A Summary on the History of Reconstruction.

 Reconstruction had a long, important history. By 1865, about 180,000 black people served in the Union Army or 1/5 of the adult black male population under 45 years old. By May 1865, President Johnson announced his plan of Presidential Reconstruction. It calls for general amnesty and restoration of property -- except for slaves -- to all Southerners who will swear loyalty to the Union. No friend to the South's large landowners, Johnson declares that they and the Confederate leadership will be required to petition him individually for pardons. This Reconstruction strategy also required states to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, ending slavery. The president's plan is implemented during the summer. By August and September 1865, President Johnson showed more leniency to the white former Confederacy of the South. He ordered the restoration of land to its former owners, including the land provided to freed slaves by General Sherman's January field order. Freedmen are especially reluctant to leave the land they have started farming in South Carolina and Georgia. The president started aligning himself with the Southern elite, declaring, "white men alone must manage the South." So, President Johnson was a stole cold racist. By the Fall of 1865, Southern states elect former Confederates to public office at the state and national levels, dragged their feet in ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment, and refused to extend the vote to black men. Southern legislatures begin drafting "Black Codes" to re-establish white racist policies against black Americans. The laws impose restrictions on black citizens, especially in attempts to control labor: freedmen are prohibited from work except as field hands, black people refusing to sign labor contracts can be punished, unemployed black men can be seized and auctioned to planters as laborers, black children can be taken from their families and made to work. The new laws amount to slavery without the chain. From November to December 1865, at the request of President Johnson, victorious Union general Ulysses S. Grant tours the South, and is greeted with surprising friendliness. His report recommends a lenient Reconstruction policy. By December, President Johnson falsely considered the Reconstruction process complete. Radical Republicans were outraged. Radical Republicans refuse to recognize new governments in the Southern states. More than sixty former Confederates arrive to take their seats in Congress, including four generals, four colonels, and six Confederate cabinet officers -- even Alexander H. Stephens, the former vice president of the Confederacy. The Clerk of the House refused to include the Southern representatives in his roll call, and they were denied their elected seats. The Union Army is quickly demobilized. From a troop strength of one million on May 1, only 152,000 Union soldiers remain in the South by the end of 1865. Southern towns and cities start to experience a large influx of freedmen. Over the next five years, the black populations of the South's ten largest cities will double. By February of 1866, President Johnson vetoed a supplemental Freedmen's Bureau Bill, which Republican moderates had designed to extend protection to Southern black people.  

By April 1866, there was another piece of moderate Republican legislation, the Civil Rights Bill, which grants citizenship and the same rights enjoyed by white citizens to all male persons in the United States "without distinction of race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude." It passes both houses of Congress by overwhelming majorities, and when President Johnson vetoes it, Congress overrides the veto, making the bill the first major piece of legislation enacted over a presidential veto. The rift between Congress and the president is complete. By May 1, 1866, racial violence happened in Memphis, Tennessee. On June 13, 1866, Congress sends the Fourteenth Amendment to the states. It writes the Republican vision of how post-Civil War American society should be structured into the U.S. Constitution, out of the reach of partisan politics. The amendment defines citizenship to include all people born or naturalized in the U.S. and increases the federal government's power over the states to protect all Americans' rights. It stops short of guaranteeing blacks the right to vote. The 14th Amendment will take over two years to be ratified. By July 1866, Congress re-passes its supplemental Freedmen's Bureau Bill. President Johnson vetoed it again, and Congress again overrode the veto, making the bill a law. On July 21, 1866, the Southern Homestead Act of 1866 was passed which opened 46 million acres of land in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. African Americans had priority access until January 1, 1877. Tennessee was the first Confederate state readmitted to the Union on July 24, 1866.

