Chapter 14: The Remaining Barriers Crumble. As has been mentioned, the Church of the early 4th century was beset by strife and doctrinal divisions. The most heated dispute of all concerned the origin and nature of the Son of God. The controversy began over a hypothetical question that Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, asked his body of elders. Arius, one of the elders or presbyters, expressed some unorthodox views on the question, and soon Alexander and Arius became engaged in a heated argument.
Their dispute quickly spilled over into the entire congregation and eventually into many other congregations. Constantine soon became worried that this division in the Church would cause God to withdraw His blessings from the Roman Empire. When the old methods of the Church failed to quiet this controversy, Constantine suggested a new approach: a church-wide council attended by representatives of every congregation in the empire.
Although there had been meetings of church leaders in the past, such councils had always been on a smaller, localized scale. To have a church-wide council was something marvelously new. The entire Church buzzed with excitement. The various Church representatives traveled at state expense to Nicaea, the site for the meeting, which is in modern-day Turkey. The state also housed fed and entertained the representatives once they arrived in Nicaea.
Constantine himself chaired the two-month-long conference and actively participated in the discussions. He soon impressed the Church leaders with his leadership abilities. Constantine persuaded the group to draw up a church-wide creed that specifically addressed the divine nature of the Son. Now, this was something quite new, for in the past, each congregation used its own individual creed. And Constantine himself proposed the wording of the new church-wide creed.
To exclude the viewpoints of Arius, Constantine argued that the Greek term homoousios should be used to describe the relationship of Jesus and His Father. Now, this term is usually translated into English by the phrase being of the same substance. As it was used at the Nicene Council, homoousios was completely consistent with the beliefs of the early Christians. In fact, several pre-Nicene Christian writers had used that term to describe the deity of the Son.
However, the term doesn't appear anywhere in Scripture, and it had never been included in any of the early congregational creeds. Nevertheless, as a result of Constantine's persuasive skills, all but five of the Church representatives at Nicaea eventually signed the newly established creed. Constantine then banished into exile the five who wouldn't sign, one of whom was Arius.
Constantine also decreed, quote, "If any treatise composed by Arius should be discovered, let it be consigned to the flames, in order that not only his depraved doctrine may be suppressed, but also that no memorial of him may by any means be left. Therefore, I decree that if anyone shall be detected in concealing a book written by Arius and does not instantly bring it forward and burn it, the penalty for this offense shall be death." End quote.
Constantine also directed the Council of Nicaea to take other steps to prevent future Church controversies and schisms. He felt that the Church would be stronger if it were organized more along the lines of the Roman government. Therefore, each bishop was given a diocese, which was an administrative unit of Roman government, to rule. The Council also established laws that specifically gave certain bishops, called metropolitans, authority over other churches.
For example, the Bishop of Alexandria was given jurisdiction over all of the congregations in Egypt and Libya. The Council further decreed that no new bishops could be installed without the permission of the metropolitan. The metropolitans were generally the bishops of the principal cities of the Roman Empire, like Alexandria and Antioch. Soon, these metropolitans were hailed as having continuing authority from God, similar to that of the apostles. Submission to them was mandatory.
But the Nicene Council didn't even end there. More laws were decreed in an effort to establish uniformity throughout the Church. For example, the Council decreed that all Christians must stand when praying on Sunday or during the 50 days between Easter and Pentecost. In short, the canons of Nicaea destroyed the independence of the individual congregation. Theological changes or any other innovations would no longer need to slowly spread from individual congregation to individual congregation.
Now, a church-wide council could accomplish in a few days what would have previously taken centuries. Finally, Constantine proclaimed that the new Nicene creed was inspired by God. He said, quote, "That which has commended itself to the judgment of 300 bishops cannot be other than the doctrine of God, seeing that the Holy Spirit dwelling in the minds of so many dignified persons has effectively enlightened them respecting the divine will." End quote.
