday, we will confess the Athanasian Creed separated into four parts throughout our liturgy. -
The Athanasian Creed
The Athanasian Creed So likewise the Father is almighty, For the right faith is that we believe the Son almighty, and the Holy and confess that our Lord Jesus Christianity constantly struggles to keep the Faith free from false Spirit almighty. Christ, the Son of God, philosophies. And yet They are not three is God and man; In Fourth Century Alexandria, Egypt, a persuasive preacher with a logical almighties but One Almighty. God of the substance of the Father, mind used a philosophical concept foreign to the Scriptures in order to explain So the Father is God, the Son is begotten before the worlds; the connection between Jesus and his Father. Arius borrowed from the popular God, and the Holy Spirit is God. and man of the substance of His And yet They are not three mother, born in the world. Greek concept that a “god,” by nature, had to be high, distant and almighty; Gods but one God. Perfect God and perfect man, of a reason- and that humans, consequently, had to be low, spatial and inferior. So likewise the Father is Lord, the able soul and human flesh subsisting. Arius taught that only the Father was really a proper God. Because Jesus Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord. Equal to the Father as touching was human, he was therefore only a creature (created by God) and therefore And yet They are not three His Godhead and inferior to the did not really possess any divine qualities. Lords but One Lord. Father as touching His The problem: when Arius denied the divinity of Christ, he destroyed God’s For as we are compelled by the manhood; role in accomplishing our salvation. -
John W. Welch, “'All Their Creeds Were an Abomination':A Brief Look at Creeds As Part of the Apostasy,”
John W. Welch, “‘All Their Creeds Were an Abomination’:A Brief Look at Creeds as Part of the Apostasy,” in Prelude to the Restoration: From Apostasy to the Restored Church (Provo, UT and Salt Lake City: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University and Deseret Book, 2004), 228–249. “All Their Creeds Were an Abomination”: A Brief Look at Creeds as Part of the Apostasy John W. Welch John W. Welch is a professor of law at Brigham Young University and editor-in-chief of BYU Studies. On October 15, 1843, the Prophet Joseph Smith commented, “I cannot believe in any of the creeds of the different denominations, because they all have some things in them I cannot subscribe to, though all of them have some truth. I want to come up into the presence of God, and learn all things: but the creeds set up stakes, and say, ‘Hitherto [1] shalt thou come, and no further’; which I cannot subscribe to.” While Latter-day Saints gladly and gratefully recognize that all religious creeds contain some truth, the problem is that those formulations of doctrine also contain errors or impose limits that are “incompatible with the gospel’s inclusive commitment to truth and continual [2] revelation.” Such mixing of truth and error is reminiscent of the parable of the wheat and the tares, the Lord’s most [3] salient teaching on the nature of the Apostasy (Matthew 13:24–30, 37–43; JST Matthew 13; D&C 86:1–11). Thus, the creeds themselves, as vessels of mixed qualities, become metaphors or manifestations of the Apostasy itself. -
1 Trinity, Filioque and Semantic Ascent Christians Believe That The
Trinity, Filioque and Semantic Ascent1 Christians believe that the Persons of the Trinity are distinct but in every respect equal. We believe also that the Son and Holy Spirit proceed from the Father. It is difficult to reconcile claims about the Father’s role as the progenitor of Trinitarian Persons with commitment to the equality of the persons, a problem that is especially acute for Social Trinitarians. I propose a metatheological account of the doctrine of the Trinity that facilitates the reconciliation of these two claims. On the proposed account, “Father” is systematically ambiguous. Within economic contexts, those which characterize God’s relation to the world, “Father” refers to the First Person of the Trinity; within theological contexts, which purport to describe intra-Trinitarian relations, it refers to the Trinity in toto-- thus in holding that the Son and Holy Spirit proceed from the Father we affirm that the Trinity is the source and unifying principle of Trinitarian Persons. While this account solves a nagging problem for Social Trinitarians it is theologically minimalist to the extent that it is compatible with both Social Trinitarianism and Latin Trinitarianism, and with heterodox Modalist and Tri-theist doctrines as well. Its only theological cost is incompatibility with the Filioque Clause, the doctrine that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son—and arguably that may be a benefit. 1. Problem: the equality of Persons and asymmetry of processions In addition to the usual logical worries about apparent violations of transitivity of identity, the doctrine of the Trinity poses theological problems because it commits us to holding that there are asymmetrical quasi-causal relations amongst the Persons: the Father “begets” the Son and “spirates” the Holy Spirit. -
The Principles of Theology an Introduction to the Thirty
