Last month we learned what it means to be Lutheran: to hold to all the teachings contained in the Book of Concord, because those teachings are in perfect agreement with Holy Scripture. Now we’ll consider the first set of documents included in the Book of Concord: the three ecumenical, or universal, creeds. We call them ecumenical because they have been accepted by all Christians (at least in the West, including Roman Catholics and Protestants. Christians in the East, such as those in the Greek Orthodox Church, only formally accept the Nicene Creed, and even that is in a slightly different form than what we confess.) The three ecumenical creeds are the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed.

The Apostles’ Creed is a simple statement of what Christians believe when they are baptized. Jesus commanded that His disciples make more disciples by washing them with water “into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt.28:19). So from very early on, likely as early as the days of the Apostles themselves, those who were baptized were asked to give an account of their faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It was not enough just to know the threefold name of God—they actually had to know who those three Persons were and what They had done. The Apostles’ Creed gives a basic account of each Person of the Trinity. It is brief and simple enough that any child can learn it, and it forms one of the six chief parts of Luther’s Small Catechism. Every baptized Christian would do well to meditate on the Apostles’ Creed every morning and evening, to remind himself of that blessed Name into which we have been baptized.

The Nicene Creed is a longer statement of Christian faith against heretics who denied the divinity of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. At the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, Christian bishops gathered to draft a formal confession of faith to distinguish themselves from the heretic Arius. Whereas Arius taught that the Son had been created by God the Father and was therefore not divine, the Christian bishops confessed that God the Son was coequal with God the Father, without beginning and worthy of divine worship. Some two generations later, in AD 381, another council was called in the city of Constantinople to defend the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Whereas a series of heretics had called the Holy Spirit God’s “active force” and the like, denying that He was a distinct Person, the Christian bishops gathered at Constantinople confessed the Spirit to be coequal with the Father and the Son, a Person just as They, also worthy of divine worship. The confession drafted at those two councils is what we presently have as our Nicene Creed.

The Athanasian Creed was formulated perhaps a century later and is named for St. Athanasius, the greatest opponent of the heretic Arius. It’s a long creed, much longer than the other two, and we only publicly recite it once every year, on Trinity Sunday. It’s in our hymnals on page 319. The Athanasian Creed clearly and thoroughly confesses what we believe about the relationships between the distinct Persons in the Trinity, as well as between the two natures in Christ, both human and divine.

All three of these creeds have been universally accepted by faithful Lutherans, since all three teach with precision and clarity what Holy Scripture teaches about our Triune God. The fact that we Lutherans accept these creeds shows that we are in agreement with the entire Christian Church on the fundamentals of the faith, at least concerning the nature of God and Christ. Where we disagree with other Christians is on the question of what God has done for us, how He has done it, and what that means for us. That’s where the rest of the Book of Concord comes in.

God grant us continued faithfulness to all that He has taught us about Himself in His Word! AMEN.

Pastor Neuendorf

May Sunday Services
6th—9:00 a.m.
13th—9:00 a.m.
20th—9:00 a.m.
29th—9:00 a.m.

Ascension DayService
Thursday, May 17th—7:00 p.m.

Forty days after His resurrection from the dead, Jesus ascended visibly into heaven, where He is now seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. Why did Jesus ascend into heaven? What does it mean for Him to be seated at God’s right hand? Why does Holy Scripture devote so much space to Jesus’ ascension? To make sure that Christians have time to address these and other questions, and because, according to Holy Scripture, the ascension of our Lord is such an important event, the Church has set aside the Thursday forty days after Easter as a special time to thank and praise our ascended Lord and to teach and learn about His ascension. In fact, some of our most beloved hymns (Crown Him with Many Crowns; A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing) are Ascension Day hymns! We will therefore hold a special Ascension Day service here at Holy Cross on Thursday, May 17, at 7 PM. It is our hope that many of our brothers and sisters at Holy Cross will joyfully gather on this special evening to commemorate in Scripture, sermon, and song one of the most important events in the life of our blessed Savior. See you there!