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The Second Vatican Council was summoned a little over forty years ago by Pope John XXIII. It was convened in four sessions each year from 1962 to 1965. It was the pope’s desire that the Church be brought up to date and adapt itself to meet the challenging conditions of modern times. This was no small undertaking, and by the time it was over, it spawned four Constitutions, nine Decrees, and three Declarations. The Council was closed on December 8th, 1965 by Pope Paul VI, who had guided the council through its final three sessions.
The Council was the 21st in the Church’s history. To understand what a Council is, however, and why there are needed, we have to go right back to the beginnings of the Church. We find the first Council recorded in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 15:1-35).
The First Council
As the church grew in the early days, there were many people who didn’t quite fully understand the New Covenant. Some went around teaching that people still had to be circumcised as required by Mosaic law. Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them, but unable to come to a come to any consensus, they decided to go to Jerusalem and resolve the issue with the apostles and other elders of the Church.
There, after much discussion — because there were several in Jerusalem, too, who believed that circumcision was a requirement to being baptized — it was finally agreed that circumcision was not necessary to become a Christian. This agreement was put into writing and then circulated among the believers.
We have here a very good example of how the early church settled matters that were disputed. A problem arose in the Church (15:1-6). The apostles and other elders met together and discussed the controversy (7-21). Once settled, a letter was issued and delegates were sent out to explain its import to others (22-35).
Point to Ponder: What happens if there is a dispute with an interpretation with Scripture in our day? Do people bring it to the notice of a council to be discussed or do they simply break away from the Church to form a new Church? There are an estimated 30,000 churches in the world today, most with single founders, who disagree with the interpretation of the Church on Scripture.
The Council of Nicea
Nearly three hundred years later another major problem arose. A presbyter in Alexandria, Egypt named Arius taught that the Father created the Son, and that the Son, in conjunction with the Father, then created the world. The result of this teaching was to make Jesus somebody who was created, and consequently, not God in the proper sense of the word.
The Bishop of Alexandria, Alexander, sent for Arius and questioned him. After Arius stubbornly stuck to his position, a council of Egyptian bishops excommunicated him, but defiantly, Arius began writing letters to various bishops defending his stand. Finally, the Emperor Constantine summoned a council of Bishops in Nicea in 325. There, three hundred and eighteen bishops repudiated Arius and produced the first draft of what is now called the Nicene Creed.
The Arian position has been revived by the Watchtower Society, the legal organization in use by Jehovah’s Witnesses, who hail Arius as a great witness to the truth.
Other Councils
Twenty other councils were convened over the years, one for each century.
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