The Nicene Creed Redux

• are superimposed on Scripture.
• assume a position of authority that is unwarranted
• are an instrument of division, not unity

• are the result of over-reacting
• by nature stifle Bible study
• encourage people to place too much trust in men.

Nicene

Thoughts

Myscene

I believe in one God,

“God” is not a name of course, it is a thing. The God Christians believe in is named YHWH (See Genesis 1, or Exodus 3:14), which in English likely means something like “I Am (That I Am),” but because Hebrew has different tenses than English it can also mean “I Will Be.” A better overall translation might be “I Be” or perhaps “BEing.” God is also called Elohiym, which is a plural word based on the root El, which means “strength” or “power” and is the same root “Al” of God (Allah) in Arabic. “Elohiym YHWH” literally means “The powers that be.”

I believe in one God,

the Father almighty

God is not male, as noted in Genesis1:27:
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
So a more accurate word is “Parent,” although that is also an approximation, as we give God human characteristics to make IT relatable, but they aren’t literal. So God is not “He,” He is “IT.” The general assumption is that God is almighty, all-powerful, without limitation. In addition to “parent,” “source” and “force” are also good expressions. Just because they “sound” impersonal doesn’t mean they are.

the eternal, omnipresent and all-powerful BEing, which is pure Love and can be felt and known,

creator of heaven and earth,

In all other languages but English, “heaven” is the exact same word as “sky,” in other word, “heavens.” We now know that there are other planets, and Earth is not the center of the universe. So we can now understand this as God made matter and space.
If “heaven” exists now, WHERE IS IT?

and which created or expresses space and matter –

of all things visible and invisible.

Or maybe IT IS everything, and more. Nobody knows.

everything we can and can’t see

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,

Lots of problems here. Jesus is not his name; that is the Greek translation of his original Hebrew or Aramaic name, Yeshua, which in English is Joshua or Josh. “Christ” is not English, it is made directly from Christos, which is a Greek word meaning “anointed” and by extension Messiah, or Savior; or in modern English, a “chosen one.”

“Lord” is also a very old word that we don’t use often except for British royalty, landlords or in the expression “lord it over someone.” Elsewhere in the Bible this word is used to describe the “Lord of the manor,” in other words the Boss. Because boss implies other earthly things, “Master” could be a better or more generic translation, but I think “authority” expresses the idea that Josh is the one who really grasps (the) Being and expressed IT. If they didn’t use a word that was considered obscure for them, we shouldn’t use a word that is obscure for us.

I believe in one foremost authority on God, Josh the Chosen,

the Only Begotten Son of God,

This is complicated because the meaning of the word “begotten” is not certain, and is used for born. “Son” also can’t be literal, but is taken so largely because of the story of the virgin birth, which only appears in two of the Gospels (WHAT?). Words of family relationship, such as son and father were used metaphorically quite often, by Jesus included. See the footnote at the end.(1) Females were not even allowed to read the scriptures; neither were they thought to have a soul except through the male, who basically owned them as property. We can also call Jesus “the” child of God because if he is just one of a bunch, then what’s the point?

the original “Child” of BEing,

born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made.

The language about Jesus existing at the beginning with God is from John 1:1, which talks about the Logos, which means the “word or wisdom” of God – it is the context and meaning with which God created everything. The immediate conclusion generally made is: “the Word is Jesus.” NO!!! A few sentences later, the “Word becomes flesh.” NOW it’s Jesus. Jesus contains or embodies the truth/wisdom/expression of God. Jesus says other things like “I and the Father are one.” But he constantly talks about his Father as if they are separate.
“Consubstantial” and this whole bit is the Nicene Council commissioned by Emperor Constantine trying to combine all the ways Jesus tries to describe it, into a simplistic statement, while addressing specific “heresies” they didn’t agree with; but they made assumptions and drew conclusions that aren’t necessarily true, and blocked all the other ideas out.

because he embodies the truths of IT, with which all things were made.

For us men and for our salvation

To save us humans,

he came down from heaven,

As discussed previously, “heaven” is really “heavens.” They used to think that the Earth was covered by a “firmament” or space between waters above and waters below, or “heavens” where God lived, and the earth. Clearly they had no grasp of outer space and we now know that “heaven” couldn’t be “up,” because up is down 12 hours later.

that truth came from wherever God is

and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,

Whether he was physically impregnated, whether God “poof” created a sperm cell that then went into Mary or whether half the chromosomes appeared suddenly, or whether Joseph had sex with her, either way i can believe it was spirit-inspired in some sense. Or we all are…

and through the eternal Spirit entered the physical realm in the Virgin Mary,

and became man.

and became a person.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,

If he did it for any other reason than what’s the point? A lot of people martyred themselves.