On July 30, 1866, riots break out in New Orleans, Louisiana. A white mob attacked black people and Radical Republicans attending a black suffrage convention, killing 40 people. By August 28, 1866, with Congress demanding that Southern states ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to gain re-admittance to the legislature, President Johnson begins a disastrous speaking tour of the North to bolster support for his policies in the mid-term elections. He asks popular Union general Ulysses S. Grant to come along. When crowds heckle the president, Johnson's angry and undignified responses cause Grant -- and many Northerners -- to lose sympathy with the president and his lenient Reconstruction policies. Following the president's ruinous campaign, the mid-term elections become a battleground over the Fourteenth Amendment and civil rights. Johnson's opponents are victorious, and the Republicans occupy enough seats to guarantee they will be able to override any presidential vetoes in the coming legislative session. This was in the Fall of 1866. Union troops are demobilized to the point that only 38,000 troops are in the South by the fall. February 14, 1867, was when Augusta Institute was created in the basement of Springfield Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia. It would later be called Morehouse College. By March 2, 1867, Howard University was founded in Washington, D.C. On March 1, 1867, the new session of Congress began to pass additional reconstruction laws, overriding President Johnson's vetoes and beginning a more hard-line attitude toward the South. Known as Radical Reconstruction, the new policies divide the South into military districts and require the states to adopt new constitutions, introduce black suffrage, and ratify the Fourteenth Amendment. By July 31, 1867, President Andrew Johnson tells Ulysses S. Grant that he intends to fire Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who has been a consistent opponent of the president and is close to the Radical Republicans who dominate Congress. Stanton has refused to resign and Congress has supported him through the Tenure of Office Act, which requires the consent of Congress to removals. At the same time, Congress has weakened the president's control of the army through the Command of the Army Act, which requires that all military orders of the President have the approval of the general of the army (Grant). Johnson believes the Tenure of Office Act is unconstitutional, and hopes to defeat the effort to force Stanton upon him by employing the popular Grant. By August 11, 1867, Johnson ordered Grant to take over the War Department temporarily. 

By January 14, 1868, Grant resigned his position as interim Secretary of War after Congress insisted upon Stanton's reinstatement. President Johnson believes that Grant has betrayed him; Grant now openly breaks with Johnson. During the winter of 1868, black and white lawmakers begin to work side by side in the Southern states' constitutional conventions, the first political meetings in American history to include substantial numbers of black men. By May 16,  1868, having infuriated the Republicans, Andrew Johnson becomes the first president to be impeached by a house of Congress, but he avoids conviction and retains his office by a single vote. He will not get the Democratic nomination in the upcoming presidential election. On May 21, 1868, the Republican National Convention at Chicago nominated Grant for president and Schuyler Colfax of Indiana for vice president; Grant adopted the conciliatory slogan, "Let us have peace." Arkansas was readmitted to the Union on June 22, 1868. June 25, 1868, was when Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina were readmitted to the Union. Alabama was readmitted to the Union on July 14, 1868. The Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour, former Governor of New York, for president, and Francis P. Blair, Jr., formerly one of Grant's commanders, for vice president. This was on July 9, 1868. On July 28, 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, defining citizenship to include all people born or naturalized in the U.S., was finally ratified. In September 1868, black elected officials are ousted from the Georgia state legislature; "The Negro is unfit to rule the State," the Atlanta Constitution declared. The Atlanta Constitution is wrong. The black legislators appealed to President Grant to intervene to get them readmitted, which took a year. 

By November 3, 1868, Grant was elected President, winning an electoral college majority of 214-80 over his Democratic opponent. But the popular majority is only 306,000 in a total vote of 5,715,000. Newly enfranchised black men in the South cast 700,000 votes for the Republican ticket. By 1869, the Freedmen's Bureau had almost 3,000 schools, serving over 150,000 students, in the South. On February 26, 1869, Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment, which attempts to address Southern poll violence by stating that the right to vote can not be denied based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." It is sent to the states for ratification. On April 1869, in the 5-3 Texas v. White decision, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Radical Reconstruction constitutional, stating that secession from the Union was illegal. On September 24, 1869, Black Friday on the New York gold exchange. Financiers Jay Gould and Jim Fisk attempt to corner the available gold supply and try unsuccessfully to involve President Grant in the illegal plan. By the fall of 1869, there was violence against black people all over the South. In October 1869, Georgia legislator Abram Colby was kidnapped and whipped. By January 1870, Grant proposed a treaty of annexation with Santo Domingo in an attempt to find land for freed slaves to settle. Under Grant's plan, freed slaves would be able to relocate to the Caribbean Island (the Dominican Republic today). The treaty is opposed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, headed by Charles Sumner, and will never be confirmed. On January 26, 1870, Virginia was readmitted to the Union. The 15th Amendment was ratified on February 3, 1870. The first of the two Enforcement Acts were passed in 1870 to protect African Americans' right to vote, hold office, serve on juries, and receive equal protection of laws. President Ulysses S. Grant passed the laws. 

