THE CREED
The "Nicene Creed" recited in most all Churches today is not the Creed that was Approved in 325 A.D. It has been added to and altered. Some of these additions and alterations were agreed upon by the whole Church, some not.
We do have the Original Creed which was used. The Creed used in the Liturgy was the one read at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 as the one approved by the 150 Fathers at the Council of Constantinople in 381.
THE ORIGINAL NICENE CREED
We believe in one God, father almighty, maker of all things, both visible and invisible.
And in one lord, Jesus Christ, the son of God, begotten from the father, only-begotten, that is from the being* of the father, God from God, light from light, True God from True God, begotten not made, one in being** with the father, through whom all things came to be, both those in heaven and those on the earth,
who because of us human beings and because of our salvation descended, became enfleshed, became human, suffered and rose on the third day, ascending to the heavens, coming to judge the living and dead.
And in the Holy Spirit[1].
The[2] catholic[3] and apostolic[4] Church anathematizes those who say: there was when He was not; and before being born He was not; or that He came to be from things that are not; or that the Son of God is from a different hypostasis or ousia or mutable or changeable.
* being - "ousia" in the Greek, a very difficult word to translate. "Being", "essence" and "substance" are all candidates, but in the Creed "essence" is inappropriate since it is open to an interpretation of "three Gods".
** "homoousios", 'consubstantial' is an alternative. The word was not new at Nicaea, but was given a new use as a means of excluding Arianism.
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FOOTNOTES
[1
Here is more on this subject from The Apostles' Creed.
[2
The Nicene Creed was added to and said, "from the Father".
Photius in Constantinople in 867 A.D. objected that the Western Church under Rome even further added to the the Nicene Creed, "and the Son". The ancient understanding of the Trinity was that the Holy Spirit Proceeded through the Son.
[3
What "catholic" actually meant came from two Greek words: "kata": "according the norm or standard of"; and "holos": "whole". It meant "according to the whole" or the agreement of all the Churches as "One".
It meant just one "Standardized Whole (Church)" in this case, in agreement and undivided by any different sects or beliefs. "Catholic" actually meant "by one standard of the whole" as in agreement of Doctrines and Dogmas by "the whole": that is: the One "Holy Church" United against heresies as it was in the first 5 Centuries of the Churchs' existence. Therefore no separate "denominations". It never meant "Roman Catholic" as some are taught.
Another way to say "catholic" (kata + holos) with reference to the Nicene Creed would be: "According to the Standard of the Whole Church as One in Agreement" in this case. That "Standard" would have necessarily been Full Agreement in matters of Doctrine and Dogmas that United them all as truly "One".
[4
This has no connection to the United Pentecostal Church (U.P.C.) sometimes called "Apostolic" or "Oneness" which was thrown out of the Pentecostrtal Churches in 1915 A.D.
