The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

IV. Nicene Council Record On the Advent

The first general church council, held in 325 at Nicaea, is recognized as doubtless the outstanding event of the fourth century. Summoned by Constantine, who was present in person, it was composed at most of 318 bishops, ⁴⁷ according to Athanasius, both laity and lower clergy being excluded. It was certainly a most remarkable gathering. Not many years past those very same bishops bore the brunt of persecution. The Roman emperor was their fiercest enemy, the symbol of the great adversary against God and His people. And now the Roman emperor had invited them to his royal palace to discuss with them ways and means for the furtherance of the church in order to make her strong in unity. Many of them had lingered in dungeons and still bore the scars of torture on their bodies, and now they were seated on seats of honor and called to lay down rules for the faith, which will receive imperial sanction and will be proclaimed as fundamental for the church in all the empire. What a marvelous change! Could it appear otherwise to them than that God had wrought a miracle? And a marvelous work they did. The Nicene Creed has become the basic creed for the whole of Christendom, the East and the West, Protestants and Catholics alike. The only blemish which mars the picture is that these same fathers, who had undergone severe persecution, had not learned tolerance toward those who did not agree with them in the wording of the formula, but that they hurled an anathema against them, giving therewith the lead for the persecution of all dissenting groups. PFF1 367.1

Ecumenical or general councils were extraordinary assemblies, frequently occasioned by the great theological problems or controversies of the time, and until the Vatican Council their decisions were considered the highest and the final expressions of the church. ⁴⁸ The Greek church took the lead in this first council, which, be it particularly noted, was called by the emperor Constantine—without the previous consent of the bishop of Rome, according to Schaff ⁴⁹ And the Nicene Creed (in the enlarged form which it received after the second ecumenical council) is the only creedal statement that is acknowledged alike by the Greek, Latin, and Evangelical churches. ⁵⁰ We shall here, of course, discuss the original form of this creed, dating from 325. PFF1 368.1

1. LITERAL SECOND ADVENT STILL GENERAL EXPECTANCY.

With reference to the second advent, and its inseparable resurrection, the last clause reads: PFF1 368.2

“He [Christ] suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” ⁵¹ PFF1 368.3

The significant feature of this creedal expression is that it affords irrefutable testimony as to what was still the general belief more than half a century after the allegorizing opposition of Origen and Dionysius. It is evidence that the majority still held, at least in word or theory, to the primitive literal interpretation of the second advent. It is silent, however, on the millennium. PFF1 368.4

2. NEW EARTH KINGDOM ESTABLISHED BY SECOND ADVENT

But even more expressive than the phrasing of the creed itself is the last of nine dogmatic constitutions which, says Gelasius, a Greek historian, was framed by the fathers of the same council. Gelasius compiled (c. 475) an account of the council containing other material in addition to the generally accepted creed, synodal decree, and twenty canons. But studies in the sources since the turn of the century appear to have restored Gelasius, formerly considered “a sorry compiler,” to “a place among serious Church historians, of which he has been wrongly deprived, and have also lent weight to the hitherto generally rejected idea that there was an official record of the Acts of the Council of Nicaea; and further that it was from this record” that these nine formerly rejected constitutions were derived. ⁵² PFF1 368.5

Whether the original records merely dropped out of sight because of the troubles over the Arian controversy, or whether the antichiliastic sentiment of the church influenced the omission of this statement concerning the future kingdom of God it would be interesting to determine. The last section of the chapter entitled “De Diatyposibus ecclesiasticis” clearly stresses the literal resurrection and the new heavens and new earth in fulfillment of the prophecy of Daniel 7, at the second advent of Christ—perhaps the most significant declaration of the time: PFF1 369.1

“Concerning the Providence of God and Concerning the World PFF1 369.2

“The lesser world was made through providence: for God foresaw that man would sin. For this reason we hope for new heavens and a new earth according to the Sacred Scriptures, when the Appearing and Kingdom of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ shall have shone forth. And then, as Daniel says, the saints of the Most High shall take the Kingdom. And the earth shall be pure, a holy land of the living, and not of the dead; which David, foreseeing with eyes of faith, exclaimed: ‘I believe I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living,’ the land of the meek and humble. For, ‘Blessed,’ it says, ‘are the meek, for they shall occupy the earth.’ And the prophet says: ‘The feet of the meek and humble shall tread it.’ These things from the ecclesiastical constitutions worked out by our holy fathers, a few from many, we have described in this commentary.” ⁵³ PFF1 369.3

Picture 3: CHARTS VISUALIZING PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT OF PROPHETIC INTERPRETATION
The Lower Chart is the Central Portion, Enlarged, of the Upper Panoramic Survey of the Entire Field Covered. After the Collapse of the Roman Empire and Eclipse of Earlier Historical Interpreattion by the Fifth Century, COmes the Imperial Recognition of the Primacy of the Roman Bishop; Later, the Establishment of the Papal States and the Holy Roman Empire. The Three Paraleling Horizontal Bands Indicate (1) Jewish Expositiors; (2) Witnesses Outside the Roman Church; and (3) the Increasing Chorus of Voices Within the Roman Communion Declaring Antichrist’s Identity. Great Advances in Exposition Mark the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, When the Papacy Is at Its Height. The Lost Positions of the Early Church Are on Their Way Back to Recovery. Frequent Reference to This Chart, and Its Companion Charts, Will Aid in Grsping Developments and Relationships (For First Section, See Pages 238, 239; the Last Section Appears in Volume II, Pages 96, 97)
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Picture 4: COMPREHENSIVE CHARTING OF PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT OF PROPHETIC INTERPRETATION THROUGH THE CENTURIES, FROM FOURTH CENTURY B.C. TO NINETEENTH CENTURY A.D.
Enlargement of second portion covered by volume I of Prophetic faith, From a.d. 400 to 1400. Fuller statement appears on following page.
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If this statement is genuine, as now seems likely, or even if it expressed a later opinion attributed to Nicaea, it shows how strong remained the doctrine of the future kingdom introduced at the advent, notwithstanding the long years of opposition from the Alexandrian school and the philosophizing tendencies in the church. PFF1 372.1