On February 25, 1870, Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first black member of the U.S. Senate. Mississippi was readmitted to the Union on February 23, 1870, and Texas was readmitted to the Union on March 30, 1870. By July 15, 1870, Georgia was the last former Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union. By October 1871, Congress heard testimony from victims of Klan violence. Grant cracks down on anti-black violence in South Carolina. October 10, 1871, was when Octavius Catto, a civil rights activist, was murdered during Election Day in Philadelphia. 

By May 1, 1872, there was a meeting of the Liberal Republican Convention at Cincinnati. Leaders of the group include many prominent Republicans unhappy about Reconstruction policies and corruption in government, which they call Grantism. New York newspaperman Horace Greeley receives their nomination. Greeley's earlier radicalism, high tariff views, and well-known eccentricity repel many who oppose Grant. The Democrats, on July 9, also nominated Greeley. On May 22, 1872, Grant signed an amnesty bill he had advocated. Although the final legislation is less generous than Grant had wanted, now only a few hundred former Confederates are excluded from political privileges. On June 5, 1872, the Republican Convention met in Philadelphia. It will renominate Grant on the first ballot. On September 5, 1872, the New York Sun charged that Vice President Colfax, Vice-Presidential nominee Henry Wilson, James Garfield, and other prominent politicians were involved in the operations of the Credit Mobilier, a corporation established by the promoters of the Union Pacific railroad to siphon off the profits of transcontinental railroad construction. Ultimately, two congressmen will be censured for their part in the swindle and many other politicians will be damaged in reputation. By November 5, 1872, Grant was reelected with an electoral college majority of 286-66, and a popular majority of 763,000. P.B.S. Pinchback was sworn in as the first black member of the U.S. House of Representatives on December 11, 1872. 

By the winter of 1873, racists in the New York Tribune accuse black lawmakers of corruption in South Carolina. There was the Colfax Massacre on April 13, 1873. This was when the White League, a paramilitary group intent on securing white rule in Louisiana, clashed with Louisiana's almost all-black state militia. The resulting death toll is staggering: only three members of the White League die, but some one hundred black men are killed. Of those, nearly half are murdered in cold blood after they surrender. By September 18, 1873, there was the panic of 1873 with the failure of a Wall Street banking firm, spread to the stock exchange, and eventually leads to widespread unemployment. 

By the fall of 1874, the political tide had turned in the Democrats' favor; they won control of Congress as stories of black political corruption, continued Southern violence, and a terrible economic depression occupied public attention. On March 1, 1875, as one of its last acts, the Republican-led Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill of 1875, prohibiting segregation in public facilities. The law will stand only until 1883, when the U.S. Supreme Court will strike it down. On March 4, 1877, after a bitterly disputed presidential contest between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden, in which both candidates claimed victory, Hayes is declared president. In a back-room political deal, the Republicans agree to abandon Reconstruction policies in exchange for the presidency. Reconstruction policies officially end. The South codifies and enforces segregation. By the Spring of 1879, thousands of African Americans who refused to live under Jim Crow apartheid in the South migrated to Kansas. They are known as the Exodusters. Black people will fight back, and progressive civil rights legislation would never exist in America until after World War II. Reconstruction was one of the greatest political experiments in American history that had many positive changes. The problem was that Reconstruction fully wasn't completed, and it was stopped by capitalist interests, racists, and other oligarchy who wanted the status quo instead of real freedom, justice, and equality for all people. 

By Timothy

Words.

 Timothy VA - Today is the Birthday of the late Sister Natalie... | Facebook

Trump's Policies in his Second Term

 

