One of the worst things that can happen to the church is for a bunch of preachers to get together to determine what bible scripture actually means. Each one will come to the meeting with an understanding of the scripture as a result of their own interpretations which have been developed on their own, or as a result of what someone else has taught them. This is what happened when the First Nicene council convened in the year of 325 AD.
In 325 AD, the Roman Emperor Constantine called together representatives from all the churches under his rule. This occurred because some of the Bishops complained to him that many of the churches were teaching heresy. So Constantine summoned all the church representatives together in an effort to have them come to a consensus about their different beliefs. Well there is no way anyone can get any church preacher or bishop to admit their teaching is wrong and agree to change, but Constantine did. Or at least they finally agreed to change, whether or not they really did after they returned home.
The way Constantine managed to get these church leaders together and agree to a consensus on their beliefs was to command them to remain there with him until they do. Well, you know how that went, it didn’t take long for them to come together and agree to a common set of beliefs.
The most important subject that was causing conflict between the different churches was the subject of the divinity of Jesus. Some of the churches believed that Jesus was God incarnate and some didn’t. Of course it is evident that this difference of opinions resulted because of their interpretations of Bible scripture. The understanding of some scripture leads to a belief that Jesus was actually God who came to Earth in the body of Jesus that He made for Himself. The others held to the opposite belief also as a result of many scriptures indicating that Jesus was only the Son of God and not God Himself.
It would be beneficial to take a look at some of the scriptures that pertain to the establishment of the relationship between Jesus and God the Father to see if the consensus of scripture can determine in either way where the truth lies. If we were to embark on this study, we could find many statements in scripture that could be accepted as proving one way or the other that Jesus was and/or was not in fact the same person as God the Father. In doing so, we would end up determining that a consensus among us was not possible.
In light of this we see that even before the convening of the Nicene council there was not a consensus among the churches and now in this day the churches are still divided over this same issue and many other doctrines.
Most of the scriptures that indicate that Jesus was in fact God the Father can be explained for various reasons to indicate that the scriptures really don’t prove the point. Although there are some scriptures that appear to be unquestionably about Jesus and God the Father being two different persons, if you would refer to God as a person. Some of those that appear to leave very little if at all no doubt that the Father and His Son were not the same person are as follows:
The following scriptures all state that God raised Jesus from the dead and it was not Jesus that raised Himself. Galatians 1:1, Ephesians 1:20, Acts 2:24, 2:32, 13:30 & 17:31, Colossians 2:12, First Peter 1:21.
Just to point out a few others:
Mat 20:23 And he said unto them, to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.
Mark 13:32 But of that day and that hour knows no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.
John 5:19 Then Jesus said The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do:
John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 14:28 you have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
Now these are some of the same scriptures that the Theologians who were part of the Nicene council considered and still they agreed to come to a consensus that Jesus was God. Why did this happen? It happened because they were forced to, or they could not return home if they didn’t.
There are many things in our bible that people have divided opinions about. Some of these differences are due to the way certain events and statements were written down by the original authors or scribes. Some of these differences have occurred because the bible translators have not used the best English words while making their translations from the original languages. Last, but not least is the result of preachers and bible teachers interpreting the scriptures without regard to determining if their interpretations agree with the original beliefs that were accepted by the first church leaders in the time of and immediately after the Earthly ministry of Jesus.
The true meaning of scripture cannot be decided by coming to a consensus by any group of people, but must be decided by each individual person as God reveals it to them.
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