Introduction: Why Councils?

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The Church's first council is recorded in Scripture. When a dispute arose over Gentile believers, the apostles and elders gathered, and their letter said, "For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things" (Acts 15:28). The pattern was set: when the Church faced a question that threatened her unity or her message, leaders met, prayed, searched the Scriptures, and spoke together.

By the fourth century, Christianity had become legal and then favored in the Roman Empire. Questions that had been debated locally now divided whole regions, and emperors, who wanted a unified realm, began calling bishops from across the world to settle them. These gatherings came to be called ecumenical councils, from the Greek oikoumene, "the inhabited world."

The first of them, Nicaea (325), condemned Arius, who taught that the Son was a created being. It confessed the Son as "of one substance" (homoousios) with the Father. The six councils in this book build on that foundation. They are not new inventions but answers to one repeated pressure: Who is the God revealed in Jesus Christ, and how do we speak of Him faithfully?

Two questions run through every chapter:

• Who is God? One God in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
• Who is Christ? Fully God and fully man, one person.

The councils' own motive was stated in Scripture: "Contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3), and "Hold fast the form of sound words" (2 Timothy 1:13). Their method, at its best, was to guard what Scripture teaches by naming plainly what Scripture implies.

A note on method. Councils did not manufacture doctrine from nothing. In each case, one side appealed to Scripture and Church tradition and the other side was judged to have departed from them. Whether you agree with every conclusion or not, understanding the debates is the best way to understand why the creeds read as they do.

CHAPTER 2