Yeah. Imagine what could happen if the church led the way in restoring what's broken. That's what happened when Ryan joined the Colson Fellows program. Shortly after completing the program, he worked with his church to launch his senior home, an addiction recovery center, and a foster care closet, real answers to real needs in his community. That's exactly why the Colson Center exists, to equip believers like Ryan to bring restoration.
But none of it happens without donor support. As we close our fiscal year, we need your help to expand the impact of programs like the Colson Fellows, as well as the other ministries of the Colson Center. Give by June 30th at ColsonCenter.org/slash May and help the church be the church. Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.
Mm-hmm. This month, 1700 years ago, was one of the most significant and consequential events in all of church history. Across the Bosporus Strait from Constantinople in Nicaea, a council met to settle a question that was plaguing the church. Who precisely? is Jesus Christ.
Their work shaped the future of Christian theology. In the first few centuries after Christ's resurrection, Jesus was understood in a variety of ways. The Gnostics doubted his humanity, arguing that Jesus was a purely spiritual being who only seemed human. Others suggested that Jesus was an angel or archangel, specifically the angel of the Lord mentioned in the Old Testament. By the third century, the church had accepted the deity of Christ while seeing him as subordinate to the Father.
But around 318 to 319, the nature of that subordination became the source of a controversy. between Arius, a priest in Alexandria, and Alexander I, the patriarch of Alexandria. Alexander argued that Christ was eternally begotten of the Father's substance, and thus equal to the Father and without a beginning. Arius countered If the Father begat the Son, then he who was begotten had a beginning in existence, and from this it follows there was a time when the Son was not. According to Arius, the Son was not eternally begotten of the Father rather, he was made from nothing and thus not equal to the Father.
Jesus, Arius taught, was the first created being. Through whom everything else was made. This quarrel between Arius and Alexander became a heated controversy across the church, with incredible implications for both theology and worship. And in Rome, the task of mediating religious conflicts fell to the emperor. In order to settle this weighty matter, Emperor Constantine I called the bishops to Nicaea in 325.
The council ended up siding with the position that reflected what was the long-standing understanding of the church and of Holy Scripture. Alexander's position, which aligned with passages like John 1:1, the Word was God, and Jesus claims in John 10 that I and the Father are one, and John 14:9 that whoever has seen me has seen the Father. The Council chose the word homoousios to describe who Jesus is in relationship with the Father and to emphasize His deity. The Father and Son are of the same substance, the Council clarified, but as begotten of the Father, Jesus is not the same as the Father. The Council produced a creed, which is now recited in churches around the world, even to this day.
that described Christ as begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. The Nicene Creed is among the most consequential documents in all of Church history. It remains the articulation of Orthodox Christology. though Arianism did not die out until about the 6th century. And the Council's decisions also made significant contribution to theological clarity about the Trinity.
Which is another perplexity that the church had to define. Later councils would reflect on and refine the statements that came out of Nicaea. The First Council of Constantinople strengthened its statements on the Holy Spirit, and the Council of Chalcedon further worked out the relationship of the human and divine natures of Christ united in a single person. While the doctrines articulated by these councils can be complex and nuanced, they have played the essential role. Of both affirming and clarifying the many biblical claims about God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And that clarity is just as important today as it ever has been. Because of the various groups and individuals who claim to be Christians but hold unorthodox and even heretical views about God and specifically Jesus Christ. For example, the Jehovah's Witnesses embrace a form of Arianism. claiming that Christ is the Archangel Michael and the first created being. and Latter-day Saints reject the eternal generation of the Son.
And see Christ instead as one of the many children of the Father, which includes also Satan. And it's just as important to note that Arianism remains alive and well among professing evangelicals. In 2022, a survey conducted by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway found that 73% of evangelicals agreed with this statement, quote, Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God, end quote. Clearly, the widespread ignorance and even outright rejection of church history and the creeds from many Christians and the lack of interest in theological seriousness and formation in many churches has consequences. Thank God for Nicaea.
Thank God for the courage and the insight that He gave those leaders there to clarify the nature and work of Jesus Christ. What was accomplished by the Council continues to be of great importance for the Church today. May we too be just as committed to knowing and teaching good theology in our churches today as they were then. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was primarily authored by Dr.
Glenn Sunshine. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast. And for more resources to live like a Christian today, visit us at breakpoint.org.
