“Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned.” (The Da Vinci Code, p. 234).
“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.” (The Da Vinci Code, p. 233).
“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.” (The Da Vinci Code, p. 233)
“Jesus’ establishment as the ‘Son of God’ was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea…A relatively close vote at that.” (The Da Vinci Code, p. 233)
Church historians agree that next to the events in the New Testament, the most important event in the history of Christianity is the conversion of Emperor Constantine in A.D. 312. In brief, here’s the story: Constantine’s troops were positioned at the Milvian Bridge just outside of Rome, where they were preparing to overthrow the Roman emperor Maxentius. A victory would, in effect, make Constantine the sole ruler of the empire. But the night before the battle, Constantine saw a vision that changed his life and the history of the church.
In the words of Eusebius of Caesarea, who was both a historian and a confidant of Constantine, the emperor was praying to a pagan god when “he saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross in the light of the heavens, above the sun and an inscription, Conquer By This attached to it…. Then in his sleep the Christ of God appeared to him with the sign which he had seen in the heavens, and commanded him to make a likeness of this sign which he had seen in the heavens, and to use it as a safeguard in all engagements with his enemies.”
To make a long story short, Constantine crossed over the bridge and won the battle, fighting under the banner of the Christian cross. Later he issued the Edict of Milan, decreeing that Christians were no longer to be persecuted. And now, although a politician, he took leadership in the doctrinal disputes that were disrupting the unity in his empire.
One of those disputes concerned the doctrine of the person of Christ. There was a man named Arius, who was gaining a wide following by teaching that Christ was not fully God but a created god of sorts. He believed that Christ was more than a man but less than God. Arius was a great communicator, and because he put his doctrinal ideas into musical jingles, his ideas became widely accepted. Although many church bishops declared him a heretic, the disputes continued. Constantine called the first ecumenical council at Nicaea, hoping to suppress dissent and unify Christianity. In fact, the emperor even paid the expenses of the bishops who gathered.
Constantine did not care about the finer points of theology, so practically any creed would have satisfied him—a long as it would unify his subjects. As one historian has said, “Christianity became both a way to God and a way to unite the empire.” He gave the opening speech himself, telling the delegates that doctrinal disunity was worse than war.
This intrusion of a politician into the doctrines and procedures of the church was resented by some of the delegates, but welcomed by others. For those who had gone through a period of bitter persecution, this conference, carried on under the imperial banner, was heaven on earth.
More than 300 bishops met at Nicaea to settle doctrinal disputes. When Constantine finished his opening speech, the proceedings began. Overwhelmingly, the council declared Arius a heretic. Though Arius was given an opportunity to defend his views, the delegates recognized that if Christ was not fully God, then God was not the Redeemer of mankind. To say that Christ was created was to deny the clear teaching of Scripture: “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him” (Col. 1:16). Clearly, if He created all things, He could not have been created Himself! To this passage, many others that teach the deity of Christ were added, both from the Gospels and the Epistles.
Affirming the divinity of Jesus, the delegates turned their attention to the question of how He related to the Father. Eusebius the historian presented his view, claiming that Jesus had a nature that was similar to that of God the Father.
Present, but not invited to the actual proceedings, was the theologian Athanasius, who believed that eve to say that Christ is similar to God that Father is to miss the full biblical teaching about Christ’s divinity. His argument that Christ could only be God in the fullest sense if His nature was the same as that of the Father was expressed by his representative, Marcellus, a bishop from Asia Minor in the proceedings. Constantine, seeing that the debate was going in Athenasius’s favor, accepted the suggestion of a scholarly bishop and advised the delegates to use the Greek word which means “one and the same.” In other words, Jesus had the very same nature as the Father.
The council agreed, and today we have the famous Nicene Creed. The creed declares Jesus Christ to be “Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.” There can be no question that the delegates affirmed that Christ was deity in the fullest sense (Erwin Lutzer, The Da Vinci Deception, pp. 3-8).
IS IT TRUE THAT THE CHURCH INVENTED THE DEITY OF JESUS?
NO, the vote at the Council of Nicaea only affirmed what Christians had believed all along.
Many people believed that Jesus was more than a “mortal prophet” before the council met in A.D. 325.
The NT contains many statements concerning the deity of Christ.
• Peter: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt.16:16).
• John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made…. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:1-3, 14).
• Thomas: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).
• Paul: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Phil. 2:6-7).
The church fathers (early church leaders) believed Jesus is God.
In A.D. 110, Ignatius, bishop of Antioch in Syria, wrote a series of letters to several churches while on his way to martyrdom in Rome. The centerpiece of his teaching was his conviction that Christ is God Incarnate. “There is One God who manifests himself through Jesus Christ his son.” Another source elaborates further: Ignatius speaks of Jesus was “Son of Mary and Son of God…Jesus Christ our Lord,” calling Jesus “God Incarnate.” In fact, he refers to him as “Christ God.” Remember, he wrote this a full two hundred years before the Council of Niceae!
Polycarp of Smyrna, a disciple of the apostle John, sent a letter to the church at Philippi in about A.D. 112-118. In it, he assumes that those to whom it is addressed acknowledge the divinity of Jesus, his exaltation to heaven, and his subsequent glorification. Polycarp was martyred in About A.D. 160 and gave testimony of his faith in the presence of his executioners.
Tertullian (150-212), one hundred years before Constantine, advocated a fully divine and fully human Christ (Lutzer, TDVD, pp. 12-13).
How could Constantine have invented the doctrine of Jesus’ deity if the church had regarded Jesus as God for more than 200 years?
IS IT TRUE THAT THE VOTE ON THE DEITY OF JESUS WAS CLOSE?
NO, the vote was a landslide in favor of the deity of Jesus.
“In The Da Vinci Code, we read that the doctrine of Christ’s deity passed by a ‘relatively close vote.’ That is fiction, since only five out of more than three hundred bishops (the actual number is actually believed to have been 318) protested the creed. In fact, in the end, only two refused to sign it. The outcome was not exactly a cliff-hanger” (Erwin Lutzer, The Da Vinci Deception, pp. 9-10).
IS IT TRUE THE CHURCH COVERED UP THE HUMANITY OF JESUS?
NO, the NT Gospels make not attempt to hide Jesus’ human traits.
“We may summarize the biblical teaching about the person of Christ as follows: Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man in one person, and will be so forever” (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, p. 529).
Jesus did not surrender some or all of His divine attributes.
• Jesus had a human body.
Hunger: “After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry” (Matt. 4:2).
Thirst: On the cross, Jesus said, “I am thirsty” (John 19:28).
Fatigue: “One days Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger” (Luke 8:22-23).
Fatigue: “He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well” (John 4:5-6).
Weakness: “As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus” (Luke 23:26).
Temptation: “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin” (Heb. 4:14).
• Jesus had a human mind.
[Clarification: Sometimes Christ chose not to use His divine attributes. This does not mean that He was no longer all-knowing (see John 1:48; 2:24; 16:30).]
“Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52).
“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32).
• Jesus had human emotions.
“Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour” (John 12:27).
“When Jesus heard this, he was astonished, and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith” (Matt. 8:10).
“Jesus wept” (John 11:35).
• Jesus was seen by those near Him as only a man.
“When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at him” (Matt. 13:53-58).
WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT THAT JESUS WAS BOTH HUMAN AND DIVINE?
Only someone who was fully God and fully man could be the one mediator between God and man.
“There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men” (1 Tim. 2:5-6).
