The Christian Doctrine of God: In nothing perhaps was there a wider departure from the real truth of Christianity than in the doctrine concerning God defined by the general council of the Church held within the lifetime of Constantine, and which, in fact, he assembled upon his own authority. This was the celebrated Council of Nicea in Bithynia, Asia Minor, held in 325 A. D. The main purpose for which the first general Council of the Church was assembled was to settle a dispute between one Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, and his bishop. Alexander, of the same city, respecting the doctrine of the Godhead. The dispute proved to be far-reaching in its effects, and for three hundred years the rivalry of the contending factions disturbed the peace of Christendom. We shall have clearer conceptions of the subject, however, and be better able to judge of the extent to which there was a departure from the true doctrine respecting the Godhead, by the definitions formulated and enforced upon the Church by the Council of Nicea, if we first consider the doctrine of the Godhead as found in the Testament.
The existence of God both Jesus and the Apostles accepted as a fact. In all the teachings of the former He nowhere seeks to prove God's existence. He assumes that, and proceeds from that basis with His doctrine. He declares the fact that God was His Father, and frequently calls Himself the Son of God.[A] After His resurrection and departure into heaven, the Apostles taught that He, the Son of God, was with God the Father in the beginning; that He, as well as the Father, was God; that under the direction of the Father He was the Creator of world; that without Him was not anything made that was made.[B] That in Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead body;[C] and that He was the express image of the Father's person.[D] Jesus Himself taught that He and the Father were one;[E] that whosoever had seen Him had seen the Father also;[F] that it was part of His mission to reveal God, the Father, through His own personality: for as was the Son, so too was the Father.[G] Hence Jesus was God manifested in flesh—a revelation of God to the world.[H] That is, a revelation not only of the being of God, but of the kind of being God is.
[Footnote A: John x; Matt, xxvii; Mark xiv:61, 62.]
[Footnote B: For all of which see John i:1-4, 14; Heb. i:1-3.]
[Footnote C: Cor. i:15-19, and ii:9.]
[Footnote D: John x:30; xvii:11-22.]
[Footnote E: John xiv:9.]
[Footnote F: John xiv:1-9; John i:18.]
[Footnote G: Tim. iii:16.]
[Footnote H: John xiv:10, 11, 19, 20; also John xvii.]