Between the Testaments 5
Part Five: Religion by Decree — The Council of Nicaea
July 15, 2026
Recap
We have spent the first parts of this series examining all of the varying base points of the Christian Faith as it existed in the time between the execution of Jesus and the formal formation of the New Testament. We have examined the foundation of both the Jewish and Christian faiths as being the Mount Sinai Covenant, as delivered/constructed by Moses during the Exodus.
For quick review, the Covenant (The Torah) was a theo-political extension of the Ten Commandments delivered to the Israelite people as they journeyed to the Promised Land during the Exodus. The Covenant designed a Theocracy which provided specific governing practices denying any sovereign but God, set societal rules on civil, health, legal, and religious practices, governmental structures, and a design for the economy. We examined the Covenant in detail in Part Four of this series. In short, it provided for a society that would be based on shared responsibility, prevent consolidation of power into the hands of the few, and provide economic stability that would prevent the development of a generational underclass of poor.
It was the basic structure of the Israelite society, and every revolutionary movement since its inception has been for the restoration of the original Covenant after it had been corrupted or abandoned in successive generations. This was true in Judaic history, and was also the chief catalyst of the Messianic movement that gave legs to an obscure Galilean rabbi in the First Century CE by the name of Jesus.
In Part One of the Series, we examined the Christian sects that sprang up after the execution of Jesus, which remained firmly rooted in their Judaic heritage and religion. In Part Two, we discussed the prevailing sects that arose out of the Gentile population converting to Christianity, due to the efforts of the Apostle Paul. In Part Three, we examined the Apostle Paul in detail, as well as cataloging the beliefs that he taught about Jesus to the Gentile population of Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome.
That brings us to what everyone believes to be the big moment of consolidation — the Council of Nicaea, held in 325CE, which “standardized” Christian belief. Indeed, it brought together an “official” version of Christianity under the Roman banner, but it does not end the story, as the final disposition of the New Testament was not settled by it and continued for several decades after. We will examine that period as well as the history of New Testament compilation, editing, controversies, and the like in our last article in this series.
But for now, let’s examine the Council of Nicaea, and the impact that it did have on what the New Testament says, and why our Christianity is like it is today, as the vast majority of Christians practice it. To truly appreciate the Council, we need to look at the background events leading up to it. Brace yourselves for an advanced history lesson of background.
The Divided Empire
Before the official split, Rome suffered 50 years of near-total collapse known as the Crisis of the Third Century. The empire faced simultaneous foreign invasions, civil wars, hyperinflation, and a plague. Over 20 different men claimed the throne in this short period, usually assassinating their predecessor. This chaos proved that the traditional centralized system of governance was completely broken.
To restore order, Emperor Diocletian realized that a single emperor could not simultaneously fight Germanic tribes on the Rhine, Persian armies in the East, and internal usurpers in Rome. In 285 AD, he divided the empire administratively into two halves — Western and Eastern. He later expanded this into the Tetrarchy (“Rule of Four”), where each half had a senior emperor (Augustus) and a junior emperor (Caesar). While Diocletian intended for this to keep the empire united under a joint leadership team, it accidentally created the administrative, military, and bureaucratic infrastructure that allowed both halves to operate as completely separate entities.
The two halves of the empire were fundamentally different, which accelerated their separation
The East: Wealthier, highly urbanized, densely populated, and culturally Greek. It controlled major trade routes and had a massive tax base.
The West: Poorer, more rural, heavily dependent on agriculture, and culturally Latin. It faced the brunt of the external migratory pressures from Germanic tribes and lacked the funds to sustain its military defense.
Constantine — Reuniting the Empire
Constantine I, Emperor of Rome from 312–337 CE, is famously known as the first Christian Emperor of Rome, and through his efforts, Christianity was legalized in the Roman Empire following the First Council of Nicaea, which is the subject of the bulk of this article.
Constantine grew up exposed to varying degrees of religious tolerance. His Mother, Helena, was a devout Christian. Though Constantine remained a pagan in his early life, her influence ensured he was intimately familiar with Christian beliefs from an early age. His Father, Constantius Chlorus, was a pagan who worshiped Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun); Constantius refused to ruthlessly enforce the brutal Great Persecution of Christians initiated by Emperor Diocletian in 303 AD. This taught Constantine that tolerating Christians could lead to political stability.
Constantine witnessed firsthand that Rome’s systemic violence against Christians was failing to destroy the religion. Instead, the victims of the persecution were winning the public’s sympathy, and the movement was growing rapidly. In 311 AD, the dying senior Emperor Galerius issued an edict of toleration, admitting that the persecutions had failed. Constantine, seeing that Christianity was an unshakeable and highly organized social force, began viewing them as potential political allies rather than enemies.
