Evaluation of the Councils on the Stand of Trinity.

Satyaraj

Dec. 2015.
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The subject of incarnation and nature of Christ is a subject addressed in all of the first seven ecumenical councils (from AD 325 to 787 -Council of Nicea, Constantinople, Ephesus, Chalcedon, etc) that ended in the schisms of various churches in the post apostolic era; Arianism and Nestorianism being the major contributing heresies. 

 

New terms were used, bringing in opposable ideas as in the Council of Ephesus which axed one to one the idea and its antithesis; hypostasis (coexisting natures) versus monophysitism (only one nature) and miaphysitism (two natures united as one) versus Nestorianism (disunion of two natures). 

 

The Trinitarian aspect of Christian doctrine is plainly revealed in scripture, which if taken heed prohibits the vagaries of speculation. A few verses to note:

 

Luke 1:31- ‘And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.’

 

Heb 10:5- ‘Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, But a body didst thou prepare for me;’

 

John 1:14-  ‘And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.’

 

Philippians 2:7,8- ‘..took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men..and being found in the fashion of man’

 

Col 2:9- ‘For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.’

 

Rev 3:14- ‘..these things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;’

..and a plethora of more scriptures.

 

Hypostasis is a term used with reference to the Incarnation to express the revealed truth that in Christ one person subsists in two natures, the Divine and the human. It occurs in Paul's Epistles (2 Corinthians 9:4; 11:17; Hebrews 1:3-3:14).

 

Previous to the Council of Nicća (325) hypostasis was synonymous with ousia, and even St. Augustine (On the Holy Trinity V.8) avers that he sees no difference between them. The distinction in fact was brought about gradually in the course of the controversies to which the Christological heresies gave rise, and was definitively established by the Council of Chalcedon (451), which declared that in Christ the two natures, each retaining its own properties, are united in one subsistence and one person (eis en prosopon kai mian hypostasin) (Denzinger, ed.Bannwart, 148).

 

The natures are not joined in a moral or accidental union (Nestorius), nor commingled (Eutyches), and nevertheless they are substantially united. The conclusive stand however, taken by the councils betrays the prejudiced proclivity of the Catholic synod to assume the position of final interpretation besides the holy writ. It is the scriptures which stand final as revelation of divine thought.

 


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