THE PRINCIPLES OF THEOLOGY AN INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES BY W. H. GRIFFITH THOMAS 1 CONTENTS Article Introduction I. Of Faith in the Holy Trinity II. Of Christ the Son of God III. Of His Going Down into Hell IV. Of His Resurrection Articles 4-10 V. Of The Holy Spirit VI. Of the Sufficiency of the Scriptures VII. Of the Old Testament VIII. Of the Three Creeds IX. Of Original or Birth-Sin X. Of Free-Will XI. Of Justification Articles 11-21 XII. Of Good Works XIII. Of Works before Justification XIV. Of Works of Supererogation XV. Of Christ Alone without Sin XVI. Of Sin after Baptism XVII. Of Predestination and Election XVIII. Of Obtaining Salvation by Christ XIX. Of the Church XX. Of the Authority of the Church XXI. Of the Authority of General Councils XXII. Of Purgatory Articles 22-25 XXIII. Of Ministering in the Congregation XXIV. Of Speaking in the Congregation XXV. Of the Sacraments XXVI. Of the Unworthiness of Ministers Articles 26-35 XXVII. Of Baptism XXVIII. Of the Lord’s Supper XXIX. Of the Wicked Which Eat Not the Body of Christ XXX. Of Both Kinds XXXI. Of Christ’s One Oblation XXXII. Of the Marriage of Priests XXXIII. Of Excommunicate Persons XXXIV. Of the Traditions of the Church XXXV. Of the Homilies XXXVI. Of Consecrating of Ministers Articles 36-Appendix XXXVII. Of Civil Magistrates XXXVIII. Of Christian Men’s Goods XXXIX. Of a Christian Man’s Oath 2 INTRODUCTION Revelation [This section is summarised from the writer’s article “Revelation,” in Hastings’ One Volume Bible Dictionary. -
Session #2: What We Believe We Are a Creedal Church
The Distinctiveness of the Episcopal Tradition Session #2: What We Believe We Are a Creedal Church • A creed is an authoritative statement of doctrinal belief. • Examples: • Old Roman Creed: references to it in 2nd century. • Apostles’ Creed: a fuller version of the Roman one, earliest text in 390 BCE. • Nicene - Constantinople Creed: First draft in 325 CE, final form 381 CE. • Athanasian Creed: earliest text in 8th c. Contains “anathemas.” • Called “symbolon” in Gk, “symbolum” in Lt. A “symbol” of the faith. • A symbol points to a reality greater than itself. Not a comprehensive or final statement. • Creeds are part of Tradition, the “deposit of faith.” What is a “Creedal Church?” • Not a clear-cut issue. • Ancient differences over the Nicene Creed: “two natures” of Jesus Christ, relationship of Father and Son, relationship of the Holy Spirit to Father and Son. • In modern times, issue is one of authority of Creeds compared to the Scriptures. • “Sola Scriptura,” “Sola Fides”: Creeds not very important. • Anglicanism’s “three-legged stool” of Scripture, Tradition and Reason • All three given equal weight. • TEC is a creedal church, BUT…creeds are neither comprehensive nor definitive. Reinterpretation with respect to Tradition and reason. Nicene Creed uses 3rd c. language and concepts. We Are a Church of Word and Sacrament • The Word = Scripture. Tradition of Scriptural interpretation is contextual, not literal. • Sacraments illustrate the Incarnational Principle: • God is present in creation so the material world communicates and mediates the spiritual world. • Anglicanism is profoundly incarnational. Emphasis on beauty. What is a Sacrament? • A symbolic sign that points to a greater reality. -
Athanasian Creed Trinitarian Heresy Handout
Trinity Now this is the catholic faith: Similarly, the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, That we worship one God in trinity the Holy Spirit is almighty. and the trinity in unity, Yet there are not three almighty beings; neither blending their persons there is but one almighty being. nor dividing their essence. Thus the Father is God, For the person of the Father the Son is God, is a distinct person, the Holy Spirit is God. the person of the Son is another, Yet there are not three gods; and that of the Holy Spirit still another. there is but one God. But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Thus the Father is Lord, Spirit is one, the Son is Lord, their glory equal, their majesty coeternal. the Holy Spirit is Lord. Yet there are not three lords; there is but one Lord. What quality the Father has, the Son has, Just as Christian truth compels us and the Holy Spirit has. to confess each person individually The Father is uncreated, as both God and Lord, the Son is uncreated, so catholic religion forbids us the Holy Spirit is uncreated. to say that there are three gods or lords. The Father is immeasurable, The Father was neither made nor created nor the Son is immeasurable, begotten from anyone. the Holy Spirit is immeasurable. The Son was neither made nor created; The Father is eternal, he was begotten from the Father alone. the Son is eternal, The Holy Spirit was neither made nor created the Holy Spirit is eternal. -
The Athanasian Creed
