The Nicene Creed

[Gregory Matthews]

The Nicene Creed:  In the following article, the author suggests that Adventists should affirm the Nicene Creed, states why, and comments on our not doing so.  NOTE:  I have no problem with the Nicene Creed, and I believe that Adventism could affirm it.

https://atoday.org/should-adventists-embrace-the-nicene-creed/

[Gustave]

This got my attention pretty quickly. 

The part I see the General Conference having a beef with is this part: 

"he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE SCRIPTURES".....

It's the last 5 words in the above sentence - about Christ suffering death and raising on the 3rd day and that all that stuff was, "according to the Scriptures" (AKA no other possible outcome). The Nicene Creed was all about Christology - that Christ was God Almighty in the same way that The Father and The Holy Spirit are God, basically God is Father, Son & Holy Spirit. 

In 1st Corinthians 15, 1-4 Saint Paul says:

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

Christ was explicit with His Disciples that He had to die and had to raise from the Dead - more interestingly Christ called His own followers "fools" for not believing the Prophecies in the Old Testament which said God would succeed in saving His people. 

Ellen White wrote so much about the possibility of Jesus losing His salvation its extremely rare to find a Seventh-day Adventist who will say Ellen was wrong about this. I would agree with the author that the Nicene Creed is a very good thing and would love to see this ancient Creed adopted, however, the theological consequences of affirming the most important part of the Gospel (i.e. that God's word does not return to God void) would put Ellen White in a precarious position - at least it sure would seem that way. 

Below appear to be a few roadblocks to the Nicene Creed being adopted

Signs of the Time April 2, 1940
It is VITAL for every Christian TO KNOW that Jesus Christ MIGHT have sinned. The Master was not beyond the clutches of temptation. The Heaven-sent Gift could have been eternally lost and the doom of humanity would have been eternally sealed. Jesus Christ knew the pull of evil. "In that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted."

Ellen White, L5,1900 SDA BC Volume 7,page 926
He became subject to temptation, endangering as it were, HIS DIVINE attributes. Satan sought, by the constant and curious devices of his cunning, to make Christ yield to temptation

Ellen White MS 99,1903 page 3,4
He had infinite power ONLY because He was perfectly obedient to His Father's will

Ellen White, DA 131
Then as the glories of the eternal home burst upon our enraptured senses we shall remember that Jesus left all this for us, that He not ONLY became an exile from the heavenly courts, but for us took the risk of failure AND eternal loss

Ellen White, GCB Dec 1, 1895
Remember that Christ risked all; "tempted like as we are," he staked EVEN his own eternal existence upon the issue of the conflict. Heaven itself was imperiled for our redemption.


Ellen White, SM book 1, page 256
Could Satan in the least particular have tempted Christ to sin, he would have bruised the Saviour's head. As it was, he could only touch His heel. Had the head of Christ been touched, the hope of the human race would have perished. Divine wrath would have come upon Christ as it came upon Adam. Christ and the church would have been without hope.”

There are a few examples of what would seem to be roadblocks for the Nicene Creed to be adopted - I would gather that the Canons of the Council of Nicaea would also be problematic given that Arius was directly called out in those documents for suggesting that Christ could have sinned and lost His salvation. 

I'd be interested in hearing from members here as to the likelihood of the Nicene Creed being adopted by the SDA Church? I think it would be amazing and wonderful if it happened! 
 

 

 

[Gregory Matthews]

The likelihood of the Nicene creed being adapted by the SDA Church is slim to none in the near future, in my opinion., for two reasons:

*  The SDA Church claims that it is not a creedal church.  In actual fact it is and its creed is the so-called 28.  It should be noted that those who developed the 27 (It was 27 before it became 28.)  intended for it to be descriptive and denied that it should ever be used in a creedal manner.  Current leaders in the SDA Church have worked hard to turn the 28 into a creed.

*  SDAs probably have little understanding of the Creeds.  Many have probably never read any of them.  I have, and I have made some use of them in services that I have held as a Federal Chaplain.  I don't agree with everything that Is stated in every creed.  The phrase "communion of the saints," is one point of my disagreement.  But few Adventists would know what that phrase actually said.  Probably most reading this thread would not know.    Adventists have probably considered the Creeds to generally be of Roman Catholic origin.  I like the article that I cited in which the author suggested that the Nicene Creed was likely more of Orthodox origin.  Anyway, Adventist thinking of a Roman Catholic background has probably simply reflected a bias against whatever might be Roman Catholic.