were ‘converting’ to Christianity, and he saw an urgent need to put an end to the Christian controversies so that his empire’s peace was kept.

In 325 AD, he summoned a general council of bishops, the First Council of Nicaea. Debate raged on for months between the new groups who claimed Jesus was equal to the Father and Arius whose followers held that Christ was the Son of God and not God’s equal.

Some accounts of the heated debate record Arius even being slapped in the face. He maintained that the Son of God was God's First Production before all ages, and everything else was created through the Son. Thus, said Arius, only the Son was directly created and begotten of God.

Constantine finally called for a vote of the bishops.died under mysterious circumstances. A couple of monarchs after Constantine were Arian sympathizers, but when Theodosius I ascended the throne, he wiped out Arians through persecution.

In 381 AD, he called the Second Ecumenical Council. It condemned Arius anew and expanded the Nicene Creed, by elevating the Holy Spirit as ‘the Lord and Giver of life’. This Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan Creed (381 AD) served as a bridge from Semi-Trinitarianism towards full-blown Trinitarianism.

6) The Culmination in Trinitarianism – The Athanasian Creed



In the 5 th century, the Athanasian Creed was put together, declaring that the Holy Spirit too was God, to round off the concept of a Trinity.

century, the Athanasian Creed was put together, declaring that the Holy Spirit too was God, to round off the concept of a Trinity. The authors of