The Nicene Creed

LaSorcia said:

Since this is the basic foundation of what all Christians (Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant) believe, how important do you think it is to have it memorized? Do you have it memorized? Does your church use this creed or another (i.e., Apostles' Creed)?

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I attend a Lutheran church and we use the Nicene Creed frequently. I have it memorized, and there is some value in providing a solid foundation for other things.

But given the whole filioque thing, the various threads of Christianity can't even agree on this one thing.

LaSorcia said:

Since this is the basic foundation of what all Christians (Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant) believe, how important do you think it is to have it memorized? Do you have it memorized? Does your church use this creed or another (i.e., Apostles' Creed)?

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THAT NOR ANY OTHER CREED have anything whatsoever to do with what I believe. God's inspired will put down on paper via the Holy Spirit is the ONLY credible, worthwhile document. Creeds aren't worth the paper they're written upon.
In Him

Dutch Reformed, in its specific iteration of Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk van Suid Afrika.

We frequently recite the Nicene Creed, mostly on high holy days or when Communion is offered. In my youth my family were infrequent attendees, but I still ended up subconsciously memorising the Creed unwillingly - I knew it better than the Lord's Prayer!

at one time did have The Nicene and Apostles Creed committed to memory

child doesn't know creeds but may have words memorized to Newsboy's "We Believe" since we listen to Christian radio/sing on drive to & from school daily

some lyrics:
we believe in God the Father
we believe in Jesus Christ
we believe in the Holy Spirit
and he's given us new life
we believe in the crucifixion
we believe that he conquered death
we believe in the resurrection
and he's coming back again

lambofgod43985889 said:

in the evangelical church i went, we didn't speak about such thing, and in my opinion the evangelical church is the true church

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evangelicals affirm the Nicene creed regardless of how much your particular evangelical church voices value for it. Evangelicals just happen to have a particular allergy with anything that feels like liturgy. But regardless if they admit it or not I would say the councils up until Chalcedon play an important role in forming foundational Christology in Evangelical churches. (they just tend to ignore them and point to the verses that affirm the creeds so they may maintain sola-scriptural)

Petros2015 said:

I love the call of "The Doors! The Doors!" just before the Creed is recited...

http://myocn.net/conclusion-exclusion-the-doors-the-doors-in-wisdom-let-us-attend/

In our modern Orthodox Liturgy, the Creed is prefaced by a diaconal word of command. That is, just before the Creed is chanted or sung, the deacon cries out, “The doors! The doors!” and only after this does he invite the faithful to join in reciting the Creed by saying, “In wisdom, let us attend!” In its original context, the deacon was calling out to the door-keeper who stood by the main doors into the church, telling him to close and guard the doors against uninvited and unwanted intruders. In the days of the pre-Nicene church, it was a poignantly practical command—what they were all about to do (offer the Eucharist) was a capital offence under Roman law, and the lives of all the worshippers could be immediately forfeit if the Roman soldiers broke in and caught them all. Hence the command to guard the doors.

The Creed was not introduced into the Divine Liturgy until about the late fifth century, under Peter the Fuller, patriarch of Antioch, long after the practical reasons for guarding the doors had ceased to apply. By the time the Creed was introduced, the assembled church had no reason to fear being raided by the Roman police and hauled off for punishment. Nonetheless, the liturgical proximity of the command to guard the doors with the recitation of the Creed is fortuitous, for both the guarding and the recitation serve to accomplish the same purpose.

That purpose is exclusion. The doors were closed to keep out those who had no spiritual right to attend the gathering of the holy Church around its Lord. The doors therefore formed not only a physical barrier between the Church and the World, but also a kind of symbol of the Church’s eschatological separation from the World as well. The World was indeed called to salvation, but the road to salvation led first to the baptismal font, and no one who had not first been immersed in its saving waters could join in the Eucharistic communion of the gathered Church. The closed doors stood as mute witness that the unbaptized or heretical world had no place among the Orthodox faithful.

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classic Orthodox rational.