He was crucified under Pontius Pilate for us,

he suffered death and was buried,

There’s no “proof” but a bunch of people wrote about it, and it’s not weird, so why not?

He suffered, died, and was buried,

and rose again on the third day

Sunday is only two days after Friday, but whatever. It works if you consider Friday the 1st day, even though he got crucified in the evening.

He appeared again on the 3rd day (or by the end of that weekend)

in accordance with the Scriptures.

“Scriptures” is just a fancy, exclusive-sounding word for “writings.”

as the Jewish writings may have predicted.

He ascended into heaven

“Ascended” is nonsense as we now know “heaven” couldn’t be “up” because from our perspective on Earth everything that was “up” is “down” 12 hours later.

He went wherever we go when we die

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

and is now the eternal Parent’s proverbial “right hand man.”

He will come again in glory

He will reappear, or has re-appeared, or is here now in our hearts

to judge the living and the dead

His life, words and death assess what we do; he doesn’t have to stand there with robes on, it’s in our hearts.

and is the measure by which we are assessed.

and his kingdom will have no end.

“Kingdom” implies a place (where?) and that it is male (nonsense). Better translations are “domain” or “realm” because they transcend place and time. Wherever love is, God is, and Jesus is because He represents that love excellently. That realm will never end, because it’s a forever kind of realm to start with, not based on physical things that rot.

His realm will never end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,

We can say that God “is” the eternal Spirit, but the Spirit is really the part of IT we can feel. We believe God “breathes” life into us, as the word used for spirit is wind or breath. This could mean we are all extensions of the universal Spirit.

We need to address “holy.” I think it’s a good word as most people get what it means, but its real meaning is “set apart for God,” which is somewhat less “doctrinal” or “mysterious.” I’ve just kind of omitted it here, or substituted “eternal,” or just capitalized Spirit to distinguish it from “regular” spirit. But if God breathed life into all of us (adam = mankind), don’t we all have ITs breath in us?

The problem with the Spirit being the “giver of life” is that supposedly God created everything, and He gave life to mankind by breathing the Spirit into us. So God gave us life, with or via the Spirit. Could it be the “essence” of life? Seems like parsing linguistics.

I believe in the eternal Spirit of BEing, through which IT gave us life.

who proceeds from the Father and the Son,

“Comes from” is better “Koine English.”

who comes from the Parent in the Spirit of the Child,

who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,

Worship, adore, give mad props, same thing, God is acknowledged to have the highest value possible and Jesus shows us what IT is.

who is given all props and glory along with them,

who has spoken through the prophets.

If they were real prophets, then they channeled the Universal Spirit.

and has spoken through prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

Holy? Kind of a stretch if we’re all sinners. But we believers are supposed to be set apart for God, so the real meaning of it makes more sense.

“Church” is a word that is WRONGLY used by Bible translators 112 times to translate the word “ecclesia.”
“Church” comes from the Old English and German word pronounced “kirche” which originates from the earlier Greek “ku-ri-a-kos” which means “pertaining to the lord” via its root: “Ku-ri-os” (=“lord”). It is only used in the Bible in I Corinthians 11:20 where it refers to “the Lord’s supper” and once more in Revelation 1:10 where it refers to “the Lord’s day.”
The Greek word “ecclesia” is correctly defined as: “The called-out (ones)” [ecc = out; kaleo = call] “Ecclesia” in Acts 19 is a town council: a civil body in Ephesus. This word was used to indicate a body of select (called, elected) people, and we are called out by God. Here is a passionate link addressing this issue:
http://www.aggressivechristianity.net/articles/ecclesia.htm

“catholic church” = “all the called out”

I believe in one body of called out believers, who all believe some different things.

I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins

“Baptize” is literally “immerse” or “dunk.” Doing it in water is a symbolic way to signify we are rethinking our lives (this is the meaning of the word “repent” = “re-think”) and making a decision to switch from living for ourselves, to living for God, the eternal Spirit of Love. Implying that getting baptized forgives our sins as a standalone action is not true, even the concept that Jesus dying pays for our sins is only one theory of how it works, and there are various version of the “atonement” (at-one-ment) theory.

Immersing oneself in water is a good way to signify that we are rethinking our lives, washing off our old self and deciding to live for the eternal Spirit of Love instead of ourselves.

and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead

I look forward to whatever happens after we die, if anything, and to living as long as possible in the meantime.

and the life of the world to come. Amen.

So be it.