Understanding Nicene Christianity looks at the explanation via the major Christological perspectives that had been discussed in the Ecumenical Councils of the 4th century with First Council of the Nicaea (325 A.C.E) the First Council of Constantinople (381 A.C.E.) and the 5th century Council of Chalcedon (451 A.C.E). The underpinning of the framework that emerged from these councils was the formulation of public religious worship. The inherent characteristics have included ritual, ceremony, service, celebration, observance, and sacrament that have been known as the liturgy. The following discusses the controversy over the deity of Jesus that took place among those attending both 4th century councils.
One of those at the Nicene Council was Arius led the controversy over the deity of Jesus holding that Jesus as the Son did not have the same eternal aspects as God the Father. The argument held by Arius and his followers had held that as outlined in the New Testament such verses where Jesus had repeatedly referred to his Father as “greater than I (John 14:28)”. Another verse in the Old Testament speaking of the coming of the Messiah with, “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work (Proverbs 8:22)”. The entire argument that held the divinity of Jesus was centered on scripture of the New Testament and what Jesus had said about his relationship to God as “God his Father, making himself equal to God (John 5:18)”. Another verse that Christians identifying the divinity of Jesus, is where he answers, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM … (John 8:58)”.
At the same time, numbers of those in attendance were uncomfortable with these two extreme views. These same council members had wanted to assign the difference between the Father and Son but keeping from making Jesus a creature.
The outcome of these arguments under the firm direction of Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine, had found the council eventually coming to an agreement that Jesus is God. This had been published stating the Christian faith that had led to the thorough condemnation of Arianism. The Chalcedonian Creed refined the relationship of Jesus the Son, Jesus the Christ, and the implications of the nature of his deity.
One expert has offered:
The traditional understanding of the incarnation, however, at least as it is expressed in the Chalcedonian Creed, is the union of divinity with the specific humanity of Christ… (and) calls this formulation the “strict-sense view” of the incarnation and contrasts it with a ‘full-scope view’. The latter view accepts the classical account of … (the) two natures (of Christ) but enlarges upon it so that… (the risen body of Christ) is seen to encompass not only the church but also the rest of humanity and all life forms on earth… that God is embodied in the whole world but rather that God, through the incarnate Christ, is present ‘for’ and ‘with’ all creatures and, in that limited sense, is ‘in all that is’.
Personally, the Christology of the understanding who is Christ via contemporary Christian nonsectarian fellowship subjectively holds that Jesus Christ is everything vis the innate connection to the power of God the Father. Jesus’ purpose was to be born, spread the message of God’s Kingdom on Earth of the love and brotherhood and the promise of eternal salvation through belief in the sacrificial lamb of God (Jesus His Son) as the means for atonement of the sin humans are born into in the temporal world. This contemporary Christology holds very little to the liturgy of the orthodoxy of the Nicene creed. This is evidenced by the lack of formality, ritual, and pageantry that has accompanied many of the reformation churches such as the Lutherans, Methodists, and Episcopalians as examples.
Departing from the Nicene orthodoxy of the message of Salvation has meant that the kind of personal fellowship concerning salvation has taken on personal responsibility to build a personal relationship with Jesus. This no longer is about having a priest intercede by confessing sins and being given different rituals for atoning confessed sins. There is now a personal understanding that when a relationship with Jesus takes place there is already forgiveness. The task is to connect to the presence of Jesus within and knowing forgiveness is at hand means forgiving self. The message of love that Jesus taught in spreading the word of God and His Kingdom on Earth is about forgiveness of and unconditional love for self as Jesus has taught us. From empirical observation over the years of first attending a Methodist church, then the entire years of my childhood into young adulthood being a member of a Southern Baptist Church there was a strong lesson in learning that religion is not the way to salvation. And clearly, that was the foundation of the liturgy of the Nicene Creed. Religious piety, ritual, and constant suppression of the self as outlined by the creed and was fundamental to salvation.
Contemporary Christian thinking that has broken from religious dogma is a sign of these times and hold no purpose in adhering to the Nicene Creed. Historically it is a given that Constantine’s Christian platform was framed around a political agenda. A Christian nation he now ruled had to have consistency meaning an organized doctrine for everyone to follow so he would not have to deal with upheavals based on fanaticism and other issues that had befallen those who now called themselves Christians. The Nicene Creed had accomplished that. Since the U.S. has no national religion that is not an issue. People are less inclined in their spiritual awakenings to need to follow ritual and take the more personal view of salvation as a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
- Curran, Ian. “Christ in All That Is.” The Christian Century, August 17, 2016, 32+. http://www.questia.com/read/1G1-461695389/christ-in-all-that-is. 2016.
- Christianity. “What Scriptures did Arius use to support teaching that Jesus was created? https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/36586/what-scriptures-did-arius-use-to-support-teaching-that-jesus-was-created 2017.
- Catholic.com. “I Am” is Jesus referencing Exodus 3:14 as an invocation applying the personal name of God to himself. https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-divinity-of-christ 2017.
- Galvão-Sobrinho, Carlos R. Doctrine and Power: Theological Controversy and Christian Leadership in the Later Roman Empire. The Joan Palevsky Imprint in Classical Literature | Transformation of the Classical Heritage. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2013. http://www.questia.com/read/125741538/doctrine-and-power-theological-controversy-and-christian. 2013.
