Session 12 - Doctrine and Dogma As Outlined in the Creed. Part 1

As a review in our last session we introduced some of the main  dogmas of the Church which included the following: 

1. The Holy Trinity
2. Christology or the Doctrines regarding Jesus Christ,
3. Mariology or the teachings regarding the Blessed Virgin Mary,
4. Ecclesiology or teachings regarding the nature of the Church

Today, I want to further explain in a  format you are very familiar with,  the  Creed or the Symbol of Faith  that we as Orthodox Christians pray at every Liturgy and which is  part of our daily prayer rule.  

The Creed was composed, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, by the Fathers of the First and Second Ecumenical Councils held in the year 325 in the City of Nicea and in 381 in Constantinople  at a time when various false teachings were being spread throughout the Church which attempted to overthrow the true faith in the Trinity. For this reason the formal name of the Creed is the Nicean/Constantinopolitan Creed.

The main reason for the convening of the First Ecumenical Council was the appearance and growing strength of the false teaching of the Alexandrian priest, Arius. Arius taught that the Son of God was created - that His existence had a beginning.

The Second Ecumenical Council condemned the false teaching of those who were known as the  Pneumatomachi or Adversaries of the Spirit. These heretics or false teachers said that  the Holy Spirit was merely a servant and fulfiller of God's wishes and was really only an angel. They did not recognize Him as a Person of the Holy Trinity.

At these councils, the  Church  defended the traditional dogmas of the Church by creating  what we call the Creed, the symbol of faith.  The word Creed comes from the Latin word, Credo which literally means,  I believe. The Creed remains to this day  a  guide to Truth  for all Orthodox Christians in their spiritual life. It is interesting to note that even when we pray it together in Church, we say the words, I believe, instead of we believe, because we are reminded that our faith is deeply personal, and each and everyone of us needs to be personally committed to the faith.  Originally, it was written in the first person plural “we” as being an expression of the beliefs of the entire church but  the Church, inspired by the Holy Spirit, recognizing the necessity that each person personally accept the beliefs of the Church made the subtle change in its use in her prayer life  to  I.   It is interesting to note only the creed and the prayer before receiving Holy Communion are prayed in the first person.   The only other occasion where the hymns of the Church  are written in the first person is  in the penitential hymns of Lent and in many of the Psalms, where we recognize our personal responsibility and need for repentance.    

The Creed itself is divided into twelve parts, seven of which were formulated at the First Ecumenical Council, the other five at the Second Ecumenical Council. The Fathers of the following Ecumenical Councils forbade any alterations in the Creed through addition or deduction of any new words. ( the only exception was as I said changing the we Believe to I believe)

Before we begin, let us review the words of the creed:

 (1) I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

(2) And in one Lord Jesus Christ, , the Only-begotten Son of God,  born  of the Father before all ages. Light of Light; True God of True God; begotten, not made; consubstantial (of one essence ) with the Father, by Whom all things were made;

(3) Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man.

(4) And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried.

(5) And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures;

(6) And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father;

(7) And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; Whose Kingdom shall have no end.

(8) And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spoke by the prophets.

(9) In one Holy, Catholic (Universal) , and Apostolic Church.

(10) I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins.

(11) I look for the resurrection of the dead;

 (12) And the life of the world to come. Amen.

Now let us look at each of these twelve sections individually and in doing so we will learn more about the basic teachings of the Christian faith. 

The creed begins with us affirming our faith, our belief.  It is a powerful statement and when we read it, or rather, pray it we unequivocally, without reservation, without shame, and without qualification  proclaim that we are believers.  I believe, I have Faith,  this means something to me, it is my life, it is what makes me who I am.  Faith is as St. Paul writes

“... the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”   (Hebrews 11:1)

We live in times where it is hard for us and many other peoples to believe.  If we can’t see it,  today’s secular humanistic world  tells us it is not real, it does not exist.   However, those who have spiritual eyes to see and ears to hear know that this is not true, they know by experience that  the spiritual realm does exist.  

Let me give you an example, Over the years I have done an experiment to prove this point with some of my Church school students. I brought a  jar of pond water and a microscope  to class. .  Making sure there were no visible bugs, pieces of flora, or weeds,  I ask the students if they see anything in the water, and they admit that it looks like clear water. Then, I put some pond water on a slide and look at it under the microscope and low and behold there are a ton of microscopic critters swimming in the water.  The students then came to the conclusion that regardless of whether they could see them or not with their naked eye,  these tiny creatures indeed do exist and live in the water.  Using this example, we then discussed how the spiritual relm, the angels, saints, and our Lord Jesus Christ, certainly can exist, even though we can’t see them with our physical eyes.

But to believe requires a leap of faith,  but one that is grounded in experience.  It is the purpose of the Church and her spiritual life to nurture the faith of  the Body of Christ,  the members of the Church.  The church is an incubator of  faith, it helps the embryonic faith that is implanted within our souls by God, to grow  into maturity.

