A Christian Response to The Da Vinci Code
Was the deity of Christ invented by Constantine?
The
Da Vinci Code claims that the emperor Constantine imposed the deity of
Christ on the church at the council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. But we have
just seen that the church already believed in the deity of Christ, and
had done so for 300 years. So what really happened at the council of Nicaea?
The council was in fact called to deal with the turmoil created in the Eastern Church by someone who was denying the deity of Christ - a preacher in the city of Alexandria named Arius. He had already been excommunicated by his own bishop for his heresy. But Arius was a skilful advocate, and was able to popularise his views and drum up some measure of support from other Eastern bishops, most of whom did not fully appreciate what Arius taught. Constantine was very upset by this turmoil in the Eastern Church and decided to remit the whole matter to a general council of bishops.
What happened at the council? Did Arius, who denied the deity of Christ,
receive any serious backing from this representative assembly of the whole
church? No, he did not! Arius suffered a profound defeat. Hardly anyone
supported him. There were some 300 bishops present, yet when the council
voted to authorise a doctrinal statement which affirmed the deity of Christ
only two bishops refused to subscribe. The statement declared that Christ
is true God, not created, but eternally begotten by the Father and possessing
the same divine nature as the Father. This was the historic faith of the
Church and the overwhelming majority at Nicaea saw themselves as preserving
the ancient apostolic faith. Only two out of 300 bishops failed to support
it. Yet Dan Brown asserts that the vote was very close!
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Did
Constantine replace the true Gospels?