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apostolic."

Until the beginning of the fourth century, the Creeds were mainly concerned with the preparation of catechumens for the Sacrament of Baptism. The catechumens pronounced briefly formulated confessional models on the day of their Baptism. Already from the second century, such models began to be called "rules" and "canons" of faith. In the era of the Ecumenical Councils, the Symbol of Faith began to be used as a witness to Orthodoxy, as a limit protecting the Church from heresy.

Symbols of a new type, responding to the need to accurately define Orthodox teaching as opposed to the doctrines of heretics, appear in the fourth century. They are no longer connected exclusively with Baptism, but acquire the meaning of the teaching of faith.

The Nicene Creed was the first dogmatic creed proclaimed by the First Ecumenical Council (325). This originally baptismal Creed of the Local Church, possibly of Jerusalem, was reworked by theologians, who had to expand it in order to more accurately express the confession of the divinity of Christ against the teaching of Arius. This Symbol was read out as a dogmatic confession of faith at the Ecumenical Councils of Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451).

Born from the baptismal Antiochian-Jerusalem Symbols, the exposition of the "Nicene Faith" was evidently revised and supplemented by the Fathers of the Second Ecumenical Council (381). The new edition of the Symbol was also approved by the Fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon (451) and since that time has been included in the liturgical practice of Constantinople and other Local Churches as a true "rule of faith." Affirming the immutable character of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, the Church, one might say, suffered for it in the struggle against heretics and apostates from the Christian faith.198

The confession of faith in word and word is at the heart of the Christian life. In it is expressed the unity of life which descends from above, from the Father of Lights, and is the unity of faith and love. It is by this unity that the Church lives. It is given and received through the word. The word of confession correlates the person who pronounces it with that reality and the experience of the Church which are more primary than the word and in relation to which "the word is a symbol: a manifestation, a gift... possession."199 The confession of faith in the words of the Symbol is thereby the gift of Christ's Truth and the believer's participation in the inheritance of Eternal Life.

The ancient Church prescribed to the faithful the obligation to know the Symbol of Faith by heart (Council of Laodicea, Canon 46). Gradually, it became customary for Christians to sanctify the beginning of each day and other important events with the reading of the Symbol of Faith and thus express their devotion and faithfulness to God and His Church.

Of course, it is not enough to confess one's faith only with one's lips, even when one does so with reverence. It is necessary that the mind and heart of a person adhere to the reality of the divinely revealed Truth.

Митрополит Московский Филарет (1867) убеждает христиан «обладать верой». Пока вера покоится на Священном Писании и Символе, утверждает святитель, она принадлежит Богу, Его пророкам, апостолам, отцам Церкви. Но это еще не личная вера самого христианина. Когда же она станет достоянием его мыслей, памяти и будет руководить поступками, христианин приобретет ее. Только углубленное понимание всех двенадцати членов Символа веры делает каждого члена Православной Церкви сознательно верующим.200

Неправое понимание Символа ведет к искажению основ христианской жизни, к заблуждениям догматического и нравственного характера. Только в Церкви и через Церковь верующий познает в Троице Единого Бога и спасительные догматы веры.201

Таинство Покаяния духовно обновляет веру человека, обогащая опытом встречи с Богом и сообщением дара Небесного. От опыта этой встречи слова исповедника обретают не просто свой смысл, но и силу. А слова человека, к этому опыту не отнесенные и от него оторвавшиеся, неизбежно воспринимаются кающимся словами двусмысленными, лукавыми, греховными. За ними стоит рельность жизни суетной, греховной, о которой верующему хочется поведать своему духовному отцу как о причине духовного распада и порабощенности смертью.

Исповедание веры есть одновременно и суд Церкви, и суд каждого ее члена над собой. «От слов своих оправдаешься и от слов своих осудишься» (Мф. 12, 37). В нем мерило и в нем обличение всех подмен и измен человеческой жизни, в нем неподкупная проверка того, где и в чем сокровище сердца и испытание самой веры.

Святой Симеон Солунский202 говорит, что в Символе веры заложены начала и основания христианской жизни. Опираясь на них, правоверующий устремляется к нескончаемому веку славы Божией.