By David Parsons, ICEJ Senior Vice President

As Christians observe the 1700-year anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, the controversy over the nature of Jesus resolved at that important gathering has resurfaced in modern times – both within Christianity and in relation to other religions.

The Nicaean Council was convened to settle two main disputes plaguing the early Church in those days: Was Jesus human or divine? And what is the proper date for Christians to celebrate Easter?

It is generally agreed among scholars and church historians that the bishops at Nicaea made a landmark decision which united orthodox Christianity around the dual nature of Jesus as both fully human and fully divine, and this decision has served the Church well over the centuries since.

The problem in those days was the teaching that Jesus was not human, but some sort of spirit or angelic being. These views were firmly dismissed with the adoption of the concept of the “Trinity” first expounded by Tertullian and its essential truth that Jesus is God Incarnate. The alternatives were rejected because each failed to do justice to the person of Jesus and his atoning sacrifice.

This doctrinal decree on the dual nature of Jesus held for many centuries, but today similar teachings which question the triune Godhead are re-emerging. Even some Evangelicals are being influenced by the work of liberal Christian scholars over recent decades who insist that it was Paul who later deified Jesus, likely under the influence of Hellenism.

Meanwhile, many Christians who support Israel and explore the Hebraic roots of our faith have started engaging with Jewish friends and rabbis, they eventually run into certain theological “obstacles,” such as the Torah’s ban on idolatry. At some point, the question arises as to whether, in worshipping Jesus, we are violating the core tenet of Rabbinic Judaism – the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4 – “Hear O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one.”

Some Christians have responded by attempting to ‘water down’ the divinity of Jesus, perhaps in part to make him more palatable to Jewish people. But in the process, they actually wind up leaving monotheism. By taking Jesus outside the oneness or echad of God and yet still revering him, they end up with one God and perhaps a semi-deity. In doing so, they devalue the uniqueness of the person of Jesus and compromise his atoning work on the Cross. Some are even departing from the faith…

TO ADDRESS these questions, we can begin by establishing that the New Testament repeatedly affirms the Shema, including Jesus himself in Mark 12:29, Paul in 1 Corinthians 8:4, and again in the epistle of James 2:19. Thus it is clear that Jesus and his early Jewish followers adhered to the exclusive monotheism of Judaism in the Second Temple era. And yet they ascribed to the man Jesus divine identity – as being “one” and the same with the Father, and even attributing the acts of Creation to him.

In fact, the Apostles were quite bold in declaring that the mystery of God’s nature, which had been hidden in ages past, was revealed to them in the person of Jesus (see Ephesians 3:8-12; Colossians 1:26-27). They viewed this as a matter of progressive revelation in Scripture and in redemptive history, that the one true and invisible Creator God actually manifested in various ways in the accounts of the Hebrew Bible, until He came in human form at the Incarnation.

Now the Apostle Paul does concede that the nature of the Godhead is a great mystery: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh…” (1 Timothy 3:16).

Yet elsewhere, we see Jesus described as “being in the very nature of God” (Philippians 2:5-11) and the “express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3).

In the Gospels, John begins with a theological statement that: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (1:1 and 14)

Jesus himself declares that “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30).

We also have Thomas resolving his doubts and calling the resurrected Jesus “my Lord and my God” – a profession which Jesus does not rebuke but affirms! (John 20:28)

Thus, those who claim it was Paul who deified Jesus under the influence of Greek mythology are simply wrong. In fact, we see Paul in Acts 14 having a direct encounter with belief in the pantheon of Greek gods in the city of Lystra and tearing his clothes in vehemently rejecting such idolatry.

In 1 Corinthians 8:4, Paul also clearly states that “there is no other God but one…” And again in verse 6, “yet for us there is one God the Father… and one Lord Jesus Christ…”

Paul’s exalted view of Jesus as not only Son of God, but God-in-man was shared by the earliest apostles. For these initial Jewish followers of Jesus, their veneration of him was permissible because they always kept him within the echad or oneness of God. The exclusive attributes of Elohim, such as creation and kingship, were extended to Jesus as someone within the very identity of God Himself. For instance, Paul describes Jesus thusly to the Colossian believers:

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1:15-16)

But on what scriptural basis from the Old Testament could they do this?

BIBLE SCHOLARS have noted three types of monotheism presented in Scripture:
a) Creational monotheism – God made all things and for that reason alone He deserves our undivided worship.
b) Covenantal monotheism – This God is good and merciful and engaged with His world, entering a unique covenant relationship with the people of Israel.
c) Eschatological monotheism – God revealed His character or personality to ancient Israel, but the divine nature and essence of His being is a matter of progressive revelation; the Bible assures us there is more unveiling of this incredible God to come.

Although Rabbinic Judaism would later alter its view in response to Christian teachings, the echad of the Shema was originally understood as meaning unity and not singularity – an indivisible composite or the compound “one.”

