Changes to the Nicene Creed (325 to 381)

The Nicene Creed was modified (before the Filioque was added to it) at the Second Ecumenical Council – a council the Eastern 'Orthodox' claim to accept. It was modified (with additions and omissions) in 381 at the First Council of Constantinople. A series of statements about the Holy Spirit were added, including the very clause “who proceeds from the Father” (τὸ ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον). Some of the other changes made to the 325 Nicene Creed (at the 381 First Council of Constantinople) include:

Even in the 381 expanded version of the Creed (known as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed) the term homoousios (ὁμοούσιος – consubstantial) is not used in reference to the Holy Spirit, even though that is of course the true position.  The Creed does not explicitly call the Holy Spirit ‘God’.  Rather, it teaches the divinity of the Holy Spirit in other ways, by stating that He is ‘life-giving’, ‘co-worshipped and glorified’, etc.

With regard to the Council of Chalcedon’s statement that it is unlawful to “deliver a different symbol [creed]”, that was a disciplinary decree that sought to forbid other unapproved symbols from being used to convert people.  It did not stop later councils – including the very next council, the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 – from promulgating dogmatic canons that served as rules of faith that must be accepted by new converts and everyone else.

Council of Chalcedon, 5th session, 451: “These things, therefore, having been expressed by us with the greatest accuracy and attention, the holy Ecumenical Synod defines that no one shall be suffered to bring forward a different faith (heteran pistin), nor to write, nor to put together, nor to excogitate, nor to teach it to others.  But such as dare either to put together another faith, or to bring forward or to teach or to deliver a different creed (heteron sumbolon) to as wish to be converted to the knowledge of the truth, from the Gentiles, or Jews or any heresy whatever, if they be Bishops or clerics let them be deposed, the Bishops from the Episcopate, and the clerics from the clergy; but if they be monks or laics: let them be anathematized.”

The Church, through a pope (who wields the supreme authority over the Church from Christ), has the authority to add a true statement to the Creed for the defense of the faith or for further clarification of a point.  Hence, there’s no merit to the argument that the Church could not add the words ‘and the Son’ to the Creed for a defense and assertion of the true doctrine.  Thus, the Council of Florence under Pope Eugene IV correctly declared:

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, “Laetentur coeli”, July 6, 1439: “We define in addition that the explanation of those words ‘Filioque’ for the sake of declaring the truth and also because of imminent necessity has been lawfully and reasonably added to the Creed…”

The lawfulness of adding the Filioque to the Creed was acknowledged by representatives from all five Patriarchal sees at the Council of Florence, as well as by the Metropolitan of Russia and a large Greek delegation that included people who at one time had been opposed to the Filioque.  After the debates and presentations at Florence, they came to accept the Filioque and the lawfulness of its inclusion in the Creed.

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A Big Problem For “Orthodoxy”: St. Gregory Of Nyssa & The Filioque

MHFM: This is a must-see video for those interested in the Catholic faith, apologetics, and defending the faith in these times.