A special call to 100 days of prayer and fasting to heal the rift between the Church and the Jewish people
By Dr. Jürgen Bühler, ICEJ President

This year many churches around the world are commemorating 1700 years since the landmark Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. According to Church historian Philip Schaff, Nicaea was – next to the Apostolic council in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15 – “the most important and the most illustrious of all the councils of Christendom.” (1) 

Nicaea was only the second global council since the days of the original Apostles. In Acts 15, we read about the very first church council discussing how to deal with the new phenomena of Gentiles joining a predominantly Jewish church. In that Jerusalem gathering, the early Apostles had opened wide the door for Gentile believers to join the Church. 

Nicaea impacted the Church in a similarly powerful way. But unlike the Jerusalem council, at Nicaea the doors of the Church began to be firmly close on the Jewish people. The umbilical cord was cut between the Church and Israel, even though it was the nation and people who had birthed the Church. It also opened the door for growing anti-Jewish tendencies among Gentile Christians in the following centuries. 

To be clear, this development was neither planned nor intended when the council was first called. Yet what made Nicaea end with a very different result from its inception was not inspired by spiritual leaders as in Acts 15, but by the Roman emperor himself.  

Emperor Constantine, who reigned from 306 to 337 AD, was a new convert to Christianity. This brought a tremendous sense of relief for the early Church, which had just survived one of the worst waves of persecution a few years earlier under Emperor Diocletian. Constantine not only eased the fears of the Church but decided to make his newly-found faith the most official religion of the Roman Empire. 

But Constantine quickly found out that Christianity was not a unified, harmonious group of people. It had many factions and theological views across the empire. One of the greatest challenges was the wide diversity of views on the person of Jesus Christ. Was he fully divine or a mere man? 

One of the main challengers to Christ’s divine nature was Arius, a priest from Alexandria. He taught that Christ was a created being, was not fully divine, and did not share the same substance as God. While he was excommunicated from the Church, his teaching spread through many churches, mainly in the east, and caused significant disunity later referred to as the Arian controversy. Other key questions also arose, such as if backsliders who had compromised their faith during a time of persecution should be welcomed back in the Church.  

However, one matter which unsettled Constantine was the lack of a unified holiday calendar for the Church. (2) Until then, many different traditions existed on when to celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection, and to ensure that Christianity would serve the entire Empire he wanted to establish a unified calendar. 

Until then, most churches still celebrated Easter in relation to the Jewish festival of Passover. Many churches celebrated it on the first Sunday after the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, aligning with the biblical feast of First Fruits during Pesach (Leviticus 23:11). Others fixed it on 14 Nisan itself, and they became known as the Quartodecimans (Latin for 14). Still others insisted any Sunday in Nisan would do. Then there were those who separated Easter from the biblical calendar altogether and affixed it to the first Sunday after the spring equinox. For a new state religion, Constantine found this all too confusing.   

To solve these questions, Constantine called for a global council. At Nicaea (today known as Iznik, just south of Istanbul), he wanted to settle these matters once and for all. 

After months of deliberations, the divine nature of Jesus was affirmed in what became known as the Nicaean Creed. This doctrinal statement on the triune Godhead still serves as the core confession of faith for most churches around the world today, and thus it became a key unifying source for the Christian faith over the past 1700 years. This important outcome of Nicaea cannot be understated! In addition, those believers who hid from persecution were welcomed back into the Church. Finally, the Nicaean Council also wrestled with the lack of a unified Church calendar. 

Of course, all this was not a quick, easy process. It took close to 300 Bishops from May 20 until August 24 to decide these matters, with the last weeks left to determine an agreed date for Easter. That date was finally determined based on the principles that Easter should always be on a Sunday, it should not be celebrated twice in one year, it should follow the spring equinox, and it should never be celebrated at the same time as the Feast of the Jews (Passover). (3) 

When the council was over, the closing letters were sent from the Emperor himself to churches around the world. But his summary revealed that possibly the biggest issue for Constantine was not just reaching a set date for Easter but the fact that Christians relied on Jewish input to celebrate the most important Christian festival. 

