Trinity Presbyterian Church Church History Lesson 4 The Council of Nicea 325 A.D. Introduction At the end of the 1 st Century and beginning of the 2 nd Century: All the Apostles were dead; many had been violently martyred for their faith. All of the structures associated with ancient Judaism were gone and the church was no longer considered an offshoot of Judaism. Under the Flavian Dynasty Rome had experienced a brief short lived resurgence, but it was beginning to wane. Rome was beginning to experience push back against its rule and was forced to fight a number of civil wars throughout the empire. The barbarians were also becoming a threat, which forced Rome to defend its borders like never before. Rome s policy regarding the Christians, which had been established by Emperor Trajan (A.D. 98-117), was still in effect. It stated that Christians were to be punished if the refused to worship the emperor or the gods, but they were not to be sought out. New leaders had arisen in the church. They embraced the letters of Peter and Paul, along with the gospels, as Scripture and were structuring their communities and churches accordingly. While there was no official list which indicated which books were to be considered Scripture, the books we now understand to be Scripture were already becoming widely accepted at this time. The Council of Nicea I. Persecution in the 2 nd 4 th Centuries A.D. A. Septimius Severus (emperor from A.D. 193-211) when Septimius Severus came to power the Roman Empire was filled with numerous dissident groups, and rebellion by these groups was common. Severus responded by enacting and enforcing a religious decree. He was not necessarily a religious man; his concern was the peace and prosperity of the empire. 1. Severus issued a decree which indicated that all Roman subjects must worship Sol invictus (The Unconquered Sun). He stated that all other gods would be accepted as long as it was acknowledged that Sol invictus was supreme. 2. Of course, this was problematic for the Christians who refused to oblige with the decree. There is an early text from this period called The Martyrdom of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas which tells of the martyrdom of a number of saints during the reign of Severus. 3. It is not clear why but the persecution of Christian s under Severus was short lived and ended abruptly. B. Decius (emperor from A.D. 249-251) when Decius came to power Rome was in decline; there were two principle reasons for the decline. The barbarians were at the border of the empire and were frequently attacking Rome, and the empire was facing a significant economic crisis. 1. Decius believed Rome was suffering because it had forgotten the ancient gods. He was intent on restoring ancient paganism to Rome. 2. The persecution of Decius was unlike that of previous emperors. The persecutions that occurred prior to Decius sought to destroy Christianity by killing the Christians. This tactic however only strengthened the church and prompted Tertullian to declare that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. a. Decius made the worship of the ancient gods mandatory. 1
b. But instead of martyring those who refused to worship his sought to make them apostatize (deny the faith). He did this by offering to allow Christians to make an offering to the gods. Those that did so were given a certificate which confirmed that they had obeyed the imperial edict. Those who refused were harshly persecuted but they were not martyred since Decius understood this was ineffective and actually strengthened the church. Those who endured persecution without apostatizing were given the title of confessor. Many were actually disappointed that they were not given the opportunity of dying as martyrs. 3. Unfortunately, the church was not prepared for this new kind of persecution and many did in fact apostatize. Decius was not in power very long and the persecution ended after a short time. C. What to do with those who apostatized after the persecution of Decius ended, many of those who apostatized sought to return to the church. This created a significant problem that the church needed to resolve; should those who apostatized be allowed to return to the fellowship of the church and if so how should it be done? Two men played a significant role in determining what to do with the lapsed. Offering certificate fragment from the reign of Decius 1. Cyprian of Carthage Cyprian called for a synod of bishops to decide what ought to be done with the lapsed. The synod decided: a. Those who obtained a certificate without actually sacrificing to the gods would be readmitted to the church immediately. b. Those who actually made a sacrifice would be readmitted on their deathbed or when a new persecution gave them the opportunity to prove their repentance. c. Those who sacrificed but were not repentant could never be readmitted to the church. 2. Novatian Novatian was a Roman bishop who essentially argued that the lapsed should never be allowed to be readmitted under any circumstance. Novatian opposed Cornelius (who became Pope in 251) because of his perceived leniency. He then created a schism within the Church of Rome. Novatian is considered an anti-pope since he essentially established a papacy to rival the man actually elected as Pope (Cornelius). 