"The Triune God and the Council of Nicaea"

Submitted by Lactantius Jr (United Kingdom), Nov 18, 2008 at 08:58

To btilly

The Council of Nicaea in 325AD was called to resolve disagreements over the nature of Jesus Christ and His relationship to God the Father. The disagreements, which were leading many astray, had arisen because of the heretical teaching of Arius, a presbyter ("Christian leader") in Alexandria, who denied the full divinity of Jesus Christ, and who had become embroiled in controversy about this, with Alexander the Bishop of Alexandria.

The Council was attended by 318 bishops, all but two of whom voted against the Arian heresy. They formulated authentic Christian belief, expressing it in the Nicene creed, issued 20 canons, and a letter to the church at Alexandria, an English translation of these being available at,

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3801.htm

and early Trinitarian quotations predating the Council of Nicaea are given at,

http://www.carm.org/doctrine/trinityquotes.htm

Tertullian (115-190 AD), who coined the word "Trinity," writing more than 100 years before the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD said,

"We define that there are two, the Father and the Son, and three with the Holy Spirit, and this number is made by the pattern of salvation...[which] brings about unity in trinity, interrelating the three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are three, not in dignity, but in degree, not in substance but in form, not in power but in kind. They are of one substance and power, because there is one God from whom these degrees, forms and kinds devolve in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit." (Adv. Prax. 23; PL 2.156-7).

Neither the pre-Nicene Christian theologians, nor the Council of Nicaea ‘invented' the doctrine of the Trinity, and neither is the Trinity "a pagan doctrine" derived from the Egytian ‘trinity' of Horus, Isis and Osiris, the "gods" of ancient Egyptian mythology. The understanding of God's Unity in Triunity, being entirely Scriptural, and is derived and developed from the living God's self-revelation of Himself, recorded in the Bible, it being self-evident that we can only know of God what He graciously chooses to reveal of Himself, the Bible in both Old and New Testaments, documenting God's self-revelation of Himself as One God in three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the God with Whom we have to deal, and Who deals with us on how we respond to what He has done for us through His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.

"For God loved the world so much that he gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son."

John 3:16-18

With kind regards and best wishes

Lactantius Jr

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