Constantine wrote to the churches: “It was declared to be particularly unworthy for this, the holiest of all festivals, to follow the custom [the calculation] of the Jews, who had soiled their hands with the most fearful of crimes, and whose minds were blinded.” In the same letter he called it a duty of the Church “to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews” and “not to have anything in common with the murderers of our Lord”. (4)  

While the creed and the twenty canons that emerged from Nicaea were free of anti-Jewish rhetoric, the official letters from Emperor Constantine contained a critical and condescending attitude towards the Jews. Nicaea then became the gold-standard for future councils, setting the tone for centuries to come.  Just a few decades after Nicaea, one of the most revered Church fathers, Chrysostom of Alexandria, lashed out against the Jews by comparing them to beasts “that are fit for slaughter”, adding that by killing Jesus they have “no chance for atonement, excuse, or defense.” (5) 

Paul’s Doctrine on Israel 
This is even more startling when we consider that the Apostle Paul could not have been more clear in his teachings about the unique, enduring calling of Israel, to whom “pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God.” (Romans 9:4-5) 

Paul recognised that while most Jews had failed to accept Yeshua as their Messiah, they nevertheless remain “beloved for the sake of the fathers” (Romans 11:28). Paul saw their rejection of Jesus as only a temporary state which the Hebrew prophets foretold (for example, Isaiah 6). Yet he also believed the time would eventually come when “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26). 

He thus admonished Gentile believers not to be arrogant against the Jews (Romans 11:18) and to consider their own origins, when they were “separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). Yet now by grace, they have been brought near and share in God’s promises to Israel. 

This was not just theology; it had very practical consequences for the Church. To the church in Corinth, Paul wrote that every week something should be set aside as an offering for the saints in Jerusalem (see 1 Corinthians 16:1-4; also 2 Corinthians 9:5). Wherever Paul went, he made sure that new congregations were instructed to support the Jewish believers in Jerusalem. The reason for that was straightforward: “For if the Gentiles have come to share in their (the Jews) spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.” (Romans 15:27)  

Paul also warned Gentile believers in the church at Rome not to become arrogant towards the Jews (Romans 11:20), while the Third Epistle of John indicates that Jewish believers were no longer being welcomed in certain churches.  

A Change in Holy Days 
Until the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, the churches were divided on how to celebrate Easter (Passover), and Sunday was never considered a holy day. While most churches still relied on the book of Exodus as to how to fix Easter, after Nicaea any link to the biblical account of Passover was forbidden. Constantine demanded a unified Christian calendar for his empire that had nothing to do with Jewish tradition, while he totally ignored the multiple parallels of the last days of Jesus Christ to the biblical Passover feast, and that Paul referred to Jesus as our Passover lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7). All of this was ignored. 

In the same manner, a new weekly holiday was established – Sunday. Until then, Sunday was not observed as a holy day at all, save for some Christians who held a time of prayers and scripture readings on Sunday mornings before going to work, remembering that the Lord was risen on the first day of the week. But Constantine’s aim was to separate the Church completely from any Jewish customs. So, to keep Christians from observing Shabbat, he invented the new holy day of Sunday. A number of Christians struggled to agree. But the follow-up Synod of Laodicea settled the matter. Christians who still kept the Jewish Sabbath were considered “Judaizers”. 

A Change in Attitude 
Further, Paul’s question, “what advantage has the Jew” was no longer answered “much in every way”, but with an opposite spirit of rejection. Instead of Jews being “beloved for the sake of the fathers” (Romans 11:28), they were now the “murderers of Christ”. In various council records, the list of the damned included “heretics, heathens and Jews”. (6) After Nicaea, bishops asked Jewish converts to give up their Jewish names and adopt Christian ones. (7)  In Paul’s world, it was Gentiles who were without God and without hope (Ephesians 2:12), but now this applied to the Jews – a doctrine that ran contrary to New Testament thought. 

