The Nicaea/Arius controversy was all about a secret thing (whether before time the Son-Spirit, the Word, was created or always existed). It belongs to God. It is not a revealed thing belonging to God’s people. Deut 29 v 29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” Constantine, forcing the bishops to ‘agree’ and debate this, maybe was an attempt to show them up like Nebuchadnezzar demanding the soothsayers and prophets tell him what he dreamed. If the goal was subtly to divide, and conquer, he succeeded.