In the Shema, two distinct names are used: Elohim for the invisible Creator God of Genesis chapter 1, and Adonai (in Hebrew Y/H/W/H) for the exalted being that Israel was visibly encountering at Sinai. For instance, Moses and the 70 elders “saw the God of Israel” and even ate and drank with Him in Exodus 24:9-11. Abraham had also conversed and dined with Adonai in Genesis 18. These visible appearances and manifestations of a divine being named Adonai – sometimes described as “The Angel of the Lord” or “The Angel of His Presence” – occurred often in the Old Testament. Thus, the Shema was meant to instruct Israel that Elohim and Adonai are one-and-the-same, with the focus being on identifying the one true God and not necessarily defining His ‘substance.’

The late Hebraic roots teacher Dr. Dwight Pryor pointed out that this understanding of “one” in the Shema derives from the first use of the word echad in the Bible. In Genesis 1:5, the evening and the morning combine to equal “one day” (most Bibles translate it less accurately as “the first day”). Then in Genesis 2:24, we are told that man and wife shall become “one flesh.” These are examples of the use of the compound one, not the singular one.

The Judaism of the Second Temple era was fairly pluralistic, accepting or tolerating a wide variety of views even on the nature of God. Some three decades ago, rabbinic scholar Alan Segal produced a major work on the idea of “Two Powers in Heaven” in Jewish thought. This concept of two divine powers refers to an invisible Yahweh and a visible one, who both show up at times in the same passages of Hebrew Scripture, such as Exodus 23:20-25 and Daniel 7:9ff. Segal traced the roots of this idea back to around 200 BC and argued that it was not deemed heretical in Jewish theology until the second century AD – when they adopted instead a very strict form of monotheism largely in response to the claims of Christianity concerning Jesus.

Christian scholar Dr. Michael Heiser notes that this helps explain why the early Jewish followers of Jesus could simultaneously worship the God of Israel and Jesus, and yet refuse to acknowledge any other god. For them, Jesus was the incarnate second Yahweh.

Thus, God is an indivisible unity of all that He is, was, and will be, standing outside Creation and wholly unique from it, yet also manifesting Himself within Creation in a human-like form and eventually in the person of Jesus.

The prophet Isaiah, especially in chapters 43-45, brings out more fully the exclusivity of the God we worship… “there is none besides Me.” But note that where Isaiah 45:23 says that “every knee shall bow” to this God, Paul in Philippians 2 attributes this exceptional place to Jesus.

The risen Lord Jesus can be worshipped alongside Elohim only if he remains within the oneness of God, that is, wholly divine. And the Apostles were persuaded the Tanakh allowed for this, even though they also knew that no image of God can or should be made, as it could never properly reflect God. However, Jesus is the perfect “brightness of His glory and express image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3), and therefore he embodies no distortion of His form; on the contrary, he is the only begotten (one-of-a-kind) Son of God! (John 1:18).

THE CLINCHER, for me, is found in the book of Daniel. The model of a ‘militant’ monotheist, Daniel risked the lions’ den rather than pray to another god. His three Hebrew friends preferred a blazing furnace to bowing before any image. And yet in chapter seven, Daniel has an astounding vision of…

“one like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve Him…”

Many translations use the word “worship” for “serve” in Daniel 7:14. The original word p’lach in Aramaic corresponds to the Hebrew word meaning to worship, serve or cleave to God, and is used as such ten times in the Old Testament. Further, “coming with the clouds of heaven” is a sign of divinity used only in reference to God throughout Scripture.

So here we have the faithful monotheist Daniel describing someone with a human appearance approaching the Almighty and receiving a kingdom so that all nations are to serve and worship him. Yet nowhere does Daniel speak disapprovingly of this vision or distance himself from it! So, either this Messianic figure had to be considered as in union with God or even Daniel has flirted with idolatry.

Jesus then drew from Daniel 7 when asked by Caiaphas whether he was indeed the Messiah. “Jesus said to him, ‘It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.’” (Matthew 26:64) That is, Jesus ascribed to himself two exclusive divine attributes, of sitting at God’s right hand and of coming on the clouds of heaven. So much for Paul being the first to deify Jesus!

So, Christians have no reason to ever compromise on our concept of the Triune God; of the promised Messiah being not only “Son of God” but God Himself. In holding to this doctrine, we stand upon a legitimate interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Through Christ, we are invited into an eternal loving relationship self-contained within the three persons of the Godhead, who are distinct and yet inseparable. And within that secure place, we can confidently worship Jesus with abandon.

Allow me to conclude with two key points.

First, we know that God is ever “dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see…” (1 Timothy 6:15-16) And the great mystery of the Godhead can be simply explained as: Jesus is God in an approachable form!

Second, God is jealous over His Son! He never wanted us to worship any other part of Creation, as that is reserved solely for Jesus.

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Main photo: Stained glass windows in the cathedral depicting Jesus, his disciples, and an angel at Gethsemane as the Roman soldiers arrive to arrest him. (Credit: K. Mitch Hodge/Unsplash)