In the year 325 at the First Council of Nicea, leaders of the early church adopted a very important statement of belief in response to a false teacher named Arius. Arius was an Egyptian presbyter from Alexandria who introduced a new theology that stated while Jesus was the Son of God, He wasn’t really God- he was a created being who had been given some divine attributes.

The early church responded to this heresy by official denouncing it and issuing the Nicene Creed, which states that Christian orthodoxy affirms a belief in- “one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made.”

It's been a long time since the year 325, but the more things change, the more they stay the same. The Arian heresy has persisted stubbornly throughout the last 1,700 years of church history in various forms and iterations. There are many fringe groups that claim to represent Christian orthodoxy, but in reality are simply peddling this same old heresy.

So was Jesus really God? Or was Jesus a created being with divine attributes that was sent by God? Was Jesus made into a God by the early church? Or was Jesus a god just like you and I are “gods”? …shouldn’t we be checking our Bibles for the answers to this?