Arianism

In the Council of Nicaea, there were some arguments they had.

There was a doctrine called Arianism.

And Arianism is the root doctrine of the people who usually lock on your door.

Because Arianism says that Jesus is the first to be created.

So when the Bible says he's the firstborn of creation, they interpret that Jesus is the first creation of God.

He's not God, he was a created being.

That's Arianism.

So they debated that concept and destroyed it.

And if the way God acts in what we call the economy of salvation tells us what God is like, then people would infer that that means the obedience is forever.

But that would mean he's kind of like a subordinated figure, which comes a little bit close to a heresy called Arianism, where the son is subordinated.

But it's not full-on Arianism.

It's closer to semi-Arianism, or you could call it Timu-Arianism, if you want the technical term.

So I kind of got into this debate a little bit.

Craig Keener wrote an article saying, well, actually, in the Gospel of John, Jesus does submit a bit to the Father.

And I looked into it and, and I looked at it and the best analogy for them was a type of Aryan Christianity called Hermoianism, which is not the same as Arius was advocating, but it's kind of like Arius light, but they did not, but they denied the kind of.

a full equality of the, of the sun.

All the other stuff, the political, the economic, everything else is secondary to the presence, the image, and the identity of Christ in the world.

So the devil is constantly trying to undermine that, divide that, distort that, pervert that, destroy that, right? He did it in the various ways in the first millennium with the various heretical movements from Arianism to Iconoclasm to false councils with Rome or whatever it might be.

Now in our day, at the end of the, really the end of the 2,000 years now, we're coming closer and closer to the second coming, we see that the same attempt at the distortion of the person of Christ and dividing the people of God, always divide and conquer is the method of the enemy, we see that now applied to the church.

And in a way, it's more impactive and effective than any of the previous heresies.

His slogan was, there was when he was not.

In AD 325, the Council of Nicaea condemned that slogan by name as a heresy that to this day is called Arianism.

But Arius, as you may know, is still with us.

Jehovah's Witnesses teach that Jesus is God's first creation, that he's Michael the archangel.

We call it a heresy.

Arianism went the other way.

So Arius, a bishop early in the church, said, well, he was completely human.

His divinity was something that came later.

So all monastic communities attribute that communal living to Pachomius.

And then, of course, Athanasius, you know, in the Council of Nicaea, you know, defended the whole world from the Aryan heresy, you know, and Contramundo, you know, the whole world is against you, Athanasius, and so I will be against the world.

Yeah.

was attributed to St. Athanasius and St. Cyril of Alexandria.

And if he weren't truly God, then the church's worship of him is misplaced, and worse than that, it's idolatry.

So in AD 325, church leaders gathered at the Council of Nicaea to address the controversy of Arianism.

The Nicene Creed would go on to confess that Jesus Christ is, quote, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, end quote.

And that he is, quote, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father, end quote.