From our General Superintendent

The Roots of Truth: The Nicene Creed

DAVID WELLS

In 2025, within multiple Christian communions, there was a strong focus on the 1,700th anniversary of the process and church councils that led to the Nicene Creed, a shared statement of faith that could be adopted by the various branches of the church at that time. The Nicene Creed was initially created at the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325, with further revision at the First Council of Constantinople in AD 381, when the clause related to the divinity of the Holy Spirit was finalized.

The felt need for the councils to gather and for a creed to be shaped arose in response to various teachings that primarily focused on Jesus not being one with God, that He was a created being and other aberrations from the apostolic teaching that had been the core of the early church’s teaching and mission.

As I sit in Istanbul, Turkey (Constantinople), I am pondering the “rootedness” of our Christian faith. I have participated in contexts where the Nicene Creed was engaged by a cross-section of Christian scholars and leaders, including several Pentecostals. Jude’s exhortation has come to mind several times:

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people.For certain individuals whose condemnation was written aboutlong ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord (Jude 1:3-5, emphasis mine).

Our faith is rooted in core truths, and we must contend for them as the treasure they are. We share these core truths with multiple other believers, past and present, whose root systems tap into the same life-giving Triune God, though some of our branches look distinct from one another, including our liturgies and our ministry expressions. We must all continue to be rooted in truth, even as we exhibit diversity rooted in love:

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. (Ephesians 3:16-18)

Rooted in love, let us boldly join with generations of sisters and brothers in Christ to declare the truths of the Nicene Creed that root us together.

The 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:
    by the power of the Holy Spirit
        he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
        and was made man.
    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.
    With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
    He has spoken through the Prophets.
    We believe in one holy catholic 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.[1]