Eighty years ago, our ancestors and relatives defeated fascists of the Axis Powers during World War Two (many of my late relatives were World War Two veterans and fought for freedom in the Normandy invasion in real life). Today, we have a fascist extremist who is now President of the United States of America who said that he wants to target the media who disagrees with him, wants to abolish the Constitution if he doesn't get his way, and desires to glorify retribution and revenge against progressives and those who support democracy. Trump has publicly said that any Jewish person who doesn't vote for him is "disloyal," he called black people low IQ, threatens to arrest Liz Cheney, called certain immigrants as "poisoning the blood of the country," supports the January 6th terrorists, and glorifies violence in his speeches. Now, we have Trump planning to create internment camps for immigrants who are undocumented. He desires the radical increase of the powers of the executive branch which is against the concept of the co-equal powers of the three branches of government. Our democracy is on the brink of being gone.  Trump is so extreme that he wants to annex Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal to America. The good news is that lawyers, activists, and other heroes are fighting back against Trumpism to make sure that the future is better than present reality. Here are the politics of Trump in less than one week after his inauguration in late January of 2025:

1. Trump said that he won't give aid to the suffering people involving the California wildfires unless California changes its voting laws to have real ID. That is un-American and unconstitutional. 

2. Trump has used executive order to suppress federal government support of civil rights protections and DEI programs. Trump has ordered all federal agencies to close all diversity, equity, and inclusion offices, put DEI staff on administrative leave, take down all websites and social media accounts, and cancel all DEI trainings. Trump has made the DOJ to halt all ongoing and future civil rights litigations. 

3. Trump signed an executive order in trying to ban birthright citizenship which is unconditional. That is why Judge John Coughenour, a Reagan appointee called Trump's action a "blatantly unconstitutional order."

4. Trump pardoned ca. 1500 insurrectionist thugs who assaulted police officers and tried to overthrow the government on January 6th, 2021. MAGA followers should never lecture us about law and order when Trump pardoned terrorists. 

5. Trump supported the new Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who is an extremist that glorified war crimes and has other repugnant views. He has been accused of abuse. 

6. Trump fired the independent inspectors generals of at least 12 federal agencies without legitimate cause. Inspects generals are tasked with rooting out fraud, abuse, and corruption. 

7. Trump signed an executive order that stopped the elimination DOJ private prison contacts. 

8. Trump signed an executive order that rescinded a President Biden directive to lower drug costs and expand coverage under the ACA and Medicaid.

By Timothy

Early Church History.

 

Early Church Development and History

The Church of Jesus Christ or the Christian Church has grown massively since 30 A.D. The original design of the church was a local congregation of New Testament believers where a group of equal elders (or presbyters) governed only within their own local church. Bishops back then could be married as cited in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Roman Catholic and Orthodox systems were non-existence as there was no promotion of purgatory, no Pope, no Mary veneration, and no cardinals. So, anyone telling someone that bishops can't be married is preaching heresy and falsehood. Back then, there were no pope, but there were bishops, deacons, and other church leaders. The Bible in 1 Timothy 4:14 cited the office of overseer (bishops) and elder (presbyters). Before 150 A.D, the terms of bishops and elders were the same office and were used interchangeably as found in Titus 1:5-7. Each church had more than one elder/bishop being equal in power. There was no organization larger than the local church. Each bishop in each local church had equal power worldwide. So, the presbyters or bishops, deacons, and other helpers worked in one church. That is why Paul and Peter wanted the presbyters to help the church. The Didache, Polycarp, and Clement cited presbyters and deacons plus bishops to help the early church. So, Apostolic secessionism from the Catholic Church is refuted as the early Church was heavily decentralized and filled with bishops and deacons along with elders (presbyters). The Roman Catholic claim of Peter being the first bishop of Rome is dubious as the church of Rome was governed by multiple elders, who were also called bishops. Peter, as the Bible and history has proven, was an Apostle and evangelist of the Gospel, not a bishop. Catholicism teaches the false doctrine of apostolic succession or that Peter was the first Pope and any Pope after Peter in Rome would be a succession (as to Roman Catholics, Peter was chosen as head of the apostles). The Bible is clear that the Apostles have equality of power and authority. When Jesus Christ said to Peter, he referred to the rock as the faith confessed on the supreme rock of the Messiah as mentioned by Cyril, Chrysostom, and other scholars. Jesus Christ is the mediator of the New Testament who gave authority to the 12 apostles (John 17:6-8, 17-20). He promised the Holy Spirit would remind them of all of what he said and guide them into all truth. When Jesus told Peter about binding and loosing authority, the gave the same command to all the apostles in Matthew 16:19 and in Matthew 18:18. The New Testament bishops developed after the rise of the apostles, but they didn't resemble modern-day Catholic bishops. NT bishops had to be married as found in 1 Timothy 3:2, but the bishops in Catholicism are celibate by force. 

