The Truth about the Council of Nicaea

What Really Happened at Nicea?

For many years, the council of Nicea has been the subject of much confusion among laypeople. The misapprehensions which have come to be associated with the council of Nicea have, in part, been fuelled by popular fictional novels such as Dan Brown's notorious The Da vinci Code. No matter what group you are dealing with in your apologetic exploits (including atheists, Muslims, Jehovah's witnesses and unitarians), you are almost guaranteed to encounter some of these misconcepts. For this reason, it is important for Christians to study and learn church history, so that they might correct common myths and falsehoods.

The council of Nicea was famously convened on May 20, 325 AD, at the request of Emperor Constantine (pictured above). What did the council of bishops meet to discuss? Contrary to common misconception (popularised particularly in Muslim circles) that has been widely circulated via the internet, the council of Nicea did not meet to discuss the canon of Scripture -- that is, the decision about which books should make up the New Testament. In fact, there is not a shred of evidence that the canon of Scripture was even brought up at Nicea. Another misconception is that the council of Nicea, at the encouraging of Constantine, "invented" the deity of Christ or, at the very least, that the bishops in attendance at Nicea were significantly divided on the issue, the matter being decided with a vote. This too, however, is completely inaccurate. In 325 AD, when the bishops convened at Nicea, the deity of Christ had been affirmed almost unanimously by the Christian movement for close to three hundred years!

Does Colossians chapter one mean Jesus is a created being?

This post comes from a recent discussion with a Jehovahs Witness regarding Jesus deity and Colossians 1:15.

So to give some clarification, the JW's don't use the same Bible many of us do. The organisation released their own version of the scriptures that was finished in 1961 which came to be known as the New World Translation (NWT). The NWT is best known for its rendering of John 1:1 but for those that have dug a little deeper or engaged in discussion with any JW's you may be aware of their controversial rendering of Colossians chapter 1, verses 15-17. It reads as the following:

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 because by means of him all [other] things were created in the heavens and upon the earth, the things visible and the things invisible, no matter whether they are thrones or lordships or governments or authorities. All [other] things have been created through him and for him. 17 Also, he is before all [other] things and by means of him all [other] things were made to exist...

Now as you read through this portion of scripture you will notice that contained within brackets is the word other, this is probably the clearest example of how we can see how their translation has been corrupted and changed intentially to support their theological assumptions. What this shows us is that they have clearly translated and added to scripture to support their doctrines which have no space for Jesus being the fathers ontological (Equality in nature, essence and attributes.) equal as part of the trinity.