Orthodox Creed (The Holy Spirit and the Unity of the Church)
Objective:
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To understand the Godhead of the Holy
Spirit
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To learn about the unity of Church and
her tasks
References:
“The Holy Spirit,” St. Cyril the Great, translated by Dr. George Habib
Memory Verse:
“Because no prophecy ever came by the impulse
of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21 )
Lesson Outline:
I.
Truly We Believe In The Holy Spirit
This part of the Creed was put by the
Council of Constantinople, which was held to refute the heresy of Macedonius. Macedonius
denied the Godhead of the Holy Spirit; he said that the Holy Spirit is one of
the creatures. Hence, the Church excommunicated him.
We believe in the Holy Spirit and call Him
“The Giver of Life.” When Ananias and Sapphira lied to St. Peter, St. Peter
said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and
to keep back part of the proceeds of the land? You have not lied to men but to
God” (Acts 5:3, 4).
II. The Divine Tasks Of The Holy
Spirit
He is called the Spirit of Life or God,
the Giver of Life. “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon
the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the
waters” (Genesis 1:2).
He is the Creator; He was not made. “The
Spirit of God has made me” (Job 33:4). “By the word of the Lord, the heavens
were made and all their host by the breath of His mouth” (Psalm 33:6).
He speaks through the inspiration of the
Scripture and prophecy: “Who was spoken of by the prophets.” “Because no
prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit
spoke from God.” (2 Peter 1:21)
It is He who raised Jesus Christ from the
dead, and it is He that raises us up from any sin and purges us. “If the Spirit
of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Jesus Christ
from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through His Spirit
which dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).
He makes of us a new creation, created in
the image of ChriSt. The Lord breathed in the face of His disciples as He
breathed a breath of life in the duSt. If the image of Adam was corrupted, the
Holy Spirit gave us a new nature through baptism, so that we can be in the
image of God once more.
He
proceeds from the Father: As a ray of light comes from the sun, and as
water flows out of a spring and pours into a lake, the same is true of the Holy
Spirit who comes forth from the Father and dwells in the Son. The Father loves
the Son, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of love that comes forth from the
Father to the Son. In the Jordan River , the
Father said, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” “And behold
the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on ChriSt.”
As the water in a well, in a canal or in a
lake is the same water that we drink, the same is true of the Holy Spirit that
is consubstantial with the Father and the Son.
III. One Church
All believers had one heart and one
Spirit. The unity of the Church is what Christ desires. In His final prayer of
intercession, He said, “That they may all be one, even as You Father, art in
Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe
that You have sent Me” (John 17:21).
IV. Universal Church
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She gathers all believers from every
nation, language and tribe.
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She gathers all the orders of priesthood:
bishops, priests, deacons and also laity.
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She gathers men, women and children in
unity, which is the unity of the universal mission.
V. Apostolic Church
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The Church is “built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the Cornerstone”
(Ephesians 2:20 ).
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The Life of her members is an apostolic
life, based on abstention and evangelic poverty.
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It is impossible to recognize and
confess the priesthood of anyone if the hands of the legal heads of the Church are
not set on him.
VI. A Holy Church
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She is holy because Christ is her head.
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The spring of holiness is the Holy
Spirit working in her.
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The life history of her members is pure
and holy (the story of Ananias and Sapphira proves that the Church rejects
every corrupt and bad member).
VII . We Confess One Baptism For The Remission Of Sins
Christ said to Nicodemus, “Unless one is
born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God .”
(John 3:5) “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
Baptism is not repeated because it is like
the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, which happened only once: “You
were buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through
faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead” (Colossians 2:12 ).
VIII. We Look For The Resurrection Of The
Dead And The Life Of The Age To Come. Amen
We believe that our souls are eternal and
will not die. When the body dies, the soul goes up to Paradise
or goes down to the Hades.
On the Day of Judgment, the Lord will come
in awe and glory and will reward every one according to his deeds. The
evildoers will be sent to Hell where they will suffer eternal torment, but the
righteous will be sent to the Kingdom
of Heavens and the
glorified eternal life.
Our bodies will be glorified; they will
take the image of the Body of the raised Son of God. Then they will enter the Kingdom,
since blood and flesh cannot inherit the Kingdom.
Let us live on the hope of the
resurrection, waiting for the coming of the Lord. Amen.
Applications:
Make a wall magazine
about the attributes of the Church (One-Holy-Universal-Apostolic).
