Jumpstarter 4 of 10

Direct Answer Bercot implies modern Christians feel pressure to qualify those verses because we inherited post-Nicene expectations—especially Augustine-influenced Western theology—that treats hierarchy of order in the Trinity as suspect or heretical. Spiritually, avoiding the plain sense may train us to “explain away” Scripture to fit later systems, rather than receiving biblical language without embarrassment.

Support from Transcript:

• He says before Nicaea Christians accepted those verses “on face value,” quoted them “frequently,” and saw “no theological problems.”
• After Nicaea, writers didn’t quote them “without a discussion of ‘why they don’t mean what they seem to say.’”
• He reads Irenaeus: the Father alone knows the day/hour, and “The Father is greater than I,” concluding the Father “excel[s] with respect to knowledge.”
• He states that after Nicaea “no Orthodox Christian would make those kind of statements…for fear of being called a heretic.”
• He connects this to Augustine: Western writers “obliterate any distinction in order,” making the early Christians sound heretical to later ears.