In One God, the Father, the Almighty

Welcome back!

Up to this point in our study of the Nicene Creed we've reviewed a little Church history and we've touched on what it means in a liturgical context when we say we believe something. Now it's time to look into what it is we say we agree with as true when we recite the creed. Right off we make a bold statement:

We believe in one God,
    the Father, the Almighty,
    maker of heaven and earth,
    of all that is, seen and unseen.

This sentence says a lot so we'll take some time to unpack it.  The creed opens with stating we believe in one God. With this opening we state that as Christians we are monotheistic, that is, we say we believe in one all powerful God. In fact, there can be only one actual "all powerful" being, else we run the risk of running into what might be called a paradox of competing omnipotence (overly simplified, if you have two beings that can do anything then can one undo something the other has done?). Besides logic puzzles supporting the idea of there being only one all powerful being, the Bible appears to say that there is only one God (see for example Isaiah 45:5, 1 Corinthians 8:6). This idea of there being "one God" was very important in the debates they had at the Council of Nicaea.

In addition to being almighty (all powerful), in the creed we are saying God is "the Father". Setting aside gender language for the moment, this is quite special. When we say this all powerful being "Father", we are acknowledging that this God is capable of entering into relationships. If we pause a moment and reflect, being able to think of God as Father would mean that this God we worship is not something impersonal, some abstract force that pays us no attention and does not care for us. If we can enter into a relationship with someone it means we can connect on an intimate level, that there can be communication with them, we can share experiences with them and they care about those experiences. In fact, we love because of the relationship God wants to have to with us (1 John 4:18-20).

OK, now to briefly pick up the gender issue I set aside earlier. When we call God "Father", we are not saying God has a sex. Rather we are speaking in terms of how we can view the relationship. As Christians, we do have to acknowledge two big things: the language in the Bible through which God is revealed to us does use the word "father" when describing God, and that the Bible, while relevant today, is a product of its times (we'll spent a good bit of time in future on the Bible itself but for now let's keep it short even if it raises a lot of questions). Today a lot of people are open about having problematic relationships with their fathers, but the Father we should think about when we use that word to reference God should be the idealized idea of a Father. God as Father would be a protector, a comforter, a provider, strong for us when we are afraid, someone who delights in our successes and who consoles us when we fail. For some people this will be hard, but I pray that where your earthly father may have let you down and hurt you, experiencing a relationship with God the Father can help heal those hurts.

Another important statement about the God we proclaim is that this God is the creator of everything. Declaring God as the maker of heaven and earth is something clearly stated at the very beginning of the Bible: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1) and repeated and expanded in the New Testament: 

    for through him [Christ] God created everything
    in the heavenly realms and on earth.
    He made the things we can see
    and the things we can’t see—
    such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
    Everything was created through him and for him. 

(Colossians 1:16) 

How God created the seen and unseen realms is not discussed and not the point. We state a belief in creationism, but not of any specific type. "Old Earth" vs "Young Earth" creationism might make for an interesting debate, but the focus of the Nicene Creed is on the intersection, that there is a creator. God's timing and methods are God's alone. 

 In Christ,

Michael 

Some questions:

1. If we can call God, Father, what does that mean about our relationship with God?

2. What does your idealized view of a father look like?

3. If you are a Christian, do the first two questions impact how you live your life? If they don't or only do a little, why might that be? 

4.  We mentioned Colossians 1:16 in our discussion today. Read also Colossians 1:15. Do you see how these two verses would fit into what the Nicene Creed was made to hopefully clarify?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nicene What?

 Welcome back! As we start our conversation about what some call the  Nicene Creed , I think it is important we cover a few important terms and concepts. Too often in religious discussions we just use terms thinking everyone knows what we are talking about and that they agree with what we think we're talking about. So, let's investigate a little and develop a common understanding of what it is we'll be discussing. In the future I hope to go into detail on the following topics, but for now we'll just try to develop a functioning vocabulary for the immediate future by working through a few questions: What is a creed? The Nicene Creed is a creed (obviously) ,  so what does that mean? Well, the word  creed  comes from the Latin word  credo  which means  I believe . So when we talk about creeds we are talking about some type of statement of beliefs. There is more to this but let's keep it simple for now. OK, what is a Nicene? Throughout Church History,...
Read more

We believe

Welcome back! Now it's time for us to start working our way through the Nicene Creed . Recall that a creed is a statement of accepted beliefs and we see this in the structure of the Nicene Creed. Notice that over and over we make a statement about something we believe: We believe in one God... We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ... We believe in the Holy Spirit... We believe in one holy catholic and  apostolic Church...  Let's take a moment and think about the first two words of the creed, "We believe". We If you read various sources you will find some presentations of the Nicene Creed with "I believe" in place of the "We believe" in our reading. Why is this? Well, there actually is a technical reason for the two different presentations. The original statement of the Nicene Creed was written in Greek and actually used the Greek phrase for "We believe" (" pisteuomen" or " πιστεύομεν" if you want to get fancy). When it ...
Read more

Where to Start?

Hello and welcome to my blog. I know most sites start with some type of biographical sketch of the author. Quick and easy, but I hate talking about myself so I don't think I will go that route. As this is a site about theology, I will introduce myself gradually through my posts. I know, I know... for Biblical or theological sites people want to read a short biographical sketch and then a detailed doctrinal statement to see if the author is worthy of their time, but where's the fun in that? Often in seminary an ongoing assignment throughout your theology classes is to take the information you learn and write your own statement of beliefs. I like that idea, so my first few posts will be talking about Christian theological beliefs, starting with what is usually considered the "common denominator" statement shared by most Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants, and Catholics, the  Nicene Creed . (Note: If you want to read it and click the link you will see three versions of t...
Read more