THE NICENE CREED:
The Nature of Christian Unity and the
Meaning of Gospel Words
Editors Mark Gilbert and Leonardo De Chirico
Matthias Media. 192 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978 1 922 980 397
2025 is the 17th-centenary year of the original Nicene Creed. This volume is a timely contribution to the undoubtedly busy year of reflection and analysis that the commemorations will spawn.
Matthias Media’s The Nicene Creed introduces and analyses the Creed, but with one particular purpose in mind; that of defending it, from an evangelical standpoint, against the tendency of Rome to insist the Creed is a unifying document compatible with Roman doctrine.
Its 11 eminently readable chapters, each about 15 pages long, are written by different authors, all clearly very knowledgeable in their field, some being seminary professors or lecturers, many clearly in evangelical ministry in a majority Roman local context. These writers unanimously insist, and demonstrate, that the present-day Tridentine Roman doctrinal position, especially after Vatican II, is incompatible with the Nicene Creed properly understood.
The first chapter presents a useful history of the Nicene Creed, and that is followed by a powerful defence of Sola Scriptura. The next eight chapters take the Creed a segment at a time, in order.
The final chapter answers affirmatively the interesting question, “Can we and should we go beyond Nicaea/Constantinople in insisting upon additional doctrines within Evangelical belief?” The chapter (as indeed the entire book) affirms most emphatically that we must never go beyond Scripture, nor against Scripture, nor weaken what Scripture strengthens. But the Nicene Creed isn’t Scripture. So are there further doctrines, not in Nicaea, but which are decidedly Scriptural, which God has providentially brought to the fore since Nicaea. Yes, is the answer given. For one thing, a complete doctrine of the person of Christ was the legacy to us of post-Nicaea Chalcedon. Likewise, the doctrine of the grace of God in Christ, developed and bequeathed to history through God’s work in Augustine; and the doctrine of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, the Christ of the Scriptures alone, the recovery and necessity of which was the legacy to us of the Reformation.
To quote from this chapter, “We should not be surprised if at times, under God’s gracious hand, the church recovers certain truths that have become somewhat confused or muddled or even lost over the centuries. And neither should we be surprised if God, in His mercy, allows Christians to sharpen truths, and even draw out new and wondrous things from our old, old canon.” So, The Nicene Creed ’s essential message is: “We need and must affirm Nicaea. Nicaea minus is not on. But Nicaea plus, especially in affirming grace and justification as per the above, certainly is obligated of Evangelicalism today.”
