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Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

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day’, <strong>the</strong> Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed has ‘crucified for us under PontiusPilate, suffered death and was buried and rose again on <strong>the</strong> third dayaccording to <strong>the</strong> scriptures’, clearly a more Biblically accurate confession.In both Creeds <strong>the</strong> eternal deity of Jesus is affirmed. Nicaea 325 has ‘<strong>the</strong> onlybegotten Son of God who was begotten from <strong>the</strong> Fa<strong>the</strong>r before all worlds’; <strong>the</strong>Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed has ‘<strong>the</strong> only Son of God, eternally begottenof <strong>the</strong> Fa<strong>the</strong>r, God from God’.In both Creeds, Jesus’ suffering was ‘for our salvation’.Later, <strong>the</strong> Western Church added <strong>the</strong> filioque clause in order to state that <strong>the</strong>Holy Spirit proceeded from <strong>the</strong> Fa<strong>the</strong>r ‘and from <strong>the</strong> Son’ (filioque).Gerald Bray writes:‘<strong>The</strong> filioque clause was never accepted in <strong>the</strong> East, and although it didnot provoke <strong>the</strong> great schism of 1054, it helped to prevent a reunion of<strong>the</strong> Churches in 1274 and again in 1439. Today it is a major differencebetween <strong>the</strong> Eastern and Western Churches.’ 203At one level, <strong>the</strong> filioque debate is a matter of semantics, a question of a Greekor Latin word being preferred. <strong>The</strong> Greek (Eastern) church, in speaking of <strong>the</strong>relation of <strong>the</strong> Holy Spirit to <strong>the</strong> Fa<strong>the</strong>r, used ‘ekporeuesthai’, to go forth asfrom a source, and <strong>the</strong> Latin (Western) Church used ‘proceder’, to come from,without involving any idea of origin.<strong>The</strong> Western Church was keen to emphasize <strong>the</strong> full Deity of <strong>the</strong> Son, andfilioque says that <strong>the</strong> Holy Spirit proceeds from <strong>the</strong> Fa<strong>the</strong>r and also from <strong>the</strong>Son. <strong>The</strong> Eastern Church, while also holding to <strong>the</strong> full Deity of Christ, wishedto safeguard <strong>the</strong> sole origin of <strong>the</strong> Holy Spirit in <strong>the</strong> Fa<strong>the</strong>r, as <strong>the</strong> source of allthings, and so could not accept <strong>the</strong> filioque. <strong>The</strong> debate goes on and <strong>the</strong>re are<strong>the</strong>ologians on both sides who maintain that <strong>the</strong>ological truth, not justsemantics, is <strong>the</strong> issue at stake.One way forward that has been suggested is that <strong>the</strong> Holy Spirit, proceedingfrom <strong>the</strong> Fa<strong>the</strong>r, should be seen as coming through <strong>the</strong> Son. Some Eastern<strong>the</strong>ologians seem happy with this definition.203Bray, Gerald, Creeds, Councils and Christ, Mentor Books, 1997, p 183.Page 224

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