The Protestant's Dilemma Read Online Free Page B

gone out without the authority of the apostles . The decisions made by the council were decreed, beginning with the authoritative formula, “It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” Protestants recognize the authority of this council because the apostles themselves led it. Also, the council is recorded in the Bible, so its prescriptions are authoritative for that reason.
    The first ecumenical council to be convened was at Nicaea in the year 325. It was attended by more than 300 bishops, including Hosius, bishop of Cordova and Pope Sylvester’s representative (or “legate”). The primary purpose of the council was to determine whether the teachings of Arius, a deacon from Alexandria who denied the divinity of Christ and his consubstantial relationship with God the Father, were heresy. The truths of Christ’s divinity and of his consubstantiality (“same substance” or “one in being”) with the Father were consequently confirmed as dogmas. Protestants accept the decrees of this council and even point to it as being the standard for Trinitarian orthodoxy. Most Protestants today still recite the Nicene Creed, the first part of which was formulated at Nicaea.
    They also accept the second ecumenical council, held in Constantinople in the year 381, which dogmatically affirmed the truth of the Holy Spirit’s divinity, condemning the heresy of Macedonius. The second half of the Creed was drawn up at this council, and the vast majority of Protestants proudly recite it as a profession of their most fundamental beliefs.
    The First Council of Ephesus in the year 431 was the third ecumenical council, which condemned Nestorius’s belief that Mary was the mother only of Christ’s human nature. Such a notion would have mortally wounded the true theology of the Incarnation, making it impossible to say that “God died on the cross for our sins.” The fourth ecumenical council occurred in Chalcedon in the year 451, rejecting monophysitism—the belief that Christ had only one nature—and affirming that Jesus had two natures in one person.
    These councils establish the basis for Trinitarian and Christological orthodoxy that is followed by almost all Protestants. In fact, Protestants believe that anyone who rejects these truths puts himself outside of Christianity (a major reason why they consider Mormons non-Christians). Thus Protestants desire to affirm these councils as authoritative. Yet the council in Ephesus also taught that Mary was the mother of God, a title that makes most Protestants uneasy. We’ll tackle that issue in a later chapter, but the material point here is that these councils both defined orthodoxy and, in the eyes of Protestants, somehow also contained erroneous or questionable decrees.
    More problems remain for Protestants who seek to accept the first four councils while rejecting others. The fifth ecumenical council, Constantinople II, declared that Mary remained a virgin her whole life, a belief strenuously rejected by most Protestants. Yet the next one, held in the seventh century, condemned the monothelite belief that Christ had only one will. It decreed that Christ had two wills—one divine and one human—a truth that Protestants believe as another essential component to Christological orthodoxy.
     
    Answering the Protestant Objections
    Does it make sense, as Protestants argue, that ecumenical councils are authoritative only insofar as they accurately represent scriptural truth? When we look at the Council of Jerusalem, we see that the Church settled the matter in question by reference to the apostles’ God-given authority within the Church and not by reliance on the Old Testament (which was the only “Scripture” in existence at the time, with only a few epistles having been written to date and a settled canon still many years away 10 ). Indeed, the Old Testament was at best unclear on the matter, both requiring circumcision 11 and foreshadowing Gentile salvation. 12 So the claim that