Bible Studies

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One tradition says St. Luke died at the age of eighty-four in the region of Bithynia, which is the ancient province of Anatolia – a broad peninsula that lies between the Black and Mediterranean seas. Bithynia’s small walled town of Nicaea – known today as Isnik in northwestern Turkey – is in a verdant basin at the east end of a large pale turquoise expanse known as Lake Ascania.

In the early fourth century, some three hundred Christian bishops came to Nicaea at the direction of Emperor Constantine for the first time as an ecumenical council. Many of the bishops had walked in suffering for their faith, but now they rode in comfort to Nicaea with numerous priests and deacons – all traveling at the emperor’s expense. Among the notable bishops was Eusebius of Caesarea, later to be known as the father of church history.

One can only imagine delegates coming to Nicaea for the first time, looking over a valley bounded by graceful mountains and shrouded by dense clouds. The bishops probably continued along the northern shore, passing cultivated olive groves, and then fields with carnations and tulips, hyacinth and quince flowers. They arrived at the main gate of the town, and then passed underneath an arch formed by huge stone blocks and decorated with carvings of fighting men on horseback. No doubt the figures made them think of the soldiers who colonized Nicaea.

Constantine had called the bishops all together in Nicaea to unify the church in the face of growing theological disputes, primarily over the nature and divinity of Jesus Christ. The emperor told the delegates assembled in the Senatus Palace to resolve their differences and then stepped aside for Archbishop Alexandria to preside over the synod. Many bishops argued that God the Father created Christ the Son before the beginning of time, whereas, others asserted that Christ has the same divine essence as God.

A creed reflecting both views was written and signed by most of the bishops in the summer of AD 325 in Nicaea. But disagreements over the meaning of Scriptures on the deity of Christ continued for more than fifty years, until a second council of bishops met in Constantinople and adopted an expanded form of the earlier creed, which is known today as the Nicene Creed.

The Nicene Creed embraced in AD 381 affirms the doctrine of the Trinity: that God is three “persons” (Father, Son and Spirit) in one nature or essence. Each person is fully divine, yet each is distinct.

Those who reject the doctrine of the Trinity argue that it was neither taught by Jesus nor part of the early church, but rather was imposed by Constantine on the bishops who gathered at Nicaea.

This is not the case. The doctrine is at the heart of Christ’s Great Commission, telling believers to “…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…” (Matt. 28:19.

The doctrine was a widely held belief before the council even met. Among the leading church bishops and theologians who defended the doctrine were Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, Tertullian and Origen.

The Nicene Creed, first fashioned in little Nicaea, is the traditional Christian statement of faith affirmed today around the world by Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic and most Protestant churches.

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