The First Council of Nicaea in AD 325

Conclusion

Only two things are necessary to stop being a parrot.

• The ability to read
• A desire to know the Truth

Most people have the first, but not everyone possesses the second. As a popular TV show stated, “The Truth Is Out There”.

You only need to be willing to do the work to uncover it. There are so many voices out there, vying for attention, you must have the inner drive to filter out all the noise and nonsense to uncover it.

However, to be fair, we are all parrots to a certain extent. When we were in school, our teachers taught us things that we accepted just because they said it. Not because we knew they had searched the matter out, but because it was something that everybody accepted as true. Our teachers were parroting what was parroted to them.

For instance, we are taught that the average distance of the moon from the earth, is 238,855 miles. Now we accept that because we do not have any easy way to verify this as true. We accept that some scientist down the line, figured it out. But there are many things we accept just because of who told us, a teacher, a preacher, and so on.

There are two proverbs that I think are very helpful if we heed their instruction.

Prov. 12:17 Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence, but a false witness utters deceit.
Prov. 23:23 Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding.

The one who speaks Truth, will give the evidence to back it up. To “buy truth” means to pay whatever price you must to gain it. Once it is received, do not relinquish it for any one or for any reason.

Did the Council of Nicaea accept and reject certain books of the Bible?

The issue of what books of the Bible should be included into the Canon of Scripture, WAS NEVER INTRODUCED. The first ancient mention of the books accepted as divinely inspired and to be received as composing the Canon of Scripture, is found in the writing of Athanasius known as his “39th Festal Letter”, written in AD 367, some 42 years after the Council of Nicaea. The list of books he names are exactly the same as the books we have today.

The next historical record we have of a list of books accepted as inspired and acknowledged to be in the Canon of Scripture, was at the Council of Hippo, in AD 393. Later in AD 397, at the Council of Carthage, this list was confirmed in Canon 36.

So as early as AD 367, we see the books that were accepted as inspired of God and profitable for use to the Glory of God and the salvation of man. These books were not voted on by a council of men, but were recognized as already being used and quoted in the Church at large.

This is similar in the case of the deity of Christ, which we will now summarize.

The Deity of Christ Was Not Invented At The Nicene Council, But Was Fully Recognized.

The charge that the deity of Jesus was invented at this council, has been shown to be a lie. The council did not invent His deity, but simply recognized its truth. Even the heretic Arius recognized Jesus as god, although wrongly stating that He was a created god, less than the Father Almighty.

At this council, the deity of Jesus Christ was never in doubt. The only question before the council, was what was the relationship of the Son to the Father. Was Jesus a created god at the pleasure of the Father, or was He of the same substance as the Father? The council of 300+ bishops overwhelming agreed that the Son was of the same substance as the Father. This is established in what became known as the Nicene Creed, which states,

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 from the Father, only-begotten, that is, from the substance of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, through Whom all things came into being, things in heaven and things on earth,

Athanasius, in his discussion of the Arian heresy, gives this example of how the Son is of the same substance as the Father. After quoting the Nicene Creed, he writes,

Neither can we imagine three Subsistences separated from each other, as results from their bodily nature in the case of men, lest we hold a plurality of gods like the heathen. But just as a river, produced from a well, is not separate, and yet there are in fact two visible objects and two names. For neither is the Father the Son, nor the Son the Father. For the Father is Father of the Son, and the Son, Son of the Father. For like as the well is not a river, nor the river a well, but both are one and the same water which is conveyed in a channel from the well to the river, so the Father's deity passes into the Son without flow and without division. For the Lord says, 'I came out from the Father and have come’ (John 16:28). But He is ever with the Father, for He is in the bosom of the Father, nor was ever the bosom of the Father void of the deity of the Son.[John 1:18]

It should be clear, from what is presented here, that the Council of Nicaea did not decide on what books should be admitted to the Canon of Scripture, neither did it invent the deity of Jesus Christ. The council never discussed which books should be accepted. It never came up. They confirmed what was already believed upon concerning Christ’s deity.