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The Creed
By H. H. Pope Shenouda III
Truly we believe in the Holy Spirit the Life-giving
Lord, who proceeds from the Father. We worship and glorify Him with the Father
and the Son.
We believe in the
Holy Spirit:
We believe that God is alive by His Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is the
Spirit of God the Father and the Spirit of the Son. And because He is the
Spirit of God, He is Holy; therefore, He is called the Holy Spirit. So the
Lord, when giving His disciples the Sacrament of Priesthood, said,
"Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (Jn. 20:22 , 23). And when commencing
their ministry, He said, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem , and in all Judea
and Samaria ,
and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
St. Paul the apostle also
said to the bishops of the church in Ephesus, "Therefore take heed to
yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you
overseers ..." (Acts 20:28), and to the Jews in Rome he said, "The
Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers ..."
(Acts 28:25).
Sometimes,
the phrase "the Spirit" is meant to refer to the Holy Spirit. Examples of this are:
·
"He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches" (Rev. 2:29; 3:6, 13, 22). “The Spirit” means of course the
Spirit of God.
·
The words of the Lord to Nicodemus about baptism: "Unless one is born
of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God '
(Jn. 3:5). The Lord meant by this the regeneration of the water and the Holy
Spirit.
·
It is written about the apostles on the Day of Pentecost that they began
to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:4). The
Spirit here is the Holy Spirit.
·
The gifts of the Spirit mentioned in (1 Cor. 12) are the gifts of the
Holy Spirit.
The
Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Lord or the Spirit of God, as evident in the
Holy Bible:
·
(Is. 61:1) "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me because the Lord
has anointed Me ..."
·
(2 Cor. 3:17) "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of
the Lord is, there is liberty.”
·
(Ezek. 36:27) "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to
walk in My statutes.”
·
(Joe. 2:28) "I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and
your daughters shall prophecy your old men shall dream dreams, your young men
shall see visions.”
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(Ps. 139:7) "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee
from Your Presence?"
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(Ps. 51:11) "Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”
The
Holy Spirit being the Spirit of the Father is clear in the following verses: The words of the Lord Christ to His disciples,
"For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in
you" (Mt. 10:20 );
"For it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit (Mk, 13:11 ); and also (Lk. 12:12 ).
The
Holy Spirit being the Spirit of the Son, or the Spirit of the Lord Christ, is
evident. St. Paul the apostle says, "God has sent forth the
Spirit of His Son into your hearts" (Gal. 4:6). And St. Peter the apostle
says, "Searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who
was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of
Christ (1 Pet. 1:11 ).
The
fact that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son
undoubtedly demonstrates the unity of the Holy Trinity.
The Godhead of
the Holy Spirit:
The Godhead of the Holy
Spirit was denied by Macedonius, and for this reason, he was excommunicated by
the Second Holy Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D. The same
council therefore emphasized the divinity of the Holy Spirit in the Creed with
the words: “Truly we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Life-giving Lord, who
proceeds from the Father. We worship and glorify Him with the Father and the
Son.” The term "Lord" here means "God.”
* The Godhead of the Holy
Spirit is clear in the words of St. Peter the apostle when he reprimanded
Ananias (the husband of Sapphira) saying, "Why has Satan filled your heart
to lie to the Holy Spirit . . . You have
not lied to men but to God" (Acts 5:3, 4).
* The words of St. Paul
the apostle are likewise clear concerning the dwelling of the Holy Spirit
within us. St. Paul
says, "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit
who is in you?" (1 Cor. 6:19 );
"Do you not know that you are the temple of God
and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16). In these verses,
St. Paul on one
occasion says “The temple of the Holy Spirit” and on another occasion “The temple of God ", which signifies that it is
the same.
* The Godhead of the Holy Spirit is also evident in the words “The Lord
is the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:17 ).
The Lord Christ Himself asserted this when He said to the Samaritan woman, “God
is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth"
(Jn. 4:24 ). Since God is
Spirit, He is then the Holy Spirit, He is the Father, and He is the Son.
*
God's power to create is a proof of the divinity of the Holy Spirit. The Power to create is an attribute of God
alone, as the Psalmist says, "These all wait for You, that You may give
them their food in due season... You take away their breath; they die and
return to their dust. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created" (Ps.
104:27-30).
