Spurs/Mavericks (2006 NBA Playoffs)

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What Do You Consider a Relatively Close Contest?

• Spurs/Mavericks (2006 NBA Playoffs)
• 7 games total 2 OT,
• 3 games decided by lt 2 pts at the buzzer
• 30 pts in total difference thru 7 games
• 2006 Rose Bowl (Texas vs. USC)
• Bush/Gore (2000 Election)
• Bush Florida 2912790 votes
• Gore Florida 2912253 votes
• Margin Florida 537 votes

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Class No. 4May 27, 2006 - The First Council of
Nicea
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Nicea - Map
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Summary Council of Nicea
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Ecumenical Councils - FYI
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The First Council of Nicea

• From Wikipedia
• Convened by the Constantine I in 325AD
• The first ecumenical gathering of bishops of from
  the whole Church, to resolve differences of faith
  that had arisen and to define clearly the faith
  received from the apostles.
• Historically significant because it was the first
  effort to attain consensus in the church through
  an assembly representing all of Christendom.
• First occasion for the development of technical
  Christology.

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The First Council of Nicea (Cont)

• Constantines convoking and presiding over the
  council demonstrates his influence on the church.
• The creation of the Nicene Creed, established a
  precedent for subsequent general councils to
  create a statement of belief and canons which
  were intended to become guidelines for doctrinal
  orthodoxy and a source of unity for the whole of
  Christendom

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Council of Nicea Agenda

• From Wikipedia
• The Arian question
• The celebration of Passover
• The Meletian schism
• The Father and Son one in purpose or in person
• The baptism of heretics
• The status of the lapsed in the persecution under
  Licinius

Note No mention of the canon
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Council of Nicea Attendance

• Constantine invited all 1800 bishops of the
  Christian church (about 1000 in the east and 800
  in the west)
• Only 250 to 320 bishops participated
• Eusebius of Caesarea counted 250
• Athanasius of Alexandria counted 318
• Eustathius of Antioch counted 270
• Socrates Scholasticus recorded gt300
• Evagrius, Hilarius, Jerome and Rufinus recorded
  318.
• Participating bishops given free travel to/from
  their episcopal sees to the council, as well as
  lodging.
• Each bishop had permission to bring with him two
  presbyters and three deacons
• Total number of attendees would have been above
  1500.

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Council of Nicea Attendance (Cont)

• Special prominence was attached to this council
  because the persecution of Christians had just
  ended with the February 313 Edict of Milan by
  Emperors Constantine and Licinius.
• The Eastern bishops formed the great majority.
• Constantine made a ceremonial entrance at the
  opening of the council, probably in early June.
• He was present as an observer, but he did not
  vote.
• Constantine organized the Council along the lines
  of the Roman Senate.

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Lets Check in with Dr. Teabing?
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The DaVinci Code(Chap 55)
Teabing said. Stay with me. During this fusion
of religions, Constantine needed to strengthen
the new Christian tradition, and held a famous
ecumenical gathering known as the Council of
Nicea. At this gathering, Teabing said,
Many aspects of Christianity were debated and
voted upon the date of Easter, the role of the
bishops, the administration of sacraments, and,
of course, the divinity of Jesus. (Sophie) I
dont follow. His divinity? My dear, Teabing
declared, Until that moment in history, Jesus
was viewed by his followers as a mortal
prophet... A great and powerful man, but a man
nonetheless. A mortal. (Sophie) Not the son of
God?
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The DaVinci Code(Chap 55)
Right, Teabing said. Jesus establishment as
the Son of God was officially proposed and voted
on by the Council of Nicea. (Sophie) Hold on.
Youre saying Jesus divinity was the result of a
vote? A relatively close one at that, Teabing
added. Nonetheless, establishing Christs
divinity was critical to the further unification
of the Roman Empire and to the new Vatican power
base. By officially endorsing Jesus as the Son of
God, Constantine turned Jesus into a deity who
existed beyond the scope of the human world, an
entity whose power was unchallengeable. This not
only precluded further pagan challenges to
Christianity, but now the followers of Christ
were able to redeem themselves only via the
established sacred channel the Roman Catholic
Church.
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The DaVinci Code(Chap 55)
It was all about power, Teabing continued.
Christ as Messiah was critical to the
functioning of Church and state. Many scholars
claim that the early Church literally stole Jesus
from His original followers, hijacking His human
message, shrouding it in an impenetrable cloak of
divinity, and using it to expand their own power.
Ive written several books on the topic. And I
assume devout Christians send you hate mail on a
daily basis? Why would they? Teabing
countered. The vast majority of educated
Christians know the history of their faith. Jesus
was indeed a great and powerful man.
Constantines underhanded political maneuvers
dont diminish the majesty of Christs life.
Nobody is saying Christ was a fraud, or denying
that He walked the earth and inspired millions to
better lives. All we are saying is that
Constantine took advantage of Christs
substantial influence and importance. And in
doing so, he shaped the face of Christianity as
we know it today.
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The DaVinci Code(Chap 55)
Sophie glanced at the art book before her, eager
to move on and see the Da Vinci painting of the
Holy Grail. The twist is this, Teabing said,
talking faster now. Because Constantine upgraded
Jesus status almost four centuries after Jesus
death, thousands of documents already existed
chronicling His life as a mortal man. To rewrite
the history books, Constantine knew he would need
a bold stroke. From this sprang the most profound
moment in Christian history. Teabing paused,
eyeing Sophie. Constantine commissioned and
financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels
that spoke of Christs human traits and
embellished those gospels that made Him godlike.
The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered
up,and burned.
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The DaVinci Code Claims

