DID THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA ABANDON MONOTHEISM?

At first glance, this doctrine that teaches Yeshua is God sounds like an abandonment of monotheism (the teaching that God is one) and a reversion to polytheism (the teaching that there are many gods). The church has traditionally rejected this interpretation (monotheism) and insisted that in spite the doctrine of monotheism they wished to hold to the threefold nature of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). According to Christianity, each person of the Godhead was to be understood as fully equal to the others, yet there is also a oneness in God which makes the Christian triune God continuous with the one God of the Hebrew Bible. While the Christian insistence on the oneness of God, in spite of the three co-equal persons in God, is a source of satisfaction to Jews because it barely keeps Christianity within a monotheistic framework, it must also be said that Judaism finds a "three that are one" doctrine virtually impossible to understand, especially in the light of the teaching that only one of these persons became man. It would be equally hard for Yeshua to understand as well.

YESHUA DENIES DIVINITY....WHY COULD NOT NICAEA SEE THIS?

Almost all Jewish scholars and many Christian scholars believe that the doctrine of the Full Divinity of Yeshua is not to be found in the New Testament and would have been abhorrent to the Jew Yeshua. There are a number of instances in the New Testament in which we find Yeshua himself making almost explicit denials of his divinity.

Luke 18:18-19

In this passage in the Gospel of Luke we read: "A man of the ruling class put this question to him: 'Good Master, what must I do to win eternal life?' Yeshua said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone." The reply of Yeshua makes clear the distinction he draws between himself and God. Yeshua definitely makes a distinction between himself and the Father. We have Yeshua's own words recorded for us that, as far as he knew and understood, only God the Father, alone, is "good" in a way that no other could be. This "exclusion" of all others (including himself), and the singling out of the Father alone in a category by Himself, is a very strong example of Biblical testimony that asserts that to Yeshua God is One, and there are no other besides Him.

Matthew 12:32

In is here that Yeshua says "Any man who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but if anyone speaks against the Holy Spirit, for him there will be no forgiveness, either in this age or the age to come" thereby distinguishing between himself and the Holy Spirit. Again in Yeshua's own words we have his testimony that he does not ascribe the doctrine of the "horizontal trinity" which would be accepted and taught as Biblical doctrine concerning God, Yeshua, and the Holy Spirit 300 years later. Yeshua draws a distinction between himself and the Holy Spirit, indicating differences and not equality.

Mark 13:32

In speaking of the end of days Yeshua says "But about that day or about that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, not even the Son; only the Father." One cannot resist asking how the Son and the Father can be equal person of God where there is knowledge available to the Father that is not available to the Son. It is for these reasons, among others, that it is highly unlikely that Yeshua would have found the teaching of his divinity acceptable.

Matt. 6:26, 30, 31-32

We find Yeshua making a distinction between himself and the heavenly Father by bringing attention to the differences in location where they reside. He speaks of "your heavenly Father," thereby drawing a distinction between the Father God in heaven. In the New Testament Yeshua makes such a distinction twenty-four times!

John 16:10

In this passage we find Yeshua again making a distinction between himself by addressing God as "My Father," thus drawing attention to the intimate relationship he had with God in heaven, and not with himself as if he were God. Yeshua makes such distinctions sixty-five times in the New Testament!

Matt. 27:46

The New Testament records for us three instances where Yeshua calls out to his personal God as "My God." Even to the uninformed, it is clear to see that Yeshua made a distinction between himself and his God in heaven. Not only that but Yeshua does not pray to himself, but to his Father.

HOW DID WE GET SO FAR OFF THE TRACK?

Many elements in the New Testament made the Nicene development possible. While the Nicene definition almost certainly goes much beyond the New Testament interpretation of the status of Yeshua, there are some features of the New Testament view that lay the groundwork for it. Essentially, this has to do with the New Testament view of the person of Yeshua. Who was he and how is he related to the figures of the Hebrew Bible?

We must never forget that the New Testament was put together following Constantine's decision concerning Yeshua's "deity" at the Council of Nicaea. Pause and think about that for a while as your read how things written in the New Testament, much of the writings of Paul and the apostles, have been altered as we have them! It was almost 400 years of discussions that emanated in a variety of beliefs about Yeshua that surfaced in the writing of the New Testament. The Pauline epistles were written first and his theology concerning Yeshua could not but help influence later writers who wrote the Gospels. Scholarship will teach you that the Gospels were written at the earliest around 100 A.D., much later than the lives of the original apostles. Few of Yeshua's original apostles wrote the Gospels if any, although they carry their names in order to artificially create an importance beyond that normally acquired if written by average people. More to follow in the final article in this series. Shalom.