When Constantine marched into Italy (312 CE) to overthrow his rival Maxentius, he was facing a desperate, uphill battle. Maxentius possessed a much larger army and held the heavily fortified city of Rome. Anxious, isolated, and deeply superstitious, Constantine looked for a divine patron who could offer greater supernatural protection than the traditional Roman gods.
The immediate catalyst occurred right before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. While marching with his army, Constantine reportedly looked up at the sun and saw a cross of light with the Greek words for “In this sign, conquer”. That night, Jesus Christ reportedly appeared to Constantine in a dream, instructing him to use the Chi-Rho monogram as a protective standard (the labarum) for his army. Constantine ordered his soldiers to paint this Christian symbol onto their shields.
Despite the odds, Constantine won a crushing victory; Maxentius drowned in the Tiber River during the rout. Because he had fought explicitly under the banner of the Christian God, Constantine interpreted his triumph as absolute proof that the God of the Christians was the supreme divine power. He entered Rome as the ruler of the Western Empire and immediately began using his imperial power to bankroll, protect, and institutionalize the Christian Church.
Constantine’s definitive war against the Eastern Roman Empire occurred in 324 AD, sparked by mounting political and religious tensions with the Eastern Emperor Licinius. This swift, successful campaign eliminated his last remaining rival, ending the Tetrarchy and allowing Constantine to become the sole, undisputed emperor of the reunited Roman world.
This is the stage that is set for the Council of Nicaea. In the year 325 CE, Constantine moved to create a Council to unify and standardize the Christian belief system throughout the Empire. He sought to use Christianity as a unifying influence, and to pacify rebellious areas without the costs and constraints of placing a large military force throughout his newly re-acquired territory. Though religious in nature, its primary purpose was political. The standardization was aimed to pacify the large Christian population under a set of common rules and beliefs — both to eliminate the factionalism present in Christianity, and to allow Constantine both control of, and the blessing of, the church.
The First Council of Nicaea (325 AD) was as much a political masterstroke as it was a landmark theological assembly. Following decades of brutal persecution, Roman Emperor Constantine I used the gathering to forcefully integrate the rapidly growing Christian church into the administrative framework of the Roman Empire.
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Constantine did not call the council out of personal theological devotion, but out of political necessity. He had recently defeated his co-emperor Licinius in 324 AD, finally reuniting the fracturing Roman Empire under a single ruler. However, he quickly discovered that while he had unified the borders, the Christian church-which he intended to use as the cultural cement of his empire-was violently divided over the Arian controversy.
The major decisions of the Council were these:
The Formulation of the Nicene Creed: To codify this orthodoxy, the bishops drafted the initial version of the Nicene Creed. This binding statement of faith formally and explicitly designated Jesus as “true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father”. This formulation was a direct repudiation of Arianism, which claimed Jesus was subordinate to the Father, and thus, a lesser being.
Date of Easter: Before Nicaea, different Christian regions calculated Easter using varying methods, some aligning with Jewish Passover. The council established an independent calculation system to ensure all Christians celebrated the resurrection on the same Sunday.
Church Governance (The Canons): The assembly issued 20 canon laws, creating formal structural hierarchies for the church, establishing rules for clerical conduct, and trying to resolve internal schisms to unify doctrine.
The Fallout and Behind the Scenes
To Constantine, theological instability meant political instability. Riots over church doctrine were actively disrupting public order in major economic hubs like Alexandria. The council was his mechanism to enforce peace and synchronization across his territories. Constantine broke all historical precedents by using secular, imperial power to dictate church policy.
Constantine funded the entire venture from the imperial treasury. He provided the bishops with free transport via the cursus publicus (the state postal and transit system) and hosted them in his imperial summer palace at Nicaea. Though unbaptized and lacking formal theological training, Constantine personally sat in on the sessions, acted as an honorary chairperson, and actively “guided” the debates toward a consensus.
Historical records indicate that Constantine himself pushed for the inclusion of the controversial Greek word “homoousios” (of the same substance) into the Creed to definitively box out the Arians, serving as a political compromise to force a signature.
Nicaea fundamentally altered the power dynamic between church and state, creating a precedent where the Emperor held supreme authority over ecclesiastical matters. For the first time, theological disagreement was treated as a crime against the state. When Arius and two Libyan bishops refused to sign the Nicene Creed, Constantine didn’t just excommunicate them ecclesiastically; he used his imperial powers to exile them to Illyria. Constantine issued an imperial edict commanding that all writings of Arius be burned. Anyone caught hiding his texts faced the death penalty.
