We Believe

Over the next eight weeks we are going to be exploring some of the central doctrines of the Christian faith in our teaching series ‘We Believe’. Slightly unusually for us we are going to use one of the Creeds of the Early church to shape and narrate the series – The Nicene Creed.

 (With thanks to Kings Church London for allowing us to use their video)

The Nicene Creed:

Reading through the book of Acts gives us a window into the early advance of the gospel. The disciples disperse from Jerusalem and begin to see converts and plant churches in the areas they move to; first in Judea, then Samaria, and eventually to the ends of the Earth. As we leave the pages of Acts we are left in anticipation of where the gospel will be taken next and how the early church will develop.

The church continued to expand numerically and geographically but faced the increasing challenge of false teachers undermining the core doctrines taught by the apostles, and of increasing persecution at the hands of the Roman empire. Much of the New Testament is written to bring correction to false teaching that was circulating the churches, but the persecution of believers, and limitations around travel and communication lead to early theological drift in much of the early church. Christianity was at risk!! 

Having converted to Christianity and making it the religion of the Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine called the first ecumenical council in 325 AD. He invited all of the bishops of the early church, from across the Roman empire, to meet in an attempt to bring doctrinal consistency and clarity. The theological heavyweights of the day gathered from across the church in Africa, Asia, and Europe to draw from scripture clarity over the key doctrines of Christianity. The conversations and debates continued for three months.

What we have as the result of this is the Nicene Creed: a statement of Christian Doctrine that is 1700 years old, the content of which is common to all branches of the church. This means that whether you are Roman Catholic or Protestant; Orthodox or Oriental Orthodox; from the Coptic or Ethiopian Church; Assyrian or Nestorian Church; even if you have never read or heard of the Nicene Creed, your church tradition and doctrine are rooted in it. The Nicene creed is a statement of what all Christians everywhere have believed for the past 1700 years, and continue to believe today!

We Believe Series:

Our teaching series will follow the narration of the creed, exploring the doctrines of God; Jesus; humanity; the crucifixion; the resurrection; the Holy Spirit; the Church; and our future hope. We’ll use the creed as a reference point, explaining some of the language that is more alien to us, but we will be basing our teaching in the scriptures that the creed has been drawn from.

The series offers us an opportunity to express our continuity with the Historic church. We are glad to be building upon the foundation of those that have faithfully followed Jesus over the past 2000 years! The Christian faith defined in the creed has seen many world views and ideologies come and go, and yet at its core – has remained unchanged. As those living in a society in which we hold a minority view, it does us good to know that what we continue to believe has been believed by the majority of the world, for the majority of the last 2000 years (and perhaps by the majority globally now!). What we believe has stood the test of time, and will continue far beyond the world views and ideologies of present day Great Britain!

The series also offers us an opportunity to align ourselves with the Church globally. In honouring a creed developed by church fathers/theologians from North Africa, Asia, as well as Europe, we remind ourselves that Christianity is not a Western religion - it is a global religion! Unlike other monotheisms, it has no fixed centre of gravity (think Mecca, Jerusalem…etc) but, in fact, the centre of gravity of Christianity is regularly moving. As we watch many traditional denominations in the UK falter over key doctrines, it is humbling and exciting to realise how much we continue to be in need of learning from Christian brothers and sisters across the globe!

Potential Reading:

If this has whetted your appetite for a little more reading around the themes of Church history or doctrine here’s a few book recommendations:

Church History in Plain Language – Bruce Shelley

The Good God – Michael Reeves

Spirit and Sacrament  - Andrew Wilson

- Dave Layen