Deity of Christ
The church voted Jesus into godhood at Nicaea in AD 325.
Short answer
Nicaea didn't invent Jesus' divinity. It defended what Christians had believed for nearly three centuries against a new teaching (from Arius) that the Son was created. The New Testament, Christian writers like Ignatius (c. AD 110), and even the Roman governor Pliny (c. AD 112) show Jesus worshiped as God long before 325. And the vote wasn't close: only two bishops refused to sign.
In simple words: Christians worshiped Jesus as God from the very beginning. Hundreds of years later, church leaders met to say clearly what Christians had always believed.
Response
In the early 300s, an Egyptian priest named Arius began teaching that the Son was the first and greatest thing God created: "there was when he was not." This caused an uproar precisely because it contradicted what churches everywhere believed and practiced. The Council of Nicaea met in 325 to respond. It affirmed that the Son is "of one substance" with the Father, "begotten, not made." Only two bishops refused to sign.
The council did not create a new belief. It put into precise words a faith already centuries old.
The New Testament, written in the first century, calls Jesus God (John 1:1; 20:28; Titus 2:13) and records him being worshiped. Around AD 110, Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, wrote of "our God, Jesus the Christ." Around AD 112, Pliny, a Roman governor, reported that Christians gathered before dawn to sing "a hymn to Christ, as to a god." Justin Martyr (c. AD 150) and Irenaeus (c. AD 180) taught the same.
Nicaea also did not decide which books belong in the Bible; that is another common myth. The four Gospels and Paul's letters were already recognized long before.
Key evidence
- The New Testament (first century) already calls Jesus God and records his worship.
- Ignatius of Antioch (c. AD 110): "our God, Jesus the Christ" (To the Ephesians 18).
- Pliny the Younger (c. AD 112): Christians sang "a hymn to Christ, as to a god."
- Nicaea responded to Arius's new teaching; only two bishops refused to sign the creed.
- Nicaea did not decide the biblical canon.
Bible passages
- John 1:1 The Word was God.
- John 20:28 "My Lord and my God!"
- Titus 2:13 "Our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ."
- Jude 3 The faith once for all entrusted to God's people.
Quotes
“For our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived in the womb by Mary.”
Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians 18 (c. AD 110)
Discussion questions
- Why would a new teaching cause such an uproar if Christians weren't already united on Jesus' divinity?
- What do Ignatius and Pliny, writing two centuries before Nicaea, tell us?
- What is the difference between inventing a belief and defining one more precisely?