WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.040 Well, today I get to do a one -off. We finished, 00:00:03.140 --> 00:00:06.620 as Adam shared, we finished our series in Titus 00:00:06.620 --> 00:00:08.839 just recently, and so today we have sort of a, 00:00:08.859 --> 00:00:12.220 I don't know, a free message, which is always 00:00:12.220 --> 00:00:15.099 tempting for me as someone who loves history 00:00:15.099 --> 00:00:18.320 to jump into, and you see the title on the screen. 00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:21.440 And I think this is particularly important for 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:23.739 us because one of the accusations that is often 00:00:23.739 --> 00:00:29.129 made against Protestants in general and against 00:00:29.129 --> 00:00:32.770 modern day evangelicals in particular, is that 00:00:32.770 --> 00:00:36.770 we are ignorant of our own history and oblivious 00:00:36.770 --> 00:00:39.250 to the doctrinal roots of our own faith. And 00:00:39.250 --> 00:00:42.530 in my experience, with some exceptions, of course, 00:00:42.649 --> 00:00:46.969 that's pretty much true to our shame. Now, I 00:00:46.969 --> 00:00:49.070 realize that not every believer out there is 00:00:49.070 --> 00:00:52.929 wired to have this incredible love for history 00:00:52.929 --> 00:00:56.259 with equal passion. I do get that. But here's 00:00:56.259 --> 00:00:58.420 the thing. If we're going to claim to be historical 00:00:58.420 --> 00:01:01.079 Christians and we're going to hold to the faith 00:01:01.079 --> 00:01:05.299 of our historical roots, I think we have a minimal 00:01:05.299 --> 00:01:07.840 duty to know where we come from and how we got 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:10.260 to this place today. And how is it that we've 00:01:10.260 --> 00:01:13.400 come to believe what we believe about God and 00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:15.659 about the world that we live in? So it's been 00:01:15.659 --> 00:01:17.579 one of my goals as a teaching elder here for 00:01:17.579 --> 00:01:21.890 the past, oh boy, going on 19 years. at Oak Hill 00:01:21.890 --> 00:01:24.549 to slowly and steadily move this congregation 00:01:24.549 --> 00:01:27.590 toward a greater appreciation for church history, 00:01:27.730 --> 00:01:30.090 to see us more deeply rooted in the faith of 00:01:30.090 --> 00:01:32.810 our forefathers, to see that faith lived out 00:01:32.810 --> 00:01:34.909 in both our worship services and in our fellowship 00:01:34.909 --> 00:01:37.629 that we have together. It's why we celebrate 00:01:37.629 --> 00:01:40.129 Reformation Sunday every year in October and 00:01:40.129 --> 00:01:42.750 why at times we go out, we do small group studies, 00:01:42.909 --> 00:01:46.909 we do podcasts on historical topics. And then 00:01:46.909 --> 00:01:49.400 we come to a day like today and that same With 00:01:49.400 --> 00:01:51.219 that same purpose in mind, this morning, what 00:01:51.219 --> 00:01:54.319 I want to do is really stretch your minds and 00:01:54.319 --> 00:01:56.260 stretch your hearts to push you just a little 00:01:56.260 --> 00:01:59.439 bit more to think deeply about the origins of 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:02.280 our doctrinal beliefs. As you can see on the 00:02:02.280 --> 00:02:06.680 screen, this month marks the 1700 year anniversary 00:02:06.680 --> 00:02:10.879 of the first ecumenical council in church history, 00:02:10.979 --> 00:02:13.870 the Council of Nicaea. which concluded with this 00:02:13.870 --> 00:02:17.509 amazing foundational creed written in July of 00:02:17.509 --> 00:02:21.150 325. So when those dates come up, I can't pass 00:02:21.150 --> 00:02:23.509 that up. It's just too good of an opportunity 00:02:23.509 --> 00:02:27.689 to sort of sit in that and think about 1700 years 00:02:27.689 --> 00:02:30.590 of history. Friends, it's not an exaggeration 00:02:30.590 --> 00:02:33.009 to say that Nicaea was one of the most important 00:02:33.009 --> 00:02:36.409 events, not just in church history, but in the 00:02:36.409 --> 00:02:39.349 development of Western civilization. So we're 00:02:39.349 --> 00:02:41.990 headed this morning. for some really big themes 00:02:41.990 --> 00:02:45.250 and some really technical theology. So I hope 00:02:45.250 --> 00:02:48.069 you are ready for this. Are you ready? Good. 00:02:48.469 --> 00:02:50.469 Now, normally at this point in the message, you 00:02:50.469 --> 00:02:52.930 know what I usually do. I say, grab your Bibles, 00:02:52.930 --> 00:02:55.909 and we're going to turn to our passage for the 00:02:55.909 --> 00:02:58.590 morning. That is the standard operating procedure. 00:02:58.650 --> 00:03:00.710 But today, we're going to be all over the place. 00:03:00.810 --> 00:03:03.409 And in fact, Rather than having you try to flip 00:03:03.409 --> 00:03:05.250 all over your Bibles, every verse that you're 00:03:05.250 --> 00:03:07.509 going to need to track with me on is going to 00:03:07.509 --> 00:03:10.229 be on the screen. So just follow as we go along. 00:03:10.370 --> 00:03:13.610 Make sense? Good. Well, let's start by talking 00:03:13.610 --> 00:03:16.889 about this issue of creeds. What are creeds and 00:03:16.889 --> 00:03:18.969 why do they matter? Now, I know some evangelicals 00:03:18.969 --> 00:03:21.310 don't even like the term creed. There's just 00:03:21.310 --> 00:03:23.110 like a little burr under their saddle about it. 00:03:23.150 --> 00:03:26.789 But let's talk about creeds. The word creed actually 00:03:26.789 --> 00:03:29.289 comes from a Latin word credo, which means I 00:03:29.289 --> 00:03:32.150 believe. It's that simple. So when Christians 00:03:32.150 --> 00:03:35.129 come together to affirm a creed or recite a creed, 00:03:35.129 --> 00:03:37.330 all they're doing is coming together as a group 00:03:37.330 --> 00:03:40.629 of believers and saying, this is what we affirm. 00:03:40.830 --> 00:03:44.110 This is what we believe as a group. And so creeds 00:03:44.110 --> 00:03:47.270 are very short biblical summaries that are drawn 00:03:47.270 --> 00:03:50.349 from the text of Scripture, which serve a whole 00:03:50.349 --> 00:03:52.250 number of purposes in the life of the church. 00:03:52.349 --> 00:03:54.830 And I'll get to those in just a second. But first, 00:03:54.909 --> 00:03:57.849 it's really important for you to know that creeds 00:03:57.849 --> 00:04:01.229 themselves are actually biblical. You will find 00:04:01.229 --> 00:04:04.750 them in the pages of Scripture. Take the Shema 00:04:04.750 --> 00:04:09.250 from Deuteronomy 6. The Shema is Israel's most 00:04:09.250 --> 00:04:13.270 basic creed. It goes like this. Oh, there we 00:04:13.270 --> 00:04:16.290 go. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the 00:04:16.290 --> 00:04:19.149 Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God 00:04:19.149 --> 00:04:21.550 with all your heart, with all your soul, and 00:04:21.550 --> 00:04:23.649 with all your might. That is an Old Testament 00:04:23.649 --> 00:04:26.759 creedal statement. That simple statement grounded 00:04:26.759 --> 00:04:29.019 the identity of God's people throughout the Old 00:04:29.019 --> 00:04:32.319 Testament and set them apart from the rest of 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:34.699 the surrounding nations. So it was used both 00:04:34.699 --> 00:04:37.100 doctrinally as a statement of truth about who 00:04:37.100 --> 00:04:40.339 they were, but also liturgically in the public 00:04:40.339 --> 00:04:43.819 declaration of faith and worship in the Old Testament. 00:04:44.490 --> 00:04:46.250 Then when you open up the New Testament, you 00:04:46.250 --> 00:04:48.850 see a number of simple creeds that focus, as 00:04:48.850 --> 00:04:50.750 you might expect, on the person and the work 00:04:50.750 --> 00:04:53.470 of Christ. Perhaps the earliest and shortest 00:04:53.470 --> 00:04:56.230 creed you find in the New Testament is from Romans 00:04:56.230 --> 00:04:59.750 10 .9, which simply says, Jesus is Lord. That 00:04:59.750 --> 00:05:01.730 is a creedal statement. Or you might go to Matthew 00:05:01.730 --> 00:05:04.949 16, where Peter confesses, you are the Christ, 00:05:05.230 --> 00:05:07.709 the Son of the living God. That too is a creedal 00:05:07.709 --> 00:05:11.040 statement. In 1 Corinthians 15, it becomes more 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:13.980 obvious. Paul uses creedal language as he himself 00:05:13.980 --> 00:05:17.100 talks about receiving a doctrine and passing 00:05:17.100 --> 00:05:20.180 it along to others. He says, I delivered to you, 00:05:20.379 --> 00:05:24.579 Corinthians, as of first importance what I also 00:05:24.579 --> 00:05:28.139 received. So you see this passing down of creedal 00:05:28.139 --> 00:05:31.699 information, that Christ died for our sins according 00:05:31.699 --> 00:05:34.519 to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he 00:05:34.519 --> 00:05:36.540 was raised on the third day, again, according 00:05:36.540 --> 00:05:41.120 to the scriptures. In Ephesians 4, Paul records 00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:43.420 a creedal statement about the unity of the church 00:05:43.420 --> 00:05:46.019 where he writes about all the ones that we have 00:05:46.019 --> 00:05:49.399 together. One body, one spirit, one hope of our 00:05:49.399 --> 00:05:52.519 calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one 00:05:52.519 --> 00:05:54.959 God and Father of all. And if you count those 00:05:54.959 --> 00:05:57.920 up, those are seven articles of faith, the biblical 00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:01.750 number that often symbolizes completion. Even 00:06:01.750 --> 00:06:04.949 the trustworthy sayings, we looked at this just 00:06:04.949 --> 00:06:07.709 a couple weeks ago in Titus. Paul says this is 00:06:07.709 --> 00:06:10.769 a trustworthy statement. He writes five of those 00:06:10.769 --> 00:06:14.129 to Timothy and Titus instructing his young protégés, 00:06:14.230 --> 00:06:17.009 these are things you should remember and pass 00:06:17.009 --> 00:06:19.990 along. Continue to read these things and teach 00:06:19.990 --> 00:06:22.910 these things. They're creedal statements. So 00:06:22.910 --> 00:06:24.930 they're all over the New Testament. And it's 00:06:24.930 --> 00:06:27.300 important for us to understand this. If this 00:06:27.300 --> 00:06:28.800 is something that's bothered you in the past, 00:06:28.860 --> 00:06:30.959 I know some evangelicals are like, when I hear 00:06:30.959 --> 00:06:33.759 the word creed, I think Roman Catholic. Don't 00:06:33.759 --> 00:06:36.060 do that. They are actually biblical, and they 00:06:36.060 --> 00:06:38.519 have served the church well for centuries. We're 00:06:38.519 --> 00:06:40.500 going to see that today. Let me give you just 00:06:40.500 --> 00:06:42.819 a handful of ways that they can be used even 00:06:42.819 --> 00:06:45.199 in the church today, even in a church like ours. 00:06:45.639 --> 00:06:48.160 