How do we know that the 3rd ecumenical counsel was correct in that freezing of the creed? Does it rely on Matt 16:18 by a sort of ecumenical counsel infallibility?
Discussion
What you are thinking of is not at all the case. It’s not as though the Church declares a council to be ecumenical as it is happening. This video will shed some light on how a council is deemed ecumenical. Ultimately it’s through a complex decentralized consensus mechanism, akin to bitcoin.
Very interesting. I love how much like bitcoin it sounds. Given that, and what seems like a majority consensus, why is the Filoque heresy not given a higher status? Maybe it would be if the ratio of adherents goes even higher than it is now?
Conceptually, the Filioque heresy was a hard fork, as it changed dogma (like going from a hard cap supply of 21M to 84M). Thus, it created a new chain. That chain can become wildly successful amongst other people (Ethereum?), but the original chain remains unaffected.
Gotcha. Interesting! Would Roman Catholics characterize it as a change? Or as an explicit recognition of what it was all along? In other words, it’s not really conceivable that someone claims that the supply *always has been* 84M, but to my new ears to this topic it seems conceivable that they say the Filoque heresy actually isn’t heresy and isn’t new either, and is rather the truth as understood by the Apostles etc.
Feel free to verify what I’ve already stated. The Filioque came way later, and was rejected by many in the historic church as a Trinitarian heresy.
If you want to do a deep dive, read St. Gregory Palamas’ Apodictic Treatise on the Procession of the Holy Spirit
Roman Catholics say the creed both ways. The majority of RCs include the filioque, but the "Eastern Rite" Catholics say it the way the Orthodox do.
So, Catholics have a funny workaround for this sort of thing.
"Even if they don't say it, they still have to believe it."
If you push on that argument, it inevitably falls on its face.
Would recommend listening to this guy's journey which included time as a Roman Catholic before gliding into the Orthodox Church.