First Council of Nicaea

A presbyter named Arius had been teaching that "there was a time when the Son was not" — that the Word was the first and highest of creatures, but not eternal God. Athanasius and others answered from Scripture: the Word was in the beginning, was with God, and was God (John 1:1–3, 14); the Son is the exact imprint of the Father's nature and the one through whom all things were made (Col 1:15–17; Heb 1:1–3); Thomas confesses Him as "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28). The council issued the original Nicene Creed and condemned Arianism. Twenty canons on church order were also adopted. A full trinitarian statement about the Holy Spirit would be filled out at Constantinople in 381.

Nicaea did not invent the deity of Christ — it defended what the church had already been baptizing into and worshiping (Matt 28:19). It gave the church precise language to guard the gospel against a teaching that, if true, would leave sinners with a creature as Savior instead of God with us.

• John 1:1-3— The Word was God
• Colossians 1:15-17— Firstborn — preeminence, not created
• Hebrews 1:1-3— Exact imprint of the Father's nature
• John 20:28— "My Lord and my God"

• ·Original Nicene Creed (325) text
• ·Canons of Nicaea (New Advent)
• ·First Council of Nicaea — overview

• council_or_creed

  The Nicene Creed

  Produced the creed

• council_or_creed

  First Council of Constantinople

  Reaffirmed and expanded