One, the creed of Your Best Life Now of the Damnable Prosperity Heretics. The other, the ancient creed of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic church.[ref]The picture is “The Christian Martyrs’ Last Prayer” by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1883.[/ref]
The Osteen Creed (which many evangelical churches today recite together, literally or in principle):
This is my Bible. I am what it says I am, I have what it says I have, I can do what it says I can do. Today I’ll be taught the Word of God. I boldly confess my mind is alert, my heart is receptive, I am about to receive the incorruptible, indestructible ever-living seed of the Word of God. I will never be the same. Never. Never. Never. I’ll never be the same, in Jesus name.
The Nicene Creed (which practically no evangelical church even know):[ref]From the website of Christ United Reformed Church, http://christurc.org/creeds.html#nicene[/ref]
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was Incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. And I believe one holy catholic [universal] and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
The Nicene Creed was especially written in response to the heresy of Arianism, which arose during the 4th century. Its teachings tried to destroy the doctrine of the Trinity and of the Deity of Christ, saying that the Father alone was the eternal God, while the Son was a created being. Therefore, there is one God, the Father, who created a Son (a familiar teaching in our day by the Jehovah’s Witnesses). Both the Eastern and the Western Church confess this Creed, but with one important difference.
The West insisted on the inclusion of the phrase “and the Son” (Latin filioque) in discussing the procession of the Holy Spirit; but the East rejects this phrase. The inclusion of this phrase is important as it protects the consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son; without it the heresy of subordinationism creeps into the doctrine of the Trinity.
In its present form this Creed is the creed of the Council of Nicea (325 A.D.), but the addition of the articles on the Holy Spirit from the Council of Constantinople (381 A.D.) form this majestic creed.
9 thoughts on “A Tale of Two Creeds”
I have trouble deciding if Joel Osteen’s worldview is closer to Pelagius or Obi Wan Kenobi.
The Nicene Creed (“which practically no evangelical church even knows”) – unless they also happen to be Anglicans, @[1327511748:2048:Karl].
Or confessional Presbyterian, Lutheran, or Reformed Baptist
I think the author was using hyberbole
It is interesting how the ancient Filioque Clause still protects the church from mysticism, which today appears in Pentecostalism and experience-driven worship.
“This is my Bible. I am what it says I am, I have what it says I have, I can do what it says I can do.” ~ Totally Pelagian Joel Osteen.
He is right. The Bible for the Reprobates !
This is one of the products of humanistic, human-centered: worship in today’s churches that rejects the centrality of the Word of God; sugar coating the Gospel; diminishing the total depravity of the sinful man & his hopeless condition; neglecting to preach the wrath of God & His justice while presenting His love & mercy; and the heretical teaching that people are inherently good.
“This is my Bible. I am what it says I am, I have what it says I have, I can do what it says I can do.” Ya, you and me are “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked” (Rev 3:17). And you’re unwilling and unable to do anything: you can’t accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to you, and you are not able to understand them (1 Cor 2:14).
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