Rules of Engagement 
All this led to strict laws which forbade any positive engagement with Jews. Nicaea and subsequent Church councils taught that Christians should have nothing to do with Jews. Leaders who visited and prayed in synagogues were to be removed from office, and ordinary Christians who did so should be “put off”. (8) The synod of Trullo forbade any participation in their feasts, nor were Christians to take their unleavened bread during Passover. You could not even allow a Jewish physician to treat your illness, one synod ruled. Celebrating Jewish feasts and keeping Shabbat, according to the bishops, was like “mocking Christ”. (9) 

Nicaea’s Impact on Church History 
This entirely new approach of contempt for the Jews not only created a rift between the Church and the Jewish people, but it also set the Church on a path which eventually led to the atrocities of the Crusades, where the killing of Jews was considered pleasing to God. It later paved the way for the many inquisitions, expulsions, pogroms and eventually the Holocaust, when Hitler could quote the German reformer Luther to justify his hatred of the Jews. 

A Special Call to Prayer 
What was so tragic about Nicaea is that it was only the second universal council of the Church. Whereas in Acts 15, the Jewish-led church went beyond their traditions to welcome and embrace Gentile believers, the Gentile church after Nicaea shamelessly rejected the Jews from all church life and began fuelling Christian antisemitism for generations to come. 

Today, 1700 years after Nicaea, we sense a need to invite believers from around the world to join us in prayer and fasting for this tragic history. First, we want to thank God for all the good results and blessings that came out of Nicaea which protected the Church from many grave errors. Nicaea birthed an inspired, unifying creed that is still a great blessing to this day. 

Yet, we also want to invite you to join us for the 100 days from May 18 to August 24 (roughly the anniversary dates for Nicaean council) to pray and fast concerning the unfortunate damage to Jewish-Christian relations which arose from Nicaea. Of course, you would not be asked to fast the entire time, but simply to choose certain days and times when you can fast and pray on these matters. 

We also plan on setting aside one day each week on the ICEJ’s daily Global Prayer Gathering on-line to pray into the various outcomes of the Nicaean Council – both positive and negative. May this prayer effort bring revival in our churches, as well as repentance, remembrance, reconciliation, and restoration. 

Repentance 
Like Daniel, we want to repent for the sins of our fathers. We want to ask for forgiveness for the Church to have failed and sinned against the very people who gave us the Messiah and the Word of God. 

Remembrance 
Every week we will spend time learning more about Nicaea, to understand and remember the time when much went right, but also wrong with regards to the Jewish people. 

Reconciliation 
We pray that God will continue to grant reconciliation between Christians and Jews, as has been occurring over the past 100 years and more of Christian support for Israel’s return. 

Restoration 
We pray that, according to Malachi 4:6, our God will turn the hearts of the fathers (the Jewish people) to the children (the Gentile Church), and the hearts of the children (the Gentile Church) to the fathers (the Jewish people). 
 
NOTES: 
¹ Schaff, P., & Schaff, D. S. (1910). History of the Christian church (Vol. 3, p. 630). Charles Scribner’s Sons. 

² Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity, Intervarsity Press 

³ Hefele, C. J. (1871). A History of the Councils of the Church (W. R. Clark, Trans.; Vol. 1, p. 325). T&T Clark. 

⁴ Schaff, P., & Wace, H., eds. (1900). On the Keeping of Easter. In H. R. Percival (Trans.), The Seven Ecumenical Councils (Vol. 14, p. 54). Charles Scribner’s Sons. 

⁵ Chrysostom, John. Eight Homilies Against the Jews (p. 93). (Function). Kindle Edition.  

⁶ Schaff, P., & Wace, H., eds. (1900). The XXX Canons of the Holy and Fourth Synods, of Chalcedon. In H. R. Percival (Trans.), The Seven Ecumenical Councils (Vol. 14, p. 278). Charles Scribner’s Sons.

⁷ Percival, H. R. (1900). The Canons of the 318 Holy Fathers Assembled in the City of Nice, in Bithynia. In P. Schaff & H. Wace (Eds.), The Seven Ecumenical Councils (Vol. 14, p. 32+504). Charles Scribner’s Sons. 

⁸ Schaff, P., & Wace, H., eds. (1900). The Apostolical Canons. In H. R. Percival (Trans.), The Seven Ecumenical Councils (Vol. 14, p. 598). Charles Scribner’s Sons. 

⁹ Schaff, P., & Wace, H., eds. (1900). The Canons of the Council in Trullo. In H. R. Percival (Trans.), The Seven Ecumenical Councils (Vol. 14, p. 370). Charles Scribner’s Sons. 

Main image: An illustration of the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD meet to discuss Christendom. (AI Generated image)