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Direct Answer Based on David Bercot’s teaching, the West’s ability to stick a false label on the Church of the East shows that “orthodoxy” after Constantine functioned through political and institutional power—not just truth, love, or apostolic faith.

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• Bercot says it is “a bit absurd to even call these people Nestorians,” because “Nestorius was not even a member of their church,” and their history begins “about 400 years before Nestorius.”
• He explains they call themselves the “Church of the East,” but “because so many history books refer to these people as the Nestorians,” the misnomer stuck in the West.
• After Ephesus, the Persian bishops declared they would manage their own affairs “independent of both Constantinople and Rome and Antioch,” but “because they had supported Nestorius on the issue of Mary, the Pope then labeled them as Nestorians.”
• He notes Western Christians then “refus[ed] to even acknowledge them as Christian brethren.”
• He portrays the Western church scene as “extremely political,” with emperors deciding bishops and rival seats jockeying for power.