The modern idea of a pope or even an idea of a single bishop ruling a local church or the entire church didn't exist back in the first century. It is assumed that Linus, Anacletus, and Clement were Roman presbyters or presbyter-bishops (in the New Testament sense of the term) at the end of the first century. From 150 A.D. to 250 A.D., the church changed from equal elder ruling a local church to the rise of a single bishop over the eldership (Episcopal Presbytery). This means that there is the rise of the exalted elder which was a departure of the original design of God's church. In 150 A.D, there was the rise of the exalted elder (or bishops) over other bishops in a local church. By 200 A.D, there was the rise of the episcopal presbytery which means that local churches were governed by a single bishop or overseer (Episcopate) over a group of elders (Presbytery). The exhaled elder of the 150 A.D. became a distinct office from the eldership. That means that the bishop is over the eldership, the single office of elder/bishop are split into 2 separate offices, and one bishop rules over the eldership. By 250 A.D., there was the rise of the Diocesan Bishop. This means that bishops of larger churches started to exercise control over smaller churches. Bishops began to control not only their own local churches, but a group of local churches within a geographic area that is known as a diocese. Even back then, bishops started to gain too much power which wasn't sanctioned by the New Testament or Jesus Christ.  With the Diocesan bishop, still no single bishop controls the whole church. This refutes the lie of Roman Catholicism saying that the bishop of Rome should rule the whole church as only Jesus Christ is the leader of the whole church. 

From 250 A.D. to 451 A.D., we have the change from Diocesan Bishops to three Metroplitans and the 5 Patriarchs. This is part of the Oligarchic diocesan episcopate. This new oligarchic diocesan episcopate caused the direct creation of the Eastern Greek Orthodox patriarchal systems. By 300 A.D., there were metropolitans. This means that these Metroplitans rule over diocesan bishops. So, the diocesan bishops from the largest cities became metropolitans. In 325 A.D., the Nicene creeds list the Metropolitans of the bishops of the largest and most politically plus economically powerful cities being Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria. By 381 A.D., we have the rise of the 5 patriarchs. The metropolitans of the very largest of the large cities were Patriarchs. They were in Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. The Patriarchs ruled over the Metropolitans from the smaller large cities. The exception was Jerusalem which was granted patriarchal status because the church started there. The 5 patriarchs were listed in the Second Ecumenical Council as the bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria. The patriarchs were like 5 mini-Popes ruling in a monarchal manner within their own territories. The bishop of Rome would not explicitly claim to rule all of the Christian world until 606 A.D. The other four patriarchs would later be known as the Eastern Greek Orthodox Church, where the patriarchs are 14 today. 

From 451 A.D. to 588 A.D., the growth of the five patriarchs continued. Pope Leo I in 451 A.D. claimed that he was the successor of Peter. Yet, the concept of a permanent successor of Peter is unscriptural and a product of the falsehoods of the bishops of Rome. Pope Leo I was never the universal bishop, even though Gregory I would make the false claim that Leo was the universal bishop. By 533 A.D., Roman Emperor Justinian I proclaimed the Bishop of Rome, Leo I to be the head of all churches. The rest of the world ignored the claim of Justinian I. 

From 588 to 606 A.D., the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Rome competed against each other in claiming rulership of all Christians. John IV the Faster, patriarch of Constantinople claimed to be universal bishop in 588 A.D. There is a power struggle between Old Rome (in Rome, Italy) and New Rome (in the East at Constantinople). Gregory I the Great was Patriarch of Rome from 590 to 604 A.D. Gregory I (who still made the false claim that he was the successor of Peter) denied the universal bishop title for John IV the Faster and for himself, Gregory I. Gregory I said that John IV claiming that title is a sign that the antichrist is near. In 602 A.D., the Roman Emperor Maurice is murdered by a coup by Phocas. Phocas became the emperor. Gregory died in 604 A.D.  He is replaced by Sabinian who reigned for 2 years, he died in 606 A.D., and the new bishop of Rome is Boniface III. Everything changes with Boniface III. Phocas writes that the new Bishop of Rome Boniface III is the head of all the church and the bishop of Rome. Boniface III agrees with this lie, and he has the title of universal bishop causing the modern-day Roman Catholic system to arise. Catholicism is not accepted from the East and split fellowship with Rome permanently in 1054 A.D. in the Great Schism. Boniface III died in 607 A.D. on February 19. By this time, we have suffragan or cardinal bishops. So, the centralization of the church into one bishop or religious leader is not what God intended. It is important to note that from 30 A.D. to the present, there were always churches independent of the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church that followed righteousness, followed excellent doctrine, and spread the Gospel to save souls constantly. The church is to be independent, autonomous, with preachers (and other religious clergy people), believers (made up of all saved people throughout the whole world), and has no leadership but Jesus Christ. So, we have two paths of church history. We have the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ filled with inspiration, power, and love spanning almost 2,000 years. Also, we have another thread of people who added heresies and false doctrines to create false doctrines and apostate doctrines. 