LaSorcia said:

Do you have it memorized?

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which one Nicene creed? there's a Latin one and a Greek one. I have neither memorized but if I were to try it would probably be Latin one because it is easier to read.

DamianWarS said:

which one Nicene creed? there's a Latin one and a Greek one. I have neither memorized but if I were to try it would probably be Latin one because it is easier to read.

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I'm sure there is one in English.

LaSorcia said:

Since this is the basic foundation of what all Christians (Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant) believe, how important do you think it is to have it memorized? Do you have it memorized? Does your church use this creed or another (i.e., Apostles' Creed)?

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My church uses the apostolic creed but substitutes the word catholic for Christian. But I memorised the Nicene Creed cause it is a more complete list of the beliefs we hold to. I suppose I should really memorise the apostolic creed also and maybe the Chalcedon declaration also.

David Cabrera said:

I'm sure there is one in English.

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The Anglican book of Common Prayer has it in English. So does the Worship Book of the Presbyterian Church in New York.

David Cabrera said:

I'm sure there is one in English.

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Translation only, since English wasn't even around when the creed was formed

Chesterton said:

My church can beat up your church.

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Best comment on this thread..
LOL
- saying this..with sense of humor.

LaSorcia said:

Since this is the basic foundation of what all Christians (Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant) believe, how important do you think it is to have it memorized? Do you have it memorized? Does your church use this creed or another (i.e., Apostles' Creed)?

Click to expand...

I memorized "Apostles' Creed" early on.. during my spiritual journey.
- Churches ( in protestant tradition ) I was involved - used Apostles' Creed.
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Later on, I learned about 'Nicence Creed'.
- I did not memorize yet..

LaSorcia said:

Since this is the basic foundation of what all Christians (Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant) believe, how important do you think it is to have it memorized? Do you have it memorized? Does your church use this creed or another (i.e., Apostles' Creed)?

Click to expand...

I have it memorized, as it is part of our Liturgy; and yes we do use the Apostles Creed and the Athanasian Creed as well.

Just_a_Christian said:

God's inspired will put down on paper via the Holy Spirit is the ONLY credible, worthwhile document. Creeds aren't worth the paper they're written upon.

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Huh. When God's inspired will is put down on paper via the Holy Spirit does it glow under ultra violet light or something? I guess that would have been really helpful, come to think of it.

Petros2015 said:

Huh. When God's inspired will is put down on paper via the Holy Spirit does it glow under ultra violet light or something? I guess that would have been really helpful, come to think of it.

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He could have taken free will out of the equation too, but He did not. To be a believer or follower of God, we must believe He is what He claims to be. All powerful. Not only is He able to control the contents of His word, He did it. If we can't be fully assured of this then we also can not be assured of anything else. A most miserable condition to be in indeed.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1
In Him

It might help to remember that the creed was essential at at time when the church controlled the scripture and it was unavailable to the masses.

This was a way for the congregants to have a breakdown of, not scripture, but what the church itself supposedly stood for, a condensed version like the statements of faith of websites demanding allegiance or do you accept the terms of this software/program, memorized rather than accessing the scripture itself, that not being their privilege. It gave the people a rough idea why they were there.

Growing up I didn't hear much about the Creeds. I learned about them myself, and then ironically the first time I heard them mentioned in the Pulpit was attending my current church, which is Independent Baptist (Picture an Independent Baptist pastor reciting a creed. I was shocked, too, but in a good way.)

I have a Bible which includes it in the opening pages and I like to consult it sometimes but I don't have it memorized and don't think it's necessarily important to memorize so long as the believer has been taught the core beliefs of Christianity through another means.

timothyu said:

It might help to remember that the creed was essential at at time when the church controlled the scripture and it was unavailable to the masses.

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I would say it's still important. Otherwise people head in all kinds of strange directions ... well, they do anyway, but the Creed serves as a Touchstone.

DamianWarS said:

evangelicals affirm the Nicene creed regardless of how much your particular evangelical church voices value for it.

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could you show me a proof