At the end of November, Pope Leo XIV and Patriarch Bartholomew of the Eastern Orthodox Church are planning a joint meeting in Iznik, Turkey. They will commemorate the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea at its original location.

It was at that Council that the Emperor Constantine and the assembled bishops defined church doctrine for the first time to state that the Father and the Son were of the same substance from eternity.

As their visit receives publicity in the media celebrating this milestone step towards the doctrine of the Trinity, as it is held today, should we not ask, "What does the Bible teach?" (The present doctrine of the Trinity was not formulated until the end of the fourth century, about 56 years after the Council of Nicaea in AD 325).

It is logically possible for a flesh being to be elevated to a spirit being, for a mortal to put on immortality, as the Bible states in the verses above that God did for His son, Jesus, and promises to do for those who believe in him. But is it logically possible for an immortal being to become mortal and die, as the Council of Nicaea's doctrine requires of Jesus? In addition to the Trinity, what other church doctrines are based on the logical contradiction that Eternal Spirit could become perishing flesh?

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One of the great themes of the Bible concerns God’s plan to transform fallen flesh nature, with which we are born, into His glorious spirit nature forever.

The Bible provides the first example of the outworking of this plan. The first “case study” is Jesus of Nazareth. He was a man born of a woman, bearing our fallen nature and subject to its curse (Galatians 3:13; 4:4, Hebrews 2:14). He was raised from the dead to Spirit glory, as the verses above state.

God gave us Christ, not only to be our Savior (John 3:16-17), but also to be the assurance of the certainty of His plan of redemption.

This message was the one the apostle Paul brought to the learned men and women of Athens: “...The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” – Acts 17:30-31. 

God’s purpose is that other sons and daughters will be brought to glory through Christ: from [heaven] we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body – Philippians 3:20-21, cf. Hebrews 2:10.

Last updated 2025-10-22 Next update scheduled 2025-11-22