The Council of Nicea (Part II)

I blogged last week about the Council of Nicaea, and I pointed out that one of the big discussions centered around the divinity of Christ, what I didn’t say was that the two sides were: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost were the three persons of the Godhead, or that God the Father and God the Holy Ghost were the two persons of the Godhead, and that Christ could not be considered co-eternal (and therefore not co-equal) with them.

It occurs to me to wonder why it is that, in discussing a religion that bills itself as monotheistic, the argument was not so much about the nature of our one God, but, it seems, more along the lines of, does our God have two persons or three? I am reminded that some years back, a good friend of mine asked the question, “Are you created in God’s image?” Upon receiving an affirmative response, he went on, “Are you three persons? Wouldn’t that make you schizophrenic?” It’s an amusing set of questions, but it does bring up an interesting point. Many of us are both fathers and sons and have spirits in us, but we don’t consider ourselves to be three people. Sigmund Freud developed the idea that we each have an id, an ego, and a super-ego. Do these three components of our psyche correspond to the three persons of the Trinity? I would venture to say no, for the following reasons: The id, as defined by Freud, was concerned with basic human needs, it is an urge-driven, primal, instinctual part of the brain. The super-ego is the result of outside influences, such as environment, upbringing, and social values. The ego bridges the gap between the gap between the id and the super-ego. Now, other than the fact that the sacrifice of Christ bridges the gap between what we should do and what we actually end up doing (provided that we live faithful lives), I see only one similarity between Freud’s three components of human psychology and the three persons of the Trinity: the number three.

I can’t help but wonder if Emperor Constantine presiding over the Council may not have had an effect on the discussion. He had been raised a polytheist, and might have had a difficult time accepting a single God. Then again, he was exploring new possibilities, and he may very well have been completely dissuaded from the religion(s) of his upbringing; we have no way of knowing. It’s possible that he was more ready to accept such a thing than any of the bishops present were willing to believe. It’s difficult to say how many of those present actually bought into the idea of God in three persons and how many just felt that, after so many years of state-sponsored persecution, they could finally catch a break, if only they could make their beliefs palatable to the emperor. Obviously, I don’t know one way or the other, but it does seem that the Trinity was a convenient compromise between monotheism and polytheism.

In any case, Christianity is a monotheistic religion. Scripture teaches us, time and time again, that God is One. In Isaiah 29:23, God is referred to as the Holy One of Jacob; Isaiah refers to God as the Holy One of Israel several times (Isaiah 1:4, Isaiah 10:20, Isaiah 12:6, Isaiah 17:7, Isaiah 30:15, Isaiah 43:3, Isaiah 48:17, Isaiah 54:5, Isaiah 55:5, and Isaiah 60:9); God is also referred to as the Holy One in 2 Kings 19:22, Job 6:10, Psalms 16:10, Psalms 71:22, Psalms 78:41, Psalms 89:18, Isaiah 10:17, Isaiah 40:25, Mark 1:24, Luke 4:34, Acts 3:14 (although that passage specifically refers to Jesus), and 1 John 2:20; God is referred to as One Lord in Deuteronomy 6:4, Zechariah 14:9, and Ephesians 4:5 (also, in Mark 12:29, Jesus quotes Deut. 6:4). There are many other passages that refer to God as being One, besides those I have mentioned here.