The Counil Of Nicea?

Question

Has anyone heard of this and would anyone know to write a paper on it?

Thanks guys!

Answer 1

The Council of Nicea took place in 325 A.D. by the order of the Roman Emperor Caesar Flavius Constantine. Nicea was located in Asia Minor, east of Constantinople. At the Council of Nicea, Emperor Constantine presided over a group of Church bishops and leaders with the purpose of defining the true God for all of Christianity and to eliminate all the confusion, controversy, and contention within Christ’s church. The Council of Nicea affirmed the deity of Jesus Christ and established an official definition of the Trinity - the deity of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit under one Godhead, having three co-equal and co-eternal Persona.



Constantine, a converted Christian (debatably), called for a council meeting to be held in Nicea with the bishops of the Christian church to resolve escalating quarrels and controversy mounting to a bitter degree of disunity amongst the church leadership and congregates concerning theological issues. The failing Roman Empire, now under Constantine’s rule, could not withstand the division caused by years of hard-fought, “out of hand” arguing over doctrinal differences. He saw it not only as a threat to Christianity but as a threat to society as well. Therefore, at the Council of Nicea, Constantine demanded that the Christians settle their internal disagreements and become Christ-like agents who could bring new life into a troubled, beaten-down empire. Constantine felt “called” to use his authority to help bring about the unity, peace, and love, all for which Christ stands. He and the bishops had reason to worry about the future survival of Christianity within the Roman world empire, let alone the survival of his world empire. The Council of Nicea, led by Emperor Constantine, was the meeting to settle differences, to become like-minded, all to the glory of Christ.



The main theological issue and focus had always been about Christ. Since the ending of the Apostolic Age and beginning of the Church Age, saints began questioning, debating, fighting, and separating over, “Who is the Christ?” Is He more “divine than human” or more “human than divine?” Was Jesus created / made or begotten? Being the Son of God, is He co-equal and co-eternal with Father God, or less and lower in status than He? Is the Father the One and only True God, or is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit the One true God? “True God of True God”, “One Being, Three Persons”, a tri-unity called “Trinity”? Jesus said, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15).



Constantine demanded once the Nicea Council meeting was underway that the 300 bishops make a decision by majority vote defining who Jesus Christ is. Constantine commanded them to create a “creed” doctrine that all of Christianity would follow and obey, a doctrine that would be called the “Nicene Creed,” upheld by the Church and enforced by the Emperor. The bishops voted to make the full deity of Christ the accepted position for the church. The Council of Nicea voted to make the Trinity the official doctrine of the church. However, the Council of Nicea did not invent these doctrines. Rather, it only recognized what the Bible taught, and systematized the doctrines.



The New Testament taught that Jesus the Messiah should be worshipped and trusted, which was/is to say He is co-equally God and man. The New Testament forbids the worship of angels (Colossians 2.18; Revelation 22.8,9) but commands worship of Jesus. Apostle Paul says about Jesus that “in Him the fullness of Deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2.9; cf. 1.19). Paul declares Jesus as Lord and the One to whom a person must pray for salvation just as one calls on Jehovah, Yahweh (Joel 2.32; Romans 10.9-13). “Jesus is God overall” (Romans 9.5). Our God and Savior (Titus 2.13). Faith in Jesus’ Deity is basic to Paul’s testimony and theology.



Apostle John’s Gospel declares Jesus being the Divine eternal Logos, agent of creation and source of life and light (John 1. 1-5, 9). That Jesus is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14.6), an advocate with heavenly Father (1 John 2.1-2), that He is sovereign (Revelation 1.5), the Rider on a white horse (Revelation 19.11-16), and the totality of the Son of God from the beginning to the end (Revelation 22.13). The author of Hebrews reveals the full deity of Jesus thru His perfection as the most high priest, Melchizedek (Hebrews 1; Hebrews 7:1-3), and the full humanity (Hebrews chapter 2). The Divine-human Savior is the Christian's object of faith, hope, and love.