*
The omnipresence of the Holy Spirit is another proof of His divinity. The Psalmist says, "Where can I go from
Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your Presence? If I ascend to heaven, You
are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there ..." (Ps.
139:7, 8). The omnipresence is an attribute of God alone.
*
The gifts given to people demonstrate the divinity of the Holy Spirit. In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul says,
"There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.... And there are
diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the
manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to
one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of
knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to
another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of
miracles, to another prophecy ... but one and the same Spirit works all these
things, distributing to each one individually as He wills” (Cor 12:4-11) All
these are called by the apostle “gifts of the Holy Spirit" (Heb. 2:4). Of
these gifts, St. James the apostle also said, “Every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom
there is no variation or shadow of turning” (Jas. 1:17). So, all gifts are sent
by God through His Holy Spirit.
*Another
evidence on the divinity of the Holy Spirit is that the Lord Christ has an
eternal Spirit. The Holy Bible
says, "How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal
Spirit offered Himself without spot to God..."(Heb. 9:14 ). The Holy Spirit is thus the Spirit of the
Lord Christ, and eternity is an attribute of God alone. This verse then is a
proof of the divinity of Christ and of the Holy Spirit.
*
Being Life-giving is also a proof of the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
The Life-giving:
It is well known that the
Spirit is the source of life, thus He is Life-giving. This is evident in raising the bones (Ezek. 37). Ezekiel the
prophet said, "The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the
Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full
of bones ... And He said to me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' So I
answered, 'O Lord God, You know' ... and breath came into them, and they
lived" (Ezek. 37:1-3, 10). And the Lord said, "I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live” (Ezek. 37:14).
The Book of Revelation
likewise says about the two witnesses who were killed: "The breath of life
from God entered them, and they stood on their feet" (Rev. 11:11). And the
Lord truly says, "It is the Spirit who gives life" (Jn. 6:63). It is
also written, "God, who gives life to the dead" (Rom. 4:17 ); "God who gives life to
all things" (1 Tim 6:13 ).
No doubt, it is God who gives life to the dead through His Holy Spirit. He puts
His Spirit in them and they live (Ezek. 37:14).
In many texts, the Holy Bible
teaches us that it is God who brings death and gives life (2 Kg. 5:7) (Deut.
32:39), and His Spirit gives life (Ezek. 37:14), which proves the divinity of
the Holy Spirit, as the Creed teaches us. The Creed teaches us also that the
Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father.
Who proceeds from
the Father:
This is said by the Lord when
speaking about the Holy Spirit: “The Spirit of truth who proceeds from the
Father" (Jn.15:26).
However
our brothers the Catholics added to the Creed the Latin word
"Filioque", which means "and from the Son.” This addition caused a division that still
exists within the Church. It is true that the Lord Christ said, “The Helper
comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father" (Jn. 15:26) and "If
I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send
Him to you" (Jn. 16:7), but we should know the following: There is a great theological difference
between procession and sending. Sending takes place within the scope of time,
whereas procession is from eternity.
The Lord Christ sent the Holy
Spirit to the apostles on the Day of Pentecost, but the Holy Spirit has existed
before because He is the Spirit of God. In the story of creation, it is said,
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was
without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the
Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (Gen. 1:1,2).
The
Holy Bible tells us also about the work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament
and how He descended on the prophets and others. The Spirit of God came upon king Saul, and he
prophesied (1 Sam. 10:10 ,
11), then the Spirit of the Lord departed from him (1 Sam. 16:14 ). Again the Spirit of the Lord came upon
David (1 Sam. 16:13 ) and
moved upon Samson (Jud. 13:25 ),
then came mightily upon him (Jud. 14:6). The Scriptures tell us also about the
work of the Spirit of the Lord with Ezekiel the prophet (Ezek. 37:1), and many
texts about the Spirit of God are included in the Psalms of David the prophet.
Much
can be said on the work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament as well as during
the era between the two Testaments, before the nativity of the Lord Christ. It is said about John the Baptist, on
announcing his birth: "He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even
from his mother's womb" (Lk. 1:
15 ) and about his mother Elizabeth that she was filled with the
Holy Spirit (Lk. 1:41 ).
His father Zacharias also was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied (Lk.
1:67). And the angel said to the holy Virgin, when announcing the birth of the
Lord Christ: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the
Highest will overshadow you" (Lk. 1:35 ).
