The Perennial Importance of Creeds for Christian Faith – Part 3
by Rick Plasterer, Juicy Ecumenism:
Understanding Nicene Christianity and its importance for a truly Biblical faith was the topic of the First Annual Prince Georges Conference on Reformed Theology held at Greenbelt Baptist Church in Maryland late last month. Two earlier articles reviewed presentations there, the second of which reviewed presentations concerning the Nicene/Constantinopolitan Creed – the “Nicene Creed” recited in churches today – its doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, and the relevance of these to monotheism, the deity of Christ, and the doctrine of salvation. A further lecture, by Craig Carter, Research Professor of Theology at Tyndale University in Toronto, Canada, discussed the Council of Chalcedon in A.D. 451, which defined more clearly what is meant in the creed by saying that Jesus Christ “came down from heaven … and became man.”
Heresies concerning the Trinity
Carter began by first pointing out three heresies concerning the Trinity that should be mentioned. The first is modalism. This holds that “God is really just one person.” He appears differently at different times. This is commonly expressed by saying that he appeared as the Father in the Old Testament, the Son in the New Testament, and the Holy Spirt in post-Biblical times. This heresy “fails to understand that God is three in one, always.” Secondly, subordinationism “is just a general term that includes Arianism.” It is any doctrine that says that “the Son and the Spirit are divine but not of the same being as the Father … [or of the same] glory and majesty as the Father.” Contemporary Jehovah’s Witnesses hold an Arian Christology, Carter observed. Thirdly, there is tri-theism. This is any doctrine of the Trinity that regards the three persons of the Trinity as three beings.
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