You mentioned the Creed. Which of the 3 versions do you adhere to? The 325, 381, or the one from the 6th century (the Roman Catholic edition officiated in 1050 A,D,)?
Hi Brother Paul,
You mention 3 versions of the Creed in your question. One from the 6th century and officiated in 1050.
You sent me running to Professor Google and I cannot find the third one you mention.
There's the one from Nicaea 325
Constantinople 381
Ephesus 431 This might be your third one
Then there's the Apostle's Creed - oldest, don't have the date right now.
The one most used to my knowledge is Constant 381.
It happens to be the one I like most because it explains everything in more detail. But any one is okay with me. The Apostle's Creed mentions Jesus going down to hell and I know this presents a problem for some churches. Nothing new in the one from 431.
I'm sure you know that the creeds were written to clarify the Christian beliefs from the earliest times after Jesus ascended. They were specifically to clarify heresies that were circulating and to clarify beliefs. One of the heresies might be arianism but don't hold me to that. More than anything else they were to clarify Jesus' role, Who He is. Some were saying he was not God or that He was divine in some way or had come into existence specifically for salvation purposes and did not exist before. I must say, that I thought we were over all that. In fact, I'd say from reading some posts, that we might be able to use some further clarification!
But we'll never understand the Godhead, so we could stop with these creeds I guess.
I'll just add that I think the words Godhead, Triune and Trinity should mean something very specific and we shouldn't change the meaning to how we individually understand the terms. Maybe how some churches or individuals understand the Godhead has something to do with being in line with other doctrine - but I wouldn't know about this.
Wondering