Is God A Trinity PDF - Church of God Faithful Flock

20 Is God a Tnnity?that if a synod were to meet representing the wholechurch both east and west, it might be possible to restoreharmony. Constantine himself of course neither knew orcared anything about the matter in dispute but he waseager to bring the controversy to a close, and Hosius'advice appealed to him as sound" (A History of ChristianThought, Vol. I, p. 258).The decision as to which of the two men the churchwas to follow was a more or less arbitrary one. Constantinereally didn't care which choice was made- all hewanted was a united church. (Arius was banished, butlater recalled by Constantine, examined and found to bewithout heresy.)The majority of those present at the council were notready to take either side in the controversy. "A clearlydefined standpoint with regard to this problem - therelationship of Christ to God - was held only by theattenuated group of Arians and a far from numerous sectionof delegates, who adhered with unshaken convictionto the Alexandrian (Athanasius'] view. The bulk of themembers occupied a position between these two extremes.They rejected the formulae of Arius, and declined toaccept those of his opponents ... the voting was no criterionof the inward conviction of the council" (EncyclopaediaBritannica, 11th ed., article "Nicaea, Council of,"p. 641).The council rejected Arius' views, and rightly so, butthey had nothing with which to replace it. Thus the ideasof Athanasius - also a minority view - prevailed. Therejection of Arianism was not blanket acceptance of Athanasius.Yet, the church in all the ensuing centuries hasbeen "stuck," so to speak, with the job of upholding -right or wrong - the decision made at Nicaea.After the council the Trinity became official dogma inthe church, but the controversy did not end. In the nextfew years more Christians were killed by other Christiansover that doctrine than were killed by all the paganemperors of Rome. Yet, for all the fighting and killing,neither of the two parties had a biblical leg to stand on.