3. In his The Story of Christianity, Justo Gonzalez argues that it was the answer the church developed to the question of the lapsed that eventually morphed into the entire penitential system of the Roman Catholic Church. D. Diocletian the final great persecution came under Emperor Diocletian. Like Decius, Diocletian didn t seek to martyr Christians; his main tactic was to remove Christians from their government jobs if they refused to sacrifice to the gods. Eventually Christians were not allowed to work at all if they refused to sacrifice. The persecution of Diocletian was severe but short lived. II. The Rise of Constantine the Great A. The empire during the reign of Diocletian was large and unruly. In an attempt to better administrate his empire, he divided the Colossal head of Constantine on display in Rome 2
kingdom into four regions or administrative districts. Each district would have a separate ruler and Diocletian would serve as the chief emperor. 1. Constantius Chlorus (Constantine s father) was appointed as the leader over the western portion of the empire. He died in A.D. 306 and Constantine took his place. 2. In A.D. 305 Diocletian abdicated and the four overseers began fighting one another for supremacy. B. In A.D. 312 Constantine was battling one of his rivals to the throne named Maxentius. 1. The battle took place at Milvian Bridge, north of Rome. 2. The church historian Eusebius records that before the battle Constantine was praying to his father s god when he saw a sign in the heavens and an inscription which read Conquer by this. The sign was the chi rho which are the first two letters in the name of Christ. 3. Constantine won the battle which made him co-emperor along with Licinius. As a result of his victory Constantine convinced Licinius that together they would issue a decree making Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. 4. In A.D. 324 Constantine defeated Licinius and became sole emperor of the Roman Empire. 5. The questions related to the reign of Constantine are numerous and difficult. a. Was he actually a convert to Christianity? There is good evidence to suggest that he was not. He would never submit himself to the authority of the bishops since he believed himself to be the bishop of bishops. He continued to practice many pagan rites and rituals which no other Christian would or could practice. Finally, he held off baptism till the end of his life so he could essentially live as he wanted to throughout his life without the responsibility inherent in baptism. b. Why did he make Christianity the official religion of the empire? He seemed to be enamored by the power of The Baptism of Constantine The Raphael rooms in the Vatican. Christ and wanted to use that power to his advantage; that is what he thought happened at Milvian Bridge. But it was also an effective way of bringing peace to the empire. Christianity was used by Constantine to unite the empire under one head. c. Was making Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire good or bad for Christianity? This is a question scholars have debated for years so it is impossible to answer it definitively. I think the answer is yes and no. Yes, because it gave the church a respite from persecution so it could better organize itself. But more importantly because of Constantine some important doctrinal issues were clarified. No, because it mingled earthly and spiritual powers which brought great hardship upon the church in later centuries. 3
Ultimately however we have to conclude that it was in fact God s will so in that we can rejoice. 6. Because of a summons by Emperor Constantine, 230 bishops from throughout the empire met in Nicea on May 30, 325. They met to discuss and come to a conclusion concerning the deity of Jesus Christ. This question was disturbing the peace in the empire and Constantine was intent on settling the debate once and for all. III. Doctrinal Disputes A. The purpose of the Council was to debate the teachings of a presbyter from Alexandria named Arius. 1. The council wanted to make a definitive statement concerning how Jesus unique status ought to be understood and to clarify what is meant by terms used to describe Christ such as Son of God, Word, and Logos. 2. The council also wanted to clarify what it meant to say that Jesus was one with the Father. B. Throughout the early centuries of the church a number of solutions to these questions had been suggested. 