The Nicene Council story is one of the most important stories in Christianity and in spirituality in general. It is about a heroic young bishop against heretics like Arius and Constantine who wanted control and power. The lie is that the Nicene Council invented the Trinity, but the Trinity doctrine existed in the early church centuries before the Nicene Council. Jehovah's Witnesses, Gnostics, and other people in various faiths are anti-Trinitarian, but I do believe in the Trinity. Constantine was once a pagan, and he never invented the doctrine of the Trinity. The term Trinitas was used by Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch in ca. 180 A.D. The term of Trinity was also used by Tertullian almost 100 years before the Nicene council. Athenagoras said the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit simultaneously exist as one God. Praxeas promoted the heresy of Monarchianism or that the Father became the Son, and the Son became the Spirit. This is modalism or what the Oneness teaches now. The Trinity was resisted by Gnostics and Arians. Modalism was promoted in Rome. Roman Catholicism as we know it today never existed in the early church as the early church never embraced purgatory, Mary being the Ever Virgin, or the Pope being the head of the church. Even the apostle Peter was married and had children. The early church had bishops and institutions functioning in equal space as Cyprian said no man is a bishop among bishops. It would be after the 300's A.D. when the Catholic Church formed claiming falsely that the Bishop of Rome has primacy over all churches of the world. By 312 A.D., Emperor Constantine of Rome claimed to have witnessed a vision of God of seeing the shape of a cross in front of the sun. Then, he saw the Greek words of toutoi nika or in this sign conquer. Constantine then put his soldiers with the X on their shields to defeat his enemies. He told his friend Eusebius this story. Constantine allowed the end of the persecution of Christians that existed since the edict of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. Constantine unified church and state which is against what Yeshua said of renders things to God things belong to God and render things to Caesar separately. Then, we saw a paganism infiltrate certain churches. Soon, icon, relics, veneration of images, and other heresies came into the apostate church (not the true church). Constantine didn't care about theological issues that much.
Many future popes called themselves the Vicar of Church is blasphemous as God needs no representative on Earth. Arius was a bishop who opposed the bishop Alexander. Bishop Alexander of Alexandria, Egypt believed in the Trinity, but Arius was a heretic who thought that Jesus Christ was a created being. Bishop Alexander had a synod and denounced Arius's views. Arius forgets that Jesus in the NT is called the only Begotten Son of God and other views show Jesus Christ's existence before Creation. Arius believed that Yeshua was a created being not the eternal God in the flesh. Arius's friend Eusebius knew of Constantine and his family, so Constantine wanted this piece. Constantine convened the Nicene Council to deal with theological questions. It ended by Juen of 325 A.D. Arius debated Alexander. Alexander believed that Jesus Christ was the of the same substance (or homoousia) being God. Bishop Alexander and the young deacon Athanasius worked hard to debate and defend the Trinity. Athanasius said that the Scriptures prove that Jesus Christ was the same substance of nature as God. Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia believed that Christ was a created being. At first, Constantine banished Arius. By 333 A.D., Constantine agreed with Arius not being banished with the help of his friend Eusebius. Constantine was baptized on his death bed in 337 A.D. Arius suddenly died on his way to visit Constantinople where his friend Eusebius lived at. Constantine's son Constantius was a total Arian. He bashed Athanasius from Alexandria. Athanasius was attacked during his church service by Arians who brought 5,000 Roman soldiers with them in 353 A.D. Other creeds like in Constantinople would disavow the term substance. This would change after Constantius death in 361. Arians split apart. Athanasius passed away in 373 A.D. after writing books to refute the Arian heresy. His other important works include his Letters to Serapion, which defends the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, you know the truth.
By Timothy
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