QUESTIONS FROM ATHEISTS AND SKEPTICS
AS THE AUDIENCE was cheering, Vice President Price walked up the center aisle with a microphone and said, “We are going to take a few questions from the audience.”
Scott was the first to ask a question. “Dr. Peterson, I’ve heard that it was Constantine who brought pressure to upgrade Christ’s status to deity in the fourth century’s council of Nicaea.”
Scott returned to his seat and Dr. Peterson leaned into the microphone.
“Have you been reading Dan Brown novels?” Dr. Peterson asked, as several people throughout the auditorium chuckled. Dr. Peterson continued, “Here is the case I’ve provided tonight. The New Testament was composed in the first century, just decades after the events surrounding Jesus. The books of the New Testament predate the council of Nicaea by more than two centuries. Though written by different people for a variety of purposes, they share one unmistakable theme. Jesus Christ is God.”
An older man with a beard asked the next question. “Dr. Peterson, can you provide any sources outside the Bible to show that Jesus Christ was considered God?”
“Certainly. The ante-Nicene fathers provide additional support that Jesus was considered divine. I have documented some of their quotes. Ignatius of Antioch in AD 110 wrote, ‘God is incarnate … God himself appearing in the form of man.’86 Justin Martyr, who lived from AD 100–165, said of Christ, ‘… being the First-begotten word of God, is even God.’87 Irenaeus, AD 177, declared, ‘… the Father is God and the Son is God; for He who is born of God is God.’ Melito of Sardis wrote, around AD 177, that Jesus was a man, yet He is God.”88
Dr. Peterson continued, “Probably the most convincing evidence that Jesus was considered divine before Nicaea comes from non-Christian writers. The Greek satirist Lucian of Samosata (c. AD 170), the Roman philosopher Celsus (c. 177), and the Roman governor Pliny the Younger (c. 112) make it clear that early Christians understood Jesus as divine. Pliny persecuted Christians because of their belief that Jesus was divine. Let me read a statement that I documented coming from Pliny. ‘They had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately among themselves in honour of Christ as if to a god.’”89