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Constantine The Great : The Reign Of Constantine The Great

Decent Essays
The reign of Constantine the Great marks the transition of the Christian religion from under persecution by the secular government to union with the same, beginning the state-church system (Schaff, pg., 4). However, following Jesus’s death, resurrection, and ascension, many questions arose about Christ, his nature, and in answer to those, different hypocritical positions arose. In the fourth and fifth centuries, the early Church Fathers gathered to discuss and agree to a common, Biblical view of Christ in response to some erroneous views. These were the Councils of Nicaea (325 A.D.), Constantinople (381 A.D.), and Chalcedon (451 A.D.). 2. The Outcome The first Ecumenical Council, (meaning that it involved and bound all Church traditions), was the Council of Nicaea. This council met as a response to Arianism (named after Arius of Alexandria) which denied that Jesus the Son is eternal, but rather made by God and therefore, inferior to God. He proposed, “before [the Son] was begotten or created or defined or established, he was not for he was not unbegotten” (Bingham, pg., 46) as well as “the Son has a beginning, but God is without beginning” (Bingham, pg., 46). Constantine, the Emperor of both the East and the West felt compelled to intervene, thus calling the Council of Nicene in June of 325. This resulted in the Creed of Nicea, which “condemned Arianism resulting in an anti-Arian creed” (Lane, pg., 29). The Nicea Creed concluded, “Jesus shared the Father’ divine
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