The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Nicene Creed Question

I have a question that apparently there is a fair amount of debate commenting a line in Nicene Creed.


Many seem to say that this is baptismal regeneration.

Can anyone more familiar with the Nicene Creed clear this up?

Tom

R. Scott Clark gives a fairly good explanation of the phrase here: Does The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed Require Baptismal Regeneration?. From many other discussions concerning this phrase, I have discovered that Baptists particularly have a very difficult time comprehending it because of their insistence of what baptism means, which I disagree, of course.

Reformed Baptist here (1689 LBC); I skimmed through the article and found it quite good.

It makes the excellent but oft-overlooked point that words and concepts need to be understood in context, including the context of the times in which they were written. I think we intuitively understand this in the context of Biblical exegesis and hermaneutics, and also, by necessity, anytime the word "Catholic" comes up. But it's a broader and more general point that would help us better understand not only the history of the Church, but history in general.

An unfortunately U.S.-specific, but nonetheless illustrative example: "regulate" meant almost the opposite of what it did when the Constitution was written, of what it does today. So one cannot appeal to the Constitution for authority to do things like restrict gun ownership or interstate commerce or free speech. It was written to protect those things, not to grant a totalitarian power to restrict them.

That is somewhat helpful.

Your mentioning the word “Catholic” reminds me of a fruitless conversation I had a while back.

Someone who has a huge ax to grind with the word Catholic said that it means the Roman Catholic Church, rather than “universal Church”. Regardless of the fact that many including myself tried to correct him on it. Insisted that we were wrong.

Tom

Pilgrim

Not sure you are aware, that many who adhere to the 1689 LBCF, have no problem calling Baptism and the Lord''s Supper "sacraments" and "means of grace". They however are careful to differentiate between what Roman Catholics believe and what they believe.

Not sure you are aware of that.

Tom