The belief that Jesus was the same substance as God

The Holy Trinity

Since the beginning of the second century the gentile christians held the belief that Jesus, being fully God and fully man at the same time, was of the same substance of God, neither mixed nor separated. It was only near the end of the fourth century that the Holy Spirit was officially added to the Godhead and the beginning of the concept of the Trinity. So then, all three were believed to be of the same substance. The trinity began in Europe with Pauline Christianity.

The main beliefs about the nature of Jesus

In general, there have been three basic beliefs about the nature of Jesus in early church history:

1) Jesus was God, pure and simple.
2) Jesus was fully God and fully man simultaneously, neither mixed nor separated.
3) Jesus was born human, but had a special relationship with God.

What the early Christians believed

Jewish Christians

In traditional Christianity to say, “Jesus is God” and just leave it strictly at that without adding anything else was a heresy. That is a heretical, non-Christian statement to make according to traditional Christianity. *

The first century the Jewish Christians, being authentically Jewish, would have considered it heresy to call Jesus God. The groups of Christians in the middle east were sects of Jews, which all considered Jesus only a man and not God. The cardinal tenent of early Christian Ebionites was that Jesus was not divine. *

The sect of the Nararenes, the church at Jerusalem, were ruled authentically Jewish by Rabbi Gamaliel, the president of the Sanhedrin. This was the early Christian church of James and the disciples of Jesus. It would have been impossible for them to be ruled such had the church at Jerusalem declared that Jesus was divine. *

Adoptionism

The beginning of Adoptionism in Christianity

The early church became basically adoptionist, it seems, close to the end of the first century when the Jews rebelled against the Roman empire and the Christians fled persecution. Adoptionism was the main doctrine in all of the middle eastern and north african Christians for centuries.

Adoptionism was the belief that Jesus was a creation of God and became a son of God at his baptism. To them, being the son of God was understood to be like an adopted son, not like a physical or literal son. They understood the concept of the son of God in a very metaphysical way. *

It was mainly Arian that introduced the teaching of adoptionism to the roman church, and became known as Arianism and lasted well into the seventh century.

The Council of Nicaea

In 325, the Council of Nicaea adopted a term for the relationship between the Son and the Father that from then on was seen as the hallmark of orthodoxy; it declared that the Son is “of the same substance” as the Father. This was further developed into the formula “three persons, one substance”. The answer to the question “What is God?” indicates the one-ness of the divine nature, while the answer to the question “Who is God?” indicates the three-ness of “Father, Son and Holy Spirit”.

The Ante-Nicene Fathers, although likely foreign to the specifics of Trinitarian theology because they were not defined until the 4th century, nevertheless affirmed Christ’s deity and referenced “Father, Son and Holy Spirit”. Trinitarians view these as elements of the codified doctrine. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity)

Constantine succeeds in uniting his kingdom

The Emperor Constantine

A raging controversy over Arianism began to rise in the late 3rd century and extended over the greater part of the 4th century and involved most of the cardinals and bishops in Chistiandom. Arianism became so popular that it threatened to pull Christianity apart. At this time Constantine was the emperor of Rome who was sitting on a pretty shaky throne, and to secure his place politically in 313 he issued the edict of Milan which legalized Christianity for the first time in the Roman Empire which got him the support of the Christians. So that helped to secure his throne a bit more. *

But the conflict that was emerging in Christianity about what is the nature of Jesus was threatening to tear apart that part of his coalition. And so Constantine called for the council of Nicea in the year 325. He called the bishopps and said, “We want you to sort this thing out, let’s figure out that is the nature of Jesus”. *

Constantine at The Battle of the Milvian Bridge

A lot of Bishops didn’t show up. They weren’t going to travel all the way to what is Turkey today and submit to this sort of council with Constantine’s soldiers gathered all around. So a lot of people didn’t go. *

Those who went to defend Arius were put under a lot of pressure. Many of them voted for what became known as the Nicean solution, later recanted as soon as they went back home. *

Why Constantine didn’t back Arianism

As it turns out Constantine was actually an Adoptionist (Arianism). When he was baptised later in life, he was baptized by Eusebius of Nicomedia, (Arianism) so he was an Adoptionist. *

But Adoptionism was centered in the middle east, Egypt and North Africa. Constantine was looking for allies closer to home. The closest to home was the Bishop of Rome, of what later became known as the pope. And the bishop of Rome was very much in the camp of “God and man simultaneously” (Trinity) and so Constantine sort of sold out his beliefs for political power and made and alliance with the Bishop of Rome and coming out of the council of Nicea was this statement that Jesus and God are of the same substance. *

* Dr Jerald F. Dirks — Harvard Divinity School / Doctor of Psychology