The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us all, and for our salvation he came down from heaven; and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried. On the third day he rose from the dead in accordance with the scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father. Who, with the Father and Son, is worshipped and glorified, who has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. We confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come. Amen.

1. Holy Scripture.

(Bibliology)

We believe and teach that:

The 66 books of the Holy Scripture (the 39 books of the Old Testament and 27 books of the New Testament are canonical) constitute the fully inspired Word of God, independent of our attitude toward them.

(2 Tim. 3:16, John 17:17)

These books alone are the unique and infallible revelation by God of Himself, of the spiritual and material world (including man), and are the infallible, full (complete), and true revelation to man and are the only source of knowledge of God, and guide and measure of our faith and actions.

(Rom. 1:16, John 5:39, Matt. 5:18)

Furthermore, the highest authority concerning the Scriptures is not the Church or tradition, but God Himself.

(Is. 1:2, Jer. 1:9, Heb. 1:1-2)

The Bible is fully inspired word for word in the original text, and is infallible and inerrant in all the topics it addresses.

(Matt. 24:35, 2 Tim. 3:15-16)

The Bible has dual authorship and nature (divine and human)

(Matt. 10:20, 2 Peter 1:21)

This means that God, through His Holy Spirit, using the individual characteristics of the authors of the books of the Holy Scriptures, within their historical and cultural way thinking, gave humanity a divine extra-historical revelation that is equally acclicable to any period, and preserved the revelation in copies and translations of the original, that are also God's Word to the degree that they correspond to the original.

(1 Cor. 2:13, Heb. 4:12)

We do not regard the Apocryphal books as divinely inspired and do not look to them for direction, since their authorship is unknown: they were not written in the language of the Old Testament, Hebrew, and furthermore their content in some places contradicts what is written in other books of the Holy Scriptures.

2.Teachings about God

(Theology)

We believe and teach that:

There is only one living, true, eternal God, manifesting Himself in the Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three hypostases. The Trinity is in its nature and characteristics complete, eternal, equal and indivisible such that the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God. Yet, we do not believe in three gods, but One.

(Deut. 6:4, Is. 44:6, Matt. 28:19, 1 John 5:7)

God the Father is uncreated and without antecedent.

(Eph. 4:6)

God is spirit - a Personal being beyond human comprehension, inapproachable, self-existent and eternal; omnipresent (Ps. 138:7-10), omniscient (Heb. 4:13), omnipotent (Gen. 17:1) and unchanging (James 1:17).

He is the Creator of all. He is sovereign (not subordinate or dependent in any way), holy (Lev. 11:44-45), righteous (Deut. 32:4), faithful (Deut. 7:9), merciful (Ps. 85:15); God is love (1 John 4:8).

God the Son is begotten of the Father, not created, but begotten.

(1 John 1:1-14, Rom. 9:5, Heb. 1:3-10)

He has all of the divine attributes and characteristics. In His incarnation He stripped Himself only of His divine priviliges, taking the form of a servant, but without giving up His divine essence. He became a true man in whom divinity and humanity combined without compromise and inseparably.

(John 1:3, Gal. 4:4, Phil. 2:6-11, Col. 1:16)

He was immaculately conceived by the Holy Spirit and born in human flesh to the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, voluntarily died on the cross for the sins of the whole world, was resurrected bodily from the dead and raised to sit at the right hand of the Father. Since that time He has been the sole advocate and mediator between God and Man, and no one else has or ever has had such a position.

(Is. 15:26, Luke 1:35, Col. 1:20, 1 Tim. 3:16, 1 Tim. 2:5)

God the Holy Spirit is not created or begotten, but emanates from the Father.

(??, Acts 5:3-4)

He has all of the charateristics of personality and divinity, including intellect, will, eternality, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence and so forth. He manifests Himself in creation, the incarnation, spiritual rebirth, resurrection and in other ways.

(Ps. 103:30, Rom. 15:19, 1 Cor. 2:10, Eph. 1:13)

He builds up the church, emanating from the Father through Jesus Christ, convicts the world, glorifies Christ and transforms believers, in whom He comes to dwell when they personally accept redemption, and seals them with Himself.

(John 15:36, 16:7, Acts 1:8, 1 Cor 12:13, Eph. 1:13)

Man can only come to knowledge of God by the divine revelation that is the Holy Scriptures and through the Holy Spirit.

(Matt. 11:25-27, 1 Cor. 1:21, 2:14, Rom. 10:17)

3. Teachings about Man

(Anthropology)

We believe and teach that:

God created Man in His moral and intellectual, but not physical, image and likeness. Man was sinless, just and innocent, capable of worshipping God and to be happy in communion with Him.

(Gen. 1:27, Ecc. 7:29, Ps. 8:7)

God gave Man, His creation, free will, that is, the freedom to choose between good and evil, between freedom and slavery, between life and death.

(Deut. 30:19, Matt. 17:12, James 1:14)

Man, through the guile of Satan and by his own free will, disobeyed the command of God, thus sinning and becoming separated from God. Having three parts to his being (soul, spirit and body), Man suffered spiritual death immediately and his body became subject to physical death.

(Gen. 3:1-6, Matt. 8:22, Eph. 2:1)

Through Adam sin, which is moral evil, lawlessness and transgression of God's law, entered the world, and just as all people came from his seed, so also the ruined nature of Adam was transferred to all people with the exception of Jesus Christ. Thus all people share the same fallen state and completely corrupted nature, so that they are conceived and born in sin.

(Gen. 6:3, Rom. 5:12-18, Ps. 50:7)

Because of sin people are children of wrath, and are subject to the retribution for sin - which is death: spiritual and physical.

(Rom. 6:23, 1 John 3:4, 2 Thess. 1:9)

4. Teachings about Salvation

(Soteriology)

... coming ...

5. Teachings about the Church

(Ecclesiology)

... coming ...

6. The Spiritual World and Coming Events

... coming ...

7. The Christian Life

... coming ...