The faith of the Armenian Church is transmitted through the Church’s Holy Tradition that is preserved in the ongoing life of the church from the time of Christ to our times. The Holy Tradition of the Church is formulated and rooted in the Holy Bible, liturgy and worship, the writings of the church fathers, church councils, saints, canons, religious art and rituals.

We believe that the Scriptures in all 66 books of the Old and New Testaments are verbally inspired of God, error free in the original manuscripts, and the supreme authority of faith and practice for followers of Christ.

We believe there is one living and true God, who is one in essence, while eternally existing in three distinct persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We believe that mankind was directly created in the image of God to enjoy His fellowship and fulfill His purposes on earth. However, in Adam, all mankind fell into sin; consequently all people are spiritually dead and subject to the certainty of both physical and spiritual death apart from faith in Jesus Christ.

We believe that salvation is by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. All who believe in Him are declared righteous by the Father on the grounds of Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection, being regenerated by and baptized in the Holy Spirit.

The founding principles and faith of the Armenian Church are expressed in the Nicene Creed. The Creed was adopted by the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. and states that God and Christ are of the same substance. In the Armenian Church, the Creed is recited during liturgy and worship services as a declaration of faith. It is in these articles of faith on which the dogmas of the Armenian Church are based.

The Nicene Creed

We believe in one God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, only-begotten of God the Father, that is to say, of the substance of the Father.

God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, born and not created. Being of the very nature of the Father, by whom all things in heaven and on earth came into existence, both visible and invisible.

Who for us men, and for our salvation, having come down from heaven, became incarnate and was made man, and was perfectly born of the holy virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. Of whom he took body, soul and mind and everything which is in man, truly and not by conjecture.

He suffered, he was crucified and was buried; on the third day, he rose again, and having ascended up into heaven with the same body, he sat down at the right hand of the Father. He is to come with the same body and with the glory of the Father to judge the quick and the dead, to whose kingdom there is no end.

We also believe in the Holy Spirit, the uncreated and the perfect, who spoke in the law and in the prophets and in the gospels, who descended at the river Jordan, and preached through the apostles and dwelt among the saints.

We believe also in the only Universal and Apostolic church, in one baptism, in repentance, in the remission and forgiveness of sins, in the resurrection of the dead, in the eternal judgement of souls and bodies, in the kingdom of heaven, and in the life everlasting.