fortheDeclaration:
Are you a “Oneness” Protestant? as you seem to implicitly rejecting the distinction of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which in fact, was a late 2nd/early 3rd century heresy called “Modalism”, also referred to as “Sabellianism.”
Christ is eternally of the Father in his Divine Nature, thus from the same “substance” as the Father [In Greek, homousious, is the term used in the Original Greek, which in Latin was translated consubstantial with the Father]
So Christ, in his Divine Nature was always and there was never a time when he was not, which is what Arius was stating “There was a time when the Father was not a Father, He [The Father] was once alone”, was his argument. THis meant that Christ came into being at a point of time, according to Arianism.
By stating that Christ eternally was begotten of the Father, God from God, begotten, not made, the Nicene Creed refuted Arius. At the Incarnation, human nature was assumed by Christ, his nature was not made. The Holy Spirit also proceeds from the Father [Western version of the Creed stated and the Son], who in relationship is the source of the Trinity, yet because of the union of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, God is One Divine Substance.
A true Trinitarian believes that all three members co-existed together as equals.
None were 'begotten'in eternity.
Christ (as we now know him)in eternity, was the Word, not the Son.
The Sonship of Christ is a function of the Plan, which has a hierarchal structure in the Trinity.
The Word agreed to become the Son in time as part of that Plan.
'Begotten' means to 'born' from the Father, as the article admits, which means the Word would be less then the Father.
The Nicene Creed simply pushes Arianism back into eternity, hoping no one would notice, and then uses a lot of rhetoric to cover up what it is really teaching, that one member of the Trinity preceded another, when it states clearly that in the beginning that the Word was with God and the Word was God.
No one was begotten in eternity.
See what the Creed is saying!