1. Monarchianists (means one source) the Monarchianists wanted desperately to maintain the unity of the godhead. One of the most prominent Monarchianists was named Sabellius. He taught that the one God appeared in Arius different mode throughout history: Father, Son, and Spirit. These three names represented the various guises the one God would take in history. a. Monarchianists of this type became known as Modalists. b. Another type of Monarchianist also emerged; they were called Adoptionists. They taught that the man Jesus was adopted by God and in some way filled with the divine presence. In other words they denied the fullness of his divinity but maintained what was important to them; the unique unity of God. 2. Others were unsatisfied with this approach and wanted to highlight the distinction that exist between Jesus and the Father. The most famous was Origen of Alexandria who taught that Jesus eternally generated from the Father. By this he sought to preserve the unity of the Trinity (a word coined by Tertullian in the second century) while also highlighting the distinctiveness of Jesus the Son. 3. Arius shared Origen s concern for maintaining the distinctiveness of the Father and Son but he was not concerned with maintaining a balance between the Father and Son. Arius taught that Jesus the Son was of a lower status than the Father and wholly subservient to the Father. a. For Arius this subservience was not simply functional or relational; i.e. the Son came to earth to do the Father s will. It was metaphysical, Jesus was subordinate in essence or being. b. For Arius there was a time when Jesus the Son was not. He believed that Jesus was created before time began and was unique in his substance, but at the end of the day Jesus was a created subordinate being. c. Arius referred to this as the logic of monotheism; there could only be one-god and to apply deity to Jesus denied this logic. 4. Thus, the Council of Nicea was called by Emperor Constantine to settle the dispute. 4
IV. The Impact of the Council of Nicea A. Nicea and doctrine the council adopted two main strategies to address the error of Arius 1. Logic of salvation this of course took aim at Arius logic of monotheism. The argument is that if Christ is not fully God he could not pay the penalty for sin and free people from the curse of death. This of course is not an unimportant side doctrine; it is the heart of the gospel. The council understood that its task was to maintain monotheism while also explaining how Jesus was fully God. 2. Logic of Christian practice by the year 325 there were years of Christian practice which identified Jesus as equal to the Father. This was not a philosophical or biblical argument but a practical argument that sought to show that the common sense of the church pointed to the deity of Christ. a. Prayer had always been done in the name of Christ. b. Baptism contained a Trinitarian formula so that individuals were baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. This clearly saw the three persons of the godhead as equal. c. Christian hymns talked of Jesus as the one who saved people from their sin. 3. The conclusions of the Council of Nicea can be summarized as follows: a. Jesus himself is God in the same sense that God the Father is God. They have different tasks and are distinguished relationally, but the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all truly God. Council of Nicea b. Christ is of one substance with the Father. There was substantial debate in the council whether or not to affirm that Jesus was homo-, same substance ousia with the Father or that he was homoi-, similar substance as the Father. In the end the council sought to affirm the teaching of Jesus when he said I and the Father are one. (John. 10:30) c. Christ was begotten, not made Jesus was never formed but was, from eternity, the Son of God. Begotten implies that he was sent out from the Father. d. Jesus became truly human for us (incarnation) for our salvation. 4. The view of Nicea was not immediately embraced throughout the empire, and Arianism persisted for quite some time, but in A.D. 381, at the Council of Constantinople, the teaching of Nicea was affirmed and the Nicene Creed was produced. B. Nicea and politics The Councils of Nicea and Constantinople raised an important question: Given that the emperors called the council and would now in someway support the church, where did the emperors fit in relation to the church? 1. Some within the church (in particular the Arians) wanted and believed the emperors should exercise direct control of the church. They applied their doctrinal beliefs to the relationship between the church and state. Just as the Son is subordinate to the Father, so should the kingdom of the Son (the church) be subordinate to the kingdom of the Father (the empire). 5
2. Others argued that the emperor could be part of the church but he was not over the church. They recognized the God given role of government but did not believe that authority superseded the authority of the church. 3. While the question of Christ s divinity was settled at the council (even though it took some time for the truth to be fully embraced), this question would linger for over a thousand years after Constantine. C. The rise of Christendom the developments at Nicea produced what is now known as Christendom; the intermingling of the church and the state. 1. In his book Turning Points Mark Noll makes an important point about Christendom, he says: With the conversion of Constantine, the reality of the church as a pilgrim community gradually gave way. 2. That leads to an important question: what does the church lose if it ceases to function as a pilgrim community? 6