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A Series of Lessons in Mystic Christianity1060
with the Father and Son is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets;
and I believe in one catholic and apostolic church; I acknowledge one baptism for
the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the
world to come.”
Let us now briefly examine the principal statements of these creeds,
which were compiled centuries after Jesus’ death, viewing them by the light
of Mystic Christianity.
“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and
all things visible and invisible.”—(Nicene Creed)
The form of the above fundamental principle of Christian belief is taken
from the Nicene Creed, which is somewhat fuller than the similar declaration
in the Apostles’ Creed. It requires no comment. It is a statement of belief in
a One Creative Power, from which all things have proceeded. There is no
attempt made to “explain” the nature of the Absolute, or to endow it with
any of the human attributes which theologians have delighted in bestowing
upon the One. It merely asserts a belief in the existence of One Supreme
Being—which is all that is possible to man—all else is ignorant impertinence.
“And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy
Ghost.”—(Apostles’ Creed)
“And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of
his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God,
begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.”—(Nicene Creed)
In this declaration, the belief in the Divinity of Jesus is made. The Apostles’
Creed shows the cruder conception, rather inclining toward the perverted
idea of the conception of the Virgin by the aid of the Holy Ghost, similar to
the origin of the hero-gods of the different religions in which the father was
one of the gods and the mother a woman. But the Nicene creed gives at
least a strong hint of the mystic teachings. It speaks of Him as “begotten of
his Father”—“begotten, not made.” The expressions, “God of God; Light of
Light; very God of very God,” show the idea of identical spiritual substance