First of all, they can be used to lay out what 00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:50.899 we call the non -negotiable essential doctrines 00:06:50.899 --> 00:06:53.750 of the faith. Those categories of belief that 00:06:53.750 --> 00:06:57.050 literally define the gospel and separate orthodox 00:06:57.050 --> 00:07:00.730 or right thinking from heresy. And we actually 00:07:00.730 --> 00:07:03.230 do this as a church. All those churches out there 00:07:03.230 --> 00:07:05.389 that have doctrinal statements on their websites, 00:07:05.709 --> 00:07:09.089 those are creeds. Those are creeds of a sort, 00:07:09.269 --> 00:07:11.810 right? We have one for the essentials that we 00:07:11.810 --> 00:07:13.949 believe and we have one for non -essentials, 00:07:13.949 --> 00:07:16.149 things that there's room for disagreement. So 00:07:16.149 --> 00:07:19.319 we have our own creed here at Oak Hill. Secondly, 00:07:19.439 --> 00:07:22.819 creeds can be fantastic teaching tools. We've 00:07:22.819 --> 00:07:26.519 seen this in adult small groups. We've seen this 00:07:26.519 --> 00:07:28.800 in youth groups. We've seen this even with our 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:31.620 kids where they're learning basic creedal statements 00:07:31.620 --> 00:07:35.740 about the faith. When creeds summarize doctrine 00:07:35.740 --> 00:07:39.139 in a simple way, then we can understand the essentials 00:07:39.139 --> 00:07:42.300 and we can memorize those things. We can recite 00:07:42.300 --> 00:07:45.920 them and it's wonderful for kids. Never forget 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:47.879 that the New Testament warns us as the people 00:07:47.879 --> 00:07:49.680 of God that we are always going to be tempted 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:54.180 to drift, to turn to myths, to be tossed to and 00:07:54.180 --> 00:07:57.120 fro, to every wind of doctrine. So we're called 00:07:57.120 --> 00:07:59.860 in Scripture to hold on to what Paul calls the 00:07:59.860 --> 00:08:03.439 pattern of sound words, to the apostolic teaching 00:08:03.439 --> 00:08:06.939 that was once for all handed down to the saints. 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:10.209 Creeds help us do that. They serve as guardrails 00:08:10.209 --> 00:08:13.569 to help us stay in the lane of essential doctrine. 00:08:13.769 --> 00:08:16.829 And as we constantly reaffirm those things that 00:08:16.829 --> 00:08:19.370 are in the creeds, we remember those essential 00:08:19.370 --> 00:08:21.750 truths. We rehearse them in our minds and we 00:08:21.750 --> 00:08:23.589 go, oh yeah, that's what I'm supposed to believe 00:08:23.589 --> 00:08:26.050 and that's what I'm supposed to be living out. 00:08:26.810 --> 00:08:29.430 Very, very important. Third, creeds can be helpful 00:08:29.430 --> 00:08:33.169 in doing apologetics. and polemics, helping us 00:08:33.169 --> 00:08:35.450 to draw distinctions between what is orthodox 00:08:35.450 --> 00:08:38.870 or right thinking versus those who might seek 00:08:38.870 --> 00:08:41.350 to come into the body and introduce false teachings 00:08:41.350 --> 00:08:44.309 and heresy. And to that end, it's the creed that 00:08:44.309 --> 00:08:47.009 becomes an objective standard by which the church 00:08:47.009 --> 00:08:49.950 disciplines those who come in and bring error 00:08:49.950 --> 00:08:52.389 or false teaching into the body if they will 00:08:52.389 --> 00:08:56.570 not recant of those things. So creeds. that purpose 00:08:56.570 --> 00:08:59.049 as well. Fourth, creeds are effective as a witness 00:08:59.049 --> 00:09:01.710 to the historical nature of the church. They 00:09:01.710 --> 00:09:05.110 connect us to our past. They connect us to heroes 00:09:05.110 --> 00:09:08.110 of the faith, saints of old who have served us. 00:09:08.970 --> 00:09:11.269 And this is the best way to think about it. Saints 00:09:11.269 --> 00:09:13.389 of the past who have served us by contending 00:09:13.389 --> 00:09:16.210 for the faith in their day, laying the groundwork 00:09:16.210 --> 00:09:20.169 for our preaching and our teaching. Fifth, creeds 00:09:20.169 --> 00:09:23.179 can be used in liturgy and in worship. as a means 00:09:23.179 --> 00:09:25.559 of leading the congregation into prayer, into 00:09:25.559 --> 00:09:28.539 praise, and in when we observe the sacraments 00:09:28.539 --> 00:09:31.279 of the church. Creeds can be used as we gather 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:33.860 around the communion table or as we stand at 00:09:33.860 --> 00:09:36.720 the water's edge of a baptism because they summarize 00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:39.740 what we believe. And finally, creeds can be used 00:09:39.740 --> 00:09:43.399 as a source of unity. a way to foster fellowship 00:09:43.399 --> 00:09:46.700 between churches because we have an agreement 00:09:46.700 --> 00:09:49.179 on the core essentials. And so we can connect 00:09:49.179 --> 00:09:51.580 to churches from the past. We can connect to 00:09:51.580 --> 00:09:53.740 churches on the other side of the earth because 00:09:53.740 --> 00:09:57.759 we have creeds that match each other and we're 00:09:57.759 --> 00:10:00.519 in agreement on the essentials. Does that make 00:10:00.519 --> 00:10:02.799 sense? So don't be afraid of these things. They're 00:10:02.799 --> 00:10:05.000 actually very beneficial. Now, we think about 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:07.039 the ancient creeds. There's four big ones, and 00:10:07.039 --> 00:10:09.500 some of you may have grown up in a tradition 00:10:09.500 --> 00:10:11.580 where these were read in church, and that's wonderful. 00:10:11.879 --> 00:10:14.539 The Apostles' Creed, which wasn't written by 00:10:14.539 --> 00:10:17.120 the apostles, by the way, but that's okay. The 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:18.779 Nicene Creed, which we're going to look at today. 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:21.059 The Athanasian Creed, which wasn't written by 00:10:21.059 --> 00:10:23.820 Athanasius either. But the Chalcedonian Creed 00:10:23.820 --> 00:10:27.539 as well. Very, very important. And if you want 00:10:27.539 --> 00:10:28.980 to take a picture of that, you want to look these 00:10:28.980 --> 00:10:32.480 up, very, very important to our faith. Now, what 00:10:32.480 --> 00:10:33.860 about confessions? How many of you guys have 00:10:33.860 --> 00:10:36.120 heard of confessions? Okay, so we have creeds 00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:38.179 and we have confessions. Confessions are slightly 00:10:38.179 --> 00:10:40.960 different. The word for confession also has a 00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:43.600 Latin root, which basically means I acknowledge 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:47.299 or I declare. Now, a confession is much more 00:10:47.299 --> 00:10:51.309 detailed than a creed. Okay, it's much more thorough 00:10:51.309 --> 00:10:55.330 and it basically, again, puts together what an 00:10:55.330 --> 00:10:57.389 individual believes or what a church believes. 00:10:57.610 --> 00:11:00.009 And in many cases, you see confessions that are 00:11:00.009 --> 00:11:02.230 written in order to make distinctions between 00:11:02.230 --> 00:11:05.210 denominations. Creeds often will fit on like 00:11:05.210 --> 00:11:07.929 a half a sheet of paper, but confessions, when 00:11:07.929 --> 00:11:10.409 you open them up, many chapters that usually 00:11:10.409 --> 00:11:13.870 cover dozens of theological positions. Confessions 00:11:13.870 --> 00:11:16.669 are mainly found in the Protestant world. And 00:11:16.669 --> 00:11:18.669 most of the most famous confessions come out 00:11:18.669 --> 00:11:21.750 of the Reformation, the 16th and 17th centuries 00:11:21.750 --> 00:11:24.169 as churches were breaking away from the Roman 00:11:24.169 --> 00:11:26.850 Catholic system and beginning to define what 00:11:26.850 --> 00:11:28.950 they believed, especially in relation to one 00:11:28.950 --> 00:11:31.190 another. You have all these confessions being 00:11:31.190 --> 00:11:33.850 written in that time period. So again, you might 00:11:33.850 --> 00:11:35.909 recognize one of your traditions you grew up 00:11:35.909 --> 00:11:38.549 in. In the Lutheran church, you had the Augsburg 00:11:38.549 --> 00:11:42.200 Confession and the Book of Concord. In the Reformed 00:11:42.200 --> 00:11:44.659 circles, you have what folks in the Reformed 00:11:44.659 --> 00:11:48.019 world called the three forms of unity, the Belgic 00:11:48.019 --> 00:11:50.799 Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the 00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:54.700 Canons of Dort, which sort of summarized Calvin's 00:11:54.700 --> 00:11:58.620 belief system. In the Anglican Church, Thomas 00:11:58.620 --> 00:12:03.000 Cranmer created the 39 Articles. In the Presbyterian 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:05.379 churches, they hold very firmly to the Westminster 00:12:05.379 --> 00:12:07.879 Confession of Faith and their two catechisms, 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:11.840 the larger and shorter catechisms. And even congregational 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:15.159 churches, even independent, even Baptist churches 00:12:15.159 --> 00:12:17.740 have their confessions. For example, the Savoy 00:12:17.740 --> 00:12:20.860 Declaration and the Second London Baptist Confession 00:12:20.860 --> 00:12:25.879 of 1689. If you know a 1689 Baptist, you know 00:12:25.879 --> 00:12:27.500 what I'm talking about. They're very serious 00:12:27.500 --> 00:12:32.730 about it. Anybody? Okay, good. Anyway, so confessions, 00:12:32.730 --> 00:12:35.490 mainly Protestant, but creeds have spread throughout 00:12:35.490 --> 00:12:38.210 the history of the ancient church. Now, here's 00:12:38.210 --> 00:12:41.029 a quick note of caution about creeds and confessions. 00:12:41.350 --> 00:12:43.590 Although they are written to summarize biblical 00:12:43.590 --> 00:12:45.990 truth, we have to remember they were compiled 00:12:45.990 --> 00:12:50.840 by men. Fallible men, right? Imperfect men. So 00:12:50.840 --> 00:12:53.240 they're not infallible as scripture is. They 00:12:53.240 --> 00:12:56.440 do not have divine authority on their own. Sometimes 00:12:56.440 --> 00:12:59.100 churches fall into error on this. They will prefer 00:12:59.100 --> 00:13:01.000 to look at the creed rather than the scriptures, 00:13:01.139 --> 00:13:03.659 but they have no divine authority on their own. 00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:06.320 We are a people that holds to sola scriptura. 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:08.879 What does that mean? It means that it's profitable 00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:11.440 to study these things. We can read it. We can 00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:13.840 study it. We can even recite creeds and confessions. 