So even the conviction that there was no new special revelation after the apostles had now been destroyed. Our next heading, the aftermath of Nicaea. From a human standpoint, it appeared that Constantine had accomplished something absolutely wondrous. The Church would never again be torn apart by controversies and divisive practices. The Nicene representatives rejoiced over their marvelous accomplishments, but the rejoicing was short-lived. 300 years of ultra-conservatism couldn't be undone so quickly.
When the bishops returned to their congregations and as the congregations began to reflect more soberly over the decrees of Nicaea, a conservative backlash soon developed. For example, because of this opposition, Eusebius found it necessary to present a lengthy explanation to his own congregation to justify his signing these documents. Conservatives still equated change with error, and they were disturbed that the Nicene creed used terminology that wasn't in Scripture.
They also were bothered by the fact that the local creeds that had been used for hundreds of years were being abrogated. Finally, when various heretics began to hide behind the Nicene creed to propagate their unorthodox beliefs, conservatives began insisting that the creed be clarified or be enlarged to explain more precisely what Christians had always believed. And perhaps this reactionary movement would have succeeded in turning back the floodwaters of change that were threatening to engulf the Church.
If it hadn't been for the persistence and skill of one man, Athanasius. He had been a deacon in the Church of Alexandria at the time of the controversy with Arius, and he had attended the Council, although he took no prominent role in it. The Nicene creed was intended only to preserve what the early Church had always taught about the person of Jesus, and Athanasius's original intent apparently was to uphold early Christian orthodox theology.
However, with the passage of time, upholding the creed became more important to Athanasius than upholding early Christian orthodoxy. He became obsessed with the notion that the creed must not be altered in any way, no matter how orthodox any such alterations might be. He maintained that the creed was inspired by God, and so he put it on the same level as Scripture.
Although he started out as the champion of orthodoxy, in the end, he contradicted many of the early Christian teachings on various matters, and he ultimately took most of the Church with him. Our next heading, creeds and more creeds. Nicaea didn't bring about the Church unity Constantine had hoped for. Actually, there was more division and fighting after Nicaea than there had been before.
The two centuries following the conversion of Constantine were marked by endless theological disputes, bickering, and major schisms in the Church. Christians took up the sword and began viciously slaughtering one another over doctrinal differences. As the fabric of Christianity began to fade and tear, the emphasis continued to shift from the Christian life to Christian doctrine.
From these disputes, emerged spiritual leaders who rose to great prominence in the Church and who ultimately became the real fathers of Christian theology. There were more councils and more creeds. The arguments shifted from Jesus to the Holy Spirit, back to Jesus again. As the years passed, more and more people claimed that they had new revelation from God.
Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the leaders in the debates over the Holy Spirit, declared, quote, "The Old Testament proclaimed the Father openly and the Son more obscurely. The New Testament manifested the Son and suggested the deity of the Spirit. But now the Spirit himself dwells among us and supplies us with a clearer demonstration of himself.
For it was not safe when the godhood of the Father was not yet acknowledged to openly proclaim the Son, nor when the godhood of the Son was not yet received to burden us further, if I may use so bold an expression, with the Holy Spirit." End quote. The simple, rather flexible theology of the early Church soon gave way to rigid dogmatic creeds. These creeds ultimately replaced the Scriptures as the primary authority for the Church's teachings.
With each ecumenical council, more non-scriptural language was added to Church dogma. In most cases, the intent of the creeds was supposedly to restate what the Church had always taught. In the end, however, the creeds contributed to the adulteration of apostolic Christian doctrine. A prime example of this adulteration is the decree of the Council of Ephesus, which was in AD 431. The Council pronounced accursed all those who would not confess Mary to be the Mother of God. The Greek term was theotokos.
Although the proponents of that theological title maintained that the term was not intended to deify Mary, their decree essentially did deify Mary in the eyes of the common people. As a result, in some parts of the world today, more people pray to Mary than they do to the Father. Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzus, and the other leaders of their age had laid the groundwork for the Council of Ephesus. They also laid the foundation for the man who would radically alter the doctrine originally taught by the Church.
This man who wrote during the final quarter of the fourth century eventually became the most influential Christian teacher of all time, more influential than the apostles themselves.