• Constantine held a famous ecumenical (universal)
  gathering known as the Council of Nicea
• The Bible as we know it today was collated by
  Constantine the Great in order to unify Rome
  under a single religion
• Many aspects of Christianity were debated and
  voted upon including the date of Easter, the role
  of the bishops, the administration of sacraments,
  and the divinity of Jesus.
• Before the Council, Jesus was viewed by his
  followers as a mortal prophet... A great and
  powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal
• Jesus, Son of God was officially proposed and
  voted on by the Council of Nicea. Jesus
  divinity was the result of a vote
• Many scholars claim that the early Church
  literally stole Jesus from His original
  followers, hijacking His human message, shrouding
  it in an impenetrable cloak of divinity

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Deal or No Deal?

• Constantine held a famous ecumenical (universal)
  gathering known as the Council of Nicea
• Deal! It is true that Constantine convened the
  gathering now know as the First Council of Nicea.
• The Bible as we know it today was collated by
  Constantine the Great in order to unify Rome
  under a single religion
• No Deal! Check out last weeks lesson. Plus it
  wasnt even on the agenda.

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Deal or No Deal?

• Many aspects of Christianity were debated and
  voted upon including the date of Easter, the role
  of the bishops, the administration of sacraments,
  and the divinity of Jesus.
• Jesus, Son of God was officially proposed and
  voted on by the Council of Nicea. Jesus
  divinity was the result of a vote.
• PassWhile the date of Easter was discussed,
  well have to come back to these two.

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Deal or No Deal?

• Before the Council, Jesus was viewed by his
  followers as a mortal prophet... A great and
  powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal
• Many scholars claim that the early Church
  literally stole Jesus from His original
  followers, hijacking His human message, shrouding
  it in an impenetrable cloak of divinity
• No Deal! Again if we go back to last weeks
  lessons and check out the dating and consistency
  of authenticated manuscripts, its a safe call to
  say that Christs followers saw him as more than
  a mortal man

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Deal or No Deal?

• The doctrine that Jesus is the Son of God was
  invented and approved at the Council of Nicaea in
  325 AD.
• No Deal? This is a half-truth. The Council of
  Nicea did seriously consider alternating views of
  Jesus. However, the choice was not between
  human versus God but as eternal versus
  created.

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Deal or No Deal?

• Others?

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NiceaWhat Was Debated?

• Dan Browns character, Dr Teabing, claims that
  Jesus divinity was the result of a vote taken
  during the Council of Nicea.
• Was it Really?
• If we equate Jesus divinity with being the Son
  of God, then technically, the answer is No.
• The question of if Jesus was the Son of God
  wasnt at issue, it had more to do with his
  essence.
• This is known as the Arian Controversy

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Arian Controversy

• A Christological dispute between the followers of
  Arius, the followers of St. Alexander of
  Alexandria, and a third group.
• Alexander and his followers believed the Son was
  of the same substance as the Father, co-eternal
  with Him
• Arius and his followers believed that they (God
  and Jesus) were not of the same substance that
  the Son, though he may be the most perfect of
  creations, was only a creation.
• The third group tried to make a compromise
  position, saying that the Father and the Son were
  of similar substance.