00:13:14.509 --> 00:13:16.690 But always keeping in mind that any authority 00:13:16.690 --> 00:13:19.970 that they have on our conscience is only when 00:13:19.970 --> 00:13:21.870 they're in line with what God has said in his 00:13:21.870 --> 00:13:24.909 word. And that's critically important. Now I 00:13:24.909 --> 00:13:26.750 realize for some reason some folks, especially 00:13:26.750 --> 00:13:29.669 in the evangelical church, I've met folks like 00:13:29.669 --> 00:13:32.370 this who will proudly say, I don't need a creed, 00:13:32.370 --> 00:13:35.409 I have no creed but Christ. Or I have no creed 00:13:35.409 --> 00:13:37.909 but the Bible. You know what the irony of that 00:13:37.909 --> 00:13:42.809 is? That's a creedal statement. We all believe 00:13:42.809 --> 00:13:44.970 in creeds to some extent, right? So it's actually 00:13:44.970 --> 00:13:47.269 not super helpful to say, well, I just believe 00:13:47.269 --> 00:13:49.789 in the entire Bible because you know what? Everybody 00:13:49.789 --> 00:13:52.950 claims that, even heretics. So at some point, 00:13:53.009 --> 00:13:54.529 you're gonna have to, every believer in every 00:13:54.529 --> 00:13:56.629 church is gonna have to lay out, well, this is 00:13:56.629 --> 00:13:58.549 what we think the Bible teaches on all these 00:13:58.549 --> 00:14:01.629 important topics. That's why things like creeds 00:14:01.629 --> 00:14:04.009 and confessions and yes, even doctrinal statements 00:14:04.009 --> 00:14:07.590 can be both enlightening and helpful. Make sense? 00:14:08.409 --> 00:14:10.389 Okay, before we get to the main topic, one last 00:14:10.389 --> 00:14:12.309 thing we want to talk about, a word about church 00:14:12.309 --> 00:14:16.429 councils. Again, some of you, you may be a little 00:14:16.429 --> 00:14:18.029 unfamiliar with history. You hear the phrase 00:14:18.029 --> 00:14:21.769 church council and you think what? Roman Catholics 00:14:21.769 --> 00:14:25.330 or maybe Eastern Orthodox. But hold on a second. 00:14:25.730 --> 00:14:29.009 Even church councils have a precedent in the 00:14:29.009 --> 00:14:32.570 scriptures. Can anybody name or think in your, 00:14:32.590 --> 00:14:34.090 you don't have to shout it out, but think in 00:14:34.090 --> 00:14:36.389 your mind about a council in the New Testament. 00:14:37.870 --> 00:14:40.909 Ah, I heard a whisper. Acts 15, what we call 00:14:40.909 --> 00:14:44.190 the Jerusalem Council. You might remember that, 00:14:44.250 --> 00:14:47.309 right? You had godly men from Antioch and Jerusalem 00:14:47.309 --> 00:14:50.090 come together. Very important moment in the history 00:14:50.090 --> 00:14:52.470 of the first century church. They came to resolve 00:14:52.470 --> 00:14:55.529 a disagreement and they came to ward off a potential 00:14:55.529 --> 00:14:59.970 heresy, this Judaizing heresy that was threatening 00:14:59.970 --> 00:15:03.350 to creep into the church because the gospel was 00:15:03.350 --> 00:15:06.549 going out to the Gentiles in the early... apostles 00:15:06.549 --> 00:15:08.049 were trying to figure out what does this mean 00:15:08.049 --> 00:15:10.470 and how do we sort this out? And so what did 00:15:10.470 --> 00:15:13.549 they do? They called a council to do that. So 00:15:13.549 --> 00:15:16.250 in the biblical tradition, councils in the post 00:15:16.250 --> 00:15:18.629 -apostolic period of church history were called 00:15:18.629 --> 00:15:20.909 for the same reasons, because we have things 00:15:20.909 --> 00:15:22.750 that need to get resolved, because we need to 00:15:22.750 --> 00:15:25.169 protect the people against heresies, because 00:15:25.169 --> 00:15:28.289 we need to fight for unity across the empire. 00:15:28.429 --> 00:15:31.250 Jesus wants his church to be unified, so we need 00:15:31.250 --> 00:15:33.950 to fight for that. Now, depending on who you 00:15:33.950 --> 00:15:36.610 ask, there have been anywhere between Three and 00:15:36.610 --> 00:15:41.049 21 ecumenical councils. When we say ecumenical, 00:15:41.210 --> 00:15:43.710 universally agreed upon. But think about that, 00:15:43.789 --> 00:15:48.210 three to 21. Rome recognizes all 21 of those 00:15:48.210 --> 00:15:51.730 because they run the joint. They're like, those 00:15:51.730 --> 00:15:53.669 are all our councils and they claim them all, 00:15:53.730 --> 00:15:56.549 all 21. The last of which, by the way, was Vatican 00:15:56.549 --> 00:16:00.330 II, which took place in my lifetime, in the 1960s. 00:16:00.389 --> 00:16:03.129 So it hasn't been that long. The Eastern Orthodox 00:16:03.129 --> 00:16:06.919 recognize the first seven. ending in the year 00:16:06.919 --> 00:16:11.799 787. The Oriental Orthodox, which includes Coptics 00:16:11.799 --> 00:16:14.879 and Armenians and Ethiopians, they only recognize 00:16:14.879 --> 00:16:19.580 three, ending in the year 451. And we as Protestants 00:16:19.580 --> 00:16:25.620 recognize how many? Nobody wants to guess. That's 00:16:25.620 --> 00:16:30.350 okay. Six. Six. Six, I know, it's okay, I totally 00:16:30.350 --> 00:16:33.350 get that. Six ecumenical councils, the last one 00:16:33.350 --> 00:16:37.230 being in the year 680. So Nicaea, and then we 00:16:37.230 --> 00:16:39.409 have three Constantinoples, and in between an 00:16:39.409 --> 00:16:42.309 Ephesus and a Chalcedon. In my opinion, if you 00:16:42.309 --> 00:16:44.389 were only gonna pick two of those to study, you 00:16:44.389 --> 00:16:47.110 wanna look at Nicaea and Chalcedon. Those really 00:16:47.110 --> 00:16:49.789 are the most important ones in my opinion. Okay. 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:52.080 So we're here to talk about that first one today. 00:16:52.259 --> 00:16:55.460 The 1 ,700 years ago, you see it on the screen. 00:16:55.539 --> 00:16:58.179 Let me start by telling you how the council came 00:16:58.179 --> 00:17:01.019 about and why it came about. And it's actually 00:17:01.019 --> 00:17:04.400 a very interesting historical story. So it all 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:07.839 starts with an arch heretic by the name of Arius 00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:13.720 of Alexandria. Yes, it's timeline time. I love 00:17:13.720 --> 00:17:18.539 you guys. Arius of Alexandria, born in the year 00:17:18.539 --> 00:17:22.079 250. and we're not exactly sure where, but somewhere 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:25.259 in North Africa. What we do know is that he studied 00:17:25.259 --> 00:17:28.920 on a well -known scholar of his day who later 00:17:28.920 --> 00:17:31.720 was declared a heretic himself, a man named Lucian 00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:34.299 of Antioch, and then somewhere around the year 00:17:34.299 --> 00:17:39.380 306, he came to Alexandria, Egypt, and he was 00:17:39.380 --> 00:17:42.700 named a deacon in the Church of Alexandria. Now, 00:17:42.759 --> 00:17:45.059 if you know anything about ancient history, Alexandria 00:17:45.059 --> 00:17:47.750 was one of the great... learning centers of the 00:17:47.750 --> 00:17:50.490 ancient world. So becoming a deacon in that church 00:17:50.490 --> 00:17:52.869 meant that Arius was going to be in the spotlight. 00:17:53.190 --> 00:17:55.690 It took him 12 years, but you see there eventually 00:17:55.690 --> 00:17:58.829 became a presbyter, which is the fancy Greek 00:17:58.829 --> 00:18:02.049 word for elder, became an elder in the church 00:18:02.049 --> 00:18:06.430 of Alexandria in the year 318. And his teachings 00:18:06.430 --> 00:18:10.289 as an elder began over time to slowly differ 00:18:10.289 --> 00:18:13.390 from the teachings of the bishop there in Alexandria. 00:18:15.069 --> 00:18:17.569 That began to raise a stir. Now, at this point, 00:18:17.630 --> 00:18:20.150 Arius was 68 years old, so he's an older guy. 00:18:20.190 --> 00:18:22.390 He's got lots of friends. He's got lots of connections. 00:18:22.630 --> 00:18:25.670 All across the Eastern Roman Empire, he has many, 00:18:25.769 --> 00:18:28.349 many disciples there in the city of Alexandria. 00:18:29.589 --> 00:18:31.670 Arius, from what we can tell from writings, and 00:18:31.670 --> 00:18:33.829 I do admit that the things that we have been 00:18:33.829 --> 00:18:35.509 written about Arius are written by his enemies, 00:18:35.589 --> 00:18:38.589 so we always have to be careful not to overstate 00:18:38.589 --> 00:18:41.650 who he was, but today we'd call him a celebrity 00:18:41.650 --> 00:18:45.440 preacher. He was that guy. He was widely admired 00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:49.319 in Alexandria and across the world for his very 00:18:49.319 --> 00:18:52.339 disciplined ascetic lifestyle, for his really 00:18:52.339 --> 00:18:55.539 higher sort of education and learning, and also 00:18:55.539 --> 00:18:58.740 for having a very charismatic personality. In 00:18:58.740 --> 00:19:01.960 addition to that, he was a musician and a songwriter. 00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:06.779 It's always the musicians, isn't it? Grant's 00:19:06.779 --> 00:19:08.400 not even here. I can't even make fun of him. 00:19:08.880 --> 00:19:10.660 Micah's here, though. Where's Micah? There you 00:19:10.660 --> 00:19:13.910 are. He was a musician, a songwriter. In fact, 00:19:13.970 --> 00:19:16.950 this is absolutely true. We know this for a fact. 00:19:17.210 --> 00:19:20.490 He was known to take his unique doctrinal ideas 00:19:20.490 --> 00:19:23.480 and set them to music. He would create little 00:19:23.480 --> 00:19:26.640 jingles that people could easily remember and 00:19:26.640 --> 00:19:29.460 basically sing his theology. So if you were walking 00:19:29.460 --> 00:19:32.099 down the street of Alexandria in this time, you 00:19:32.099 --> 00:19:34.220 would hear just common people singing about the 00:19:34.220 --> 00:19:37.400 theology of Arius. Very clever, right? Very smart. 00:19:37.720 --> 00:19:40.559 So that's who he was. Now, he was a force to 00:19:40.559 --> 00:19:43.259 be reckoned with. And the bishop of that time 00:19:43.259 --> 00:19:46.880 in Alexandria, who ironically his name was Alexander, 00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:51.670 Alexander of Alexandria, he was... He recognized 00:19:51.670 --> 00:19:55.329 that Arius was becoming a threat, a threat to 00:19:55.329 --> 00:19:57.630 the unity of the church in Alexandria, also a 00:19:57.630 --> 00:20:00.069 threat to the Orthodox teaching in the Eastern 00:20:00.069 --> 00:20:02.950 Empire. So what did he teach? Well, we could 00:20:02.950 --> 00:20:04.630 spend the next hour talking about that. I'm going 00:20:04.630 --> 00:20:06.230 to give you just a couple bullet points about 00:20:06.230 --> 00:20:09.170 what Arius was out there teaching. At the core, 00:20:09.230 --> 00:20:11.710 and we do call this Arianism today, and it's 00:20:11.710 --> 00:20:14.670 still around, by the way, Arianism, the core 00:20:14.670 --> 00:20:17.910 is that Jesus, God the Son, was not eternal. 