The Creed is a brief but comprehensive statement of the foundations of Christian doctrine. It was compiled by the holy fathers at the first Ecumenical Councils as a response to heretical distortions of the faith. The Creed serves as a sign of unity in truth, and at the same time as a prayer, a promise, and a confession of faith before God and the world.
"I believe in one God, the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible."
When we pronounce the first article of the Creed, we acknowledge the deepest truth of existence—that the world did not come into being by chance, but was created by God, who is our Father. This is not an abstract idea about some higher power, but a living faith in a Person who is the source of all that exists.
When a Christian says, "I believe," he is not simply speaking of conviction. He is testifying to his belonging to God, trusting in Him, accepting His word as a guide for life.
“In one God” is a recognition of God’s uniqueness. In a world where people worship a thousand voices—success, fear, ideologies—the Christian consciously turns to the one and only source of life. Saint Irenaeus of Lyons teaches: “There is one God, who created heaven and earth, who speaks through the prophets, who revealed himself in Christ.” The unity of God is not solitude, but fullness. And that is why the following words reveal him as Father.
To call God Father means to acknowledge Him as a person, not as an impersonal force. God is not simply the Creator, but the Father, who already in the first member reveals to us His personal and loving nature. He is the Father not only of the Son of God, but also of us, through Christ. According to St. Athanasius the Great, we acknowledge Him as the Father because “in Him is the source of the Divinity, the beginning and cause of the Son.” But also because He created us out of love, called us into being, so that we might be with Him in eternal joy.
Faith in the Creator of heaven and earth is the recognition that everything visible (the material world, nature, man) and invisible (angels, souls, spiritual reality) has its origin in God. According to St. Gregory the Theologian, the world is not eternal, but was created “from the broken silence of God’s silence” — that is, from God’s desire to manifest His love outwardly. God did not create out of necessity, but out of the abundance of His grace.
Blessed Augustine, a Latin Father of the Church, emphasizes that faith in God the Father is also the beginning of theological humility: “If you have understood, it is not yet God. For He is always greater than your understanding.” Augustine teaches that true faith begins with the recognition of our limitations before the immeasurable fullness of the Godhead. But at the same time, he affirms that God wants to be known to the extent that love allows: “The heart seeks, the mind follows.”
Almighty — the Greek word Pantokrator — means that God holds all creation in His hands. Nothing escapes His control. St. John of Damascus teaches that God not only created the world, but also guides it, embracing everything with His all-seeing eye and almighty will. This is not rigid control, but loving providence, in which every event in the world is not accidental, but is included in God’s plan.
The Creator of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible—these words affirm that all existence, both material and spiritual, has its origin in God. Heaven and earth are an image of the fullness of the created world. The visible are what surrounds us: nature, people, matter. The invisible are angels, souls, the spiritual dimension. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem says: “We do not see everything that exists; but by faith we recognize even that which our eye does not perceive.”
Having created the world, God did not retreat from it. He continues to act - through Providence. He leads every creature, every event to the final goal. He holds history, time, the heart of man in his palms. And he who believes in such a God is not afraid of darkness, because he knows that above the world is the One who holds everything.
The confession of faith in the one God the Father is not only an intellectual acceptance, but a spiritual dedication. By such a confession, a Christian opens his life and heart to God, and enters into communion with the Creator, who is both the Beginning and the Goal of all that exists.
