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.

Apostles and Nicene Creeds Part 3

Where did we leave off? Oh yeah… I should have added “born of the Virgin Mary” to the Apostles creed.  But I digress and continue where I left off last:

Apostles: “… suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; in accordance with the scriptures.”

Nicene: “For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again, in accordance with the scriptures.”

                It’s not hard to see the progression of the understanding of the faith, and the detail that was later poured into the new (Nicene) creed.  We observe the mention of Pontius Pilate, but why? What does Pilate have to do with our profession of faith? Should the Church Fathers have included only points about God, Jesus, and the Resurrection? It’s hard to say. What we submit though, is that Pilate was an instrument of God (just as Pharaoh was), and so where the Jews who turned him over. The Bible actually reads pretty chillingly that God opened salvation to the Gentiles because the Jews did not believe, and to make them jealous (Rom 11:11); I think we rarely consider this. It’s really another mystery of Gods work.  The point of Pontius Pilate being mentioned though is to properly give historical accuracy to the death of Jesus – because that’s what this portion of the Creed is about – how and when he died.

                Some would say he died a unique death. I disagree and so does history. Many at his time were *reportedly* creating signs, and making claims, and killed for it – but Jesus’ ministry was different, and his claims were as well.  In fact, in Acts we read that the high priest Caiaphas warns everybody to beware the Christians because they simply ‘aren’t going away’ as the followers of the other potential messiahs did. That’s pretty crazy if you ask me! To preserve history (since scripture in the New Testament had not yet been canonized) it was necessary to include this to show precisely the point in time that Jesus was killed. There is no mistake about the mentioning of the Roman Prelate in his death. Notice that the translation is “suffered under” and not “suffered at the hands of” or “killed by” – it was under the reign of Pontius Pilate who became a notable figure in other means as well in Roman history. It is a distinct reference to the time and place that Jesus suffered his passion.

                The next interesting part is “in accordance with the scriptures.” Now, I get the feeling that many Protestants are vaguely familiar with the creeds in either form. Catholics read the Nicene at Mass and should be somewhat familiar with it – but I wonder how many trip over this part about the “scriptures” or just read right through it. Has the reader of this blog considered which scriptures the creeds are referring to? First off, it should be recognized that the reference is found not only in the creed but in St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures” (15:3-4). Twice Paul refers to the scriptures. It cannot be any more evident that Paul was referring to the Old Testament just as the creeds are.  We might recognize the story and see the connection with “scriptures” as the NT, but remember, the creeds, both of them, are older than the canonized Bible – the Nicene by almost 80 years.    

With Paul saying this and it being then inserted in the creeds it is the equivalent of saying “in order to fulfill the prophecy about his life, death, and resurrection.” His virgin birth in Isaiah 7:14, His (God’s) son in Isaiah 9:6-7, his death for us in Isaiah 49:6 and 42:1-4, suffering foretold in Isaiah 53:3, rejected by rulers in Psalm 118:22, betrayed by 30 pieces of silver in Zachariah 11:12, and many more. The creed is vital to our Faith. It’s like a mini-new testament – before the New Testament was even new or a testament at all.