00:20:18.620 --> 00:20:22.880 He was a created being. Now, Ares would say, 00:20:22.900 --> 00:20:25.940 look, Jesus was the very first creation. He's 00:20:25.940 --> 00:20:28.400 the Father's highest, most glorious creation. 00:20:28.779 --> 00:20:31.599 He's greater than the angels. In fact, he would 00:20:31.599 --> 00:20:34.799 say, we can even refer to Jesus as divine because 00:20:34.799 --> 00:20:38.039 of how glorious he is, because of his preeminence 00:20:38.039 --> 00:20:42.660 as the firstborn over creation. But in a world 00:20:42.660 --> 00:20:45.920 where categories actually do matter, If you look 00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:49.319 at, does Arius put Jesus on the side of the ledger 00:20:49.319 --> 00:20:52.440 of creature versus creator? Arius says he is 00:20:52.440 --> 00:20:56.079 a creature, not the creator as scripture repeatedly 00:20:56.079 --> 00:20:59.500 says. In fact, the repeated statement that Arius 00:20:59.500 --> 00:21:03.839 made and put to song, put to a jingle was, there 00:21:03.839 --> 00:21:08.049 was a time when the sun was not. There was a 00:21:08.049 --> 00:21:10.710 time when the Son was not. And he defended that 00:21:10.710 --> 00:21:13.710 idea by a combination of the philosophy of his 00:21:13.710 --> 00:21:16.609 day, Neoplatonism, and certain New Testament 00:21:16.609 --> 00:21:20.009 passages. He took the phrase begotten of the 00:21:20.009 --> 00:21:23.589 Father and incorrectly extrapolated what that 00:21:23.589 --> 00:21:25.890 term meant. He also looked at what Jesus said 00:21:25.890 --> 00:21:28.750 of himself in John 16, where he said, Jesus says, 00:21:28.809 --> 00:21:32.269 I came forth from the Father and came into the 00:21:32.269 --> 00:21:35.250 world. Now listen. These guys did not have the 00:21:35.250 --> 00:21:37.150 benefit that we have of thousands of years of 00:21:37.150 --> 00:21:39.349 scholarship. You can almost see where Arius might 00:21:39.349 --> 00:21:42.289 make this mistake. I'm always careful. I know 00:21:42.289 --> 00:21:44.250 we've got these arch heretics in church history. 00:21:44.430 --> 00:21:46.750 I'm always careful to put myself in those sandals 00:21:46.750 --> 00:21:48.349 and say, could I have made that same mistake? 00:21:48.670 --> 00:21:52.430 And we should be humble about that. Now, the 00:21:52.430 --> 00:21:54.369 one thing that Arius was really right on, and 00:21:54.369 --> 00:21:57.650 he was firmly committed to, was monotheism, the 00:21:57.650 --> 00:22:01.069 oneness of God. And that's good. But in his mind, 00:22:01.069 --> 00:22:04.109 if the Father was God, and the Son was also God, 00:22:04.329 --> 00:22:08.190 then God's nature could be divided. And if God's 00:22:08.190 --> 00:22:10.410 nature could be divided, then that overthrows 00:22:10.410 --> 00:22:13.529 monotheism. So therefore, he argued, Jesus had 00:22:13.529 --> 00:22:17.750 to be somehow less than God the Father. Somehow. 00:22:18.369 --> 00:22:21.849 Certainly less in terms of what we call ontological 00:22:21.849 --> 00:22:25.289 subordination, this idea that he is a God. Where 00:22:25.289 --> 00:22:28.329 have you heard that in the world today? Jehovah's 00:22:28.329 --> 00:22:30.490 Witnesses. A God, not God Almighty, but a God, 00:22:30.650 --> 00:22:33.009 right? It's still around in the Jehovah's Witnesses 00:22:33.009 --> 00:22:36.589 today. So he just can't be God Almighty. He's 00:22:36.589 --> 00:22:39.390 got to be less than the Father. And here's the 00:22:39.390 --> 00:22:43.269 thing about Ares' teaching. It caught on. In 00:22:43.269 --> 00:22:46.069 fact, it threatened to overthrow Orthodox teaching 00:22:46.069 --> 00:22:49.049 in his day. Over a period of three years, the 00:22:49.049 --> 00:22:52.299 popularity of his ideas... forced Alexander the 00:22:52.299 --> 00:22:54.799 bishop to call a local synod of other bishops 00:22:54.799 --> 00:22:57.799 where they talked through what to do with this 00:22:57.799 --> 00:23:01.000 guy who's an elder in his own church and is teaching 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:05.140 wrong ideas. So in the year 321, at that synod, 00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:09.099 Arius was condemned and he was excommunicated 00:23:09.099 --> 00:23:12.220 from the church. Now, do you think that stopped 00:23:12.220 --> 00:23:17.259 him? It did not. As with many heretics, they 00:23:17.259 --> 00:23:20.539 are not easily dissuaded. Rather than humbly 00:23:20.539 --> 00:23:23.099 pause his teaching and come into submission to 00:23:23.099 --> 00:23:26.220 his bishop and the fellow elders, Arius fled 00:23:26.220 --> 00:23:29.259 Alexandria and went to a place where he would 00:23:29.259 --> 00:23:31.420 be well received. He went north up to Caesarea, 00:23:31.640 --> 00:23:33.900 where he was received by the bishop there, a 00:23:33.900 --> 00:23:38.460 man named Eusebius. And from there, Arius waged 00:23:38.460 --> 00:23:42.799 a three -year campaign of doctrinal war against... 00:23:43.359 --> 00:23:46.319 his fellow elders former fellow elders in the 00:23:46.319 --> 00:23:48.960 city of alexandria and everywhere he went and 00:23:48.960 --> 00:23:51.839 everywhere he wrote to he created little pockets 00:23:51.839 --> 00:23:55.759 of support in various places now what did we 00:23:55.759 --> 00:23:58.279 just learn was that last week in titus 3 about 00:23:58.279 --> 00:24:01.920 a factious man two weeks ago a factious man he's 00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:04.059 self -condemned is he not well this is what arius 00:24:04.059 --> 00:24:07.819 was doing he was a factious man So the Christian 00:24:07.819 --> 00:24:10.660 world, especially in the East, was now literally 00:24:10.660 --> 00:24:13.660 at war with itself, asking the question, this 00:24:13.660 --> 00:24:16.299 is important, first of all, who is Jesus? But 00:24:16.299 --> 00:24:20.079 second, what is Jesus? And that may surprise 00:24:20.079 --> 00:24:22.920 you, but it's important. Who is Jesus? What is 00:24:22.920 --> 00:24:26.160 Jesus? What is his nature? Is he God, or is he 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:28.839 a created being? Is he more than a regular man, 00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:33.259 but still less than Almighty God? Now, into the 00:24:33.259 --> 00:24:36.660 midst of that mess in the church walks one of 00:24:36.660 --> 00:24:40.180 the most interesting men in all of human history. 00:24:40.359 --> 00:24:44.920 And his name is Constantine I. The Roman Emperor 00:24:44.920 --> 00:24:47.640 Constantine I. Now, man, again, we could spend 00:24:47.640 --> 00:24:49.819 an hour on the biography of this man. He is so 00:24:49.819 --> 00:24:53.119 interesting. He is... One of the most influential 00:24:53.119 --> 00:24:55.519 men who's ever walked the planet, both for the 00:24:55.519 --> 00:24:57.799 Roman Empire and for the direction of the church. 00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:00.720 Very interesting guy. But right around the time 00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:03.720 that Arius came to Alexandria, Constantine's 00:25:03.720 --> 00:25:07.819 father died and he came to power way off in the 00:25:07.819 --> 00:25:10.380 far off land of today we call Great Britain. 00:25:10.759 --> 00:25:14.660 Way up there in the British Isles. Now, when 00:25:14.660 --> 00:25:16.599 Constantine comes to power, the Roman Empire 00:25:16.599 --> 00:25:19.099 is in a very strange place. It's ruled by what 00:25:19.099 --> 00:25:22.069 was called a Tetrarchy. which basically meant 00:25:22.069 --> 00:25:24.490 four men were ruling this vast Roman Empire. 00:25:24.650 --> 00:25:27.269 The empire had grown so large that it had to 00:25:27.269 --> 00:25:30.309 be divided into four sectors and basically establish 00:25:30.309 --> 00:25:33.730 four different rulers just to govern it. But 00:25:33.730 --> 00:25:36.490 both East and West had a primary ruler, he was 00:25:36.490 --> 00:25:39.789 called an Augustus, and sort of a junior ruler, 00:25:39.910 --> 00:25:42.410 who was the one who would take over next, he 00:25:42.410 --> 00:25:46.119 was called a Caesar. So you had a... an Augustus 00:25:46.119 --> 00:25:49.160 and a Caesar in the West, and you had an Augustus 00:25:49.160 --> 00:25:51.680 and a Caesar in the East. Constantine, at the 00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:55.460 age of 34, becomes the Caesar in the West, up 00:25:55.460 --> 00:25:58.000 in the British Isles. But here's the thing. He 00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:01.160 has huge ambition. He has no intention of staying 00:26:01.160 --> 00:26:04.059 way out there in Britain and just being a junior 00:26:04.059 --> 00:26:06.700 officer. And by the way, his troops loved him. 00:26:06.839 --> 00:26:10.690 And they said the same thing. Let's come together 00:26:10.690 --> 00:26:13.750 and let's establish you as the sole emperor in 00:26:13.750 --> 00:26:15.569 all of Rome. And that's what he wanted to be. 00:26:16.029 --> 00:26:19.509 So over the next 18 years, Constantine would 00:26:19.509 --> 00:26:22.190 fight a series of wars against his own Roman 00:26:22.190 --> 00:26:26.109 rivals in order to become sole emperor. Along 00:26:26.109 --> 00:26:28.150 the way, there was one very important moment. 00:26:28.410 --> 00:26:30.609 He fought a battle against one of his rivals 00:26:30.609 --> 00:26:33.390 at a place called Milvian Bridge. Anybody heard 00:26:33.390 --> 00:26:35.569 of it? The Battle of Milvian Bridge. Look it 00:26:35.569 --> 00:26:39.140 up. This is where it said. that the night before 00:26:39.140 --> 00:26:42.559 the battle, Constantine received a vision from 00:26:42.559 --> 00:26:46.059 the God of the Christians. And in this vision, 00:26:46.099 --> 00:26:49.460 he heard a voice say, upon the sign of the cross, 00:26:49.740 --> 00:26:55.180 you will be victorious. Now, books and books 00:26:55.180 --> 00:26:56.859 have been written about this, about how legitimate 00:26:56.859 --> 00:26:59.960 this is. What we do know is he instructed all 00:26:59.960 --> 00:27:02.279 of his soldiers to paint a cross on their shields. 