The Nicene Creed

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

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, who was begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from the heavens, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man; And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried, and rose the third day, according to the scriptures; And ascended into the heavens, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father; And shall come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, of whose kingdom there shall be no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is together worshipped and glorified, who spake by the prophets. In one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead; And the life in the ages to come. Amen.

 

The Creed—often called the Symbol of Faith—is a public and formal summary of the main tenets of faith of the ancient Christian church. The Creed that has been and continues to be proclaimed, recited in prayer, and celebrated in communal worship for over 1600 years is commonly called the Nicene Creed, but technically it is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (A.D. 381), which is a slightly expanded version of the earlier Nicene Creed (A.D. 325). The creeds of the early church were likely intended primarily for use in the baptismal service as a confession of faith of the catechumen in the Triune God, but later found broader usage in clarification of Church doctrine. Some expressions found in the final form of the Creed (A.D. 381) originated from earlier, local creeds from Palestine, such as those of Eusebius of Caesarea, Epiphanius, and St. Cyril of Jerusalem. The outline or order of the Nicene Creed is also similar to that of the Old Roman Creed, which likely dates back to before the third century. Thus, not only does the Nicene Creed embrace the faith statements of the earliest centuries of the Church, it also has served historically as a symbol of spiritual unity across broad expanses of time and space—that is, the same Creed has been shared by over 50 generations of Christian believers and over 50 countries in West Eurasia, including about 20 Middle Eastern, Slavic and Hellenic countries, and over 30 countries in Western Europe (those using the western version of the Nicene Creed that adds the filioque phrase).

The Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) and the Nicene Creed

The theological development of the Nicene Creed began as a direct response to the Arian controversy in the early fourth century. Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, introduced his teaching that Jesus Christ was a created being. He asserted that "there was a time when the Son was not," meaning Christ was subordinate to God the Father and not fully divine. This view threatened the foundational Christian understanding of salvation and the unity of the Church.

To resolve this explosive dispute, Emperor Constantine I convened the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 325 AD. Approximately 318 bishops gathered to establish a definitive statement of Christian orthodoxy. Led by the theological conviction of figures like St. Athanasius of Alexandria, the Council rejected Arianism.

The Council drafted the original Nicene Creed, using a local baptismal creed as a structural baseline. To prevent Arian misinterpretations, the fathers of the Council included precise philosophical terminology. Most notable was the term homoousios, translated into English in a few ways, such as "of one substance" (or "of one nature" or "of one essence") with the Father. The 325 AD text explicitly declared Jesus Christ as "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made." It concluded somewhat abruptly with the phrase "And in the Holy Spirit," which was followed by a series of specific statements censuring those who denied the fulness of Christ's divinity. The Nicene Creed was the first Christian creed to obtain universal authority.

Post-Nicene Turmoil and the New Misbelief about the Holy Spirit

The settlement at Nicaea did not instantly bring peace. For the next fifty years, the Roman Empire erupted into political and theological chaos. Semi-Arian, Homoiousian (homoi-ousian: meaning that Christ was of "like" or similar nature, but not of the same divine nature as the Father), and strict Arian factions frequently gained imperial favor, exiling orthodox bishops like St. Athanasius multiple times.

Simultaneously, a new theological front opened regarding the third person of the Trinity. A group known as the Pneumatomachians (or "Macedonians") accepted the divinity of the Son but denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit, viewing the Spirit as a mere creature or cosmic force. Orthodox champions—most notably the Cappadocian Fathers St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Gregory of Nazianzus—vigorously defended the full divinity of the Holy Spirit, demonstrating that the doctrine of the Trinity requires three co-equal, co-eternal divine persons.

The Council of Constantinople (A.D. 381) and the Expanded Creed

To ratify the final defeat of Arianism and to clarify the understanding of the Holy Spirit, Emperor Theodosius I called the Second Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in 381 AD. Here, 150 orthodox bishops met and expanded the original 325 AD creed into the statement of faith used globally today.

The Council of Constantinople dropped the initial anti-Arian censures from the body of the 325 AD text because the Arian heresy was officially suppressed. More importantly, they significantly expanded the third section concerning the Holy Spirit. The text was augmented to confess belief in:

"...the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the Prophets."

This expansion used descriptive biblical terminology to firmly establish the Spirit’s co-equal divine status within the Trinity. The council also added a concluding set of statements defining the Church's identity, specifying belief in "one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church," a single baptism for the remission of sins, the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

Historical and textual records from the Council of Chalcedon in A.D. 451 (the Fourth Ecumenical Council) officially secured the status of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed as the universal standard of Christian orthodoxy.