The Council of Nicaea (325)

The Nicene Creed

This creed is found in the Acts of the ecumenical councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, in the letter Eusebius of Caesarea wrote to his own church, in Saint Athanasius’s letter to the emperor Jovian, in the church histories of Theodoret and Socrates, and elsewhere. The differences between the copies are of no importance at all. The synod at Nicaea set forth this creed. The statement of faith of the synod at Nicaea.

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible;

and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only Son of his Father, from the substance of the Father;

God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God;

begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father;

through whom all things were made, both those in heaven and those on earth;

who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, took flesh, and became man.

He suffered, and on the third day he rose again, and ascended into heaven;

and he will come again to judge the living and the dead.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit.

But as for those who say that there was a time when the Son of God was not, or that before he was begotten he was not, or that he was made out of things that were not, or that he is of a different substance or essence from the Father, or that he is a creature, or subject to change or alteration: all who say such things, the catholic and apostolic church anathematizes.