*Numerous false doctrines would grow fast from 314 to 1500 A.D. like the veneration of angels and dead saints in 375 A.D., the veneration of Mary in 431 A.D. (via the Council of Ephesus), extreme unction in 526 A.D., the doctrine of purgatory in 593 A.D. by Gregory the Great, kissing the Pope's feet in 709 A.D. (when the Word of God forbids such actions as found in Acts 10:25-26, Revelation 19:10; 22:9), holy water used by a priest in 850 A.D., the mandatory celibacy of the priesthood by Pope Hildebrand, Boniface VII in 1079 A.D. (when Jesus never called for this, Peter was a married man and Paul said that a bishop can have a wife and children), the dogma of transubstantiation made mandatory by Pope Innocent III in 1215 (The New Testament is clear that communion is the memorial of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Even early Christian scholars Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian, etc. said that communion is a remembrance of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross), the restrictions of books by the Council of Valencia in 1229 A.D. (when the World of God is meant to be read by all cited in John 5:29 and 1st Timothy 3:15-17. Back in the day, the Roman Catholic forbid people to read the Bible in his or her own language independently), and the promotion of the Scapular in 1287 A.D. We know about the origins of Christmas, Easter, and Lent, so we don't have to follow manmade holidays to be true believers in God. 

The 1700 Year Anniversary of the Council of Nicaea

The First Council of Nicaea met in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (in Iznik, Turkey today) from May to the end of July of 325 A.D. This council of Christian bishops was an ecumenical council that wanted to deal with the issue of the Trinity. Before 325 A.D, the concept of the Trinity was already embraced by the Church long before Constantine was the Roman Emperor. Constantine in 312 A.D. claimed to see a vision from God a shape similar to across in front of a sun. Many believe that after this, he converted to Christianity. He claims that he saw the words in this sign conquer. According to Eusebius, Constantine dreamed a voice said that have his soldiers mark upon their shields the X with the line drawn through it and curled around the top. Then, Constantine won a battle. Yet, this image of the sun god is related to paganism. Constantine made Christianity adopted by Rome. He repealed the persecution edicts of Diocletian. Constantine unified church and state in Rome. This was wrong as the Church shouldn't be merged with a pagan system.  Many Jehovah Witnesses and other anti-Trinitarians believe in the lie that the Trinity was formed by the Nicene Council in 325 A.D. The issue was the heresies like Arianism promoted by Arius and other people who refused to believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ. The Council debated on the issue of the divine nature of God the Son and his relationship wtih God the Father. It also dealt with the observance date of Easter and early canon law. The first part of the Nicene Creed was embraced by the council. The council started by the Christain clergy of Alexandria, Egypt. Archbishop Alexander of Alexandria and Athanasius believed in the Trinity and the presbyter Airus rejected the Trinity. Alexander taught that Jesus as God the Son was eternally generated from the Father, while Arius and his followers asserted that the Father alone was eternal, and that the Son was created or begotten by the Father, and thus had a defined point of origin and was subordinate to the Father. 

