ok begotten from WHO? begotten is not limited to a biological conception. listen, 1 Corinthians 4:15 "For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet [have ye] not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
again how did God beget the Christ. but before you answer God did not have a biologial son, in the natural way as you and I have. please understand what a "son" means outside the arena of biology.
now your answer.
PICJAG
In other words the Fatherhood and Sonship of Christ to you is merely metaphorical. When Peter declared "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God", scripture points us to other references regarding His Sonship and relation to the Father which lead us to only one realistic conclusion. That Christ was a Son, not a son by creation, as were the angels, nor a son by adoption, as is the forgiven sinner, but a Son begotten in the express image of the Father's person, and in all the brightness of his majesty and glory, one equal with God in authority, dignity, and divine perfection. In him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Only in two ways is the Son not equal to the Father...longevity, and rank. Begotten before the worlds were made, the vessel through Whom God created all things, the gift of the Son to the human race is an infinite expression of the love of God toward humanity. Biological? No, because we cannot box God into any biological paradigm and make Him a part of creation. Ontological, yes.
The world was made by him, "and without him was not anything made that was made." If Christ made all things, he existed before all things. The words spoken in regard to this are so conclusive that it amazes me that anyone could doubt His authorship upon creation. After all, did He not declare Himself as Lord of the Sabbath? How can that be unless He was the one Who established it, and was the one Who walked with Adam on that first Sabbath in the garden? Christ was God essentially, and in the highest sense. He was with God from the beginning, the Word, made flesh. God begotten.
it is very interesting to examine the confession of faith that Eusebius presented at the council of Nicea. We can read this today because in explanation of what had happened at Nicaea, he later included it in a letter to his parishioners. He wrote to them saying
As we have received from the Bishops who preceded us, and in our first catechizings, and when we received baptism, and as we have learned from the divine Scriptures, and as we constantly believed and taught as presbyter and bishop, so believing also at the time present, we report to you our faith, and it is this: (Eusebius, letter to his church, as quoted in J. Stevenson‟s „A New Eusebius‟ revised by W. H. C. Frend)
Eusebius informed his parishioners that the confession of faith that he personally had presented at Nicaea
was the very same faith as that which he had been teaching them. He also said that it was what the other bishops before him had been teaching. This therefore had been the consistent faith of what we term today early Christianity.
Notice that Eusebius said it was the faith that they as Christian leaders had ―learned from the divine Scriptures and had ―
constantly believed and taught. This faith therefore was the norm. In other words, what Eusebius said he had presented at Nicaea (the old Palestinian confession)
was, at that time, the common faith of Christianity. It was not something new.
It should go without saying therefore that what Alexander and his group were pushing for (the up and coming trinitarians) was something new. Certainly it was something not generally believed then by Christians. It was therefore to Christianity, a new theology.
Eusebius continued in his letter to his parishioners (this is the confession of faith he presented at the council)
We believe in One God, Father Almighty, the Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in One lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, God from God, Light from Light, Life from Life, Only - begotten Son, first-born of all creation,‘ before all the ages begotten from the Father, by whom also all things were made; who for our salvation was incarnate, and lived among men, and suffered, and rose again the third day, and ascended to the Father, and will come again in glory to judge living and dead. And we believe also in One Holy Spirit.
This very early confession of Christian faith says that the Son is ―begotten from the Father ―before all ages (some translations say before all time or before all worlds). This begotten faith therefore was the common continuing faith of very early Christianity. As has been said before, everyone at this council would have agreed with it.
The doctrine of the trinity, as Nicea eventually accepted according to
Constantine's wishes, was indeed as you would agree, error. But what you and others have done is throw out the baby with the bathwater, so to speak. The early church, up to Nicea, pretty much had it right. Confusion has reigned since.
