at the beginning of chAPTER TWO OF MY BOOK I SHARE THE FOLLOWING:
“WE HAVE SEEN THAT JESUS WAS BEGOTTEN BY THE FATHER AS THE SON AND NOT CREATED AS HUMANITY HAS BEEN THROUGH ALL OF ITS HISTORY. THE NICENE CREED MAKES THIS CLEAR:
AND IN ONE LORD JESUS CHRIST, THE ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD, BEGOTTEN OF THE FATHER BEFORE ALL WORLDS; GOD OF GOD, LIGHT OF LIGHT, VERY GOD OF VERY GOD; BEGOTTEN, NOT MADE, BEING OF ONE SUBSTANCE WITH THE FATHER, BY WHOM ALL THINGS WERE MADE.
“IN MY BOOK I MAKE REFERENCES TO THREE CREEDS AND ONE CONFESSION, INCLUDING THE NICENE CREED ABOVE. KEN SAMPLES IS A SENIOR RESEARCH SCHOLAR, THEOLOGICAN AND PHILOSOPHER WITH REASONS TO BELIEVE (WWW.REASONS.ORG). HIS DISCUSSION OF CREEDS AND CONFESSIONS EXPLAINS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PASSAGE FROM THE NICENE CREED.
“SAMPLES SHARED POINTS ABOUT CHRISTIAN CREEDS WHICH HAVE BEEN PART OF HISTORIC CHRISTIANITY FROM ITS BEGINNING. ‘CREED’ COMES FROM THE LATIN CREDO WHICH MEANS ‘I BELIEVE.’ CREEDAL STATEMENTS ARE SEEN IN ThE BIBLE, INCLUDING THE SHEMA, ‘HEAR O ISRAEL: THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE.’ . . . CREEDS THEREFORE HAVE A BIBLICAL BASIS AND SERVE TO FORMULATE AND AFFIRM ESSENTIAL CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE AND TO AID IN CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTION IN CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE AND THEOLOGY. PERHAPS OF MOST IMPORTANCE SAMPLES STATES THAT ‘ALL OF CHRISTENDOM’S FORMAL CREEDS WERE WRITTEN TO SPECIFICALLY COMBAT HERESIES THAT HAD ARISEN IN THE EARLY CENTURIES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [SUCH AS] THE CHRISTOLOGICAL HERESY KNOWN AS ‘ARIANISM.’ ARIAN TEACHINGS WERE ATTRIBUTED TO ARIUS, A CHRISTIAN PRESBYTER IN ALEXANDRIA OF EGYPT. ARIUS WHO LIVED FROM 256 TO 336 A.D. BELIEVED THAT JESUS, THE SON OF GOD, DID NOT ALWAYS EXIST BUT WAS BEGOTTEN WITHIN TIME BY THE FATHER.”
THE NICENE CREED ADDRESSES THIS HERESY.