The Church of the Nazarene states in its official Manual that "It receives the ecumenical creeds of the first five Christian centuries as expressions of its own faith" (page 14, Historical Statement). This statement seems a little vague to me. I suppose it means the creeds that resulted from the Ecumenical Councils of the ancient church that happened before the year 500 AD. Those councils were:
- The First Council of Nicaea - 325 AD
- The First Council of Constantinople - 381 AD
- The First Council of Ephesus - 431 AD
- The Council of Chalcedon - 451 AD
The next Ecumenical Council, The Second Council of Constantinople was held in 553 AD, so cannot be said to have been in the 'first 5 Christian centuries'. It was a council widely rejected in the West, which is probably why The Manual draws the line before 2nd Constantinople. It did not produce a creed.
There is only one creed that properly resulted from the first 4 councils, that is the Nicene Creed. It was first issued as a result of the Council of Nicaea (hence the name), as a sort of communique to announce the conclusion of the council, and to serve as a clear statement of universally held, true Christian belief. The second council extended the creed, making certain points even more explicitly clear, The Nicene Creed as widely used today is the result of the second council.
The Manual, in using the plural 'creeds' must be doing so to embrace both versions of the Nicene creed. The Apostles' creed did not result from a council, nor is it truly 'ecumenical' as it is rejected by the Eastern churches (Orthodox), and is used only in the Western churches (Roman Catholic, Anglican and Protestant). So it seems unlikely that the Manual has the Apostles' creed in mind, even though the denomination embraces both the Nicene and the Apostles' creed. I want to encourage the Church of the Nazarene to clarify this line in the Manual.
As an 'Ancient Future' kind of guy, I embrace both creeds as wonderful expression of the Christian faith, and gifts to the church from God, albeit not at quite the same level of Scripture. I hope that Christ The Way people will learn the Nicene Creed by heart as a goal for 2015. Here it is, in a fresh rendering into contemporary English borrowed the the Anglican Church in North America's new 'Texts for Common Prayer':
We
believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is,
visible and invisible.
We
believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down
from heaven,
was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the
Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under
Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in
accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the
Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the
living and the dead,
and his kingdom
will have no end.
We
believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father [and the Son],
who with the Father and the Son is
worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and
apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the
forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of
the world to come. Amen.
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