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I bring it up for a reason -- the reason the Nicean creed came about was because "lay men" and those who set themselves up as "Bishops" in churches (Ecclesia is Greek for community) would read the Bible and come up with their own spin on what the Word was (Logos) and what that relation of the Word is with God in relation to the Holy Spirt, etc. This led to heresy after heresy, the biggest one being Arianisim which influences Islam.

Orthodoxy is simply the right interpretation of the Gospels based on the scholarship of Bishops who were direct descendents of Churches founded by the Apostles and their first converts.

The Nicean Creed is the Readers Digest for the faithful - a study guide to the owner's manual that is the Bible.

There's a lot to be said for the Nicene Creed, in its place: as a manmade summary of Bible teaching.

But when I have folks over for dinner, I don't pass out pictures of food, or read stories of others who've had delectable feasts in the past. I cook up the real thing, and lay it out.

And so, as I deal with you, I deal with all. I lay out the Word of God, before your heart, mind and conscience. What you do with it is a matter that will bring God's judgment or blessing.

There's a definite place for respectful listening to wiser brothers, whether they lived in 400 AD or 2003 AD. But it's no substitute for laying out the Word of God. After all, Scripture is the fully adequate revelation of the person, ways, and will of God. The sinner finds the way of salvation through Scripture (Romans 10:17; 2 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 2: 1-3). The believer is made fruitful (Psalm 1:2, 3) and successful in the will of God (Joshua 1:8), warned and kept from sin (Psalms 19:11; 119:9,11), made holy (John 17:17), given wisdom (Psalm 9:7) and freeing knowledge of the truth (John 8: 31, 32), taught the fear of God (Psalm 119:38), counseled (Psalm 119:24), taught, reproved, corrected, and disciplined in the way righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16) by Scripture.

Recollections of others' study of Scripture won't do any of that. It is Scripture itself. That is why God, as I showed you earlier, gave it to His children at large — not to a separate caste.

Dan