00:27:02.640 --> 00:27:05.779 He went out the next day, and guess what? He 00:27:05.779 --> 00:27:09.339 was victorious. That happens in the year 312, 00:27:09.400 --> 00:27:14.299 and that puts Constantine as now the Augustus 00:27:14.299 --> 00:27:16.660 in the West. He is now the sole ruler over the 00:27:16.660 --> 00:27:20.619 entire Western Roman Empire. What comes next 00:27:20.619 --> 00:27:23.200 is fascinating. In light of that vision that 00:27:23.200 --> 00:27:24.900 he had received from the God of the Christians, 00:27:25.220 --> 00:27:27.960 Constantine then reaches out to the Augustus 00:27:27.960 --> 00:27:31.740 of the East, a man named Licinius, and he says, 00:27:31.759 --> 00:27:34.180 let's sit down and let's talk about the status 00:27:34.180 --> 00:27:38.160 of Christianity in the empire. Now, right before 00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:42.599 this, how were Christian leaders treated? Not 00:27:42.599 --> 00:27:46.559 good. Threats, persecution, arrest, execution, 00:27:46.660 --> 00:27:49.819 all of those things. But now we have possibly, 00:27:50.059 --> 00:27:52.980 and I say possibly on purpose, a Christian emperor, 00:27:53.099 --> 00:27:56.599 a newly believing Christian emperor who says, 00:27:56.680 --> 00:27:59.579 let's talk about this. He and Licinius meet in 00:27:59.579 --> 00:28:02.380 the city of Milan, and they come out with a joint 00:28:02.380 --> 00:28:05.220 statement that we call the Edict of Milan in 00:28:05.220 --> 00:28:09.079 the year 313. What this decree did was it provided 00:28:09.079 --> 00:28:11.559 for religious freedom across the entire empire 00:28:11.559 --> 00:28:14.500 for everybody, something that we have in America, 00:28:14.619 --> 00:28:17.099 right, that we take for granted sometimes, but 00:28:17.099 --> 00:28:19.720 it's beautiful. Religious freedom, including 00:28:19.720 --> 00:28:24.119 Christianity. Now think about this. Licinius 00:28:24.119 --> 00:28:26.779 is not a believer, but somehow the Lord is at 00:28:26.779 --> 00:28:28.900 work here, and between the two of them, they 00:28:28.900 --> 00:28:30.980 come out and say, you know, we need more unity 00:28:30.980 --> 00:28:34.119 within the empire. We're so spread out, we need 00:28:34.119 --> 00:28:38.250 more civic unity and peace. So if you're a Christian 00:28:38.250 --> 00:28:41.309 leader, a year before that, you're basically 00:28:41.309 --> 00:28:43.690 operating in the shadows, afraid to be arrested. 00:28:44.269 --> 00:28:48.029 Now everything has changed. You now can come 00:28:48.029 --> 00:28:51.109 out of the shadows. Your faith, our faith, is 00:28:51.109 --> 00:28:56.029 now a state -approved religion. It's got to be 00:28:56.029 --> 00:28:59.230 religiously the biggest turnaround in the history 00:28:59.230 --> 00:29:02.849 of man, from being possibly executed to being 00:29:02.849 --> 00:29:05.569 state -approved because of one man, Constantine. 00:29:06.039 --> 00:29:07.980 and the Edict of Milan. Very, very important. 00:29:08.180 --> 00:29:12.980 Now, fast forward to the year 324. 324, the Roman 00:29:12.980 --> 00:29:16.380 world is not big enough for two Augustuses, and 00:29:16.380 --> 00:29:19.000 so Licinius and Constantine go to war against 00:29:19.000 --> 00:29:21.680 each other, and once again, Constantine comes 00:29:21.680 --> 00:29:24.519 out on top. He becomes the sole emperor over 00:29:24.519 --> 00:29:28.599 the entire empire, east and west, and symbolically, 00:29:28.599 --> 00:29:30.759 in the minds of the people, this was a great 00:29:30.759 --> 00:29:34.279 victory for Christianity over Roman paganism. 00:29:34.829 --> 00:29:37.710 So the game has changed for Christians all over 00:29:37.710 --> 00:29:39.789 the world. This is going to set the stage for 00:29:39.789 --> 00:29:42.569 the Council of Nicaea, the very first ecumenical 00:29:42.569 --> 00:29:44.910 council. Now, what's the first thing Constantine 00:29:44.910 --> 00:29:49.130 does? He leaves Rome. He's won it, and now he 00:29:49.130 --> 00:29:51.329 leaves it. And he decides he's going to build 00:29:51.329 --> 00:29:53.970 a whole new capital city in the east. He's going 00:29:53.970 --> 00:29:56.690 to call it New Rome. Eventually, what does he 00:29:56.690 --> 00:30:00.089 call it? Constantinople. Named it after himself, 00:30:00.309 --> 00:30:03.859 of course, right? But as he surveyed the religious 00:30:03.859 --> 00:30:07.240 landscape in the east, guess what he saw? We 00:30:07.240 --> 00:30:10.539 have this massive rift in my new faith. He's 00:30:10.539 --> 00:30:13.619 like, my new faith, I want to be involved in 00:30:13.619 --> 00:30:16.339 this. But I look out there and I see bishops 00:30:16.339 --> 00:30:18.839 at each other's throats. Some of you guys are 00:30:18.839 --> 00:30:22.000 supporting Arius and some of you are supporting 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:26.680 Alexander. This cannot stand. Again, this is 00:30:26.680 --> 00:30:29.529 his new faith. Now, he doesn't understand many 00:30:29.529 --> 00:30:32.009 of the nuances of Christian doctrine. All he 00:30:32.009 --> 00:30:34.750 knows is, I've united the empire, and now we 00:30:34.750 --> 00:30:37.509 need to bring you guys together so we have one 00:30:37.509 --> 00:30:39.970 religion throughout. He is not going to tolerate 00:30:39.970 --> 00:30:43.990 division in his empire. So what does he do? He 00:30:43.990 --> 00:30:47.390 sends imperial letters to both Arius and Alexander, 00:30:47.690 --> 00:30:50.690 and he exhorts them to find common ground and 00:30:50.690 --> 00:30:54.930 unity. How do you think that worked? Not a chance. 00:30:55.549 --> 00:30:59.730 These are not men who are going to be kowtowed 00:30:59.730 --> 00:31:02.609 by even the emperor of Rome. They're going to 00:31:02.609 --> 00:31:05.730 stand by their guns. So what does a good emperor 00:31:05.730 --> 00:31:08.769 do? He says, all right, guys, we need to get 00:31:08.769 --> 00:31:13.769 in a room. And he summons a church council from 00:31:13.769 --> 00:31:15.849 all over the empire. We need to get in a room. 00:31:15.910 --> 00:31:19.690 We need to figure this out. Now, this is a shocking 00:31:19.690 --> 00:31:24.970 first in world history. An emperor. is calling 00:31:24.970 --> 00:31:28.390 a church council. You had bishops at this time 00:31:28.390 --> 00:31:31.549 who literally 10 years before were being tortured 00:31:31.549 --> 00:31:33.910 for their faith. Guys showed up to the council 00:31:33.910 --> 00:31:37.250 of Nicaea missing limbs because the emperors 00:31:37.250 --> 00:31:40.990 had cut their limbs off. And now you've got a 00:31:40.990 --> 00:31:45.009 Roman emperor who's saying, come to me for a 00:31:45.009 --> 00:31:49.470 council, all expenses paid. That's a shock, right? 00:31:49.529 --> 00:31:53.190 In fact, Eusebius records that there was a guy 00:31:53.190 --> 00:31:54.910 who showed up, a bishop who showed up, whose 00:31:54.910 --> 00:31:58.029 eye had just recently been gouged out by the 00:31:58.029 --> 00:32:00.990 emperor Diocletian. And Constantine was so moved 00:32:00.990 --> 00:32:03.589 by his physical condition that the emperor walked 00:32:03.589 --> 00:32:07.089 up and kissed his face. Talk about a turnaround. 00:32:07.210 --> 00:32:10.259 It's absolutely crazy. Constantinople is still 00:32:10.259 --> 00:32:12.559 under construction at this time, so Constantine 00:32:12.559 --> 00:32:16.259 picks a different site for the council. It's 00:32:16.259 --> 00:32:19.400 about 80 miles south of Constantinople, the city 00:32:19.400 --> 00:32:22.180 of Nicaea. And if you go there today, if you 00:32:22.180 --> 00:32:25.599 go to Turkey today, you'll see that still the 00:32:25.599 --> 00:32:27.980 Roman gates of the city of Nicaea are standing. 00:32:28.380 --> 00:32:31.019 You can go visit the Roman ruins there. Fascinating. 00:32:31.539 --> 00:32:33.559 And Constantine, I just have to show you this 00:32:33.559 --> 00:32:38.049 because it's the coolest statue ever made. That 00:32:38.049 --> 00:32:52.150 is, right? When I die? No? In the pulpit? Yeah, 00:32:52.309 --> 00:32:54.769 there you go, exactly. I just have to, this is 00:32:54.769 --> 00:32:57.589 a statue of Constantine from York, England, of 00:32:57.589 --> 00:33:00.450 all places, because that's the place where Constantine 00:33:00.450 --> 00:33:02.670 first came to power as a Caesar in the West, 00:33:02.769 --> 00:33:05.349 in the city of York, England. But I just really 00:33:05.349 --> 00:33:09.569 dig that. Okay. So Constantine convenes this 00:33:09.569 --> 00:33:13.950 council and he is present at it. He literally 00:33:13.950 --> 00:33:17.470 comes in, pomp and circumstance, into the assembly 00:33:17.470 --> 00:33:20.890 hall and sits in his golden chair. You know, 00:33:20.910 --> 00:33:23.970 with the Bible, the scriptures sitting in front 00:33:23.970 --> 00:33:27.069 of him and all these bishops around, and he opens 00:33:27.069 --> 00:33:31.390 the council in the year 325. Opened on May 20th, 00:33:31.390 --> 00:33:35.690 officially closed on July 25th, 325. 1 ,700 years 00:33:35.690 --> 00:33:38.990 ago, almost to the day. Now, not all the bishops 00:33:38.990 --> 00:33:41.289 could make it. Travel was not easy back then. 00:33:41.829 --> 00:33:44.890 Eusebius tells us that around 250 bishops were 00:33:44.890 --> 00:33:47.529 there. Other sources put the number at more than 00:33:47.529 --> 00:33:50.619 300. But what was unique about Nicaea was the 00:33:50.619 --> 00:33:54.660 geographical spread. Now, church councils had 00:33:54.660 --> 00:33:57.400 been held in small numbers in regions. We call 00:33:57.400 --> 00:33:59.779 them synods. But now we've got guys who came 00:33:59.779 --> 00:34:03.099 from as far away as Spain and Britain coming 00:34:03.099 --> 00:34:07.420 all the way into the east into Asia Minor. So 00:34:07.420 --> 00:34:10.380 this is really what we call the first ecumenical 00:34:10.380 --> 00:34:13.840 or universal church council. It was still eastern 00:34:13.840 --> 00:34:16.579 heavy because it was located in the east. And 00:34:16.579 --> 00:34:18.539 by the way, one very important person from the 00:34:18.539 --> 00:34:25.639 West did not show up, the Bishop of Rome. For 00:34:25.639 --> 00:34:27.599 your Roman Catholic friends, the Pope did not 00:34:27.599 --> 00:34:29.539 even show up at the Council of Nicaea, but he 00:34:29.539 --> 00:34:32.219 did send two of his secretaries, which is interesting. 00:34:32.500 --> 00:34:35.519 That just is an aside. But keep this in mind. 00:34:35.559 --> 00:34:38.219 Again, the council was meeting only 12 years 00:34:38.219 --> 00:34:42.380 after the end of these persecutions. Here's the 00:34:42.380 --> 00:34:44.380 thing. This council lasts for three months, and 00:34:44.380 --> 00:34:46.000 I'll spare you the details and jump straight 00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:47.940 to the conclusions they reached, and then we're 00:34:47.940 --> 00:34:49.300 going to look at the creed. That's how we'll 00:34:49.300 --> 00:34:51.059 close out. We'll look at the creed and exactly 00:34:51.059 --> 00:34:54.880 what was established. At issue, you guys, was 00:34:54.880 --> 00:34:59.099 the essence and the personhood of God the Son, 00:34:59.219 --> 00:35:02.400 especially how he relates to God the Father. 