The knowledge of the Trinity and the two natures of Christ is found throughout the Bible and in the Nicene Creed and the Athanasius Creed.

People say the word, Trinity, does not appear anywhere in the Bible and thus, it is a men-made doctrine. They are very ignorant of God’s works revealed in the writings of the visible church through saints (people in the invisible church). God knows what is happening in our minds and interacts with His people on the earth constantly through His words and His Spirit. There are a few important church councils happened in the church history. The first church council was the Jerusalem Council that we read in Acts 15. The instructions of the council are as follows:

The apostles and elders, your brothers,

To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:

Greetings.

We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. So, we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.

Farewell.

(Acts 15:23-39)

Verse 29 appears to contradict to what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 8. But Christ says in Revelation 2:14, “But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.” Eating food sacrificed to diols is a grave sin if one’s heart is corrupt. In other words, those who are rebuked in Rev 2:14 had wrong intentions. Idolatry is always connected to sexual immorality. Having a wrong intention is a sin. We judge people by their actions. But God judges the heart (and the actions). This is consistent with Christ’s teaching as shown in Matt 5:28.

But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matt 5:28)

What a church council concludes needs to be interpreted with the right understanding of God’s words. God’s words come first.

There are church councils that are considered illegal in the sight of God. For example, the Council of Trent was illegal because God ordained the Reformation.

In the early church history, there were three councils that discussed about the Trinity and the two natures of Christ, which define the foundational knowledge of God. They are the Council of Nicaea, the Council of Constantinople, and the Council of Ephesus.

Theses councils (and all legal councils) have two important purposes:

Firstly, they discuss and confirm what the Bible says regarding specific matters.

Secondly, they identify heretical ideas/teachings.

Looking back our church history, the invisible church struggled to defend herself. As we see in the life of Athanasius, the false believers are much more than the true believers. And the enemies of God are always in churches and try to distort truths of God. They kill and torture God’s true children as we see in history of the Waldensians in 16^th century.

Every time she was under pressure and persecutions, God gave her the wisdom and authority to write things that could help the saints in future. The church councils were not perfect and there may have been the reprobate people in the councils, but the outcomes were what God willed. However, the knowledge is still growing and does not stop at the Creeds and Confessions.

God wants us to eagerly seek for His guidance and confess that we do not possess the wisdom. It is the Holy Spirit who works within us produces good fruit. The church council members discussed important matters that define orthodox Christianity. As we can see, our knowledge as the invisible church grows as time passes and she will be fully ready when Christ comes back. God appointed the system of the visible church so that saints could learn.