Setting the Record Straight (Part 2)

NOTE: We have moved to our new home, http://bibleexpose.org/.

To put things in perspective, we must keep in mind that major church councils such as that of the historic First Council of Nicea (A.D. 325) only defined and defended His deity, His humanity and how the two natures relate to one another. To set the records straight, the Councils did not actually come up with those doctrines but only sought to clarify its definitions. To say that the Council “gave rise to [those] teachings”[1] about Christ is simply not factual. 

But how precisely should [the bishops at the Council of Nicea] articulate what they did believe about the deity of Christ? Therein lay the real issue at Nicea: determining how—not if—Jesus was divine.[2]

They merely formulated the faith. To formulate simply means, “to put into a systematized statement or expression.”[3]

For example, the books of the Bible by themselves are already God-breathed with or without the pronouncements of church councils such as the Council of Carthage (A.D. 397). No amount of council declaration would convert a piece of parchment into divine scripture. When they made the list of the canon, on which book was in or which was out, the councils did not make them the Word of God. They just acknowledged its “self-authenticating quality.”[4]

Our acceptance of the canon of the New Testament does not depend upon the decision of the church or a council of bishops; it does not depend upon the judgment of men. Scripture is its own witness and the early church leaders generally recognized this.[5]

That’s the same thing that they did at the Council of Nicea. They did not devise the deity of Christ. They only described who He really is. 

(To read part 3, click: Setting the Record Straight Part 3)

© 2012 Bible Exposé Apologetics Ministry. To know more about us, click here.

NOTE: We have moved to our new home, http://bibleexpose.org/.

________________________________

[1] Ruben D. Aromin, “Just when was Christ made God?” Pasugo: God’s Message, July 1994, 14.

[2] J. Ed Komoszewski, M. James Sawyer and Daniel B. Wallace, Reinventing Jesus: How Contemporary Skeptics Miss the Real Jesus and Mislead Popular Culture (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2006), 212. Emphasis theirs.

[3] Formulate. 2012. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved August 25, 2012, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/formulate.

[4] Bruce L. Shelley, Church History in Plain Language 2nd Edition (TN: Nelson, 1982; reprint, 1995), 61.

[5] Brian H. Edward, Nothing But the Truth (Great Britain: Evangelical Press, 1993), 172.