To Joseph the carpenter, the angel said about the holy Virgin: "That which
is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit" (Mt. 1:20 ). It is also said about Simeon the elder:
"This man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel , and the
Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord Christ” (Lk. 2:25 , 26).
Therefore the sending of the
Holy Spirit by the Lord Christ upon the disciples on the Day of Pentecost has
nothing to do at all with the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father
since eternity.
The Holy Spirit then is the
Spirit of God; He is the Person representing life in the Holy Trinity, and God
is living by His Spirit. And the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Godhead since
eternity, before any creation and before the birth of the disciples to whom the
Lord sent the Holy Spirit.
For example, it is said about
the Son's incarnation, “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent
forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were
under the law” (Gal. 4:4, 5). But in spite of being sent to the world in the
fullness of time, the Son had been born of the Father since eternity and all things
were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made (Jn. 1:3).
So, His birth since eternity is one thing, and He being sent forth in the
fullness of time is another different thing. The same can be said of the Holy
Spirit: His procession from the Father since eternity is one thing, and He
being sent forth upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost is another
different thing.
Now, lest some would think
that the Holy Spirit is lower in rank than the Father and the Son, being the
third Person or being sent forth from the Father, the Creed adds he words: “We
worship and glorify Him with the Father and the Son.”
We worship and
glorify Him:
We
give Him the worship due to Him as the Spirit of God, and glorify Him with the Father
and the Son equally.
In our prayers we say,
"Glory be to the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Holy co-substantial
Trinity" and start every prayer with the words: "In the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen."
The sending of the Holy Spirit by the Lord Christ does not mean that
the Holy Spirit is in a lower rank than Him. The Lord Christ Himself says,
"And now the Lord God and His Spirit have sent Me" (Is. 48:16);
"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me"
(Is. 61:1). This does not mean of course that the Lord Christ is lower in rank
than the Holy Spirit.
The Lord has commanded us to baptize people in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Mt. 28:19). And St. John the apostle says in his first
epistle, "For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the
Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one" (Jn. 5:7).
Through the three
Persons together, the blessing is given:
We say, according to the
teaching in (2 Cor. 13:14 ),
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”
The
words of the Creed “We glorify Him with the Father and the Son” do signify
equality among the three Persons. The three Persons are equal in the divine attributes of the Godhead.
Each Person is Eternal, Everlasting, Creator, Omnipresent, Unlimited,
Omnipotent, and in every other aspect, the Holy Spirit is equal to the Father
and the Son. However, we say that the Son is born of the Father before all
ages, whereas the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father before all ages also.
As
we pray to the Father, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Many examples are found in the Hours’ Prayers (Agpeya) and in the Holy
Bible. The prayers addressed to the
Father are so many and so clear. An example of the prayers addressed to the Son is the prayer of St. Stephen
the archdeacon while being martyred, where he said, "Lord Jesus, receive
my spirit (Acts 7:59 )
Another example is the prayer which says, “O my Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy
on me.” An example of the prayer addressed to
the Holy Spirit is the prayer of the third hour, during which we say, “O
Heavenly King, the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter, who is everywhere and fills
everybody ... we ask You to graciously come and dwell within us.”
The creed also says about the
Holy Spirit:
Who spoke by the
prophets:
This
is clear in the words of St. Peter the apostle: "For prophecy never came
by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit”
(2 Pet. 1:21). And St. Paul
the apostle said to the Jews, "The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through
Isaiah the prophet" (Acts 28:25).
The Lord Christ said to His
disciples, "It is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit" (Mk. 13:11 ). Thus St. Paul the apostle
said, "These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches
but which the Holy Spirit teaches ..." (I Cor. 2:13). This reminds us of
the words of the Lord Christ to His holy apostles, “But the Helper, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and
bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you" (Jn. 14:26 ).
Many
times, the Holy Spirit spoke by the mouth of David the prophet. This is mentioned by the Lord; He said,
"How is it that the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David? For
David himself said by the Holy Spirit: The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at My
right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool'" (Mk. 12:35 , 36) (Mt. 22:43 , 44) (Ps. 110:1).
And St. Peter the apostle
said about Judas Iscariot, "This Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the
Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas ..." (Acts
1:16 )
The Creed words "Who spoke by the prophets" refer to divine
inspiration. Thus the apostle said, "All scripture is given by the
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine" (2 Tim. 3:16 ). How did the inspiration come
from God? It came through the Holy Spirit, and this is another evidence of the
divinity of the Holy Spirit.
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