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The Council of Nicaea defended the true Christian faith by developing a declaration of beliefs—the Nicene Creed—that still is used in Christianity today.
In our worship services, we regularly confess our sins and rejoice to hear that our sins are forgiven. There is, however, another confession in the service—the confession of faith. In a non-Communion service, this is often the Apostles’ Creed. During a Communion service, this tends to be the Nicene Creed. In 2025, we celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of this confession.
Regional councils in the early Christian church
The Nicene Creed was the product of a council held from May until July in A.D. 325. This wasn’t the first such gathering in the early Christian church. The first council is recorded in Acts 15:1-35. The council at Jerusalem took place in A.D. 49 to address a doctrinal issue—how gentile Christians should relate to the Mosaic Law. This council concluded that once Jesus had completed the work of salvation, the Old Testament ceremonial laws were no longer in effect.
After that, whenever doctrinal questions arose in the church, Christians gathered to discuss them. This was often done regionally. The purpose of these councils was to clarify the issues based on God’s Word and to keep the Christian faith united.
During the three centuries after Pentecost, Christianity was often viewed with suspicion, and Christians were sometimes persecuted. In A.D. 312, Emperor Constantine became the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. In 313, he and co-emperor Licinius enacted the Edict of Milan that declared religious toleration within the Roman Empire, granting Christians and others freedom to practice their faith without persecution and restoring confiscated property. For the first time, Christianity was a legal religion. When Constantine became the sole emperor in 324, the bishops endorsed him and urged Christians to support the emperor.
Constantine soon found that there were many different opinions on how to worship and who God is. In Alexandria, Egypt, Arius, a Christian priest, and his followers taught that Jesus was the son of God but denied that the Father and the Son were one substance (Greek: homoousios, “one being”). Instead, they viewed the Father and the Son as having distinct but similar substances (Greek: homoiousios, “similar being”). The difference in Greek was literally one iota (the English letter i ) of difference. For Arians, Jesus is inferior or subordinate to God the Father. Arians summarized their belief by stating, “There was a time when Jesus Christ was not.” This implied Jesus was a created being, rather than coequal and coeternal with the Father. They denied the doctrine of the Trinity.
The controversy threatened Constantine’s newly established emperorship. In an attempt to end the dissent, he sent a letter to Arius and Bishop Alexander of Alexandria, telling them to lay aside their differences. By 325, the controversy had become so significant that Constantine called an assembly of bishops, the First Council of Nicaea.
The first Council of Nicaea
Unlike the former regional councils, this was to be an ecumenical (from the Greek word for “worldwide”) council. All the expenses of the council, including the travel of the bishops, were paid from the imperial treasury. The exact number of bishops in attendance is unknown, but the number 318 has traditionally been accepted. With presbyters and deacons assisting each bishop, the total attendance may have been between 1,200 and 1,900. Most of the bishops were from the eastern end of the Mediterranean with only five from Western Europe.
The early church historian Eusebius provides an incomplete list of the bishops and their countries of origin. Many of those present had, because of past persecutions, suffered and faced the threat of death on account of their faith. They took doctrine seriously and were extremely sensitive to its details. Upon hearing the teaching of Arius, many of the bishops immediately rejected his teaching as foreign to the teachings of the church. They tore to pieces a letter containing Arius’ teaching as well as an Arian confession of faith.
In response to Arianism’s idea that the Son was less than or inferior to the Father, the council adopted a confession that stated their belief “in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made” (emphasis added). It then went on to state how Jesus won salvation by his suffering, death, and resurrection.
Although 17 of the bishops originally questioned the statement, all but 3 finally signed it. The Arians were a distinct minority among the bishops. There was some resistance to the Nicene Creed, not because of what it said but because of how it said it. Many objected to the use of the word homoousios in an official document, despite their agreement with the meaning it conveyed, because it was not used in Scripture.
At the time of the council, there was no controversy about the person of the Holy Spirit. So, after declaring the belief in the Father and the Son, the creed simply stated the belief “in the Holy Spirit.”
Further discussions
The Nicene Creed expressed what the great majority of bishops at the council found to be the biblical and orthodox teachings of the Christian faith. Yet, despite the decision of the council, Arianism not only survived but also flourished. The support of members of the imperial family prevented the removal of all the Arian sympathizers, and many gained church offices. As a result, Arianism was once again debated and rejected by the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople in A.D. 381.
In the years after A.D. 325, the person of the Holy Spirit began to be questioned. Macedonius, a former bishop of Constantinople, denied the full divinity of the Holy Spirit as a person of the Godhead, insisting that the Spirit was subordinate to the Father and the Son. Once again, the orthodox trinitarian understanding of God was challenged.
Constantinople in A.D. 381 not only reaffirmed the work of Nicaea but also expanded the Nicene Creed’s Third Article to confess the Holy Spirit as “the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who in unity with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.” It added comments about the church, Baptism, and the resurrection of the dead as well.
Yet even after the expansion in A.D. 381 and the adoption of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (most often known simply as the Nicene Creed), it was still not in the form we are familiar with today. Outside the borders of the Roman Empire, Arianism found a home among some of the tribes that would later invade Western Europe. The Christian church in Spain found itself defending the truth of Nicaea in the sixth century. At the Third Council of Toledo (A.D. 589), Visigothic Spain renounced Arianism and added the word filioque (Latin: “from the Son”). The Third Article then stated “the Holy Spirit . . . proceeds from the Father and the Son.” The addition soon spread throughout the Western church.
Sadly, the Eastern Orthodox Church never accepted the addition. The dispute over filioque in the Nicene Creed finally contributed to the schism (break) between the Eastern and Western churches in 1054.
While it took years for the Nicene Creed to reach its final form—and in spite of the church’s failure to reach agreement on every phrase—the creed still serves its purpose of joining Christians together in their common confession of Christ.
Nicene Creed
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is,
seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,
and became truly human.
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.
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.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who in unity with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Author: James Korthals
Volume 112, Number 06
Issue: June 2025
