The Nicene Creed: Affirmed by the great majority of Christians, for nearly 1700 years....
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 with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who 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.
We all don't necessarily understand every part of that identically (the church and baptism parts) but the unity here is enormous. What we agree on here is HUGE.
Way back in my undergrad years, I had a prof in a lower division physics class who said, "it all makes perfect sense - until you get to the edges, and then it gets really weird." I had no idea at the time how true that is! Probably 95% of Christians agree on probably 95% of Christian teachings..... but oh that 5%, that's when it gets divisive and sometimes, well, interesting. But I think when looking at that 5%, we forget the 95%.
Soli Deo Gloria
- Josiah
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