Pastor John joins us today over Skype remotely, even though today's question comes into

us from a pastor not far from you, Pastor John. You're right, Pastor John, hello, I'm a

pastor of a small congregation in Minneapolis. As we endured the inability to gather in person

as a congregation in the midst of the virus, I emailed the church weekly, slowly working

through the questions in the new city catechism. He raised again a question that has been

gnawing at me for a number of years. Specifically, what does it mean that the son was begotten by the

father and not made? Why this distinction and why does it matter so much today? Well, hello brother,

fellow lover of Minneapolis, our sad city, our sinful city. The early church

had to settle certain really crucial disputes over the nature of Christ. And one of those disputes

came to a head in the fourth century when a group called the Arians, a-r-i-a-n-s, argued that

Jesus Christ was created, made, and was not God. The summary and the end of that dispute was the

Council of Nicaea, and it was formulated, I'll just read a little section of it. We believe

in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God begotten of the Father, only begotten that is of the

substance of the Father, God of God, light of light, true God of true God, and then comes the phrase,

begotten, not made, clearly in the face of the Arians, of one substance with the Father,

through whom all things were made. Now that has been, and is today, the historic

biblical Orthodox position of the church, throughout history. I believe that what that says

true. The phrase begotten, not made, comes from that Council of Nicaea, the creed of Nicaea.

So we now should ask, since the Bible and not creeds are our final authority, though we

really esteem, I esteem highly, and and love to ponder the wisdom of the creeds.

Is it biblical? And why does it matter? I think a compelling case can be made,

biblically, from the first 14 verses of the gospel of John that that phrase begotten, not made,

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