A Muslim acquaintance of mine came in the store to talk with me the other night. He had just read The Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew by Bart Ehrman. Mr. Ehrman apparently sets forth this picture of a small group of men using the Council of Nicea to just take over Christianity and ban all other groups with an equal claim to being apostolical and burning all the evidence.
He is not alone. The Council of Nicea is credited with basically re-inventing Christianity! It is said that at this Council:
-the day of worship was changed from Saturday to Sunday
-the Canon (books of the Bible) was defined or created, and all other “scripture” was destroyed, and there were 300 versions of the Bible burned
-reincarnation was eliminated from Christianity
-this was the first time the deity of the Son was ever taught or mentioned
-the trinity was invented/created
And all this by just one vote!
None of this is true. But it is amazing what you can get away with when you sound authoritative and nobody knows what you are talking about! So, what really happened in Nicea?
Why does this even matter?
Some will say, This happened so long ago, it has nothing to do with us. Others, This is a stinking Catholic thing and has nothing to do with us. Still others, We are not into creeds and councils, this has nothing to do with us.
If I have quoted everybody correctly, they are all saying this has nothing to do with us. Does this matter to us at all today? Yes, because so many different people are saying so many false things about the Council and using these statements in an attempt to undermine the Gospel. Unbelievers, knowing nothing at all about these things, buy into this: “Christianity was corrupted and subsequently re-invented in the 4th century.” And because the majority of Christians are unaware of what actually happened they don’t know how to deal with this. We need to know and be able to explain what really happened.
We live in a day where old is out and only new counts. And sadly, the church is infected with this. Consequently, so few are well grounded. In God’s kingdom the now is built upon the then. The old keeps us from flying off with every wind of doctrine.
But is this just a Catholic thing, one that non-catholics can ignore? We need to be aware that the Catholic of today is different than the Catholic of then. Yes, these people were defending the Catholic Faith and considered themselves Catholic. But they were not Roman Catholic. They were also known as Orthodox. And yes, today’s Catholic and Eastern Orthodox are their direct descendants! And this Catholic/Orthodox Church defended and preserved the faith handed down to them from the Apostles.
And to those who simply disdain councils and creeds, well, see above!
Why was this Council convened?
They assembled to deal with the Arian heresy which began in the late 3rd century. Arianism taught that God was not always Father, and that the Son did not always exits, that there was a time when the Son was not, and that the Son is not true God. This heresy is still around. They dealt with this in the Creed that issued forth from the Council.
What was accomplished at this Council?
Did they change the Lord’s Day from Saturday to Sunday? No. It was not even a issue.
Did they create the Canon, that is the accepted books of the Bible? No. It was not even an issue (I hope to trace the history of the canon is a future post).
Did they remove reincarnation from the Christian faith? No. And they didn’t excommunicate extra-terrestrials either!
What did they do, then? They refined the existing Creed and issued 20 Canons or rules for behavior dealing with problems in their day. I will present and explore the Creed in my next post but here are the canons. All twenty. I only summarize so you can see the topics they actually discussed.
Canons of the Council of Nicaea
Canon 1 Castration among the clergy
[hard to imagine this as a problem, but it was]
Canon 2 The ordination of the recently converted
Canon 3 Women living with clergy
[there were those who taught that while the clergy could not marry, they could live with a women as
with a sister and thereby overcome the desires of the flesh. Naturally it rarely worked that way and
was thus a problem]
Canon 4 Ordination requirements
Canon 5 Excommunication and appeals; twice-annual councils
Canon 6 Supervisory role of Alexandria Rome Antioch
Canon 7 Status of Jerusalem’s bishop
[6&7 show that Rome
Canon 8 Re-admission of the cathari
Canon 9 Priests who were improperly examined before ordination.
Canon 10 Removal of Clergy who are discovered to have fallen.
Canon 11 Readmission for those who have fallen from the faith.
Canon 12 Readmission for those who returned to the military
Canon 13 Communion for the dying
Canon 14 Lapsed catechumens
Canon 15 Transient clergy
Canon 16 Receiving transient clergy
Canon 17 Usury (among the clergy)
[it would appear that the problem of those in ministry using the
ministry to fleece the flock is not new]
Canon 18 Conduct of deacons
Canon 19 Concerning the followers of Paul of Samosata
[he had earlier been denounced as a heretic]
Canon 20 Standing for prayer (on Easter and Pentecost)
[they considered Easter and Pentecost to be such joyous occasions that one ought not to
kneel in prayer, the customary position for prayer; there was a time when kneeling was
frowned upon for the Lord’s Day as well]
As you can see, nothing sinister; nothing conspiratorial; no re-inventing the wheel so to speak. By the way, there was near unanimity on these Canons! So, the next time you encounter someone who begins to regale you with all the dastardly deeds of the Council of Nicea, just look them in the eye and say, That is simply not true!
Next post – The Nicene Creed: Did they create a new doctrine?
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