Apostles and Nicene Creeds Part 5 : The Holy Spirit

Hey everyone. Thanks for visiting. I hope someone somewhere is learning something here – I know I am.

Apostles: “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”


Nicene: “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.”

      I cannot say enough about how important it is to understand the creeds. They have context, historical placement, and character that reflect the development of our faith. One of these days I will have to write a bit about that – the development of the Christian Faith. I have been mentioning it to you in the Creeds series if you have been following, but none is so evident as these passages from either creed.

       Any lay person can see there is a huge difference in the two. What does this suggest? Does it mean the people who wrote and recited the Apostles creed didn’t believe the Spirit proceeds from the Father? Why did they stop so soon in the confession of faith? One thing most might not think of is that statements of faith are not typically defined until they are challenged. It is not that the Bishops of the early fourth century made up the teaching or that Sts. Peter and Paul did not agree or understand the later profession (the Nicene). Rather, the Church developed an understanding about their beliefs and received better clarification after years of challenging heretics.

       This part of the creed is a continuation of the entire aim of the creeds themselves, which is our statement about our God as has been revealed to us. Will anyone argue that God has revealed himself to mankind over many occasions and periods of time? I doubt a reasonable person would. Then this part of the creed is no different. We find a pattern in the creed at this point that the person of deity is named and then reference is further clarified as to single that person out and then show a relationship. In the beginning we read “I believe in God, the Father… maker…” then read “and in Jesus Christ, His only Son,” and start to conclude with “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord… who has spoken through the Prophets.” We observe that we don’t just believe in any old God, or any old Holy Spirit; we come 200 years later in the Nicene Creed to explain precisely who and what we are talking about. We do so with the Holy Spirit by first defining who the Father is, and then the Son, so that when we state “who proceeds from the Father and the Son” we know clearly who we refer to – there is no mistake – it is a definitization of our faith – a Dogma.     

       This understanding of Dogmatic Theology is incredibly important, and unfortunately unpopular among Catholicism’s critics. The opposing believer will argue that all Truth is only found in the Bible. We call this infallibility, or Sola Scriptura, that the Bible is the one rule of faith for a Christian and contains all the teaching necessary for salvation. A discussion will be held another day to persuade this otherwise in a charitable fashion. One cannot argue though the revelation God has given over the Holy Spirit. Would one in the time of King David have said that the Holy Spirit is of the same deity as God? No. Would one have said in the time before the Prophets that the Holy Spirit spoke though them? No. Would one who walked next to Jesus have been able to understand the fruits, gifts, and inspirations of the Holy Spirit? No.

       In the OT, the Holy Spirit was selectively poured out on Kings, Patriarchs, and then Prophets as a means of guidance. We believe now, that that very same Holy Spirit guides a willing Christian. Jesus said in reference to this in John 14:14, that the Holy Spirit would come and teach everything, and remind them of everything Jesus had said.

       The Holy Spirit is also the “giver of life.” Adam inhaled this from God in order to breath – before the fall. Jesus breathed the same on the Apostles in John 20:20 “He breathed on them and said “receive the Holy Spirit.”” This is the real life giver and so it makes its appearance in the Nicene Creed. In ancient times, the breath in ones body was a sign of life. According to Jesus, one is not saved but through being born of Water and Spirit (John 3:5). St. Paul tells us that “the Spirit brings life” (2 Cor 3:6).  Since it is the Holy Spirit who pours out charity in the hearts of the faithful (Gal 5:5), he is the source of all true life in God. Therefore in our creed we profess the Spirit is the “giver of life.”

Here’s a video from Jimmy Akin:

And one from thebomb.com (not really) Fr. Barron:

Done writing for now. Comment and start a discussion.

Apostles and Nicene Creeds Part 4

Hey everybody. Hope everyone in America reading this had a great 4th of July weekend. I get some views from others in other countries. Not sure if they actually read it. I'll never know and wont let it bother me either. Thanks for reading this, anyways.


Alright, back to the creeds:

I don't know how I made this mistake before, but the Apostles Creed according to my source, does not have "according to the scriptures." A very important part of the Nicene Creed nevertheless.

Apostles: "he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead."

Nicene: "he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end."

       First, I want to touch on a piece from a previous part of the Nicene Creed, the part that says, "he descended into hell." We have mention of this, for what reason? Did Jesus go to hell? Did he make a visit to the devil and beat him up for his lunch money? No. He didn't. The term "hell" is used in our culture as the place that people go who do not have salvation, the people who choose a life other than with God. Historically, and in the particular meaning of this creed though, "hell" is meant to mean nothing more than the place that the dead go - which is in the ground. It simply means that we believe Jesus was buried. It is mentioned to give further edification that Jesus really died, not just passed out or something else. He really died, and was thus buried as such.

       I wanted to touch on that because we have in today's blog "he ascended into heaven." Now, when we read "he descended into hell... he ascended into heaven" we want to weigh these two places with equal measure simply because of our understanding, our lexicon, and its cultural inputs. Try not to do that, ever. Understand first what that writer was attempting to say, period. Doing otherwise gets us into the hermeneutical anarchy we have among the Body today.

       The rest of this part of the creed(s) places emphasis on the place and purpose that Jesus has in our salvation history. It is both historical and prophetic. "he ascended... he is seated... he will come again in glory to judge..." Here we have what Jesus did, what he is doing, and what he will do.

       The Nicene creed mentions that Jesus will come in "glory." You should understand this word to mean "power, might, etc,."

       Lastly you must agree as any sort of Christian that "his kingdom will have no end." This is one part of the Church that I didn't completely understand before I was Catholic. James Cardinal Gibbons relays in his famous book "The Faith of Our Fathers" that the Church has five distinctive (and extremely biblical) characteristics - one of which is perpetuity which essentially means "never ending." Hebrews 12:26 reads "since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken." In Matthew 16:18 Jesus indicates to Peter that "upon this rock" Jesus will build his church, not yours and mine, and that "the gates of hell will not prevail against it." "Prevail against" is actually one Greek word, katischyō, which means that this other "hell" or "hades" will not "over power" or "be superior in strength." Notice that Jesus as Jesus said to Peter about "my church" we believe the same about "his kingdom."

       This was actually a huge argumental win for Catholicism for me when I was investigating. The idea, biblical, that in order to be a real part of the body which is the church, that church has had to have existed forever - which only the Catholic Church can claim. Protestants, orthodox, and others cannot claim this as they chose to separate from the church in differing millenia. But as sadly mistaken by many protestants, the Catholic Church teaches that each of the true followers of Christ regardless of denomination are part of the Body of Christ - not just Catholics. Again, it was a huge win for me when I learned what Catholics actually believe and where they actually come from.

Jesus will be king of all, and will reign for all time.