Jesus really is God

One of the battles churches faced from 300 AD was with people who began to think that Jesus was not God in the same way that the Father is God.

They thought that Jesus is divine – in some sense.  They thought that He could not be as perfectly divine as the Father because Jesus has been so involved in this messy physical world.

They had allowed outside philosophy into their theology.  

They allowed pagan assumptions into their foundations.

So, they thought that perhaps He was a kind of Divine Creature – the first and greatest creature, made by the Father before the universe began.

They thought that there was a bigger and better kind of “divinity” above and beyond Jesus – even though Jesus is the best that this world can handle.

So, church leaders from all over the world – Europe, Asia and Africa – got together to think of a way of expressing the ancient faith of the Bible.

They created the Nicene Creed, which has become the standard of all church teaching ever since!

The original Nicene Creed from 325 AD.

We believe in one God: 

The Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible;

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth; who for us human beings, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made human; He suffered, and the third day He rose again, ascended into heaven; from there He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

And in the Holy Spirit.

But those who say: 'There was a time when He was not’… — they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.