What REALLY Happened at Nicaea

This is a common, but complete fabrication of history.

#RedPenLogic #Apologetics #Christianity #History #Bible

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[WhereWhatHuh]

A couple of other points:

1.) Who were these guys? They were the chief leaders of the various churches, each representing groups of churches who had sent them to voice their views. So it was the entire church who made the decisions, on the one hand, through extremely knowledgeable leaders whom they had chosen.

2.) When the canon did become set, as the 27 books we now have in the NT, it was done on 3 criteria:
... A. The test of Time -- was this a book written in the first century? Was it old enough to be authentic?
... B. Association with an apostle -- was the book written either by an apostle (John, Peter, Paul, James, Matthew, Jude) or by someone close to an apostle (John Mark, Luke, possibly Barnabus)?
... C. Was it well rec'd in the churches? Did the church as a whole agree that this book was an inspired writing, and not merely inspirational?

So contrary to popular belief, a bunch of people did not get up one days and simply say, "I like these books; let's chuck the rest." The church leaders, in careful consideration, chose the 27 books of the NT based on objective criteria.

[hap]

As an Eastern Catholic who has read the councils when I hear this I honestly facepalm. If people would literally pick up the writing they would see they are just plain wrong. Lord have mercy on them.

[YophiSmith]

Going to Joe Rogan to find out about Bible history is like going to communists to learn American history.

[myth-o-logic]

It's good to question your faith, but sincere questions seek answers. She asked rhetorically and cynically.

[gorillaz_jbi]

The Council of Nicea took place in AD 325 by order of the Roman Emperor Caesar Flavius Constantine. Nicea was located in Asia Minor, east of Constantinople. At the Council of Nicea, Emperor Constantine presided over a group of church bishops and other leaders with the purpose of defining the nature of God for all of Christianity and eliminating confusion, controversy, and contention within the church. The Council of Nicea overwhelmingly affirmed the deity and eternality of Jesus Christ and defined the relationship between the Father and the Son as “of one substance.” It also affirmed the Trinity—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were listed as three co-equal and co-eternal Persons.

Constantine, who claimed conversion to Christianity, called for a meeting of bishops to be held in Nicea to resolve some escalating controversies among the church leadership. The issues being debated included the nature of Jesus Christ, the proper date to celebrate Easter, and other matters. The failing Roman Empire, now under Constantine’s rule, could not withstand the division caused by years of hard-fought, “out of hand” arguing over doctrinal differences. The emperor saw the quarrels within the church not only as a threat to Christianity but as a threat to society as well. Therefore, at the Council of Nicea, Constantine encouraged the church leaders to settle their internal disagreements and become Christlike agents who could bring new life to a troubled empire. Constantine felt “called” to use his authority to help bring about unity, peace, and love within the church.

The main theological issue had always been about Christ. Since the end of the apostolic age, Christians had begun debating these questions: Who is the Christ? Is He more divine than human or more human than divine? Was Jesus created or begotten? Being the Son of God, is He co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, or is He lower in status than the Father? Is the Father the one true God, or are the Father, Son, and Spirit the one true God?

A priest named Arius presented his argument that Jesus Christ was not an eternal being, that He was created at a certain point in time by the Father. Bishops such as Alexander and the deacon Athanasius argued the opposite position: that Jesus Christ is eternal, just like the Father is. It was an argument pitting trinitarianism against monarchianism.

Constantine prodded the 300 bishops in the council to make a decision by majority vote defining who Jesus Christ is. The statement of doctrine they produced was one that all of Christianity would follow and obey, called the “Nicene Creed.” This creed was upheld by the church and enforced by the Emperor. The bishops at Nicea voted to make the full deity of Christ the accepted position of the church. The Council of Nicea upheld the doctrine of Christ’s true divinity, rejecting Arius’s heresy. The council did not invent this doctrine. Rather, it only recognized what the Bible already taught.

The New Testament teaches that Jesus the Messiah should be worshiped, which is to say He is co-equal with God. The New Testament forbids the worship of angels (Colossians 2:18; Revelation 22:8, 9) but commands worship of Jesus. The apostle Paul tells us that “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9; 1:19). Paul declares Jesus as Lord and the One to whom a person must pray for salvation (Romans 10:9-13; cf. Joel 2:32). “Jesus is God over all” (Romans 9:5) and our God and Savior (Titus 2:13). Faith in Jesus’ deity is basic to Paul’s theology.

