It shouldn’t be too surprising that in addition to poetry, narrative history, and prescriptive doctrines, the Bible contains some very difficult mysteries or complex theological ideas. Among the greatest of these conundrums in church history was properly understanding the very nature of God. What made Judaism so different from the pagan religions surrounding Israel was its strict belief in monotheism. So when Jesus came and claimed to be God’s Son with convincing evidence, the primitive church was faced with a serious question: How can monotheistic Christians believe in one God and yet affirm not only Jesus as God’s Son but the Holy Spirit as being distinct persons within one Godhead? Similarly, in addition to this, was the inquiry of how Jesus can be equal with the Father, (John 10:30) and yet be His son, (John 14:7) with certain knowledge not known by him, (Matthew 24:36). 1
These questions were at the very heart of the Nicene Creed. Amazingly, it took 325 years of church history to formulate and articulate, through many disputes and controversies, the divinity of Jesus and the doctrine of the Trinity culminating in an ecumenical council in June 325 AD.
The recently converted Emperor of Rome, Constantine, convened the Council to meet in Nicaea in what is now the city of Iznik in Turkey in 325. This was an amazing historical event since only 12 years prior it was legal to burn Christians in the streets to illuminate the night. 2 Nicaea was to be the meeting place for pastors and priests (fathers) to hash out what the church of Christ believed concerning the deity of Jesus and the triune nature of God. Their mission was to deliberate certain beliefs surrounding these questions and to come to an agreement and conclusion in the form of a creed.
The word creed comes from the Latin word, credo. Credo means “I believe.” Thus, the group of church leaders was to write a succinct statement of belief for Christians to adopt as orthodox. Church Historian, J.N.D. Kelly, summarized a creed as “a fixed formula summarizing the essential articles of the Christian religion and enjoying the sanctions of ecclesiastical authority.” 3
Being clear and concise, the creed was to serve as a practical profession of faith that could be memorized by slaves and masters alike amongst a plethora of false teachings. A primary function of a creed was to distinguish heretical beliefs from orthodox beliefs. But despite the council of Nicaea, schisms still formed in its aftermath particularly surrounding the nature of the Holy Spirit. So, after 56 years another council met in Constantinople in 381 AD to revise certain words of the previous creed which addressed new concerns of the Holy Spirit. The new version was known as the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, but simply became known as what we call it today: the Nicene Creed.
The Nicene Creed is particularly important being second (in history and not significance) only to the relatively short (roughly 112 words) Apostle’s Creed which was written circa 140 AD. The Nicene Creed is approximately 224 words long and is the culminated work of over 56 years of deliberation. From all of church history’s creeds, councils, confessions, and catechisms, the Nicene Creed still remains the most adopted confession of belief in Christendom today.
In a world of churches dividing over minor doctrinal disagreements to what color the carpet should be, it behooves us, especially in America, to acknowledge the unity that we can celebrate and enjoy with other believers around the world within the Nicene Creed. We would be wise to remember that although being 1643 years old, the creed is not theologically aloof or distant. It was written in 1st person for a reason.
Micah Coate, President and Host of Salvation and Stuff
Footnotes:

To be sure, the Nicene Creed, does not explain the mystery of the Trinity, but only states it as orthodox belief.
In 313 AD the Edict of Milan was given by Constantine which made the persecution of Christians unlawful, thus giving their faith legal status. The Roman Empire wouldn’t make Christianity the state religion until 380 AD by the Edict of Thessalonica issued by Theodosius I.
J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Creeds, 3rd. ed. (New York: Continuum, 1972), 1.
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