The Council of Nicea (AD 325): Background
This article examines the historical background of the Council of Nicaea (AD 325), focusing on Arius's false denial of Christ's eternal divinity and the orthodox response led by Alexander and Athanasius. Kuiper demonstrates how this fourth-century controversy was ultimately resolved through God's sovereign providence in directing Emperor Constantine to convene an ecumenical council, establishing the church's defense of Christ's true deity as essential to Christian salvation.
In His incarnation, the eternal Son of God took to Himself our human nature. The incarnation of Jesus Christ assumes that He is truly God and, therefore, is eternal. Early in the fourth century, Arius, a priest in Alexandria, Egypt, denied that the Son of God was truly God and eternal. Arius taught that God created Christ as the first creature. God did so in eternity, in order that God might create everything else in time by Christ, the Word. Still, even though Christ was created before time,...
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