This is an oft-repeated claim which is not supported by the evidence.  It is true that the idea of Jesus’ divinity was in question at the Council of Nicaea, because a faction had risen in Alexandria which is called Arianism.  The Arian heresy was led by a bishop named Arius.  He claimed that Jesus was a created person.  The motto of this group was “There was a time when he was not.”  The Council summarily rejected this idea, and anathematized Arius and his teaching.  That Jesus is not God, but a created being was never the majority view of the churches.  There was another minor sect in the late first century called the Nazarites which made a similar claim.  The evidence, however, is that the overwhelming majority view of the churches was always that Jesus was and is God.

Because of the principle topic of discussion at the Council of Nicaea, for those who are not at all aware of church history, the idea that the divinity of Jesus was made up at Nicaea is not a completely outlandish proposal.  However, if we look at church history, we will learn immediately that this is simply NOT the case.  Not even close.  The great majority of believers always believed Jesus is God–that he is the divine Son of the Father.  This should not be at all surprising, because the deity of Jesus is thoroughly established, not principally from church history, but from the words of the New Testament, and, more specifically, from the words of Jesus.

Jesus said, “Before Abraham was born, I AM.” (John 8:58).  In case there is any doubt about the meaning of this claim, just look at the response of his hearers.  They picked up stones to stone him.  Jesus made a similar claim in John 10:30.  The response of the Jews, again, was to attempt to stone him.  Why? Because “you, a mere man, claim to be God.”  Jesus did not correct their understanding of his words.  John tells us that Jesus is God in John 1:1.  There are at least a dozen passages in the New Testament which confirm the deity of Jesus (Colossians 2:9, Titus 2:13 and many more), as well as Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah, which point toward his deity (Zechariah 11:13, Isaiah 9:6).  All of these writings were in circulation among all the churches at least two hundred years before the Council of Nicaea was held.

It is forgivable, I suppose, for a person who does not know the Bible or the history of the early church to make the rather blatantly false claim that the deity of Christ was established at the Council of Nicaea, given the purpose of the church council.  However, both the Bible and church history prove that this idea is preposterous, and is simply not true. No reputable scholar would make such an outrageous claim.  They might doubt the deity of Christ, but would never make the claim that it was “invented” at Nicaea.

John Oakes