Council of Nicea

[Cerebrum123]

Not the same person. St. Nicholas lived in the 3rd/4th century, long after Revelation was written.

Never seen Bibleuser care about context, so this isn't surprising.

[Bibleuser]

Never seen Bibleuser care about context, so this isn't surprising.

You seen the Principle though do you not??
BU

[Bibleuser]

Not the same person. St. Nicholas lived in the 3rd/4th century, long after Revelation was written.

Sect of Santa!!
BU

[Sparko]

Sect of Santa!!
BU

Don't forget that if you move the 'n' that Santa becomes Satan!!!

and that N stands for Nicholaus!

666!!! <-- Santa has 8 reindeer in two rows. 8 x 4 is 32. 3 x 2 is 6! the reindeer are a TEAM. Team sounds like 'teen.' So 8 teen = 18. 18/3=6. 6+6+6=18. 666!!!

[One Bad Pig]

Sect of Santa!!
BU

The concept of Santa Claus is about a century and a half old, so much, much more recent than St. Nicholas. Further, there is nearly no overlap between the two; even the sole similarity (giving gifts) is conceptually very different. St. Nicholas is remembered for secretly giving dowries for girls who would otherwise have been sold into slavery due to penury, which is nothing like giving gifts to children because they've been good.

By all means, keep showing your extreme ignorance.

[Cerebrum123]

You seen the Principle though do you not??
BU

No, because there is no connection between St. Nicholas, and the Nicolaitians of Revelation.

[Bibleuser]

The concept of Santa Claus is about a century and a half old, so much, much more recent than St. Nicholas. Further, there is nearly no overlap between the two; even the sole similarity (giving gifts) is conceptually very different. St. Nicholas is remembered for secretly giving dowries for girls who would otherwise have been sold into slavery due to penury, which is nothing like giving gifts to children because they've been good.

By all means, keep showing your extreme ignorance.

MMMMMMMMMMMM ...........

"The New York elite succeeded in domesticating Christmas through a new "Santa Claus" tradition invented by Washington Irving, John Pintard and Clement Clarke Moore. Moore's poem was printed in four new almanacs in 1824, just one year after it was in the Troy, New York, paper. The poem and other descriptions of the Santa Claus ritual appeared in more and more local papers. More than anything else, "A Visit From St. Nicholas" introduced the custom of a cozy, domestic Santa Christmas tradition to the nation.

Other artists and writers continued the change to an elf-like St. Nicholas, "Sancte Claus," or "Santa Claus," unlike the stately European bishop. In 1863, during the Civil War, political cartoonist Thomas Nast began a series of annual black-and-white drawings in Harper's Weekly, based on the descriptions found in the poem and Washington Irving's work. These drawings established a rotund Santa with flowing beard, fur garments, and an omnipresent clay pipe. Nast's Santa supported the Union and President Lincoln believed this contributed to the Union troops' success by demoralizing Confederate soldiers. As Nast drew Santas until 1886, his work had considerable influence in forming the American Santa Claus.

Churches, influenced by German immigrants who loved Christmas, Clement Clarke Moore, Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, the Oxford Movement in the Anglican church, and church musicians embracing carol singing, began to bring Christmas observances into their lives. The growth of Sunday Schools in cities exposed hundreds of thousands of children to Christianity. Initially oopposed to Christmas observance, by the 1850s Sunday Schools had discovered that a Christmas tree, Santa and gifts, greatly improved attendance. So, in a strange twist of fate, the new "secular" Santa Claus, no longer seen as a religious figure, helped return Christmas observance to churches."-http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/origin-of-santa/
BU

[One Bad Pig]

MMMMMMMMMMMM ...........

"The New York elite succeeded in domesticating Christmas through a new "Santa Claus" tradition invented by Washington Irving, John Pintard and Clement Clarke Moore. Moore's poem was printed in four new almanacs in 1824, just one year after it was in the Troy, New York, paper. The poem and other descriptions of the Santa Claus ritual appeared in more and more local papers. More than anything else, "A Visit From St. Nicholas" introduced the custom of a cozy, domestic Santa Christmas tradition to the nation.

Other artists and writers continued the change to an elf-like St. Nicholas, "Sancte Claus," or "Santa Claus," unlike the stately European bishop. In 1863, during the Civil War, political cartoonist Thomas Nast began a series of annual black-and-white drawings in Harper's Weekly, based on the descriptions found in the poem and Washington Irving's work. These drawings established a rotund Santa with flowing beard, fur garments, and an omnipresent clay pipe. Nast's Santa supported the Union and President Lincoln believed this contributed to the Union troops' success by demoralizing Confederate soldiers. As Nast drew Santas until 1886, his work had considerable influence in forming the American Santa Claus.