00:35:02.699 --> 00:35:05.599 That's the key. And much of the discussion, we're 00:35:05.599 --> 00:35:07.659 going to get a little technical, revolved around 00:35:07.659 --> 00:35:11.769 this Greek word, usia. which in English, if we 00:35:11.769 --> 00:35:15.949 were to translate it, would be essence, substance, 00:35:16.269 --> 00:35:19.090 or being. In other words, it's the whatness of 00:35:19.090 --> 00:35:22.989 something. The whatness. So when we ask, what 00:35:22.989 --> 00:35:27.030 is Jesus? We're asking, what kind of being is 00:35:27.030 --> 00:35:30.250 Jesus? Does that make sense? And the case being 00:35:30.250 --> 00:35:32.449 made by Arius and his followers is that Jesus 00:35:32.449 --> 00:35:34.449 was, here we're going to get into some Greek, 00:35:34.889 --> 00:35:40.849 heteroousion. See that? The Arian party said 00:35:40.849 --> 00:35:44.889 he was heteroousion. In other words, Jesus is 00:35:44.889 --> 00:35:48.309 altogether different or hetero from the Father 00:35:48.309 --> 00:35:52.210 in his being. The Arian said he's not divine, 00:35:52.449 --> 00:35:55.650 he's not God, he's a creature. As much as they 00:35:55.650 --> 00:35:57.670 tried to dress that up, that's the bottom line. 00:35:58.250 --> 00:36:01.610 Hetero. The other side, led by Alexander and 00:36:01.610 --> 00:36:04.889 his brilliant advisor, a deacon by the name of 00:36:04.889 --> 00:36:08.159 Athanasius, who were both at the council. They 00:36:08.159 --> 00:36:12.380 said that Jesus was homoousion, with the Father. 00:36:12.920 --> 00:36:16.460 Homo, or the same. The same essence or being 00:36:16.460 --> 00:36:20.119 as God the Father. In other words, what we call 00:36:20.119 --> 00:36:22.739 the Nicene Party was saying that he is God in 00:36:22.739 --> 00:36:26.099 every way. And, by the way, there was a third 00:36:26.099 --> 00:36:28.880 opinion at the council. And these were the guys, 00:36:29.059 --> 00:36:30.860 you know the guys at the council who are always 00:36:30.860 --> 00:36:33.619 the peacemakers? Like, fellas, can we just find 00:36:33.619 --> 00:36:36.880 some happy middle here, right? Like, too much 00:36:36.880 --> 00:36:39.039 fighting in the family, right? Can we come together 00:36:39.039 --> 00:36:42.659 with a third position? They were known as the 00:36:42.659 --> 00:36:47.159 homoi usian party. What's the difference between 00:36:47.159 --> 00:36:51.119 homo and homoi? Ooh, a single iota. Not one iota. 00:36:51.159 --> 00:36:53.519 That's where that phrase comes from. You guys 00:36:53.519 --> 00:36:55.659 have heard? Oh, I'm too old for this. You guys 00:36:55.659 --> 00:36:59.300 remember? Not one iota. It comes from this particular. 00:37:01.829 --> 00:37:05.670 Homoousion, right? In other words, Jesus is similar 00:37:05.670 --> 00:37:09.309 to the father. He's like the father, okay? One 00:37:09.309 --> 00:37:11.289 is he's altogether different than the father. 00:37:11.349 --> 00:37:13.670 One is he's the exact same as the father. The 00:37:13.670 --> 00:37:16.329 middle party was he's similar to the father. 00:37:16.909 --> 00:37:20.409 Now, that was the lukewarm position, right? The 00:37:20.409 --> 00:37:22.429 one, both extremes were gonna say absolutely 00:37:22.429 --> 00:37:25.369 not. We're not agreeing to that. And in particular, 00:37:25.590 --> 00:37:29.900 Athanasius was like a dog on a bone. He was not 00:37:29.900 --> 00:37:31.820 going to give up. He was not going to give one 00:37:31.820 --> 00:37:36.820 iota, not one budge, against homoousios. Because 00:37:36.820 --> 00:37:39.400 Athanasius in his writing said, as long as we 00:37:39.400 --> 00:37:41.599 teach that Christ is just like the Father or 00:37:41.599 --> 00:37:43.960 similar to the Father, we are stealing his glory. 00:37:45.719 --> 00:37:48.019 We are stealing the worship that he deserves 00:37:48.019 --> 00:37:52.440 as God. What happened then is over the weeks 00:37:52.440 --> 00:37:55.639 of wrangling with the text, eventually the arguments 00:37:55.639 --> 00:38:01.579 of Athanasius won over the homoi. And all of 00:38:01.579 --> 00:38:04.980 a sudden, we had a chance to write a creed and 00:38:04.980 --> 00:38:07.039 bring it to a vote. And that's exactly what happened. 00:38:07.539 --> 00:38:11.199 So the Nicene Creed was produced by the two parties 00:38:11.199 --> 00:38:13.659 that clearly won the day in terms of the arguments. 00:38:14.119 --> 00:38:16.420 Now it was who's going to sign it and who's not 00:38:16.420 --> 00:38:19.019 going to sign it. If you signed it, it was making 00:38:19.019 --> 00:38:21.179 a statement that you were in line with what the 00:38:21.179 --> 00:38:23.559 church believed was true according to Scripture. 00:38:23.800 --> 00:38:26.579 If you chose not to sign it, you were outside 00:38:26.579 --> 00:38:29.250 the Orthodox faith. And in the end, of those 00:38:29.250 --> 00:38:35.769 300 or so bishops, only two didn't sign it. Arius 00:38:35.769 --> 00:38:40.369 got wiped out. He got absolutely run out of town. 00:38:41.230 --> 00:38:45.750 And those two bishops were condemned, excommunicated 00:38:45.750 --> 00:38:48.469 by Constantine, and banished out of the empire. 00:38:49.449 --> 00:38:51.849 So this wasn't just, hey, sorry about that, go 00:38:51.849 --> 00:38:55.860 back to your church. You're gone. Now, Arius 00:38:55.860 --> 00:38:58.119 himself, he was president at the council, but 00:38:58.119 --> 00:39:01.059 he was not a bishop. He was a presbyter. So they 00:39:01.059 --> 00:39:03.719 did give him a chance, and Eusebius records it. 00:39:03.800 --> 00:39:06.960 He defended his views, but he didn't have a vote 00:39:06.960 --> 00:39:10.179 on the creed. And ultimately, Constantine said, 00:39:10.380 --> 00:39:14.539 yeah, you too, Arius, you're gone. And excommunicated 00:39:14.539 --> 00:39:18.179 him and banished him as well. So that's the Nicene 00:39:18.179 --> 00:39:22.440 Council. There's also a great story, Come Find 00:39:22.440 --> 00:39:26.280 Me After Church. Santa Claus was at the Council 00:39:26.280 --> 00:39:30.380 of Nicaea, St. Nicholas, literally, and he punched 00:39:30.380 --> 00:39:34.719 an Aryan in the middle of discussions. I kid 00:39:34.719 --> 00:39:37.760 you not, it's a real story. St. Nick was a beast. 00:39:38.039 --> 00:39:44.000 Okay. Okay. So I just ran through three months 00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:46.840 of debates, but it's really interesting. All 00:39:46.840 --> 00:39:49.260 right. Can we look at the text of the creed itself? 00:39:51.000 --> 00:39:54.599 Okay, here we go. Ready? Gird your loins. Here 00:39:54.599 --> 00:39:57.659 we go. This is how it starts. The first statement. 00:39:57.820 --> 00:40:02.199 We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker 00:40:02.199 --> 00:40:06.460 of all things, visible and invisible. So the 00:40:06.460 --> 00:40:08.599 creed starts where it should. That is a statement 00:40:08.599 --> 00:40:10.599 of monotheism. That's the essential foundation 00:40:10.599 --> 00:40:13.599 that comes out of Judaism, out of the Old Testament, 00:40:13.719 --> 00:40:17.139 right? There is one creator God. His name is 00:40:17.139 --> 00:40:19.139 Yahweh. He is the God of the Bible, both Old 00:40:19.139 --> 00:40:21.619 Testament and New Testament. Can we affirm it? 00:40:22.280 --> 00:40:26.760 Would you sign it? Good. Secondly, and we believe 00:40:26.760 --> 00:40:32.039 in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten 00:40:32.039 --> 00:40:35.760 of the Father, the only begotten. Now, that language 00:40:35.760 --> 00:40:39.019 comes straight out of John 1, right? Verse 14, 00:40:39.139 --> 00:40:41.860 where it says, and the Word became flesh and 00:40:41.860 --> 00:40:45.360 dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as 00:40:45.360 --> 00:40:48.639 of the only begotten from the Father, full of 00:40:48.639 --> 00:40:53.130 grace and truth. Now, what's interesting, At 00:40:53.130 --> 00:40:57.809 the next council that happens in 381 in Constantinople, 00:40:57.909 --> 00:41:01.550 a whole bunch of verbiage gets added to Nicaea. 00:41:02.210 --> 00:41:04.869 And in fact, today, if you say, I want to see 00:41:04.869 --> 00:41:06.710 the Nicene Creed, it's usually a combination 00:41:06.710 --> 00:41:10.230 of the two councils. But this is what gets added 00:41:10.230 --> 00:41:14.570 to that phrase, begotten of the Father. At Constantinople, 00:41:14.670 --> 00:41:18.670 they say, before all worlds or before all ages, 00:41:18.769 --> 00:41:22.280 which is an An important addition. It basically 00:41:22.280 --> 00:41:25.460 has a dual reference. First to John 1 -2 where 00:41:25.460 --> 00:41:28.840 it says the word was in the beginning with God, 00:41:29.059 --> 00:41:32.000 right? Before all worlds, before all ages, in 00:41:32.000 --> 00:41:34.920 the beginning. And then if you look at John 17 00:41:34.920 --> 00:41:39.139 when Jesus prays to the Father, he says, he talks 00:41:39.139 --> 00:41:41.280 about the glory which he had with the Father 00:41:41.280 --> 00:41:45.880 before the world was. So it's a strengthening 00:41:45.880 --> 00:41:49.699 of the eternal nature of this begottenness. that's 00:41:49.699 --> 00:41:52.440 being discussed here. Okay, keep going. This 00:41:52.440 --> 00:41:55.840 is where it's gonna get juicy. That is of the 00:41:55.840 --> 00:42:00.079 essence of the Father, God of God, light of light, 00:42:00.199 --> 00:42:03.920 very God of very God. Okay, so this is where 00:42:03.920 --> 00:42:06.559 in the Greek text of the Creed, the word ousia 00:42:06.559 --> 00:42:10.460 shows up there, the word essence, okay? The essence 00:42:10.460 --> 00:42:13.300 of the Father. God the Son is of the same essence 00:42:13.300 --> 00:42:16.780 or being as the Father. And then you see, I mean, 00:42:16.780 --> 00:42:20.260 they... The authors of the creed, they didn't 00:42:20.260 --> 00:42:22.340 mess around. As a heretic, you couldn't misunderstand 00:42:22.340 --> 00:42:25.400 what they're saying here, right? So we have three 00:42:25.400 --> 00:42:27.980 statements, God of God, light of light, true 00:42:27.980 --> 00:42:31.179 God of true God. Very, very strong statement, 00:42:31.260 --> 00:42:33.900 three times, three phrases, so that everybody 00:42:33.900 --> 00:42:37.920 understands. And then it says, in case you missed 00:42:37.920 --> 00:42:40.559 the other one, begotten, not made. So it's the 00:42:40.559 --> 00:42:42.860 negative piece. Not only is he only begotten 00:42:42.860 --> 00:42:46.500 of the Father, he's begotten, not made. being 00:42:46.500 --> 00:42:48.900 of one substance with the Father, by whom all 00:42:48.900 --> 00:42:52.800 things were made, both in heaven and earth. So 00:42:52.800 --> 00:42:54.619 just in case it wasn't strong enough yet, the 00:42:54.619 --> 00:42:56.900 authors of the creed give that negative side, 00:42:57.039 --> 00:43:01.039 not made, not a created being. And then in the 00:43:01.039 --> 00:43:03.599 Greek text, this is where they put the word homoousion, 00:43:03.800 --> 00:43:07.059 where it says one substance with the Father, 00:43:07.159 --> 00:43:10.190 equal to the Father in every way. And by the 00:43:10.190 --> 00:43:12.610 way, Jesus claims this for himself multiple times 00:43:12.610 --> 00:43:15.210 in the scripture. So this is not just a philosophical 00:43:15.210 --> 00:43:18.329 statement. Jesus claims, for example, in John 00:43:18.329 --> 00:43:22.269 5, Jesus says this, just as the father has life 00:43:22.269 --> 00:43:26.190 in himself, even so he gave to the son also to 00:43:26.190 --> 00:43:29.670 have life in himself. Guys, no creature has life 00:43:29.670 --> 00:43:33.369 in himself. That is an impossibility, right? 