Skip to main content

The Arians: Historical Friday

As we continue our discussions on heresy we arrive now at the Arian controversy. Please note that this is not Arian in the sense of race or ethnicity (that would be aryan.) This is a heresy that cropped up in the early 300's and started with a man named Arius. This particular heresy quite possibly shaped the Christian faith more than any other before it.

Arianism Then

The Arians believed in the totality of Scripture, unlike the Marcionites we discussed last week. They believed that Jesus was the Messiah sent by God to save us from sin. They believed that God created all things and sustains all things. On the surface the Arians seem like normal Christians, but there is one big difference. The Arians didn't believe that Jesus was God.

The Arians believed that Jesus was superior to humanity, but that he wasn't equal to the Father as God. They thought he was the first created thing; that God made Jesus before making everything else. Where did they get this idea? Well, from Scripture.

Now I want to be clear on this point; Scripture teaches that Jesus is indeed God. Yet in Scripture there are statements that seem to indicate Jesus' inferiority to God. Case and point, John 14:28 where Jesus says "the Father is greater than I." 

The Arians took this, as well as some other passages, to mean that Jesus was not in fact God. He was a glorious, powerful being to be sure, but not God. This idea began to spread and became pretty popular. This teaching made it much easier to defend Christianity as a monotheistic religion. 

The backlash was huge. Orthodox Christians (orthodox in the sense of holding to the traditional Christian faith and not in the modern sense of a certain group) couldn't believe what they were hearing. The fact that Jesus is God is the very center of everything Christians believe. The result of this conflict of ideas is the Council of Nicea in 325. There a creed was formulated that defended the full divinity of Christ, based on Scripture.

Arianism Today

Unfortunately Arianism has not died out. It is still very present in our world today. Any who believe that Jesus is less than God are technically Arians. This means that the majority of the world, who believe Jesus was just a good man, falls under this category. It has also reared its head in churches who are trying to make the concept of the Trinity more palatable.

There are other groups who are openly Arian, even though they would object to being called that. The Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons are two prime examples of groups that believe that Jesus is less than the Father.

We see this heresy today constantly. Many people, even those claiming to be Christians, don't believe that Jesus is truly God. To our credit, many churches condemn this view and are quick to spot it. Next week, however, we will discuss another heresy. This one is much more prevalent in churches and has gone almost completely unnoticed. Instead of denying the divinity of Christ, this one has people denying his humanity.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Augustine of Hippo: Historical Friday

We pause our overview of the history of Christianity to talk about an extremely influential figure, whether we realize it or not. Augustine of Hippo, so called because he lived in the town of Hippo Regius, has had a tremendous amount of influence on Christianity in the western world. Many of the theological conversations we have in our churches today have been directly shaped by this man. Many of the terms and ideas we throw around originated with Augustine.  Today we are going to look at SOME of the ideas that Augustine has shaped. In reality this man has touched in some way or another every aspect of Christian thought. If I had to choose the most influential people on Christianity outside of Jesus and the Apostles, Augustine might very well be number one alongside Martin Luther. Before we get into the theological ideas, a brief biography is in order. Brief Biography Augustine's story is actually very interesting, one I cannot hope to do justice here. If you are intereste...
Post a Comment
Read more

Christ is Risen

This is the manuscript of a sermon I preached on Easter Sunday, 2021. All around the world people of every tribe, nation, and tongue gather to celebrate the pinnacle of history. Almost two thousand years ago to the day everything changed for the human race and indeed the cosmos. The word went out that death had been broken because Christ is Risen. Blessed by Providence we gather here today to celebrate the triumph of life over the powers of death and darkness. We gather to participate in the Resurrection Body of our Lord. We gather to behold the beauty of God displayed in the trampling of death by death on the cross, a victory of which we can be assured because Christ is Risen. Glory to the Father, glory to the Son, and glory to the Holy Spirit. May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts overflow with adoration and praise for our Almighty God. We can rest assured in the comfort of his grace because Christ is Risen. Dear brothers and sisters if Easter Sunday is about ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Justice

Our view of justice is narrow and limited. Typically when we, as Christians, talk about justice we are really only referring to punishing wrongdoers for their crimes. While that is certainly a part of justice that isn't the only thing. In the Bible justice consists of much more. Consider the book of Amos, one of the minor prophets and therefore a book that most Christians barely touch. Amos is announcing judgment against the nation of Israel for their infidelity to their covenant with God. What do you think is the most repeated indictment against Israel? Interestingly it's not idolatry, sexual immorality, or war although these things are mentioned. The primary sin of in Amos is Israel's neglect of the poor and their oppression of the needy. Over and over again Amos declares that judgment is coming to Israel because of their treatment of those less fortunate. The poor are trampled and the needy are crushed. There is no justice in the land. Biblical justice includes both crim...
Post a Comment
Read more