Churches, influenced by German immigrants who loved Christmas, Clement Clarke Moore, Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, the Oxford Movement in the Anglican church, and church musicians embracing carol singing, began to bring Christmas observances into their lives. The growth of Sunday Schools in cities exposed hundreds of thousands of children to Christianity. Initially oopposed to Christmas observance, by the 1850s Sunday Schools had discovered that a Christmas tree, Santa and gifts, greatly improved attendance. So, in a strange twist of fate, the new "secular" Santa Claus, no longer seen as a religious figure, helped return Christmas observance to churches."-http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/origin-of-santa/
BU

Oh, TWO centuries, not a century and a half. You do realize that what you posted mostly confirms my post, yes? Santa Claus is pretty much entirely irrelevant to the historical figure of St. Nicholas.

[Sparko]

Oh, TWO centuries, not a century and a half. You do realize that what you posted mostly confirms my post, yes? Santa Claus is pretty much entirely irrelevant to the historical figure of St. Nicholas.

I don't think he will notice. BU seems very good at only taking in selective information that meets his beliefs and ignoring anything that questions them. Usually this is because of fear. They are afraid to question or test their beliefs because it might upset their whole worldview. So, armed with cult literature and propaganda they just routinely spout the party line and ignore anything that questions it.

[Rushing Jaws]

I keep getting told bunk stuff about Constantine and the church, what really happened?

It produced 20 authentic canons. It should not be confused with Nicea II in 787, which is also Ecumenical. Canons here:https://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/nicaea.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paphnutius_of_Thebes

[rogue06]

You seen the Principle though do you not??
BU

Of course. Both St. Nicholas and the Nicolaitans of Revelation share the first three letters in their names. And if that isn't enough to establish a firm connection, then I don't know what is.

Sort of like Hitler and the Hittites.

[Hypatia_Alexandria]

Constantine was the first Christian Roman emperor. His goal in calling the Council of Nicaea was church unity. He seems to have proposed the term homoousios ("of the same nature") to describe the relationship of the Father to the Son at the council, though he wasn't the first to use it. As can be seen by the fact that he was baptized by an Arian bishop (Eusebius of Nicodemia) on his deathbed, he actually wasn't a stickler for doctrinal purity; he just wanted everyone to get along. Although he gave lots of money to the church, he did not make Christianity the official religion of the empire (Theodosius II did that a century later).

Constantine's concerns were not about wanting " everyone to get along". He wanted to bring some orthodoxy to the religion to thereby bring about cohesion and political stability. The latter was his primary concern given the recent history of the empire.

Christianity became the state religion of the empire in 380 CE under Theodosius I some 43 years after Constantine's death.

[One Bad Pig]

Constantine's concerns were not about wanting " everyone to get along". He wanted to bring some orthodoxy to the religion to thereby bring about cohesion and political stability. The latter was his primary concern given the recent history of the empire.

It seems to me that everybody getting along would do a bang-up job of achieving cohesion and political stability.

Christianity became the state religion of the empire in 380 CE under Theodosius I some 43 years after Constantine's death.

Sort of. The Edict of Thessalonica wasn't really enforced until the Code of Theodosius II was published in 438. Pagans weren't even banned from state office until 415.

[Hypatia_Alexandria]

It seems to me that everybody getting along would do a bang-up job of achieving cohesion and political stability.

people getting along

Sort of.

There is no "sort of" about it. The Nicene creed became the state religious belief. Implementation of that belief is another matter and again, some understanding of the situation prevailing at the time is required.

Nor should the complexity and fluidity of that period be overlooked. Likewise the internecine struggles between the prelates of Constantinople, Rome, Milan, and Alexandria, for temporal power and supremacy, have to be taken into consideration.

The Edict of Thessalonica wasn't really enforced until the Code of Theodosius II

That is another over-simplified and sweeping generalisation. The Codex Theodosianus was an attempt to codify Roman law in general and was undertaken when a commission of legal officers, under the presidency of the praetorian prefect and former quaestor, Antiochus, was instructed to collect all extant edicts and general laws issued since. 312 CE. The commissioners were not overly successful in recovering the legislation of the first half-century of the period, and found great difficulty in assigning dates to the early laws. However, after two years work they produced the Codex Theodosianus, which in 438 CE was declared in both halves of the empire to constitute an authoritative and exhaustive collection of imperial legislation since 312 CE.

Concerning non-Christians the proscriptions began to take effect within a relatively short time. In 391, an enactment strictly forbade public officials from any participation in sacrifice on penalty of a fine of fifteen pounds of gold. Theodosius I also added an additional penalty to the professional staff of any official doing so. Namely that they too would also be fined the same amount unlessNo one at all, of any family or rank, in office or out of office, powerful by birth or born in a low condition, in no place at all, in no city, is to slaughter a victim before senseless graven images or venerate the lares with fire by lighting candles, the genius with wine and libations, the penates with sweet smelling garlands.The Later Roman Empire 284-602, Vol. 1; Hans Lietzmann, A History of the Early Church Vol. 4; Charles Freeman A New History of Early ChristianityPagans:The End of Traditional Religion and the Rise of Christianity]

[Christian3]

http://www.theologyweb.com/campus/sh...-New-Testament