The Council of Nicea - Handout

Here's a handout on the Council of Nicea that the youth group went through recently. Credit and thanks go to Dr. Steven Hallam for his class slides on the topic.

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The Council of Nicea

The First Ecumenical Council at Nicea (325 A.D.)

·         Called by Emperor Constantine

                                                              i.      Question: Is Christ equal with God?

·         The issue began between Alexander and Arius both of Alexandria

                                                              i.      Alexander was a bishop

                                                            ii.      Arius was a presbyter, elder

Christ and God

·         There are many possible ways to explain the relationship between Christ and God

1.      Modalism

·         There is only one God who has appeared in various forms

·         God – OT, Christ and Spirit - NT

2.      Adoptionism

·         God adopted the human Jesus and gave him a diving presence

3.      Origen

·         Christ is generated by God and eternally distinct from God

Arius

·         Believed in strict monotheism

·         There is only One God

·         God knows His own mind

·         Jesus doesn’t always know things the Father does

·         Therefore, Christ is begotten of God but not necessarily equal to God

·         Verses

·         Matt 24:36; Prov. 8:22; John 14:28; Luke 2:52; John 4:7; Romans 8:29

If the Father begat the Son, he that was begotten had a beginning of existence; hence it is clear that there was when the Son was not. It follows then of necessity that he had his existence from the non-existent. – Arius

Opposition to Arianism

           

·         Although not a major rival during the council, the most famous opponent of Arianism was Athanasius

·         Verses

o   John 1:1; Phil. 2:6; Hebrews 1:3, 13:8; 1 Cor. 2:8;

What – or rather Who – was it that was needed for such grace and such recall as we required? Who, save the Word of God Himself, Who also in the beginning had made all things out of nothing?...For He alone, being Word of the Father and above all, was in consequence both able to recreate all, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be an ambassador for all with the Father. – Athanasius

The Gist

·         If Christ is not fully God, then He cannot have the power to save us and is not a legitimate ambassador with the Father

Creed of Nicea

·          This is not the Nicean Creed!

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and

invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; he suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost.

Addendum:

But those who say: 'There was a time when he was not;' and 'He was not before

he was made;' and 'He was made out of nothing,' or 'He is of another substance'

or 'essence,' or 'The Son of God is created,' or 'changeable,' or 'alterable'—they

are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.