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Arian Controversy (Cont)

• Much of the debate hinged on the difference
  between being "born" (or "created) and being
  "begotten".
• Arians saw these as the same
• Followers of Alexander did not.
• Issues over the nuisances in the meanings of
  several key words contributed to the confusion
  and debate.
• Note, whether Jesus was divine or not was not
  being argued here. At most, one might say the
  essence of his divinity was at stake (Full
  God or lesser god)

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The Basic Issue

• Arians believed that Since God the Father created
  the Son, he must have emanated from the Father,
  and thus be lesser than the Father, in that the
  Father is eternal, but the Son was created
  afterward and, thus, is not eternal.
• Alexanderians believed the Arian view
• Destroyed the unity of the Godhead
• Made the Son unequal to the Father,
• Contradicted Scriptures ("The Father and I are
  one", John 1030)
• They countered the Arians' argument, saying that
  the Father's fatherhood, like all of his
  attributes, is eternal. Thus, the Father was
  always a father, and that the Son, therefore,
  always existed with him.

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What about before Nicea?

• Brown insinuates that before Nicea, Christians
  didnt worship Jesus as God.

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Wait a Second.

• Scriptural evidence (most written before 70AD)
  shows Jesus was worshiped as God early on in
  Christian history
• Colossian 116
• Jesus made it all / not one of the creation
• John 11
• The Word was God
• Romans 95
• Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is
  traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God
  over all, forever praised! Amen.
• Hebrews 18
• But about the Son he says, "Your throne, O God,
  will last for ever and ever, and righteousness
  will be the scepter of your kingdom.
• Pauls epistles
• Nearly every scholars holds that the Gospels and
  Pauls letters were written in the 1st cent
• Others.

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And

• Testimony from Early Church Fathers - about 150
  to 200 years before Nicea
• Bishop Ignatius (110AD) wrote a series of letters
  on his way to Rome to be martyred, referring to
  Christ as God incarnate
• Polycarp of Smyrna, a disciple of John, wrote a
  letter (118AD) to Philippi, assumes his readers
  acknowledged the divinity of Christ
• Justin Martyr (died 160AD) said Christ was the
  son and apostle of God the Father and master of
  all.
• - Irenaeus was bishop in 177AD. Fought the
  heresies of Gnosticism, said all distinctions
  between the Father and Son vanish in John 11
• The case can be made that the many martyrs before
  the 4th century preferred death than acknowledge
  that Ceasar was God, saying thus that Jesus was
  merely one god among many

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The Vote

• The moment you have been waiting for.
• Of the 315 attending bishops

• The moment you have been waiting for.
• Of the 315 attending bishops
• There were only 28 that were clearly Arians from
  the outset.
• In the end 5 of them disagreed that Jesus is all
  God
• And yet only 2 refused to sign on to the Nicean
  creed.
• What do you take from that vote?

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The Result The Nicene Creed
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker
of heaven and earth, and of all things visible
and invisible And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the
only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father
before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light,
very God of very God, begotten, not made, being
of one substance with the Father by whom all
things were made who for us men and for our
salvation came down from heaven, and was
incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man and was crucified also for us
under Pontius Pilate he suffered and was buried
and the third day he rose again according to the
Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth
on the right hand of the Father and he shall
come again, with glory, to judge both the quick
and the dead whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord, and
Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father
who with the Father and the Son together is
worshiped and glorified who spake by the
Prophets. And I believe one holy Catholic and
Apostolic Church I acknowledge one Baptism for
the remission of sins and I look for the
resurrection of the dead, and the life of the
world to come. Amen.
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and this affects me how?

• Gather is groups of groups of 4-5 and ask each
  other
• What is at stake if Jesus is portrayed as a mere
  mortal?
• What difference it makes to redemption and our
  worship.
• Is it worth going going to the mat for?

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Next Weeks Topic
The Holy Grail Was Jesus Married to Mary
Magdalene