Seventeen hundred years ago, a Roman emperor ordered Christians to work out their differences and put an end to a theological controversy about the nature of Christ that was roiling churches in the Middle East.
So a group of bishops gathered in the town of Nicaea (located in modern-day Turkey) and crafted a document that one recent scholar called “the first credal statement to claim universal, unconditional assent” from followers of Jesus—the Nicene Creed.
Protestants have a complicated relationship with this statement that talks about the Trinity, the Incarnation, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” Evangelicals, who insist on the final authority of Scripture and have often had concerns about anything coming between people and the Word of God, have been especially wary of it.
But recently, more of them have been using the creed in worship. CT talked to more than a dozen evangelical pastors, authors, and theologians to find out why.
Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Glenn Packiam on Why We Need Creeds
Glenn Packiam, author of What’s a Christian, Anyway?
The power of the Nicene Creed is it reminds us of a bigger church, an older church, worldwide and historic.
It became important to me in 2009 when I was at a church in Colorado Springs—New Life Church. That was the church where Ted Haggard was the pastor. Haggard had his scandal in 2006 and then there was a shooting in 2007. I was ministering to the young people, and there was a lot of disillusionment, you know? They weren’t ready to quit and walk away from faith, but they were like, “I don’t want to just buy it because someone who’s clever on this platform is selling it.” So I began to introduce the creed, and we recited it.
I saw people latch on and go, “Okay, my faith isn’t something Ted Haggard came up with. Billions and billions of followers of Jesus have said these words.”
I would encourage people to consider a sermon series and consider saying the creed in your worship service. Do it once. Do it twice. Do it for a month and see what happens.
Matthew Barrett, author of Simply Trinity
When we say the creed, we’re linking arms with the church catholic—the church universal—to confess the same faith. And there’s a solidarity there that is missing a lot of times in evangelical churches. Are we just standing on our own two feet, on our own authority, by ourselves on an island? Or are we connected to Christians down through the ages who confess this triune God?
I am seeing more Baptist churches recite the creed, and that’s encouraging. Pastors feel like it’s important and people are hungry for it.
Charley Hames Jr., Christian Methodist Episcopal bishop
I think the interest in tradition might be generational. There’s a return to tradition and an increased appreciation for some of those older elements as a Christian witness and a statement about where we stand in the culture.
In our churches, the Gen Zers are more apt to embrace something like that than my friend who is Gen X.
Ronni Kurtz, coauthor of Proclaiming the Triune God
At the church I planted in Kansas City, a Baptist church, we did a series on the Trinity, and as a part of that series, we began reciting the Nicene Creed as a church. After the series ended, the practice continued.
One of the things I could see happening was the church learned to talk about the Trinity and articulate its theology. They could use phrases like “begotten, not created” and grab hold of a deeper theology. Regular Christians—moms and dads, brothers and sisters—talked about the Trinity.
GettySuzanne Nicholson, professor at Asbury University
The Trinity is hard to understand! But the beauty of God is revealed in the Trinity. Why would I want to know less of that? I want to know more of God. We know more of God so we can glorify God more fully.
If we’re not teaching good theology on a regular basis, then our church is in trouble. If someone says Jesus was just a good teacher, we want the phrases from the creed ready to hand: We believe he is “God from God, light from light, true God from true God.” This is basic to our understanding of who Jesus is, and it’s why we think we’re really worshiping God when we are worshiping Jesus.
Phillip Cary, author of The Nicene Creed: An Introduction
Don’t worry too much about the philosophy stuff—says me, a philosophy professor. The beauty will see you through. It is so darn beautiful! The Father has never been without a Son he loves. He has always given all of his divine essence to the Son. That’s gorgeous, and it’s also really important for Christian faith.
In my youth, in the evangelical churches I attended, we didn’t recite the Nicene Creed. Nowadays, I’m in the Anglican tradition. We recite the Nicene Creed every week, and that’s one of the reasons I’m Anglican.
Simon Chan, author of Liturgical Theology
The Nicene Creed emphasizes corporate formation. I compare this to the way a nation sings its national anthem. Just as the singing of the national anthem serves to forge a national identity, the Nicene Creed helps to forge an ecclesial identity. We are shaped into this Trinitarian faith.
I think many evangelicals were concerned about real problems but basically threw the baby out with the bathwater when they stopped using the creed. I’m a minister in the Assemblies of God in Singapore, and unfortunately we are nonliturgical.
Dale M. Coulter, professor at Pentecostal Theological Seminary
I have seen it recited in some Pentecostal churches recently—in a couple of places, on the edges of Pentecostalism. The churches doing this see it as part of spiritual formation and also as a counter to a lot of the craziness that can happen when private revelation and the prophetic and all of that become paramount. It’s an anchor. The Nicene Creed is a lens on biblical interpretation.
Behnan Konutgan, translator of the New Turkish Bible
Nicaea is really biblical! It is like the shortest summary of the Bible. It’s also our history. This was the time the church came together—an international church—to say Jesus was born but was not created, he’s equal with the Father, and they announced him as God.
In Turkey, we Christians love the creed, and we use it to evangelize.
Jerome Van Kuiken, author of The Creed We Need
The creed nicely distills some key aspects of Scripture and specifically points out where Christians are liable to go astray if they don’t carefully think through how all the biblical material fits together, especially the doctrine of God and who Jesus is.
You know the old saying “If we don’t learn from the past, we’re doomed to repeat it.” That has a real tendency to happen within biblicist circles that just focus on Scripture without consulting the historic church.
Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
I don’t think that the Nicene Creed is above the heads of average Christian believers. I don’t expect them to be able to memorize Greek terms in order to see the difference between homoousios and homoiousios—by the way, the difference is a diphthong—but congregations are fascinated to know that the difference between orthodoxy and heresy can hang on a syllable.
The believing church has used these words to express biblical truth and to distinguish between truth and error. It becomes part of the confession of faith, and we’re part of this Nicene tradition.
Tish Harrison Warren, author of Liturgy of the Ordinary
I have a very strong sense when I say it that the Nicene Creed connects me to Christians from all times and places. It’s this thing that no one in the room came up with. It reminds me that the Christian faith is this bigger room that I can step into, whatever my emotions are, whether I feel ardent and full of faith and God seems super real, or whether God seems distant.
Modern culture tells everyone to construct their own identity, but it gives them nothing to hold onto. It’s liquid, right? We talk about “liquid modernity.” Lots of evangelicalism can be like that too.
People are drawn back to the liturgy, and drawn back to the great creeds, because it roots them in a much bigger story of God’s work. It decenters our Americanness. It decenters our moment in history. It decenters our politics and our divisions. It centers the story of Jesus as told for thousands of years in the church.
Russell Moore, editor in chief of Christianity Today
Our church in Nashville recites Nicaea once or twice a year. You’re either intentionally or unintentionally creedal, and the Nicene Creed is a good teaching tool.
I think this anniversary is a good opportunity for a church that has never done any creedal recitation to do it a few times. A pastor can do some teaching and explain, “Look, it’s 1,700 years since the church wrote this really important document, and we’re going to say it together.”
This article appeared in the May/June 2025 issue of Christianity Today as "Dusting Off the Nicene Creed".
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