THE ATHANASIAN CREED This is the catholic faith: that we worship one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance. For the person of the Father is one, that of the Son another, and that of the Holy Spirit still another, but the deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one - equal in glory, coequal in majesty. What the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. The Father is uncreated; the Son is uncreated; the Holy Spirit is uncreated. The Father is unlimited; the Son is unlimited; the Holy Spirit is unlimited. The Father is eternal; the Son is eternal; the Holy Spirit is eternal - and yet there are not three eternal beings but one who is eternal, just as there are not three uncreated or unlimited beings, but one who is uncreated and unlimited. In the same way, the Father is almighty; the Son is almighty; the Holy Spirit is almighty - and yet there are not three almighty beings but one who is almighty. Thus, the Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God - and yet there are not three gods but one God. Thus, the Father is Lord; the Son is Lord; the Holy Spirit is Lord - and yet there are not three lords, but one Lord. For just as we are compelled by the Christian truth to confess that each distinct person is God and Lord, so we are forbidden by the catholic religion to say there are three gods or three lords. -
The Divine Service
The Divine Service "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 28:19) Trinity Sunday AD 2020, June 7th Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran Church 41415 W. Nine Mile Road Novi, Michigan 48375-4306 (248) 349-0565 www.GoodShepherdNovi.org Good Shepherd is a member of the WELS (www.wels.net) The Divine Service This order of service is a variation of the Common Service, p 15 in Christian Worship. To limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus as much as possible, singing will be restricted to only a few places. The responsive portions of the liturgy shall be spoken. Where you see this symbol + you may make the sign of the cross. HYMN 193 Come, Now, Almighty King https://hymnary.org/hymn/CWLH1993/193 stand INVOCATION M: In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. C: Amen. CONFESSION & ABSOLUTION M: Beloved in the Lord: let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins to God our Father, asking him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to grant us forgiveness. C: Holy and Merciful Father, I confess that I am by nature sinful and that I have disobeyed you in my thoughts, words, and actions. I have done what is evil, and failed to do what is good. For this I deserve your punishment both now and in eternity. But I am truly sorry for my sins, and trusting in my Savior Jesus Christ, I pray: Lord have mercy on me, a sinner. -
The Athanasian Creed
The Athanasian Creed This creed is named after Athanasius (293-373 A.D.), the champion of orthodoxy over against Arian attacks on the doctrine of the Trinity. Although Athanasius did not write this creed and it is improperly called after him, the name persists because until the seventeenth century it was commonly ascribed to him. It is also called the Quicunque, this being its opening word in the Latin original. Apart from the opening and closing sentences, it consists of two sections, the first setting forth the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity (3-28), and the second dealing with the doctrine of Christ, especially concerning the two natures (29-43). The teachings of Augustine (354-430 A.D.) in particular form the background to the Christological section. The creed itself appears for the first time in the first half of the sixth century, but the author is unknown. It is of Western origin, and is not recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Churches. (1) Whoever desires to be saved must above all things hold to the catholic faith. (2) Unless a man keeps it in its entirety inviolate, he will assuredly perish eternally. (3) Now this is the catholic faith, that we worship one God in trinity and trinity in unity, (4) without either confusing the persons, or dividing the substance. (5) For the Father's person is one, the Son's another, the Holy Spirit's another; (6) but the Godhead of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one, their glory is equal, their majesty is co-eternal. -
Athanasian Creed
This Creed is named after Athanasius (293-373 A.D.), the champion of orthodoxy over against Arian attacks upon the doctrine of the Trinity. Although Athanasius did not write this Creed and it is improperly named after him, the name persists because until the seventeenth century it was commonly ascribed to him. Another name for it is the Symbol Quicunque, this being its opening word in the Latin original. Its author is unknown, but in its present form it probably does not date back farther than the sixth century. It is not from Greek Eastern, but from Latin Western origin, and is not recognized by the Greek Church today. Apart from the opening and closing sentences, this symbol consists of two parts, the first setting forth the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity (3-28), and the second dealing chiefly with the incarnation and the two natures doctrine (29-43). This Creed, though more explicit and advanced theologically than the Apostles' and the Nicene Creeds, cannot be said to possess the simplicity, spontaneity, and majesty of these. For centuries it has been the custom of the Roman and Anglican Churches to chant this Creed in public worship on certain solemn occasions. The Athanasian Creed (1) Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith; (2) Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. (3) And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; (4) Neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance.