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The real problem with the Nicene Council: Difference between revisions
The real problem with the Nicene Council (view source)
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, 2 years ago→What William Branham got wrong about the Nicene Council
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Did William Branham have a good understanding of church history? | Did William Branham have a good understanding of church history? | ||
==What William Branham got wrong about the | ==What William Branham got wrong about the First Council of Nicaea== | ||
William Branham referred dozens of times to the Nicene Council being held at "Nicaea, Rome" (see quotes below). But the city of Nicaea, where the council was held, was nowhere near Rome. The First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia (present-day Iznik in Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325. | William Branham referred dozens of times to the Nicene Council being held at "Nicaea, Rome" (see quotes below). But the city of Nicaea, where the council was held, was nowhere near Rome. The First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia (present-day Iznik in Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325. | ||
William Branham also taught | William Branham also taught the following which are '''historically incorrect''': | ||
#The doctrine of the Trinity started at the Nicene Council; | |||
#The primary dispute was between the Trinitarians and the Unitarians; and | |||
#Everyone baptized prior to the First Council of Nicaea was baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. | |||
==What was the primary problem with the Nicene Council?== | |||
From our perspective, what the First Council of Nicaea got wrong was not doctrinal, it was in the shift from an emphasis on how Christians should be behave to how Christians should believe. | |||
Jesus stated in John 13:34-35: | |||
:''“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Jn 13:34–35.</ref> | |||
:''“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back."<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Lk 6:32–35.</ref> | |||
What we believe is foundational to being a Christian but if it is not coupled with love, it doesn't amount to anything: | |||
:''If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. | |||
:''If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, | |||
::''and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. | |||
:''If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. | |||
:''So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.<ref>Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), 1 Co 13:1–3.</ref> | |||
''The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.''<ref>The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Ga 5:6.</ref> . Love is the only thing that matters. | |||
The church that Jesus founded was to be a movement love would replace law-keeping: | |||
:''When God speaks of a “new” covenant, it means he has made the '''first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear'''.<ref>Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), Heb 8:13.</ref> | |||
What stands out in the original version of the Nicene Creed (and its subsequent amendments) is that the word "love" is not to be found. Christianity moved from being about how people acted to what people believed. It moved from being behavioral to being creedal. That is the primary problem with the decision of the Nicene Council and William Branham completely missed it. This is likely because to William Branham what a person believed (particularly about him) was more important than how they behaved. | |||
==Quotes of William Branham== | ==Quotes of William Branham== | ||