Transcription
Okay, so Wes Huff and the amazing people at Apologetics Canada just released a banger, uh, debunking much of the internet chatter around the topic of Christianity being created at Nica. And this touches so many different conversations regarding, uh, not just online conversations, but debates. And also, it has implications for all of us because if we can figure out where that line is regarding what does it mean to be a Christian, do you believe the right things? That'll impact how you live your life and who you're becoming and how you live. So, shout out to, uh, Apologetics Canada, Wes Huff. This is awesome. Uh, I know they've been working on this for a while. I'm so glad it's finally out.
So, this is the first timestamp I wanted to get into, just to kind of give you guys an idea of what it is that they're doing regarding going to Nica and debunking much of the nonsense that people talk about. I mean, everyone from Sneo to you'll see, uh, talking about, you know, Christianity was invented at the Council of Nica. There's a book in the Bible even called the Council of Nica. Let's jump into this.
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All right, let's jump into this video.
>> We've just arrived here in Isnik and we're looking for the ancient ruins of where the Council of Nica was held. This location is often accused of being the birthplace of the collection of books that make up the Bible, where the books of scripture were supposedly decided by a vote, and where many claim the divinity of Jesus was invented.
>> This is in Turkey. Nica was in Turkey. I'm Armenian. So, some people would argue that this was historic Armenia and it went all the way into these parts of the regions. That's why you'll we'll see some churches of Armenian persuasion here in a moment. Uh, but yeah, let's keep going.
>> What if I told you that the Bible that you read today has been edited, manipulated, and rewritten?
>> The Council of Nica came together, built up the mythology, and then they kind of curated this book, which they want to call it a canonized Bible. Literally voted on by a bunch of politicians and bishops in a room.
>> Yo, this is so bad. It's like these people are all reading off the same nonsensical, ridiculous, uh, script that's being passed around in these pockets of the internet. Like, it's so stupid. And so I love that Wes and, uh, these guys are going in and actually giving us what the history of this is because again, everyone is picking apart Christianity. And there are other people who just don't understand Christianity. They're almost using it as an accessory of sorts. But that gets very murky on what are the lines. And I see Nica as one of those lines, right? When we had the debate between Jacob Hansen and God Logic, they talked about creedal Christianity, the, the earliest creeds being where we draw the lines, and specifically in Nica because it affirms so clearly what we believe to be the line, the hard lines within what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
>> Deciding what made the cut and what didn't. 325 AD. Emperor Constantine. That's when Jesus was made the Son of God.
>> That's when Jesus was made the Son of God.
>> WOW. THIS. So, what actually did happen at Nica? It's been nearly 1700 years since the council took place. And to this day, this event continues to be a source of conspiracy, controversy, and confusion. Yeah, man. Okay. Okay.
So, the interesting part is Nica today is underwater. And so they end up going, uh, to the location of where Nica is, uh, because it's like a, it's like a lake now. Okay, check this out.
>> We are in Lake Isnik, the modern site of the ancient city of Nica. And just be...
>> Ain't that crazy that 1700 years later, this historic site is just like underwater now? It's like the, it's like the lost city of Atlantis. Behind us are the ruins of the church that the Council of Nica very well may have taken place.
>> This church was exposed in 2014 as the waters receded. And you might be wondering, you know, why was a church in a lake? Well, this area is prone to earthquakes. And it's believed that after a number of earthquakes, the church, which was once on the shore, was now under the water and ultimately abandoned.
>> In 320.
>> That's so wild. That's such an iconic moment within Christian history is just now ruins. Now,
>> The First Council of Nica was called to deal with issues regarding Trinitarianism. How do we understand who Jesus is in light of the Godhead? Now, if you go online or you read The Da Vinci Code, you're going to hear these stories that this was the place that the books of the Bible were chosen. You know, that couldn't be any further from the truth.
>> Yeah. They were trying to figure out the parameters of what it meant to be a Christian. And we're going to jump ahead a little bit. Again, go watch this full thing because they really did a killer job on this. I'm so proud of Apologetics Canada. This is really awesome. Regarding hidden churches in the mountains that people were fleeing to to avoid persecution. Now, again, the Armenian church, I grew up Armenian Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox arm of the church, and they have a very, very rich history regarding this specific region of the world because the, the, the borders between Armenia and Turkey have been muddied over centuries. And there's also, of course, the Armenian Genocide from 1915. And so here they go into a hidden cave church, uh, to show the type of things that these folks are dealing with.
>> Looking out into this valley and looking at some of the churches that are peppered along the rock faces.
>> Behind us, you can see caves which are actually churches. This is where early Christians in this area would not only worship, but they would seek refuge from persecution.
>> Prior to Constantine's conversion and the Council of Nica in 325 AD, the Emperor Diocletian, in February 23rd of 303, enacted an empire-wide...
