For their most recent episode, Huff and Steiger traveled to İznik in Turkey, the site of the ancient city of Nicaea. “This location is often accused of being the birthplace of the collection of books that make up the Bible,” said Huff, “where the books of Scripture were supposedly decided by a vote and where many claim the divinity of Jesus was invented.”
Huff and Steiger’s video showed clips of influencers on social media, including Adam Allred and Billy Carson, making such claims. Huff was actually invited to appear on “The Joe Rogan Experience” because of a viral debate Huff did with Carson that caught Joe Rogan’s attention.
“So, what actually did happen at Nicaea?” Steiger asked. “It’s been nearly 1,700 years since the council took place. And to this day, this event continues to be a source of conspiracy, controversy, and confusion.”
Huff stated that “the First Council of Nicaea was called to deal with issues regarding Trinitarianism. How do we understand who Jesus is in light of the Godhead?” The idea that “this was the place that the books of the Bible were chosen…couldn’t be any further from the truth.”
It’s important to know the “historical and theological developments that preceded” the Roman Emperor Constantine calling the council, Huff said. He and Steiger went on to explain tensions between the Roman rulers at the time, the persecution of Christians, and how Constantine came to power. It was in A.D. 312 as Constantine was about to face his rival Maxentius that the former supposedly had a vision that led him to convert to Christianity.
“There are two surviving accounts of this event. According to his adviser, Lactantius, Constantine dreamed that Jesus instructed him to have the Chi Rho symbol—formed by overlapping the first two letters of Christ in Greek—painted on his soldiers’ shields,” said Steiger.
“Eusebius, writing in the fourth century, wrote that Constantine and his army saw a vision of the cross above the sun with the words ‘in this sign conquer,’” Steiger said. “As the legend goes, that night Jesus appeared to Constantine in a dream, telling him to carry the symbol into battle and promising victory.”
A year later, Constantine and his then-ally Licinius made Christianity and Christian practices legal with the Edict of Milan. However, Christians later faced severe persecution at the hands of Licinius, whom Constantine eventually defeated.
“Gaining perspective on the persecution that Christians endured helps us better understand the rising tension within the Roman Empire,” Steiger explained. “After years of conflict in a series of decisive battles, the fighting finally came to an end. Constantine defeated Licinius, becoming the sole ruler of the Roman Empire in 324.”