Arius was a person who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. Arius accused Alexander of following the teachings of Sabellius, who taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were one person, rather than the view held throughout the east that they were distinct. Arius believed in the heresy that the Son of God never existed eternally, being a created being. He believed that since Christ was begotten, he had an origin, but the New Testament teaches that Jesus Christ was the only begotten Son of God, bmeaing that Jesus Christ was preexistent before Creation. The Son of God is the eternal God in human flesh. Arius' friend was Eusiebus. Alexander raught that Jesus Christ was the same substance (or Greek word homoosia) as the Father being God. Bishop Alexander's young deacon was Athanasius. Alexander called a local council of bishops from Egypt and Libya, which sided with Alexander's view. Arius refused to subscribe to the council's decision, and he and several followers were excommunicated and exiled from Alexandria by Alexander. Arius then traveled to churches around the Roman east and wrote to bishops to gain support of his view. Among Arius' supporters were Eusebius of Nicomedia and Eusebius of Caesarea, and they advocated for his view and his restoration to the church in Alexandria. Alexander also circulated letters defending his own position. Parallel to the theological controversy between Alexander and Arius was the Melitian schism in the Alexandrian church. Melitius, bishop of Lycopolis, had acted in the stead of the imprisoned bishop Peter I of Alexandria during the Diocletianic Persecution, but after Peter's death in 311 refused to give up his right to ordain clergy or recognize the authority of Peter's successors Achillas or Alexander.

Alexander called a local council of bishops from Egypt and Libya, which sided with Alexander's view. Arius refused to subscribe to the council's decision, and he and several followers were excommunicated and exiled from Alexandria by Alexander. Arius then traveled to churches around the Roman east and wrote to bishops to gain support of his view. Among Arius' supporters were Eusebius of Nicomedia and Eusebius of Caesarea, and they advocated for his view and his restoration to the church in Alexandria. Alexander also circulated letters defending his own position. 

The Western Roman emperor Constaine defeated the eastern empeor Licinius and was the sole urler of the Roman Empire in 324 A.D. Constantine was ccontroversial, and people debate whether he was a closet sun worshiper or not. Constantine claimed to embrace Christianity, but he followed the union of church and state. Constantine's letter was carried to Alexandria by Bishop Hosius of Corduba as his representative. Hosius apparently then presided over a synod at Alexandria concerning the date of Easter, before calling a council of Eastern bishops in Antioch. This council endorsed Alexander's position and issuing a statement of faith that held that the Son was "begotten not from non-existence, but from the Father, not as made, but as genuine product" and contained anathemas against Arius. Eusebius of Caesaria was also temporarily excommunicated because of his contention that the Father and the Son were of two different natures.

The expenses of the council, including the travel of the bishops, were paid by the imperial treasury. Contemporary reports of attendance range from 250 to 300, with the figure of 318 given by Athanasius of Antioch becoming traditionally accepted. 318 is also the number of members of Abraham's household given in the Book of Genesis. Lists of signatories to the final decisions of the council contain 200–220 names. With presbyters and deacons attending each bishop, the total attendance may have been between 1200 and 1900. Most of the bishops were eastern, with about twenty from Egypt and Libya, another fifty from Palestine and Syria, and more than one hundred from Asia Minor. One bishop each from Persia and Scythia were present. The few western attendees were Hosius, Caecilianus of Carthage, Nicasius of Die, Marcus of Calabria, Domnus of Pannonia, and Victor and Vicentius, two presbyters representing Bishop Sylvester of Rome. Of the eastern bishops, the principal supporters of Arius were Eusebius of Nicomedia, Eusebius of Caesarea, Menophantus of Ephesus, Patrophilus of Scythopolis, Narcissus of Neronias, Theonas of Marmarike, Secundus of Ptolemais, and Theognis of Nicaea. The principal anti-Arians included Alexander of Alexandria, Eustathius of Antioch, Marcellus of Ancyra and Macarius of Jerusalem.

The council was held in Nicaea's imperial palace. The bishops most likely assembled in a rectangular basilica hall based on Eusebius of Caesarea's description. Emperor Constantine opened the council with the bishops coming in. Athanasius used logic and the Scriptures to promote the doctrine of the Trinity. According to the book "Lecturers on the Book of Revelation," from Dr. Harry Ironside, a black man who was a hermit marched in the council to say that his marks from the beasts in an amphitheater are marks of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he can't care the blasphemy. Later, the man said that Jesus Christ has eternal Deity that inspired the crowd in the Council of Nicaea. The Council debated for weeks and formed the Nicene Creed as a summary of the Christian faith. The original Nicene Creed read as follows:

"We believe in one God, the Father almighty,

maker of all things visible and invisible;

And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

begotten from the Father, only-begotten,

that is, from the substance of the Father,

God from God, light from light,

true God from true God, begotten not made,

of one substance with the Father,

through Whom all things came into being,

things in heaven and things on earth,

Who because of us men and because of our salvation came down,

and became incarnate and became man, and suffered,

and rose again on the third day, and ascended to the heavens,

and will come to judge the living and dead,

And in the Holy Spirit.

