Throughout church History, there were heretics who rose up here and there, teaching dangerous doctrines to the people. God always provided someone who would stand up for the truth. In this event, the Council of Nicea, Arius, a presbyter and a heretic who believed that Jesus was not God in the flesh, began teaching his poisonous doctrine to the people. I believe he even had songs to sing which depicted his doctrine.
The defender who God raised up was none other than Athanasius. Athanasius was a contender for the faith during this time period. Alexander was the bishop of Alexandria, and Athanasius was his secretary. They walked into the court room together, while Athanasius was responsible for handling the notes. Athanasius and Alexander conferred together during the session.
Not much is known about Athanasius. He may have come from a well to do family. He was the main one who defended the faith against Arianism during this time. It is important to note that Constantine won a battle a year prior to this event, and was the emperor now. He had been made aware of the conflict between Arius and Alexander. Constantine tried to reconcile Arius and Alexander, and had hoped to bring about a world-wide council that would bring peace in the church*1.
There were 312 gathered together this day, to decide if Arius was correct, or, if Alexander of Alexandria was the one who had the truth concerning the deity of Christ. Arius believed that Jesus Christ was a created being, and was not always in existence. Alexander was horrified at this belief, along with many others who held his view. Alexander believed that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh. Alexander contended that if Jesus Christ were not God in the flesh, mankind could not be saved from their sins. During the process of this heated debate which had been going on for some time now, Alexander deposed Arius, and Arius did not leave on a friendly note *2. He collected followers who would support him in his heretical beliefs.
After Arius was deposed and he build his own group of supporters, they began to riot. The unity of the empire was now being threatened and Constantine decided to call together a council as a result of the rioting and fighting.
One of the attendees in the conference was a man named Nicholas, who was a bishop of Myra. He sided with Alexander and Athanasius concerning the deity of Christ, and it has been said that Nicholas of Myra became angry with Arius during this heated session and slapped him on the face! It is interesting to note that Nicholas of Myra is the man who was the original 'Santa Claus'. At least we know that Santa Claus believed in the deity of Christ, even if he reacted out of his anger toward Arius!
As the Council continued, the debate went on concerning the deity of Christ and as a result, a creed was drawn up, which is known to us today as 'The Nicene Creed'.
This event was not the last controversial event for the church, for throughout the following years, opponents to the Gospel rose up, and those who defended the faith also rose up to oppose them. Other councils came about throughout History, which defended other serious doctrines of the faith. As long as we are on this planet, there will always be someone who will oppose the Gospel message, and, at the same time, there will be someone who will stand up for and contend for the faith.
Some common myths that are popular today:
1. Constantine wrote the Bible
2. The Gospels were not written until the 4th Century
3. There are other 'gospels' that were not included in the Bible that should have been, such as the Gospel of Thomas.
4 There have been discrepancies found in the New Testament when new fragments have been found in comparing these with the old.
Constantine did not write the Bible. During the years following the ascension of Christ (when Jesus went back up into the heavens in bodily form), the church was begun. The original Apostles and many disciples wrote letters to others and to local churches. There was enough information in these letters to put together the whole New Testament. These letters were written not too long after the church was begun and some of them were actually used to make up part of the New Testament. Some of the church fathers, such as Ignatius and Polycarp either knew Jesus or His family personally, or knew one or more of the original disciples, and they also wrote personal letters and journals that have been preserved (but are not included in the Bible). Polycarp was a disciple of John the Apostle, and Polycarp, in turn, discipled Iranaeus. Ignatius was a friend of Jesus' family and wrote letters to people which inferred his relationship to them. Despite the myths that came about from movies like, 'The DaVinci Code', the truth still stands.
Fragments of the New Testament letters/Gospels have been found and preserved. Some are very old and as they are found, they are brought together and compared to other matching documents which have been found. Some of the Bible had been preserved by the monks down through the centuries. It is amazing to note that the fragments which have been found are very similar to what we have today as the New Testament. Minor differences involved are things like how words are arranged differently, and some spelling differences. But the meanings of the passages are basically the same. (Note: I am aware of John 8 and Mark 16 as not being found in the originals, or at least in the places in the Bible where we find them today. It is beyond the scope of this blog to write about this at this moment, but, suffice it to say that there are a lot of possibilities for this occurrence. Do not let this kind of thing cause doubt about the authenticity of the Scriptures. Skeptics will jump at this without researching the subject and will throw it out to destroy the faith of the faithful. Perhaps in another blog I can cover this more adequately at another time.)
1. http://www.churchhistory101.com/century4-p7.php
2. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/301-600/god-or-man-asks-nicea-council-11629650.html
The Nicene Creed
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