Coming from a background where my grandma passed away as a Christian, all six of my uncles died as Christians, my mom converted to Islam before her passing, I have a deeply personal connection to these issues. I remember asking my grandma once, “Why do you worship Jesus?” She told me that she once had the same question growing up and the priest told her “Jesus is God”. That’s all there is to it. You cannot ask questions like that.” After that, she never questioned it again.
However, throughout my life, I never saw her attend church, but if you asked her what religion she followed, she would have said Catholic. The internet did not exist at the time, so they never had the means to explore how or why Jesus was worshipped, and I didn’t have the knowledge then to explain it either.
With all this personal history in mind, I’ve debated whether I should write more about Jesus (peace be upon him). I’ve already covered almost everything there is to know in article “#4 – Jesus,” except for one critical question: When did Jesus officially become God? and how did it happen?
Jesus himself seemed troubled when someone called him “good” (let alone “God”), as described in Luke 18:18-20: “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” Moreover, we know that Jesus worshipped God, as seen in Luke 22:41: “He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down, and prayed.” Given this, one might ask: who made the decision to elevate Jesus to divine status, and why was it falsely asserted that people should worship him? After all, Jesus himself (peace be upon him) never instructed anyone to worship him. He consistently emphasized humility, love, and devotion to God, not to himself.
In verses like Matthew 4:10, Jesus points clearly to God as the sole object of worship: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” He did not say, “and serve me only!” So, the question remains: where did it all go wrong?
It started with the growing instability in the Roman Empire (Circa 33 to 325 AD):
After the departure of Jesus (pbuh), the early Christian church saw rapid growth but also faced significant internal divisions over theological matters. By the 3rd century AD, debates became more intense, particularly regarding the nature of Jesus and up to year 325AD, the doctrine of the Trinity (3=1) as we know it today “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” and the role each person had was not clearly defined, leading to theological disputes, particularly regarding the nature of the Son, which caused divisions and began to seriously threaten the stability of the Roman Empire.
The two main theological theories that persisted during this time were the Arius theory and the Athanasius theory:
- Arius Theory:
Arius a priest who developed the Arianism doctrine stated that there was a time when Jesus did not exist, and only God the Father existed, therefore Jesus the Son was not co-eternal with the Father because he was a created being, distinct from God the Father. And he believed that if Jesus was raised to be divine in the same way God is, that it would undermine the absolute monotheism at the core of the Christian faith, (which is close to the Islamic view that God is one, he has no equals, the absolute monotheism).
His theory was supported by prominent figures of the church who agreed with him that Jesus was not God, figures such as Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, Bishop Theognis, Bishop Ursacius of Singidunum, Bishop Valens of Mursa, Bishop Macedonius of Constantinople and that just to name a few, they all believed that Jesus could not be divine the same way God is, as he was a created being. (Once again, their view closely resembled the teachings of Islam, which emphasizes that no man, nor a prophet can be divine as they are all created beings).
- Athanasius theory:
Athanasius’ theory although very confusing to understand to this day, insisted that Jesus had always existed with God from the beginning of time, that Jesus was not “born” in the way humans are born, as He is eternal and uncreated, being of the same essence as the Father. In his work On the Incarnation, Athanasius argues that Jesus, the Son of God, existed before time and was the eternal Word. While Jesus’ human birth in Bethlehem was a real event, it was the moment the eternal Word assumed a human body, not a beginning of His existence. Thus, Jesus’ divinity is eternal, and His incarnation was a unique act of God entering into human history to be sacrificed later on the cross in order to allow the forgiveness of our sins.
At the council of Nicaea 325AD: Jesus became God
By the order of Constantine, Emperor of Rome, the Council of Nicaea took place in 325 AD in the city of Nicaea (modern-day İznik, Turkey). It’s important to note that Constantine himself was not particularly religious, having been baptized only shortly before his death in 337 AD, twelve years after the Council of Nicaea.
Although Rome is far from Turkey, it should be noted that Constantine made sure to be present at the Council of Nicaea.
Constantine the Great, who reigned from 306 to 337 AD, is widely regarded as a shrewd strategist, both in terms of his military expertise and his political maneuvering. He recognized that the growing divisions among Christian factions were beginning to threaten the stability of the Roman Empire. It is historically said that he may have invited all of the 1,800 bishops from across the Christian world (roughly 1,000 from the East and 800 from the West) to join him at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The purpose was to take a vote to resolve the theological dispute between the two main theories: Arius and Athanasius.
While Constantine himself was openly in favor of the Athanasian theory, it is recorded that only a small number of bishops attended. Bishop and Roman historian Eusebius of Caesarea counted 220, Athanasius of Alexandria counted 318, and Eustathius of Antioch counted 270 bishops present at the council.