The council’s 20 canons structurally aligned the boundaries of church dioceses with the existing secular administrative provinces of the Roman Empire, granting elevated political power to the bishops of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch. The Canons also served to standardize liturgy, offices, and church administration, as well as to settle more minor doctrinal disagreements.
The common belief that Nicaea permanently defeated Arianism is historically inaccurate. The decades following the council are often called the “Arian Century” because the condemned doctrine fiercely rebounded. Bishops who signed the Nicene Creed under imperial pressure quickly regretted it. Pro-Arian figures like Eusebius of Nicomedia won the ear of Emperor Constantine, convincing him to recall Arius from exile. Athanasius, the champion of Nicene orthodoxy in Alexandria, was exiled five separate times by three different Roman emperors who favored Arianism. At one point, the political and religious pressure was so intense that it gave rise to the phrase “Athanasius contra mundum” (Athanasius against the world). Under Constantine’s son, Constantius II, a pro-Arian creed was forced upon the church. Saint Jerome famously remarked of this fallout: “The world groaned and was astonished to find itself Arian.”
Because the unity was enforced by political muscle rather than genuine theological consensus, the pendulum swung back quickly. Just a few years after the council, Constantine succumbed to political pressure from pro-Arian court insiders. He recalled Arius from exile, banished the orthodox champion St. Athanasius, and was ultimately baptized on his deathbed by an Arian bishop. For the next century, Roman emperors routinely flipped between supporting Nicene orthodoxy and Arianism, using imperial exile and military force to install whichever bishops suited their immediate geopolitical needs.
While Arianism eventually lost ground within the borders of the Roman Empire, it experienced a massive missionary expansion outside of it. Ulfilas, an Arian bishop, translated the Bible into the Gothic language and converted the Germanic tribes (including the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and Vandals). When these tribes later invaded and collapsed the Western Roman Empire, they did so as Arian Christians, creating intense religious tension with the native Nicene Roman populations they conquered.
To firmly distance itself from Arianism, the orthodox Christian church fundamentally restructured its daily worship and expressions of faith. The Gloria Patri, a common trinitarian prayer, was altered to its modern form: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit…” to emphasize that all three persons of the Trinity possess equal, simultaneous glory. Many devout Christians, disillusioned by the political corruption, wealth, and theological infighting gripping the newly state-sanctioned church, fled into the deserts of Egypt and Syria, triggering the massive rise of Christian monastic life.
Wrapping Things Up
This gives quite the backstory to my mantra that “There is nothing more dangerous than a priest seeking a political mandate, or a politician seeking a holy mandate”. Even if we were to tint our glasses rose-colored, and assume all of the good intentions in the world behind this conclave, we would not be blind to the intense damage done to both Christianity and to the Empire in this commingling of interests.
On the religious end of things, vast swaths of people, holding different beliefs and occupying different sects, were declared heretical and outlawed, including, believe it or not, the positions held by the original Church of Jerusalem, run by James, the brother of Jesus. Arianism was the key motivator for Constantine, but by taking a chainsaw to Christianity, instead of a scalpel, he excised groups who collectively held the majority of Christian belief, in favor of the minority view of the single sect that followed the teachings of Paul and “salvation”.
Whether this was done because it was the version of Christianity that Constantine was most familiar with, or that it was Paul’s version of Christianity that was most pliable to control by the Roman government, is up for debate. It still occurred, and it can be argued effectively that Christianity is not the better for it. I do whenever given the opportunity.
From the political end, this gives us a not-so-vague mirror to peer into as we, ourselves, are experiencing the unprecedented and drastic invasion of the government into the promotion of a religious view that it has similarly taken command of. As Constantine was able to mold the Christianity of the Fourth Century into a user-friendly version for himself, our very own Orange Julius Caesar has remolded the Evangelical wing of Christianity into his own image and made it an idol. The span from making a religion official and legal is astonishingly short when it comes to making opposing views heretical and illegal. We all have some thinking to do.
We can take comfort in the fact that Constantine did not get the total win that he desired. In the short run, it made things far more unstable than they were. In the long run, it created a schism in the Christian church that exists to this day. I hope, pray, and work towards that same result here, today. The most simple facet of faith is that you cannot legislate what a person believes, and what is official and accepted, or what is not accepted and heretical. A law will never change a person’s mind, heart, belief, or conscience. All a law can ever hope to accomplish is to change someone’s behavior.
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In Peace, Faith, and Love
Rev. R.L. Brandner, Ecc. New Ecclesiastes Ministries
Originally published at https://newecclesiastes.substack.com on July 14, 2026.