The Council of Nicea did not invent the doctrine of the deity of Christ. Rather, the Council of Nicea affirmed the Apostles' teaching of who Christ is as the One true God in Deity and Trinity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Recommended Resource: Christianity Through the Centuries by Earle Cairns.

Answer 2

The Council of Nicea was a gathering of respected church elders by Emperor Constantine right after he made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. The idea was to consolidate church belief into one coherent orthodoxy (up until this point it wasn't even universally accepted that Jesus was the son of God).
Some important strides were made that bound Christianity together, thought wise. But it also established the idea that there was a clear line between what good, true Christians believed and what they didn't. Over the years Councils would meet again and choose the proper holy books and orthodoxies and form the Christin dogma we know today.

Answer 3

Here,

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1081151

Answer 4

there have been 2 Councils of Nicaea. the 1st, in 325, formulated the Nicene Creed, which states the Son is consubstantial with the daddy. Consubstantial potential "of an identical substance." in spite of the fact that Father and Son have been nonetheless seen seperate entities, being made up of an identical substance prevalent that Jesus Christ became divine. on the 1st Council of Constantinople (381), It became desperate that the Holy Spirit became additionally consubstantial with the two the daddy and the Son. This became the beginning of the Holy Trinity, the Bishops of the Church actually voted to decide for that the three entities have been all made up of an identical substance, in this occasion making it a heresy to have confidence, as did many early believers, that the Holy Spirit became created by potential of the Son. the belief of the Trinity did not easily look in Christian theology until eventually St. Augustine wrote "De Trintate" (4 hundred - 416). here, Augustine likened the Holy Spirit to the organic love between Father and Son. Augustine became the 1st to declare that the three entities, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have been one in an identical. it is obvious that Augustine became retroactively coming up a philosophical foundation for pre-present Church doctrine, precisely as he did whilst he invented the theory of the Soul (390) to describe how Christ's promise of eternal existence could be available. Likewise, Augustine additionally retroactively created the theory of unique Sin to justify the paternalistic Church's adverse stance on the subject of the fee of girls human beings interior human civilization. the 2nd Council of Nicaea became held in 787 and dealt regularly with the subject of the sacred pictures which were removed from church homes simply by fact the Iconoclasts seen them craven. the 2nd council of Nicaea established the veneration of sacred pictures by potential of organising that veneration of a picture became not comparable to idolatry, the worship of the easily merchandise itself. individually, i'm an atheist and not a Solipsist. in this occasion, I easily have easily no faith in any of the political maneuverings of the early Church. that is all purely meaningless empty superstition, so some distance as i'm worried.

Answer 5

I've heard of it and every Sunday at Mass I recite the creed from whence it came. I could write a paper on it but shouldn't you do your own homework?

Answer 6

yeah i have heard of the councils,writing a paper wouldn't be to difficult. here are some places you can find some resources

www.catholiceducation.org
www.newadvent.org
www.ewtn.com

http://search.peoplepc.com/search?area=earthlink-peoplepc-wssynd&cgid=176&memberID=9605779&segmentID=-1,2,-3,-4&category=dialerhome&channel=&logosrc=http://home.peoplepc.com/i/common/ppco_blue.gif&q=council+of+nicea

the link opens up the google search where you can find other resources aswell. hope this helps and god bless.

Answer 7

There are a lot of books on that history. You aren['t going to know enough about it until you read one of those books. I haven't read any books on it mnyself, so I only know what I've learned from documentaries and the few teachings on it here and there.

Answer 8

This was the group brought together to write the bible. You should be able to find plenty on the internet. Wikipedia has a fairly reliable article.

Answer 9

It was the council that ratified the Bible in the form we know it today. There's heaps of info about it at the following site:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea

Note, there was a second council, info also available:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Council_of_Nicaea

Answer 10

This is when Constantine and his cronies decided which books were "suitable" for the Bible and which weren't. So they as humans, decided which were Divine and which weren't. They picked books that suited their purpose and greed and patriarchal viewpoints and many relevant books were left out.

You can write a paper on it based on doing research for yourself. There is much more too it than the little blurb I gave. Good luck with your paper!