00:43:34.070 --> 00:43:36.530 A creature cannot be self -existent. He cannot 00:43:36.530 --> 00:43:39.969 make himself. but the son has life in himself. 00:43:40.170 --> 00:43:43.030 That is life that was granted to him by the father 00:43:43.030 --> 00:43:46.349 in eternity past. By the way, this is the same 00:43:46.349 --> 00:43:49.710 son that Paul talks about. He existed in the 00:43:49.710 --> 00:43:53.309 form of God, yet did not regard equality with 00:43:53.309 --> 00:43:59.550 God a thing to be grasped onto. Right? Jesus 00:43:59.550 --> 00:44:02.329 is the uncreated son of God, begotten, not made. 00:44:02.530 --> 00:44:05.690 By the way, we could, earlier Adam read from 00:44:05.690 --> 00:44:08.619 Colossians 1. That passage is important. Hebrews 00:44:08.619 --> 00:44:11.320 1, verses 2 and 3 is important. 1 Corinthians 00:44:11.320 --> 00:44:14.380 8, 6. But the most important passage of Scripture, 00:44:14.619 --> 00:44:17.079 which points to this truth about begotten, not 00:44:17.079 --> 00:44:20.380 made, comes, of course, from John 1, 3. And this 00:44:20.380 --> 00:44:24.400 is what it says. All things came into being through 00:44:24.400 --> 00:44:28.619 the Word. And apart from Him, the Word, nothing 00:44:28.619 --> 00:44:31.380 came into being that has come into being. Now, 00:44:31.400 --> 00:44:33.000 most people read that verse and go, why is it 00:44:33.000 --> 00:44:36.920 so repetitive? It's almost as if... John anticipated 00:44:36.920 --> 00:44:39.820 the Arian heresy here because he makes it so 00:44:39.820 --> 00:44:43.340 clear. Again, if Jesus were some kind of created 00:44:43.340 --> 00:44:46.940 sub -deity, he would have to be one of the things 00:44:46.940 --> 00:44:50.900 that came into being. So he can't be the creator 00:44:50.900 --> 00:44:53.320 and one of the things that came into being, right? 00:44:53.440 --> 00:44:56.739 That's a logical impossibility. He must be eternal 00:44:56.739 --> 00:45:00.860 in nature. And so John anticipates the Arian 00:45:00.860 --> 00:45:04.860 heresy even in verse 1 -3. And then just to close 00:45:04.860 --> 00:45:07.460 the deal in John 1 .18, he adds this powerful 00:45:07.460 --> 00:45:10.420 statement. No one has seen God at any time. The 00:45:10.420 --> 00:45:14.119 only begotten God who is in the bosom of the 00:45:14.119 --> 00:45:18.320 Father, he has explained or revealed him. Now 00:45:18.320 --> 00:45:20.960 that is a shocking, mind -shattering statement. 00:45:21.480 --> 00:45:27.119 The only begotten God. How is the God begotten? 00:45:27.679 --> 00:45:30.139 Hold that thought. We'll get to it. Let's keep 00:45:30.139 --> 00:45:34.780 going in the rest of the creed. who for us men 00:45:34.780 --> 00:45:38.619 and for our salvation came down and was incarnate 00:45:38.619 --> 00:45:42.739 and was made man. He suffered and on the third 00:45:42.739 --> 00:45:45.619 day rose again, ascended into heaven. From there 00:45:45.619 --> 00:45:48.280 he will come to judge the quick and the dead. 00:45:48.440 --> 00:45:51.820 So the humanity of Christ was not the focus of 00:45:51.820 --> 00:45:54.380 Nicaea, but you see the authors dipping their 00:45:54.380 --> 00:45:56.699 toe in this here, right? He's incarnate. He is 00:45:56.699 --> 00:46:00.119 made man. He's made man because prior to being 00:46:00.119 --> 00:46:02.380 made man, he was something else ontologically, 00:46:02.559 --> 00:46:05.110 wasn't he? He was God. He existed in the form 00:46:05.110 --> 00:46:07.909 of God. That's very important. And then this 00:46:07.909 --> 00:46:10.510 is the funniest sentence in the Nicene Creed. 00:46:10.690 --> 00:46:15.409 It just says, and in the Holy Spirit. Because 00:46:15.409 --> 00:46:18.929 again, the focus of Nicaea was not the humanity 00:46:18.929 --> 00:46:21.250 of Christ. It was not the Holy Spirit, but we 00:46:21.250 --> 00:46:23.929 believe in the Holy Spirit as well. Now that's 00:46:23.929 --> 00:46:26.510 gonna get added onto again quite substantially 00:46:26.510 --> 00:46:30.690 in the next council in 381, right? In fact, the 00:46:30.690 --> 00:46:33.539 Constantinople Creed is gonna, going to say this, 00:46:33.639 --> 00:46:36.139 and we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, 00:46:36.400 --> 00:46:40.019 the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, 00:46:40.159 --> 00:46:42.699 who was with the Father and the Son, together 00:46:42.699 --> 00:46:45.739 is worshiped and glorified and who has spoken 00:46:45.739 --> 00:46:49.360 through the prophets. So you see the language 00:46:49.360 --> 00:46:53.699 of Trinitarianism beginning to be laid out one 00:46:53.699 --> 00:46:57.119 council at a time, right? It's almost like the 00:46:57.119 --> 00:46:59.380 church fathers want to close that loop. So the 00:46:59.380 --> 00:47:02.079 Holy Spirit isn't a lesser God. than the father 00:47:02.079 --> 00:47:04.920 or the son. He's not ontologically subordinated 00:47:04.920 --> 00:47:08.559 to the father or the son. He is the Lord equally 00:47:08.559 --> 00:47:11.940 worshiped and glorified. And these are really 00:47:11.940 --> 00:47:15.139 important things, guys. And then the last statement 00:47:15.139 --> 00:47:19.639 in the 325 Creed, the authors smartly add an 00:47:19.639 --> 00:47:23.840 anathema at the end. What's an anathema? Yeah, 00:47:23.940 --> 00:47:26.760 a curse, a condemnation. And it goes like this. 00:47:27.139 --> 00:47:29.699 But those who say there was a time when he was 00:47:29.699 --> 00:47:35.659 not, Who did they have in mind? And he was not 00:47:35.659 --> 00:47:38.380 before he was made and he was made out of nothing. 00:47:38.500 --> 00:47:40.940 They basically took everything that Arius said 00:47:40.940 --> 00:47:44.840 in the council and just said, it's all wrong. 00:47:45.360 --> 00:47:48.260 Or he is of another substance or essence or the 00:47:48.260 --> 00:47:51.420 son of God is created or changeable or alterable. 00:47:51.500 --> 00:47:55.000 They are condemned by the holy universal and 00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:58.820 apostolic church. So, by the way, this is another 00:47:58.820 --> 00:48:02.059 great example of how creeds can be used. Because 00:48:02.059 --> 00:48:05.059 think about this now. This anathema is precisely 00:48:05.059 --> 00:48:08.900 what separates historic Christianity from Mormonism 00:48:08.900 --> 00:48:12.780 and from Jehovah's Witnesses, both of which believe 00:48:12.780 --> 00:48:17.159 Jesus is all of those things, created. And it's 00:48:17.159 --> 00:48:19.199 the creed that tells us as historic Christians 00:48:19.199 --> 00:48:22.880 we cannot have fellowship with them because we 00:48:22.880 --> 00:48:25.900 differ on this essential theology. Does that 00:48:25.900 --> 00:48:29.659 make sense? Now, P .S., the Nicene Creed, again, 00:48:29.699 --> 00:48:32.420 focuses on the whatness of Jesus. What is he? 00:48:32.480 --> 00:48:35.099 What is his essence or being? What it doesn't 00:48:35.099 --> 00:48:37.920 really deal with is his personhood, and that's 00:48:37.920 --> 00:48:41.860 the who -ness of Jesus. Who is he? Meaning, he 00:48:41.860 --> 00:48:44.820 is the one true God, yet we know he's still a 00:48:44.820 --> 00:48:47.940 son in relation to a father, and he's distinct 00:48:47.940 --> 00:48:51.269 from the father. So the next couple steps in 00:48:51.269 --> 00:48:54.690 the development of Trinitarian theology is to 00:48:54.690 --> 00:48:57.849 speak of something called hypostases. Anybody 00:48:57.849 --> 00:49:01.670 heard of it? Hypostases, or persons within the 00:49:01.670 --> 00:49:04.670 Godhead. So ultimately, the church fathers are 00:49:04.670 --> 00:49:07.010 going to have to come to the place where they 00:49:07.010 --> 00:49:09.469 recognize what Scripture tells us, that there 00:49:09.469 --> 00:49:12.630 is one usia of God, one being, but there are 00:49:12.630 --> 00:49:16.969 three hypostases. Three unique persons that co 00:49:16.969 --> 00:49:22.090 -equally share in the one divine essence. There's 00:49:22.090 --> 00:49:25.250 gonna be a test later, by the way. No, I know, 00:49:25.289 --> 00:49:27.929 look, I know this stuff is hard and it can be 00:49:27.929 --> 00:49:30.449 a little overwhelming, but this is important 00:49:30.449 --> 00:49:33.849 stuff. This is what we all sort of believe, especially 00:49:33.849 --> 00:49:35.690 as it comes from this pulpit, but it's good to 00:49:35.690 --> 00:49:38.269 know why we believe it and how it came to be. 00:49:39.269 --> 00:49:44.389 Okay, what else? That's so many more things. 00:49:44.550 --> 00:49:48.849 By the way, even after this, that's not even 00:49:48.849 --> 00:49:50.869 enough. Once they get to the whatness and the 00:49:50.869 --> 00:49:53.989 whoness of Jesus and the usia and the personhood, 00:49:54.030 --> 00:49:55.909 the next thing you have to deal with is, well, 00:49:55.929 --> 00:49:57.670 hold on, we've got this one person, but he has 00:49:57.670 --> 00:50:00.670 two natures. He's got a human nature and he's 00:50:00.670 --> 00:50:03.030 got a divine nature, right? And so how does that 00:50:03.030 --> 00:50:05.949 work? How do two natures exist in one person, 00:50:06.010 --> 00:50:08.309 be distinct from each other, but they're not 00:50:08.309 --> 00:50:11.829 divided or separated, changed or confused? That's 00:50:11.829 --> 00:50:14.400 the counsel of Chalcedon. So that is coming as 00:50:14.400 --> 00:50:17.840 well. After that, more questions. Jesus has two 00:50:17.840 --> 00:50:20.500 wills, a divine will and a human will. And that 00:50:20.500 --> 00:50:22.699 needs to get raised and settled. Guys, all of 00:50:22.699 --> 00:50:25.059 these critically important essential doctrines 00:50:25.059 --> 00:50:27.820 of the faith get settled in these ecumenical 00:50:27.820 --> 00:50:31.139 councils. So they're worth studying. Okay, last 00:50:31.139 --> 00:50:36.780 thing. And this one may be the hardest. You ready? 00:50:38.719 --> 00:50:41.400 Not only does the Nicene Creed affirm the full 00:50:41.400 --> 00:50:44.570 deity of Christ, It also affirms the way in which 00:50:44.570 --> 00:50:48.530 he possesses that deity. The way in which he 00:50:48.530 --> 00:50:50.909 possesses it. The begottenness. How many of you 00:50:50.909 --> 00:50:52.170 guys have wondered about this in the past? You're 00:50:52.170 --> 00:50:55.010 like, begottenness. It just seems like a strange 00:50:55.010 --> 00:50:56.949 word. What's the first thing you think about 00:50:56.949 --> 00:51:01.110 when you think of begottenness? Yeah, or having 00:51:01.110 --> 00:51:05.369 babies. Okay, so this is what Arius misunderstood. 