In the year 325 the first ecumenical (all church) council was called. Christianity had recently endured two centuries of Roman persecution and had emerged victorious. There was now even a pro-Christian emperor, Constantine.
Christianity, though victorious, was not without problems. Heresies sprang up. The most dangerous heresy came from an Egyptian priest, Arius. He promoted the idea that Christ was a created being, who was similar to God, close to God, but not God. This view was called Arianism.
Christianity was so strong and widespread at the time that a heresy big enough to split the church might also split the empire. Constantine knew this and took an interest. Constantine himself has been called the ‘first Christian emperor’ though he is a controversial figure; people wonder to this day how Christian he really was. In any case, this issue surrounding the Arian heresy was a threat to both church and empire. The emperor wanted the matter settled.
So he called for a church council which would meet in the city of Nicaea, in modern day Turkey. 318 bishops attended from across the empire. Constantine himself was there and gave the opening address. He said he would enforce whatever decision the bishops made.
The bishops ruled against Arius. They affirmed that Jesus was God, not just similar to God.
To some, this might seem to be splitting hairs. They might say, “Jesus is God…Jesus is like God… I don’t see a lot of difference. What is all the fuss about?” In those days many thought the council was making a mountain out of a molehill. They noted that the Greek words at issue—homoousia (same essence, the Orthodox position) and homoiousia (like essence, the heretical position)–only had one letter of difference between them: an iota, the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet.
But that iota, and the difference it signified, was everything. If Jesus was only like God, rather than fully God, the salvation he brought would be of insufficient power. We needed a Savior who was fully God, because only God had the rank and power enough to fully forgive sin.
The Nicene Creed, which came from the council, has these words: “I believe in one God the Father Almighty…And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made…” It is an absolute affirmation of Christ’s full divinity.
But we might say “That doesn’t make sense! How can a someone be ‘begotten’ but ‘not made’?” We cannot figure it out but we don’t have to. It is to be believed on faith.
A person reading the Bible sees some passages that stress Jesus’ humanity and others that stress His divinity. I mentioned in last week’s column that the church can help us when we encounter difficult doctrines. We call this church help ‘tradition’. In the Nicene Creed we see church tradition at its best.
Constantine kept his word and affirmed the bishops’ decision. Arius’ writings were banned and burned. But evil has a way of sneaking back in. The spirit of Arianism lives on; seen in the constant tendency to lower Christ down from his exalted position. We see this in the cults today. None of the cults believe that Jesus is fully God.
There will always be a temptation to make Christianity palatable, easier, and false. We owe a debt of gratitude to those 318 bishops who affirmed the hard thing–the true, hard thing. Ed Simon, in his article, The Legacy of Nicaea, said, “At Nicaea, the radicals were the orthodox, and theirs was a defiant stand against the idol of reason, the false deity of logic.” He also says that the Nicene Creed is “affirmed by Christians ranging from the pope in the Vatican to Amish farmers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from the Orthodox patriarch in Istanbul to evangelical pastors in Dallas.”
For all the differences between Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox Christians, this unites us: Jesus Christ is fully God and therefore sufficient to save us from all our sins.
With Christmas coming up, we should note that the Council of Nicaea also has two Christmas connections…
The first connection–a bishop called Nicholas, later known as Saint Nicholas, the inspiration for Santa Claus, attended the council. There is a legend that he struck Arius in the face for his heretical views, though that might be legend. What we know for sure is that Nicholas was a zealous defender of the true Christian faith. We could say that the earliest origins of the figure of Santa Claus came out of an uncompromising Christian leader who contended for true faith in Christ.
The second connection–We see the true greatness of the gift of Christmas. The angel announced Christ’s birth to the shepherds, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people,” (Luke 2:10). This good news is better than could be imagined: God Himself, not a representative or delegate or angel, would be the one who would save us from our sins. The fact that God would not entrust this mission to anyone less than His Son, who shares in the same divine nature, shows the great love He has for mankind. It’s like a customer getting personal attention from the CEO of the corporation, except here the CEO is the creator of the universe. God gave us His all. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,” (John 1:1, 14).