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Creed

The Nicene Creed

The ecumenical creed that summarizes the church’s common confession concerning the Trinity and the person of Christ in its A.D. 381 form.

The Nicene Creed took shape in the midst of the fourth-century controversies over the deity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity. Its earliest form emerged at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325, and it was expanded at the Council of Constantinople in A.D. 381 into the form most widely used today. For that reason it is often called the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed.

The creed's central purpose was to confess clearly that the Son is of one substance with the Father and therefore truly God. It also speaks of the Holy Spirit as the Lord and giver of life, glorified together with the Father and the Son. In doing so, the church was not merely defending an abstract doctrine; it was declaring whom Christians worship and trust for salvation.

Across the centuries this creed has stood near the center of the shared inheritance of the church. It has been recited in worship, used in catechesis and baptismal instruction, and treasured by Protestant traditions after the Reformation as one of the fullest and most dependable summaries of the Christian faith.

Creed Text

The Nicene Creed

Nicaea-Constantinople, A.D. 381

We 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 worlds,
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 Ghost 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 sitteth on the right hand of the Father;
and he shall come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead;
whose kingdom shall have no end.

And we believe in the Holy Ghost,
the Lord and giver of life,
who proceedeth from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified,
who spake by the prophets.

And we believe one holy catholic and apostolic church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.
And we look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen.