Book Review: The Nicene Creed by Kevin DeYoung

This year marks the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, which says:

We believe in one God,

the Father almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the only Son of God,

begotten from the Father before all ages,

God from God,

Light from Light,

true God from true God,

begotten, not made;

of the same essence as the Father.

Through him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation

he came down from heaven;

he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary,

and was made human.

He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate;

he suffered and was buried.

The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures.

He ascended to heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again with glory

to judge the living and the dead.

His kingdom will never end.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit,

the Lord, the giver of life.

He proceeds from the Father and the Son,

and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.

He spoke through the prophets.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.

We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

We look forward to the resurrection of the dead,

and to life in the world to come. Amen.

This creed has been accepted by not just Protestants, but by Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox.  In fact, there a vote in last year's annual meeting for the Southern Baptist Church to be incorporated into the Baptist Faith and Message, which was defeated. 

This creed has been studied by many in the church over years and there have been a few resources available on what the creed teaches. Kevin DeYoung has taken the task to write a brief commentary on the creed titled, The Nicene Creed: What You Need to Know about the Most Important Creed Ever Written.

DeYoung does a good job writing on each of the key elements of the creed without making the reader feel like he was going over their heads. I personally think his writing on the church being "one holy catholic and apostolic church" because the word catholic tends to be associated with the Roman Catholic church which is not a true church. 

When addressing the subject of Baptism, obviously DeYoung is going to speak from a Paedo Baptist perspective which makes it the weakest part of the entire book. One issue I did have with this chapter was DeYoung said that he believes a baptism from the Roman Catholic church was actually valid. Seriously? The Roman Catholic church believes that child is saved, incorporated into the church, by baptism. This is non-biblical, however, the fact that DeYoung said this was a valid baptism really makes his teaching on baptism not worth reading, which has also made the book less desirable to read or even use as reference.

I received this book from Crossway in exchange for an honest review.