>> Wow, look at that. Look at that art, man. That's so sick.
>> ...persecution that forced Christians to remove themselves from cities like Cappadocia, not far from here, and hollow out caves for places of worship.
>> As you can see, we're currently in one of the cave churches. It's quite beautiful. And as we're here, you know, Wes, I can't help...
>> Look at that. I wonder if that was done intentionally, like removing the faces.
>> ...but think of the Christians that would come that are experiencing persecution and they're hiding and they're seeking to meet with with each other, meet with the Lord. And not only the fear, but also the bravery that they would have had here.
>> Christians didn't only seek refuge in caves, they also went underground. You see, this region is home to vast subterranean cities carved deep into the earth. One of them, called Derinkuyu, stretches for kilometers and descends 18 levels below the surface.
>> At its peak, it could shelter as many as 20,000 people.
>> Wow.
>> Now, it's one thing to talk about places like this, but it's something entirely different to stand inside of them. These tunnels go like 9 kilometers. There's multiple layers. It is literally a city underground. Between the...
>> Literal, literal underground churches. Now, some of you guys are like, "Hey, but like, what was the council?" We're going to get there in a second. Okay, we're going to get there in a second. They're going to brilliantly break this down. But I think this is a beautiful way for them to just explain the backdrop of what is happening culturally. How Constantine, who's the emperor of Rome, coming to faith ends up changing everything, and then Christianity becoming legalized and essentially accepted by the empire because the emperor became a, a Christian, seemingly.
>> First century in the inception of Christianity, and then the Constantinian era of tolerance and peace. Christians hid in places like Derinkuyu, but then also continued to come down here and hide during the Byzantine era when the Muslim armies were invading, and then even as far as into when the Mongolians,
>> Or, or even later into, uh, the 1900s when you had the Armenians and and others that were fleeing persecution. So...
>> That's my people. That's my people. I was, I was, I was great. I'm grateful. I'm grateful Andy that you shouted out the Armenians. Uh, shout out to, uh, all the Armenians. You know, many argue were the first Christian nation. Uh, and they're in again, historical Armenian grounds, as well as the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem, for example. That's, they say that goes back all the way to the year 300. Um, there's always a debate whether is the Ethiopian was the first Christian nation, Armenia was the first Christian nation. But yeah, this is all around the, the same time as Constantine. He's specifically talking about the Armenian Genocide, which I just mentioned to you guys, in 1915. Me coming to the United States is loosely connected to that because of the pilgrims of Baku in the '80s, where a half a million Armenians were ethnically cleansed from Baku, a predominantly Muslim nation just north of Iran. All this stuff is connected, man. And I think people don't quite understand the persecution that people had to face, the suffering that people had to go through. Uh, and also the interconnected nature of one's ethnic identity along with their faith, and how you take, you had entire groups of ethnicity becoming Christian and being raised Christian, right? Uh, now that became more and more complicated and drift happened definitely post-communism, which then encapsulated Armenia, and obviously after the Islamic conquest. But this is a very deep and complicated history of this part of the world.
Okay, so let's jump into exactly what the heck happened at the Council of Nica. Okay, so check this out.
>> On the persecution the Christians endured helps us better understand the rising tension within the Roman Empire. After years of conflict and a series of decisive battles, the fighting finally came to an end. Constantine defeated Licinius, becoming the sole ruler of the Roman Empire in 324. The following year, in 325, Constantine convened the first ecumenical council in the city of Nica to address growing division within the Christian church that had become a source of political and social instability in the newly unified Roman Empire.
And so, people have probably rightfully so criticized Constantine and said, "Hey, well, sure does seem convenient that as you are spreading the, the unification of the, of the entire empire under one leader, you that all of a sudden you become this Christian and see Christianity as a unifying force instead of previous emperors that would be either negatively viewing Christianity or flat-out persecuting Christians. Pretty convenient for you, right?"
In the year 325 AD, Christians from all across the Roman Empire gathered in the Greek-speaking city of Nica, marking the largest assembly of believers in the world at that point. For two months, hundreds of church leaders and potentially thousands of individuals traveled to Nica, prompted by the Roman emperor himself, Constantine. Many of those gathered at Nica wore scarves and missing limbs, a visual reminder of the persecution inflicted against Christians. Some wandered in from the deserts, having spent their lives devoted to solitude and prayer in Egyptian caves. Others ventured from across the Mediterranean, throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. They're here for one specific reason: to resolve a theological dispute. And while smaller regional meetings called synods have convened in the past to adjudicate Christian disagreements, this is the first worldwide ecumenical gathering of church leaders.
>> Ecumenical meaning all the churches coming together. And so he said there were smaller gatherings, but this is now getting wild because of the spread of a heresy called Arianism, where Jesus was viewed not as Yahweh, uh, but more as like a created being, if you will.