00:51:05.510 --> 00:51:08.429 This is what Jehovah's Witnesses cling to today 00:51:08.429 --> 00:51:11.510 wrongly. They read that phrase begottenness in 00:51:11.510 --> 00:51:14.030 John 1 and what do they do? They compare it to 00:51:14.030 --> 00:51:17.250 human begetting. That is the fatal flaw in their 00:51:17.250 --> 00:51:20.070 doctrine. That was Arius' fatal flaw. They think 00:51:20.070 --> 00:51:22.389 human begetting and they think divine begetting 00:51:22.389 --> 00:51:23.869 and they say they're the same thing. They're 00:51:23.869 --> 00:51:27.250 not. They're not according to scripture. So the 00:51:27.250 --> 00:51:30.550 Creed of Constantinople in 381 clarifies that 00:51:30.550 --> 00:51:35.010 the son possesses deity by being eternally begotten 00:51:35.010 --> 00:51:38.670 of the father. Eternally begotten. Say it again. 00:51:38.750 --> 00:51:43.650 Eternally begotten. Before all worlds. Before 00:51:43.650 --> 00:51:47.610 all ages. And in theology, this is a hard concept. 00:51:47.670 --> 00:51:51.250 We call this the doctrine of eternal generation. 00:51:51.869 --> 00:51:55.170 Generation being just the Latin equivalent of 00:51:55.170 --> 00:51:58.690 begetting. Okay, so the Father's begetting of 00:51:58.690 --> 00:52:01.909 the Son is an eternal divine act before all ages, 00:52:01.969 --> 00:52:05.420 meaning it transcends time. It happens outside 00:52:05.420 --> 00:52:08.480 of time. It is a generation that happens prior 00:52:08.480 --> 00:52:13.179 to creation and has no ending. No ending whatsoever. 00:52:13.760 --> 00:52:16.559 That makes it categorically different from human 00:52:16.559 --> 00:52:19.000 begetting. Because when a human father begets 00:52:19.000 --> 00:52:22.019 a human son, it takes place within creation and 00:52:22.019 --> 00:52:26.039 within time. The human father temporarily precedes 00:52:26.039 --> 00:52:29.800 the son, right? If I have a son, I preceded him 00:52:29.800 --> 00:52:32.800 in existence. There was a time when my son Tyler 00:52:32.800 --> 00:52:36.639 was not. And then he was. That is not true of 00:52:36.639 --> 00:52:39.480 God. Scripture bears that out. That's the difference 00:52:39.480 --> 00:52:42.059 between God beginning and man beginning. As the 00:52:42.059 --> 00:52:44.639 creed states, there has never been a time when 00:52:44.639 --> 00:52:48.480 the Son didn't exist. And it's important to understand 00:52:48.480 --> 00:52:50.900 that this eternal beginning or this generation 00:52:50.900 --> 00:52:54.900 is only of the person of the Son, not his nature. 00:52:56.679 --> 00:53:00.119 That's important. Only the person is generated, 00:53:00.420 --> 00:53:03.059 not the nature. Because as nature is one with 00:53:03.059 --> 00:53:05.980 the Father, it doesn't require generation. Only 00:53:05.980 --> 00:53:09.119 the personhood. And this is a matter of revealed 00:53:09.119 --> 00:53:11.940 truth that's explained by the data in the scriptures. 00:53:12.260 --> 00:53:16.280 This is such an important thing. God is eternally 00:53:16.280 --> 00:53:23.300 and necessarily three persons. God is eternally 00:53:23.300 --> 00:53:26.900 and necessarily. It's who he is. It's who he 00:53:26.900 --> 00:53:30.059 decreed himself to be, three persons, one divine 00:53:30.059 --> 00:53:34.400 essence. Eternally and necessarily three persons. 00:53:34.480 --> 00:53:38.519 Always has been. Always will be. It's who he 00:53:38.519 --> 00:53:42.000 is from eternity past to eternity future. This 00:53:42.000 --> 00:53:44.940 is what the church fathers came to by the time 00:53:44.940 --> 00:53:52.300 381 rolls around. One more important feature 00:53:52.300 --> 00:53:57.469 of eternal generation. When a human father begets 00:53:57.469 --> 00:54:01.530 a human son, that son shares the nature of his 00:54:01.530 --> 00:54:05.170 father, right? I pass along my genes. He's exactly 00:54:05.170 --> 00:54:08.429 the nature that I am. Well, think about eternal 00:54:08.429 --> 00:54:11.530 begetting. Because the father begets the son 00:54:11.530 --> 00:54:15.190 in eternity past, the son has all of the exact 00:54:15.190 --> 00:54:19.949 same attributes, power, glory, nature as his 00:54:19.949 --> 00:54:23.889 father because he's begotten of the father. That's 00:54:23.889 --> 00:54:27.190 why the Nicene authors wrote God of God, true 00:54:27.190 --> 00:54:30.829 God of true God, equal to the Father and being 00:54:30.829 --> 00:54:33.949 attributes, power and glory and worshiped in 00:54:33.949 --> 00:54:36.130 the same way that God the Father is worshiped. 00:54:36.590 --> 00:54:38.829 They had all of this stuff in mind, you guys. 00:54:39.230 --> 00:54:42.449 And it wasn't easy to figure out. It was not 00:54:42.449 --> 00:54:46.949 easy to figure out. Okay. Sadly, this was not 00:54:46.949 --> 00:54:49.630 the end of Arianism. This is for another day. 00:54:50.150 --> 00:54:52.389 Maybe we'll do this in one of our small groups. 00:54:53.090 --> 00:54:55.309 Arianism is gonna linger until the eighth century, 00:54:55.510 --> 00:54:58.010 especially in different parts of the empire. 00:54:58.110 --> 00:55:00.730 So it doesn't go away. For today, I just wanna 00:55:00.730 --> 00:55:04.389 close by saying, can we simply be grateful that 00:55:04.389 --> 00:55:07.210 Alexander and Athanasius and the Nicene party 00:55:07.210 --> 00:55:11.389 won the day back in 325, that Arius and his followers 00:55:11.389 --> 00:55:16.250 were defeated by a huge margin? Can we be grateful 00:55:16.250 --> 00:55:19.309 that 1 ,700 years ago, the beginning of Trinitarian 00:55:19.309 --> 00:55:23.559 doctrine was laid for us? at Nicaea as this historical 00:55:23.559 --> 00:55:26.119 stepping stone toward what we believe today. 00:55:27.119 --> 00:55:30.340 And that we in the church today can gather comfortably, 00:55:30.659 --> 00:55:33.440 right? Knowing all these things, being able to 00:55:33.440 --> 00:55:35.639 look at the past and be able to worship together. 00:55:36.159 --> 00:55:38.719 And let me just finish with this question. So 00:55:38.719 --> 00:55:40.920 why does this matter? Why should you care about 00:55:40.920 --> 00:55:43.840 anything I said today? That's what my wife asked 00:55:43.840 --> 00:55:51.139 this morning. Friends, this is the point. The 00:55:51.139 --> 00:55:54.380 essential doctrines that we cherish today, they 00:55:54.380 --> 00:55:57.639 didn't just fall out of the sky. We didn't just 00:55:57.639 --> 00:56:00.579 pick up a book and learn them last week. They're 00:56:00.579 --> 00:56:03.760 rooted deeply in history. All the complexities 00:56:03.760 --> 00:56:08.460 of Trinitarianism figured out for us, of Chalcedonian 00:56:08.460 --> 00:56:12.099 Christology, understand the metaphysical. nature 00:56:12.099 --> 00:56:15.099 of Christ. Think about the hypostatic union of 00:56:15.099 --> 00:56:17.159 the two natures of Christ. How does that work? 00:56:17.340 --> 00:56:20.159 That stuff was all figured out for us long ago. 00:56:21.440 --> 00:56:24.820 Faithful men, faithful saints who battled against 00:56:24.820 --> 00:56:27.940 emperors at times, battled against false teachers, 00:56:28.159 --> 00:56:30.880 fought against heretics, did all of that for 00:56:30.880 --> 00:56:34.579 our benefit. So are you thankful to the Lord 00:56:34.579 --> 00:56:37.360 for his sovereign providence and all that? for 00:56:37.360 --> 00:56:39.739 his hand in history? Are you thankful for how 00:56:39.739 --> 00:56:42.059 he has guided and guarded and strengthened his 00:56:42.059 --> 00:56:45.440 people over the centuries, especially in times 00:56:45.440 --> 00:56:48.480 of crisis, in times of division? God has not 00:56:48.480 --> 00:56:51.119 left us alone. He is faithful, right? Faithful 00:56:51.119 --> 00:56:54.119 to build his church. And so if you're thankful 00:56:54.119 --> 00:56:56.760 for those things, I just want to encourage you 00:56:56.760 --> 00:57:00.119 to keep studying and understanding church history. 00:57:00.519 --> 00:57:03.440 Honor your forefathers by not ignoring this topic. 00:57:04.099 --> 00:57:06.679 Honor those who fought these battles for you 00:57:06.679 --> 00:57:09.559 by digging in and becoming a better student of 00:57:09.559 --> 00:57:12.059 church history. Look to men like Athanasius. 00:57:12.179 --> 00:57:15.260 Read a biography of this guy, right? We sort 00:57:15.260 --> 00:57:18.219 of worship today in his shadow. There's things 00:57:18.219 --> 00:57:20.679 that we can learn from him. We are in continuity 00:57:20.679 --> 00:57:24.239 with men like Athanasius from other parts of 00:57:24.239 --> 00:57:27.099 the world and in other ages. There's great value 00:57:27.099 --> 00:57:29.360 there. And then the last thing to remember is, 00:57:29.400 --> 00:57:32.360 guys, I know this sounds weird because we think 00:57:32.360 --> 00:57:34.900 of church history as this giant thing that's 00:57:34.900 --> 00:57:37.320 hard to figure out in the past. You are a part 00:57:37.320 --> 00:57:42.920 of church history right now. Oak Hill Bible Church, 00:57:43.139 --> 00:57:46.519 small as we are, is a part of the flow of church 00:57:46.519 --> 00:57:50.619 history. We should never forget that, amen? Let's 00:57:50.619 --> 00:58:02.360 bow our heads. Father, I thank you for the challenge 00:58:02.360 --> 00:58:05.599 of studying this stuff, Lord. It's difficult. 00:58:07.739 --> 00:58:10.079 And I'm grateful for the patience of so many 00:58:10.079 --> 00:58:13.340 of our saints here in this body who have come 00:58:13.340 --> 00:58:16.059 to love history and even for those that maybe 00:58:16.059 --> 00:58:18.380 don't love it but are starting to understand 00:58:18.380 --> 00:58:21.539 how important it is. But Lord, most of all, we're 00:58:21.539 --> 00:58:23.420 just thankful to you that you have been faithful 00:58:23.420 --> 00:58:26.630 to your church. Jesus promised that he would 00:58:26.630 --> 00:58:28.730 build his church and the gates of Hades would 00:58:28.730 --> 00:58:31.449 not be able to stand against it. And you continue 00:58:31.449 --> 00:58:33.909 to prove that every single day and every single 00:58:33.909 --> 00:58:36.210 year. For 1 ,700 years, you've been doing that 00:58:36.210 --> 00:58:40.210 since Nicaea. And so, Lord, we stand on the shoulders 00:58:40.210 --> 00:58:42.909 of these men who went before us and fought those 00:58:42.909 --> 00:58:45.650 hard battles. We're thankful for that, but thankful 00:58:45.650 --> 00:58:48.170 to you most of all because you have given us 00:58:48.170 --> 00:58:50.719 your perfect word, which... Yeah, it's hard, 00:58:50.820 --> 00:58:53.480 but you've revealed exactly who you are in the 00:58:53.480 --> 00:58:55.860 text of scripture. We can go there, we can study. 00:58:56.179 --> 00:58:58.800 The studying never ends, Lord, because your word 00:58:58.800 --> 00:59:03.300 is so powerful and so broad and so voluminous, 00:59:03.300 --> 00:59:05.340 God. We are just overwhelmed by its goodness 00:59:05.340 --> 00:59:08.340 and its truth. So Lord, help us to be better 00:59:08.340 --> 00:59:10.739 students, students of your word first, students 00:59:10.739 --> 00:59:13.380 of church history second, that we might glorify 00:59:13.380 --> 00:59:15.880 you more and more as the years go by. Thank you 00:59:15.880 --> 00:59:18.559 again for our time this morning. We pray in Christ's 00:59:18.559 --> 00:59:19.179 name, amen.