Who is Jesus Based On Nicene Creed? Is He A God Or Son of God Or Merely Just A Human?

Understanding the Nicene Creed (Greek Perspective)

I really recommend you to learn Greek because there are many expressions that you won't fully understand without knowing Greek.

Πιστεύομεν εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν Πατέρα παντοκράτορα
ποιητὴν οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς ὁρατῶν τε πάντων καὶ ἀοράτων·
καὶ εἰς ἕνα Κύριον Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν
τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν Μονογενῆ,
τὸν ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς γεννηθέντα πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων,
Φῶς ἐκ Φωτός,
Θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ,
γεννηθέντα οὐ ποιηθέντα,
ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πατρί,
δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο·

First Line Explanation

"We believe in One Theos, the Omnipotent Father, the Creator of the Heaven and the Earth, of the seen and also all the unseen"

Πιστεύομεν εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν Πατέρα παντοκράτορα
ποιητὴν οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς ὁρατῶν τε πάντων καὶ ἀοράτων·

In the beginning, there is One God, the Father.

Second Line

"And to One Lord, Yesous Khristos, the Only Son of the Theos"

καὶ εἰς ἕνα Κύριον Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν
τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν Μονογενῆ,

Okay, in this line, Yesous Khristos is the only one Son of the Theos. The word "the only one" here is "Monogene Μονογενῆ", it comes from the word "Μονο" which means "Only", and "Gene γενῆ" which comes from the word "Gennao γεννάω" which means "To Give Birth". It means Yesous Khristos is the only Son that The Theos gives birth.

Third Line

"Who was born out of the Father before all ages"

τὸν ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς γεννηθέντα πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων,

This means Yesous Khristos was born from Theos before creation.

Light from Light

Φῶς ἐκ Φωτός

What does it mean? It means Yesous is the Light who comes out of the Light. Imagine like this, Theos is the Great Light, and Yesous is out from this Great Light as a New Light.

True God from True God

Θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ,

Yesous is God who comes from Theos.

Born, Not Created

γεννηθέντα οὐ ποιηθέντα,

Yesous was born, not created. He is not a creation.

Same Substance

ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πατρί

Because Yesous was born out from the True Light, the True Theos, Yesous has all substance of God, Godly substance.

Creator Through Him

δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο·

Everything was created through Yesous (the Logos).

Conclusion

At first there was a God, and this God begot another God, Yesous.

So, you can say Yesous was the Son of this God, which is why Yesous was called the Son of God.

But because Yesous was born from this God, not created, Yesous had all divine substance and therefore Yesous was also God.

So both this God and Yesous created the world and the Universe.

Actually, this is quite simple, and this is what the Nicene Creed is understood to express.

So practically, were there two Gods? You could say that.

Who came into the world and became human? The Father or Yesous? Of course, Yesous — while the Father remained in Heaven.

It is actually quite easy to understand.

However, things become complicated for many people. Even some pastors struggle with this logic, often because they assume that God must necessarily be only one person 😁

I understand that this concept can be difficult for many people to accept or understand.

But this raises an important question:

If someone does not believe exactly as the Nicene Creed teaches, would they be condemned to Hell? 🤔🤔🥴

Understanding God is clearly an extremely difficult task for many people. God may be too complex for humans to fully comprehend.

So the real question is: Would someone truly be condemned just for understanding God differently from the Nicene Creed? 🥴🥴

A. Christianity Originated from Judaism

A. Christianity Originated from Judaism

Christianity is a religious movement that emerged from Judaism (Nikolaus Walter uses the term “Primitive Christianity” to describe its origin in Judaism). It is an undeniable fact that Christianity indeed originated from Judaism. Jacob Neusner and Bruce Chilton even state that for anyone studying the academic field of religion, there is no better premise than the fact that Christianity originated from Judaism. It can therefore be said that without Judaism, the emergence of Christianity would have been highly unlikely.

Christianity was not a religion that arose independently with its own entirely new doctrinal concepts. Both Jesus and His disciples came from Israel, and they clearly believed in the Scriptures of Israel as the word of God. All beliefs and practices within Christianity originated from Judaism. These include belief in the one true God, belief in God who spoke to Moses, belief in the Old Testament as sacred Scripture, the practice of baptism, the Lord’s Supper, gathering in places of worship on the seventh day, the Kingdom of God, and belief in the coming of the Messiah. All of these concepts clearly originate from Judaism.

Early Jewish Christians did not regard their belief that Jesus was the Messiah as a new religious movement at all. On the contrary, they believed that they remained adherents of Judaism. The term “Christian” (Khristianos, Χριστιανός), meaning “follower of Christ,” was actually given by the non-Jewish community in Antioch, not by the Jewish community (Acts 11:26).

It is highly unlikely that Jews would have coined the term “Christian” (Khristianos, Χριστιανός) for the Christian community in Antioch, since the term means “follower of the Messiah.” If Jews had given this designation, it would have amounted to an admission that Jesus was the Messiah—something they clearly did not acknowledge. Therefore, the designation almost certainly originated from the non-Jewish community.

From the Jewish perspective itself, there is clear evidence that the followers of Jesus were regarded as a sect or movement within Judaism (Acts 24:14; 28:22). The Greek term used for “sect” is airesis (αἵρεσις), meaning a religious sect. The same term is also used to describe the group of the Pharisees (Acts 15:5). This indicates that the community of Jesus’ followers was not viewed as a new religion, but as one of the sects within Judaism.

Although the beliefs of early Jewish Christians caused conflict with mainstream Judaism at the time, they were still regarded as part of Judaism. For this reason, Jews referred to them as a “sect” (airesis, αἵρεσις) within Judaism.

Early Jewish Christians never considered themselves a community separate from Judaism. They did not construct foreign doctrines detached from Jewish tradition, because they never claimed to be a new religion. All of their beliefs, understandings, doctrines, and practices originated from Judaism, including baptism, speaking in tongues, the Kingdom of God, the concept of the Messiah, and even hermeneutical methods.

Robert Travers Herford stated that rabbinic literature such as the Talmud, Midrash, and Mishnah must also be included in accurate research on the origins of Christianity. Not only the literature itself, but also the ways in which Jews interpreted Scripture. Thus, to properly understand the teachings of the New Testament, one must have a solid understanding of Jewish teachings and practices.