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Anti Nicene Creed
It has been brought to my attention that I am not in harmony with the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed is a Roman creation as opposed to a Christian or Jewish composition. It is not founded on sound Biblical teachings but rather the imagination of men. I am not in agreement with it and have no intention of becoming in agreement with it.
The concept of the family is very real and was greatly emphasized by Jesus. He called God Father and called himself Son. This was considered blasphemy by the Pharisees and He was crucified for it. Also the church is called the bride of Christ and when you marry you become a family. The marriage has not yet occurred so to date the family consists of two, the Father and the Son.
I call the following the Anti Nicene Creed. It is an attempt to make a Biblically correct statement based on the contents of the Nicene Creed.
I believe in one God family , the Lord Father Almighty, and the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and born of the Father before all ages, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. God of God, light of light, spirit of spirit, True God of True God. Begotten not made, consubstantial to 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 power of God and of the Virgin Mary and was made man; was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried; and after three days rose again according to the Scriptures. And ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and shall come again with glory to establish His Kingdom on earth, of which there shall be no end. I believe in one body of Christ made up of seven churches. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. And I look for the resurrection of the dead and the day of judgement. Amen.
In the original Nicene creed a great deal of effort was made to portray the Holy Spirit as the third personage in a trinity. I do not believe in a Holy Trinity. I believe that the Holy Spirit is the power, strength or might of God. It is like the power of the brain to send signals to the hand and make it move. It is like gravity to the solar system and to the universe. It is like what enables a tree to produce a flower or a seed. It is like the earth is made of rock molecules and water molecules, trees are made of wood, creatures are made of flesh, and God is made of spirit. It is God^s energy not a personage like Jesus Christ or God the Father. I believe in two powerful figures in the God family.
There are passages in the New Testament that would lead you to believe that the Holy Spirit is a person because it is referred to by the pronouns he and whom. The fact is that in the Greek language, from which the New Testament was translated, nouns have gender, either masculine, feminine or neuter. The word pneuma in Greek, from which was derived Spirit, means breath or wind and is neuter. A comforter can be a blanket or a pleasant thought. A comforter can be a fellow believer, male or female or an understood and believed truth. (see John 15:26) The word comforter is derived from the Greek word parakletos (masculine) which means called to one�s side, intercessor, mediator, advocate or helper as the NASV translates it. Aletheia is feminine in Greek and is translated truth. So you can see by this that there was no reason for the translators to assign gender to the word spirit in the English language, it only serves to confuse or to distort comprehension.
But the Helper (Comforter in some translations), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. John 14:26 (NASV)
This passage should be translated: But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, that the Father will send in My name, it will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. This would be more in line with the rest of the scriptures where the Holy Spirit is mentioned or described.
Likewise this passage: When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me. John 15:26 (NASV) should be translated: When the Helper comes, which I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, that proceeds from the Father, it will bear witness of Me. The Spirit of truth is like an idea, a thought, a concept or a belief. In English it has no gender.
The Nicene Creed robs the reader of the concept that God is a family which He intends to add others to in His own time. It confines the concept of God to three, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This has caused immeasurable confusion and debasement to many for centuries.
2007 Jacques Gauvin
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