John’s Gospel declares Jesus to be the divine, eternal Logos, the agent of creation and source of life and light (John 1:1-5, 9); "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6); our advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1-2); the Sovereign (Revelation 1:5); and the Son of God from the beginning to the end (Revelation 22:13). The author of Hebrews reveals the deity of Jesus through His perfection as the most high priest (Hebrews 1; Hebrews 7:1-3). The divine-human Savior is the Christian’s object of faith, hope, and love.

The Council of Nicea did not invent the doctrine of the deity of Christ. Rather, the Council of Nicea affirmed the apostles’ teaching of who Christ is—the one true God and the Second Person of the Trinity, with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

[jabeavers]

Yes! "If you're not familiar with it, go look it up."

Excellent advice that she should have

[weshallneversurrender]

One thing I really like about your approach to apologetics is that it's clear that there is gentleness in your heart towards the other person, even though some of the things they say are truly disappointing. May the Lord bless you with more of those fruits of the Spirit in your life sir!

[CaryHawkins]

EZ one there. It's crazy how people will leave the faith because of stuff like this. Please take time to make sure the thing that is causing you doubts is legit. Doubting is not a problem btw, but poor reasoning is.

[rosstemple]

I find people “question their faith” because they want to make an excuse for their sinful lifestyle. Period.
Another one is, “How do you know we have the right translation?”
Christianity went through a lot of battles on the text. But it’s all documented and the Truth in God’s word was what prevailed.

[kbuilder]

This was a point of contention in my Survey of the New Testament class. We even had one woman who claimed that the books of the New Testament had been chosen by a group of sexist old men. People seem pretty quick to make claims based on their own subjective opinions rather than taking the time to actually study the issue. Seems to me that the lady in that Tik-Tok video is also too quick to make a claim rather than actually research the facts.

[codygillard]

I swear these people blame everything on Nicea. It's like the boogeyman

[stockportevangelicalchurch]

"Basically, a bunch o' dudes got together..." She makes them sound like a random act, by some random guys! When people talk in this vague, off -hand fashion, all sorts of red flags ought to go up. It takes about 20 seconds to disprove her statement. Nicea was not about choosing which books made it into the canon!!

[NovusIgnis]

For all of my philosophical differences with Bart Ehrman, you really have to give the guy props on his scholarly pursuits. He isn't a Christian, but the man stands for representing the true viewpoints instead of a strawman version.

[kentwyngaard]

I am currently doing my Bachelor of Theology and one of my subjects is Early Church History. The Council Nicaea indeed had nothing to do with the canon of Scripture. Instead, this council was called together by emperor Constantine for a few reasons. Two of those reasons was to resolve two heresies known as Arianism and Marcionism, as well as put in place procedures and qualifications for choosing bishops and church leaders, even though at the time the church was not yet legal. These two heresies were causing divisions among Christians in a big way. The reason why a Roman emperor was the one who called the Council together is because he saw Christianity as a way to restore Rome to its former glory. At this time, Rome was becoming less and less pagan. But also because he saw Christian as a way to win favor with Christians as well as God. The Council that put together the canon of Scripture was the Council of Constantinople in 381AD

[dennissprague]

I’m always amazed at people that speak authoritatively about things they clearly haven’t studied or researched or perhaps they are lying. Either way they come off as fools.

[tpoy]

“Way after Jesus…” I’m assuming this woman doesn’t have a Catholic background because if she did she would at least be aware of the idea and history of apostolic succession. The bishops could trace their ordination from the Apostles, and well in advance of 325 A.D. they were gathering in local synodical structures to make canons (laws) on decisions regulating the life and faith of the Church. So the Council of Nicaea was unique in some ways, but not essentially different than the way the Church had been governing itself for centuries prior and even from the beginning. I think she is imagining that Christianity for the first three centuries was essentially a idiosyncratic house church phenomenon with no overriding superstructure and that at some point in collusion with the imperial government some small group managed to arrogate authority to itself out of the blue. I suspect this is more reflective of her experience growing up in some modern sect of Christianity than any serious knowledge of Church history. 0:20

[philiptaram]

Thank you so much for sharing this with us, I feel like you're my apologetics mentor ❤️

[theeeveemasterplayz]

Thank you 🙏 I’ve had heard that over and over again and I was wondering where they got that from

[justanotherbaptistjew]

00:07
“Go look it up.” Ok, if you look it up you find out that the story was completely made up, and Nicaea was gathered to condemn Arianism.

[nancywhitehead]

When people leave the faith because of questionable information, their faith may have not been strong to begin with.