Thank you sincerely for engaging with both respect and depth—this is the kind of dialogue that matters. I understand the desire for a line in the sand, especially in a world of theological confusion. But the issue here is not whether a line must be drawn—it’s where and by whom that line is drawn. For me, the line must be Scripture, not a creed written over 300 years after the apostles by men entangled in imperial politics and Greek philosophy. I absolutely agree that not everyone who names “Jesus” preaches the same Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:4). But the answer is not to lean into Nicene formulations that speak of “eternal begetting” and co-equal persons—a concept never uttered by Peter, Paul, or Jesus Himself. Instead, the Word of God draws the line for us: “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). That’s where I stand. I affirm with every fiber of my being that Jesus is the one true God manifested in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16). That’s not Arianism, modalism, or any other label history tries to stick on it—that’s Scripture.
I’m not rejecting creeds because I lack reverence for Christ—I’m clinging to the name above every name (Acts 4:12) without adding man-made layers. I have dear friends who recite the Nicene Creed, and I don’t question their sincerity. But I cannot treat it as the test of faithfulness when Jesus never did. He pointed us to His words, not to future councils. The danger today isn’t that we have too few boundaries—it’s that we might confuse tradition with truth, and thereby miss the simple power of the gospel that says God Himself became flesh, not a second person, not an eternal Son sent by another, but the one God robed in humanity, reconciling the world unto Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). I believe there’s still room for fellowship—not through man-made fences, but through God-breathed revelation. Let’s reason together from Scripture, not exclude one another based on formulas written centuries later.