Recorded history of the Armenian kingdoms started in 401 BC with the Yervantouny Dynasty, and reached its peak in 95-55 BC, when Tigran the Great, King of Kings (Ardaxiad Kingdom) extended his empire from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea, and from the Mediterranean to what is presently known as the Middle East, and to the Arabian deserts.

Christianity as the state religion

While Armenia started to shrink, squeezed between the rival Roman and Persian Empires, two of the apostles of Jesus, Thaddeus and Bartholomew, traveled to Armenia to preach the Word of the Lord. For the next 300 years Christianity flourished secretly, and remained underground. When King Tiritades III (287-330) was miraculously cured of a horrible illness by his chief scribe Grigor Bartev, who was a Christian, the king himself converted to Christianity, and decreed Christianity as the official religion of the country in 301. Armenians throughout the world celebrated the 1700th anniversary of the declaration of Christianity in Armenia during 2001.

OUR FAITH

The Armenian Church has participated in, and recognized, the doctrinal, and canonical, validity of the first three ecumenical councils, Nicea (325 A.D.), Constantinople (381 A.D.), and Ephesus (431 A.D.).

The Armenian Church refused the confusion of the two natures of Christ, and recognized in Him a divine and human nature, adopting the definition "One nature in the Incarnate God".

The Faith of the Armenian Church is transmitted through the church's Holy Traditions (the on-going life of the church from the time of Christ to our present time). The Bible, liturgy and worship, writings of the church fathers, church councils, saints, canons, religious art and rituals linked together, formulate the Holy Traditions of the Church.

This Faith is articulated in the Creed of the Armenian Church, which in turn, defines the church's raison d'etre, and sets the parameters of its modus operandi.

The Armenian Church professes her faith in the context of her worship. Her worship and liturgy, constitute a prime source for teaching her faith. History and tradition, on the other hand, define, and formulate, the "articles of faith", and are transmitted from generation to generation.

THE NICEAN CREED

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, born of God the Father, Only-Begotten, that is of the substance of God. God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God. Begotten and not made. Himself of the nature of the Father by Whom all things were made in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Who for us men, and for our salvation came down from heaven, was incarnate, became man, was born perfectly of the Holy Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. By Whom we took flesh, souland mind and everything that is in man, verily and not in semblance. He suffered and was crucified and was buried, and the third day He rose again, and ascending in heaven in the same body sat on the right hand of the Father. And He shall come again in the same body and with the glory of the Father, to judge the living and the dead, and Whose kingdom shall have no end.

We believe also in the Holy Spirit, uncreated and perfect Who spoke through the Law and through the prophets and through the Gospels. Who came down upon the Jordan, preached to the Apostles and dwelled in the Saints.

We also believe in one Catholic and Apostolic Church. In one baptism, in repentance, in expiration and remission of sins. In the resurrection of the dead, in the everlasting judgment of souls and bodies, in the kingdom of heaven, and in the life eternal.

BAPTISMAL CREED

CONFESSION OF FAITH

We believe in the all-holy Trinity, in the Father and in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. We believe in the annunciation of Gabriel, in the Nativity of Christ, in His Baptism, in His Passion, in His Crucifixion, in His three day Entombment, in His resurrection, in His Ascension, in His sitting at the right hand of the Father and His awesome and glorious Second Coming.

We confess and we believe.