But as for those who say, There was when He was not,

and, Before being born He was not,

and that He came into existence out of nothing,

or who assert that the Son of God is of a different hypostasis or substance,

or created, or is subject to alteration or change

– these the Catholic and apostolic Church anathematize."

The creed was amended by the First Council of Constantinople in 381. The Creed said that Jesus Christ is said to be "of one substance with the Father", proclaiming that although Jesus Christ is "true God" and God the Father is also "true God", they are "of one substance". The Greek term homoousios, consubstantial (i.e. of the same substance) is ascribed by Eusebius of Caesarea to Constantine who, on this particular point, may have chosen to exercise his authority. The significance of this clause, however, is ambiguous as to the extent in which Jesus Christ and God the Father are "of one substance", and the issues it raised would be seriously controverted in the future. The heretic Arius refused to accept the Nicene Creed. Eustathius of Antioch was deposed and exiled in 330. Athanasius, who had succeeded Alexander as Bishop of Alexandria, was deposed by the First Synod of Tyre in 335, and Marcellus of Ancyra followed him in 336. Constantine banned Arius which was just for a short time. In 333 A.D., Constantine opened contact with him, Arius revised his beliefs, and the synod of Jerusalem readmitted him from his exile. He lived in Alexandria, Egypt. Ten years after the Council of Nicaea, Constantine the Great, who was himself later baptized by the Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia in 337 AD. Constantine and his son banished Athanasius from Alexandria. The Arian persecuted him. Athanasius heroically defended the truth that the Son is God, of the same substance as the Father and the Holy Spirit. He lived until 373 A.D. He wrote many books against the Arian heresy. 

Arius returned to Constantinople to be readmitted into the Church but died shortly before he could be received. Constantine died the next year, after finally receiving baptism from Arian Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, and "with his passing the first round in the battle after the Council of Nicaea was ended." The Nicene Council dealt with Easter and other issues.  However, Nicene Christianity did not become the state religion of the Roman Empire until the Edict of Thessalonica in 380. In the meantime, paganism remained legal and present in public affairs. Constantine's coinage and other official motifs, until the Council of Nicaea, had affiliated him with the pagan cult of Sol Invictus. At first, Constantine encouraged the construction of new temples and tolerated traditional sacrifices. Later in his reign, he gave orders for the pillaging and the tearing down of Roman temples. The Council of Nicaea is not superior to the Word of God, but it was right to believe in the deity of Jesus Christ and concepts found in the Holy Trinity. The term Trinity  was already in use, with the earliest existing reference being by Theophilus of Antioch in cs. 180 A.D. (AD 115–181 in reference to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as the Holy Spirit was referred to by several Church fathers), though many scholars believe that the way the term was used indicates that it was known previously to his readers. Also, over a century before, the term "Trinity" (Τριάς in Greek; trinitas in Latin) was used in the writings of Origen and Tertullian, and a general notion of a "divine three", in some sense, was expressed in the 2nd-century writings of Polycarp, Ignatius, and Justin Martyr. The heresy of Oneness (of what preachers like heretics like Gino Jennings embrace as Jennings believes in the discredited Apocrypha books) believes that the Father became the Son, and the Son became the Spirit. This heresy was invented by Praxeas promoting Monarchianism. Oneness believers like Zephyrinus and Callistus wanted to be the head of the church when no man is a bishop of bishops as said by Cyprian and Tertullian. There was no Roman Catholic Church ruling Christianity before 325 A.D. as Roman Catholicism is a product of gradual development being crystallized by 606 A.D. by Pope Boniface. Before 606 A.D., bishops in cities and towns of the world were leaders of the Christian church under the Lord Jesus Christ. We can assume that the term Trinity possibly could have been used before Theophilus. Athenagoras promoted the concept of the Holy Trinity. This is the real history that cultists and anti-Trinitarians don't want you to know. 

Glory be to God. 

By Timothy