THE CREED OF THE COUNCIL Of NICAEA
In AD 324 Emperor Constantine deputed his expert in church affairs, Bishop Hosius of Cordoba, to untangle a difference of opinion, about Jesus Christ. He was a man, but how was he different, from God the Father?
Christians know that they had been saved from sin by Jesus; if he was less than God the Father could he really
reconcile mankind? Soon Egypt was against Palestine, Bithynia enraging Galatia, regions that we now know as ruins
were torn by bishops anathematizing bishops, there was a general state of hoi polloi.
So Constantine called a grand council - The Emperor allowed bishops the
privilege of using the Imperial postal service to arrange the first universal or ecumenical council. Three hundred
bishops met at Nicaea, in Asia Minor, near Constantinople, the imperial capital. Over 100 bishops from Asia Minor,
but less than 20 from Palestine and Egypt, hardly any from the Latin-speaking West. Pope Sylvester was represented
by two priests, accidentally setting a precedent for popes to send legates to future councils.Under pressure from
Constantine agreement was arrived at, only two of the bishops dissented from the new view. For the first time a
term not found in scripture - homoousion "of one substance" - was proposed as essential Christian belief.
The wording of the creed settled upon at the Council of Nicaea, A.D.325
| We believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of all things visible and invisible: |
| And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God begotten of the Father. only begotten, that is, of the substance of the Father, God from God. Light from Light. true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance [homoousion] with the Father through whom all things were made, things in heaven and things on the earth: who for us men and our salvation came down and was made flesh, and became man suffered, and rose on the third day. ascended into the heavens, is coming to judge living and dead. |
| And in the Holy Spirit. |
| And those who say "There was when he was not" and. Before he was begotten he was not," and that. "he came into being from nothingness." or those that allege that the son of God is: "of another substance or essence or created" or "changeable" or "alterable" those the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes. |