So  going back to the Creed , let us discuss the first section.

(1) I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

This section deals with the Essence or Nature of God and the Creation of the World.

Through Divine Revelation,   for example Holy Scripture and the oral tradition  which has been passed down to us, the  Church teaches us to believe in the One God ( Deut. 6:4; 1 Tim. 1:17) in Three Persons, Who in the Holy Scriptures are called God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). God the Father was not created and always existed and did  not proceed or come forth from another Person. God the Son before all time came forth from or was born from God the  Father. God the Holy Spirit  we are told  before all time,  proceeded or came forth from the Father.  The Church teaches that none the less all Three Persons of the Holy Trinity are equal to one another, and are each fully God.  A major problem with non-Christian religions is that they do not believe in the Holy Trinity. 

We believe that  God as Trinity created the World, both that which we see and that which we do not see,  the physical and spiritual worlds.  He created the invisible world, and in particular the angels At first all the angels were holy. Some of them, firmly established in holiness, love and striving after goodness, glorify God continuously. Each Christian believer is given a Guardian Angel at Baptism. Other angels, who did not stand firm in goodness, sinned before God (Jude 1:6) and, remaining in evil, labor to  enslave mankind to sin. The leader of the fallen angels is called the Devil or Satan (The Adversary; John 8:44).

After He had created the bodiless powers, the Triune God with His Words Let there be... created the whole visible world out of nothing in six days that is, all the host of heaven, the earth on which we live and all that surrounds the earth and finished His work of creation by creating man (Gen. 1:3-28), from whom came forth  the whole human race (Acts 17:26). The first man, Adam, was created sinless by God's grace (Eccles. 7:29),  and he was  made in the Image and Likeness of God until he misused his free will ,  his heart  burned with pure love for the One God, while his conscience was untroubled and at peace. When our first parents were like this, all the creatures which surrounded them were submissive and served them (Gen. 1:26), and the very place of their habitation was called Paradise (Gen. 2:8)..

Let us now move on to Sections 2 -7  which deal with the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ.

 (2) And in one Lord Jesus Christ, , the Only-begotten Son of God,  born  of the Father before all ages. Light of Light; True God of True God; begotten, not made; consubstantial (of one essence ) with the Father, by Whom all things were made;

(3) Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man.

(4) And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried.

(5) And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures;

(6) And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father;

(7) And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; Whose Kingdom shall have no end.

Concerning our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, we are taught by the Church, that he was both perfect God and Man having in the fullness of time,  come into the world and took on human flesh, to save mankind after the fall of Adam and Eve. We believe that  The Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus,  and  that she became with child not by a man in the usual manner, but by the Holy Spirit . It is very important that we  understand that  Mary the Mother of God, or Theotokos in Greek,  was a virgin before, during and after giving birth. She is called the ever Virgin Mary.  It is important that you know this because, many Protestant Christian Churches, teach that Mary had other children by St. Joseph after giving birth to Christ. They use as proof texts the references in Scripture, to Christ’s Mother and brothers.  The Church teaches that Joseph was a widower and had children by his first wife and these are the ones who are referred to as Jesus’ brothers. 

The Church teaches and we believe that Christ  preached and taught  the Gospel, healed the sick, resurrected the dead and performed many miracles during his three year public ministry from 30-33 AD.  After having completed His work, endured mocking, abuse, the Passion of the Cross and death under Pontius Pilate (Matt. 26:47-75; 27:1-66). While His Body was in the Tomb, Christ descended into Hell, where He freed the souls of the righteous who had awaited His coming (1 Pet. 3:18-19; Eph. 4:8-9), and on the third day after His death and burial, he rose from the dead. During the forty days after His Resurrection, the Savior appeared many times to His disciples and continued to instruct them in the mysteries of His divine Kingdom (Acts 1:3).

Having accomplished our Redemption, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of His disciples, ascended into Heaven (Acts 1:9) and sits at the right hand of God the Father (Mark 16:19) with honor and glory in the same Body in which He had been resurrected from the dead. The Lord ascended into Heaven as the God-Man, for as God He was always in Heaven and in every place of God's dominion (Ps. 103:22). After His Ascension the Savior was given all power in Heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18), and through His Divine Providence He preserves His Church, in which He is present Today  through Grace (Matt. 28:20), instructing and giving wisdom to her bishops and priests, through the Holy Spirit (John 16:13), to administer rightly the word of Truth. The Church will continue until the time of the second coming,  when we believe that the Lord, Jesus Christ  will come in His glory with His angels (Matt. 25:31) to judge the living and the dead (John 5:29), after which the Kingdom of Glory and Blessedness shall come, and of His kingdom there shall be no end (Luke 1:33).