South Park
Presbyterian Church
1501 30th Street,
Rock Island, IL 61201
Click [map] to our location
Church Office Hours:
8:00 am - 4:00 pm Mon - Thurs
8:00 am - Noon Friday
Phone: (309) 786-6466
Fax: (309) 786-6470
Click [Web Site Map]
Daily Upper Room
Devotional www.upperroom.org/daily/
South Park Presbyterian Church is a congregation
of
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) www.pcusa.org
The Presbytery
of Great Rivers www.greatriverspby.org
The
Synod of Lincoln Trails www.lincolntrails.org
and is affiliated with
Churches United of the Quad
Cities www.churchesunited.net
Online
community website: www.webjam.com/southpark_pcusa
The Nicene Creed
More About The Nicene Creed from the Book of Confessions, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
In the first three centuries, the church found itself in a hostile environment.
On the one hand, it grappled with the challenge of relating the
language of the gospel, developed in a Hebraic and Jewish-Christian context,
to a Graeco-Roman world. On the other hand, it was threatened not
only by persecution, but also by ideas that were in conflict with the biblical
witness.
In A.D. 312, Constantine won control of the Roman Empire in the battle
of Milvian Bridge. Attributing his victory to the intervention of Jesus
Christ, he elevated Christianity to favored status in the empire. “One
God, one Lord, one faith, one church, one empire, one emperor” became
his motto.
The new emperor soon discovered that “one faith and one church”
were fractured by theological disputes, especially conflicting understandings
of the nature of Christ, long a point of controversy. Arius, a
priest of the church in Alexandria, asserted that the divine Christ, the
Word through whom all things have their existence, was created by God
before the beginning of time. Therefore, the divinity of Christ was similar
to the divinity of God, but not of the same essence. Arius was opposed
by the bishop, Alexander, together with his associate and successor,
Athanasius. They affirmed that the divinity of Christ, the Son, is of the
same substance as the divinity of God, the Father. To hold otherwise, they
said, was to open the possibility of polytheism, and to imply that knowledge
of God in Christ was not final knowledge of God.
To counter a widening rift within the church, Constantine convened a
council in Nicaea in A.D. 325. A creed reflecting the position of Alexander
and Athanasius was written and signed by a majority of the bishops.
Nevertheless, the two parties continued to battle each other. In 381, a second
council met in Constantinople. It adopted a revised and expanded
form of the A.D. 325 creed, now known as the Nicene Creed.
The Nicene Creed is the most ecumenical of creeds. The Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) joins with Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and most
Protestant churches in affirming it. Nevertheless, in contrast to Eastern
Orthodox churches, the western churches state that the Holy Spirit proceeds
not only from the Father, but from the Father and the Son (Latin,
filioque). To the eastern churches, saying that the Holy Spirit proceeds
from both Father and Son threatens the distinctiveness of the person of
the Holy Spirit; to the western churches, the filioque guards the unity of
the triune God. This issue remains unresolved in the ecumenical dialogue.
In the first three centuries, the church found itself in a hostile environment.
On the one hand, it grappled with the challenge of relating the
language of the gospel, developed in a Hebraic and Jewish-Christian context,
to a Graeco-Roman world. On the other hand, it was threatened not
only by persecution, but also by ideas that were in conflict with the biblical
witness.
In A.D. 312, Constantine won control of the Roman Empire in the battle
of Milvian Bridge. Attributing his victory to the intervention of Jesus
Christ, he elevated Christianity to favored status in the empire. “One
God, one Lord, one faith, one church, one empire, one emperor” became
his motto.
The new emperor soon discovered that “one faith and one church”
were fractured by theological disputes, especially conflicting understandings
of the nature of Christ, long a point of controversy. Arius, a
priest of the church in Alexandria, asserted that the divine Christ, the
Word through whom all things have their existence, was created by God
before the beginning of time. Therefore, the divinity of Christ was similar
to the divinity of God, but not of the same essence. Arius was opposed
by the bishop, Alexander, together with his associate and successor,
Athanasius. They affirmed that the divinity of Christ, the Son, is of the
same substance as the divinity of God, the Father. To hold otherwise, they
said, was to open the possibility of polytheism, and to imply that knowledge
of God in Christ was not final knowledge of God.
To counter a widening rift within the church, Constantine convened a
council in Nicaea in A.D. 325. A creed reflecting the position of Alexander
and Athanasius was written and signed by a majority of the bishops.
Nevertheless, the two parties continued to battle each other. In 381, a second
council met in Constantinople. It adopted a revised and expanded
form of the A.D. 325 creed, now known as the Nicene Creed.
The Nicene Creed is the most ecumenical of creeds. The Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) joins with Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and most
Protestant churches in affirming it. Nevertheless, in contrast to Eastern
Orthodox churches, the western churches state that the Holy Spirit proceeds
not only from the Father, but from the Father and the Son (Latin,
filioque). To the eastern churches, saying that the Holy Spirit proceeds
from both Father and Son threatens the distinctiveness of the person of
the Holy Spirit; to the western churches, the filioque guards the unity of
the triune God. This issue remains unresolved in the ecumenical dialogue.
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