>> This meeting was so important that Constantine himself was in attendance, at least to give the opening address. His desire was to see unity among the churches on one specific issue.
>> That issue had to do with the eternalness of Jesus. Was Jesus a created being created by the Father? This is ground zero for those particular conversations in early Christianity. The reason why Emperor Constantine was concerned about the unity is because there were these theological disagreements from Arius, who was a North African preacher talking about the eternalness of Jesus. Was there a time when the Son was not, and was he a created being created by the Father, or was, as we read in places like John 1:1, he was eternal with the Father?
>> Yeah. Yeah. And, and it's not, I mean, John 1:1, but it's also Colossians. All things were created through him, for him. It, it seems everything came to being through Jesus, and Jesus being there according to scripture.
>> Arius put his ideas of the semi-divine Jesus who was created and not eternal to song. The tunes that they composed were carried across the Roman world by sailors and fueled division within the body of believers. That's wild. He used music. This man used music to get, to get his heresies out there. This sounds familiar, doesn't it? At the council, Arius's writings were read aloud and according to reports were denounced as blasphemous by most of the participants. There is even an account in the hagiography of Nicholas of Myra. Debate at the council became so heated that at one point, Nicholas struck Arius across the face.
>> St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas's based smacked. He pulled a, pulled a Will Smith and smacked him. That's wild.
>> What's key to understand is that Arius and those who opposed him, like Athanasius, both appealed to the authority of scripture. The Bible clearly wasn't being voted on. It was the shared foundation used to resolve their disagreement. So that right there alone debunks the idea that the Bible was orchestrated, assembled, put together. The Council of Nica, they were both appealing to scripture. Meaning they had a, a working New Testament canon at this point in terms of the parameters, and they're all pointing to scripture.
>> The Council of Nica, from the documents that we have, we know that they were referencing scripture as if it was already binding and authoritative. And so, as many as 300 to 400 bishops traveled all the way out here to ancient Nica, potentially at that very church, and they discuss this very important issue, which the end result of which is the Nicene Creed. What is basically the benchmark for what it means to be a Christian. The Nicene Creed is a theological declaration that summarizes the core of historic Christian belief. The statement produced by the council affirms belief in one God, the Father, Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In response to Arius and his followers, the creed clarifies Jesus's nature, stating, "He is true God from true God, begotten not made, of one essence with the Father."
>> These affirmations not only formally condemned Arius's teachings as false, but reiterated the faithful beliefs drawn from, through, and by scripture itself. What's key to understand is that the Bible was established and viewed as authoritative long before the council met.
>> That's right. That's right, man. One time for Apologetics Canada, Wes Huff. That's fire. Go watch the whole thing. Really do. Again, why is this so important for us? Uh, especially right now in this moment where you have the LDS folks wanting to debate, you have the Muslims wanting to debate, you have, uh, heretical Christians that are, you know, they don't believe in the Nicene Creed, that that want to debate, or they claim to be Christians anyway. And so this becomes a great line to say, hey, these are the parameters. This is a hard line around Christianity. No, the Bible wasn't invented. You know, that's just absolute nonsensical BS from the Billy Carsons and all the, the weird TikTok theologians, want-to-be theologians. But this is an important conversation. And, and why is this important conversation? Because if what you believe about God, about the Trinity, about Jesus, about Jesus being, you know, co-eternal with the Father, all things being made through him, ends up impacting what you become and how you live and, and, and the Jesus that's saving you. Is it, is it an eternal co-equal Jesus? Right? This topic is super important. And so, what you believe determines what you become. What you become determines how you behave. And all of this stuff is super crucial, super important. And the idea of the Trinity, that there is a beauty within the community of the Trinity, and that Jesus is sent into the world to live the life we couldn't live, died the death we should have died on the cross in our place for our sins, and then the Spirit is sent, uh, and sent into the world to inhabit us, and we become the temples of God. Like, all of this sort of stuff is super crucial to, again, what are we believing impacts who we're becoming, and who we're becoming impacts how we're behaving and how we're impacting the world. And so I love that this conversation is happening. I love that the nonsense is being dispelled, but I love the conversation around the Trinity is happening, and I think it's super important. And so, if you haven't seen the debate between God Logic and Jacob Hansen, pretty monumental debate in, in terms of, is the biblical God a Trinity? We'll have this pinned up over here for you guys. Also, I'll be going on tour for the Godly Ambition Tour, going deeper on some of these ideas. Now that we're believing the right things, who are we becoming, right? Are we just known by the things we're against, or are we actually building lives of meaning and purpose and calling? So, if you've ever wanted clarity on this question, it's Godly Ambition Tour coming up, starting this Friday in Chicago. I can't wait to see you guys. Facebook.