The Nicene and Arian approaches to the Trinity are rooted in the same base concept, but differ when it comes down to how they fleshed out some of the doctrines established by the Nicene council. Athanasius argued that Christ was born, not created. He is not manufactured in the same class as all other beings in the universe. The basic premise of Arius’s teachings, however, was the uniqueness of God, who is the only self-existent (independent of his existence in nothing else) and immutable; A child who does not exist alone can not be the natural and immutable God. They both share a Trinitarian concept of 3 parts of the Godhead, but Arius’s views lean more toward a uniqueness standpoint where the Nicean concept leans more toward a oneness view point. …show more content…
The Nicene Council affirmed that Christ himself was the God of all other Gods.
The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are the there parts of the true God, even though the Father and the Son have different roles. More clearly, there is only one thing in Christ with the Father. The Greek word “homoousios” was used to describe this definition of equality. Some members of the council preferred a different word that had a meaning of similar context, as opposed to the term used which conveys more of a sameness manner. The word was controversial because it is not used in the actual text of the Bible. Athanasius and the bishops thought that it would lead to the degrading of Christ's unity with the Father. They argued that Christ was born, not created. He is not manufactured in the same class as all other beings in the universe. They came to the conclusion that Christ was born to fulfill humanity and its human salvation. The council was unanimous in condemning Arias and his teachings. It also ejected two Bishops of Libyans who rejected the religion formulated by the
Council. The Nicene Creed believes in its completeness, “. . . in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; he suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost.” (The Nicene Creed) Arianism emphasizes the unity of God but takes the Trinity to task in the way which it defines the uniqueness of each member of the Godhead. The basic premise of Arius’s teachings was the uniqueness of God, who is the only self-existent and immutable member of the Trinity. A child who does not exist alone can not be the natural and immutable God. Because the Deity is unique, it can not be shared or communicated. Because the Deity is immutable, the Son, who is immutable, must therefore be considered a creation that was called into the existence of nothingness and had the beginning. (Britannica) Furthermore, the Son can not have direct knowledge of the Father because the Son is final and has a different form of existence. To conclude, Nicene and Arian approaches to the Trinity have their roots in the same basic concept, but they differ as to how they have created some doctrines founded by the Council of Nicea. Athanasius claimed that Christ was born, not created. He is not made in the same class as all other beings in the universe. However, the basic prerequisite of teaching that Arius was proposing is the uniqueness of God, who is the only self-existing (independent of his existence in nothing else) and unchangeable; A child who does not exist alone can not be a natural and unchangeable God. Both have a Trinitarian concept of three parts of the deity, but Arius's views are based more on a single view uniqueness structure where in contrast the Nicean concept is based more on a unitary view.
One of the main principles of Christianity is the belief in both the divinity and humanity of Jesus, that these two natures are combined harmoniously in one being. In general, all modern Christians believe that Jesus was human, he was considered to be “The Word was made flesh” (John, I: 14). However, Jesus was more than just a human, despite being subjected to pain, suffering and death like all other human beings, he was sinless and also possessed the power to heal and to defy death in order to ascend, both body and spirit, into heaven. He was all man and all God, a combination of these two elements, remaining distinct but united in one being. The deity of Jesus is a non-negotiable belief in Christianity, which is referred to in many parts of scripture, “God was revealed in the flesh” (I Timothy, 3:16). The Christian faith does not perceive Jesus as God but rather a reincarnation of God, a mysterious deity who is the second person of the Holy Trinity. Throughout history, controversy has surrounded the issue of the humanity and divinity of Jesus, leading to the formation of Docetism, the belief that Jesus was fully divine but not fully human, Arianism, that Jesus was superior to all of creation, but less divine than God, and Nestorius, that there were two separate persons within Jesus. This the proportion of the divine and human within Je...
Each man trying to correct from within were pushed further and outward away from the goal of unity. We would have a different story if it were only one man who rejected the idea of the Church being one with the world. The individual would have been marked as the antichrist. Instead, we see a few men take a stand for what they felt was the truth, which we had strayed. Noted, Campbell has seen the destruction with takes place when man messes with God’s desire for gathering of the Church. Campbell states, “What awful and distressing effects have those sad divisions produced! What aversions, what reproaches, what backbitings, what evil surmisings, what angry contentions, what enmities, what excommunications, even persecution!!!” (Campbell and Thomas) Campbell’s biggest fight was pulling back the reigns of the world. Campbell extends ejecting all human creeds that cause divisions among Christians. He states, “… for their faith must not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power and veracity of God. Therefore, no such deductions can be made terms of communion, but do properly belong to the after and progressive edification of the Church. Hence, it is evident that no such deductions or inferential truths ought to have a place in the Church’s confession.” (Campbell and Thomas) Reaching out to across all divisions, Campbell has to be unprejudiced. “That although the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are inseparably connected, making together but one perfect and entire revelation of the Divine will, for the edification and salvation of the Church, and therefore in that respect cannot be separated.” “From the nature and construction of these propositions, it will evidently appear, that they are laid in a designed subserviency to the declared end of our association; and are exhibited for the express purpose of performing a duty of pervious necessity, a duty loudly called for in
Christ for the third time refuses. Since Christ refused the power presented to him, the church must now attempt at unifying the christian religion. A goal of mankind is to unite the civilizations into a “universal state” (pg. 31). A universal state brings along security in replacement of free will which humans are more than willing to give up especially if the one who unites them is the one that also provides for them. Humanity has suffered because we have had no unity among all civilizations until the church came around. Since christ has died and did not assume the role of a universal leader the church must assume this power for the sole purpose of benefiting man. Along with assuming this role, the church must also correct errors that Christ has caused. The church now has finally been able to convince mankind to submit their freedom in return for happiness, security, and a sense of unity. The last anguish of man is “the craving for universal unity” (pg 31). Now that the church has provided this to mankind we should not mess with or upset the
Gordon Fee, along with other well-respected theologians would disagree with Grudem’s interpretation for several reasons. Fee remarks in Discovering Biblical Equality, “This is both its [κεφαλη’s] first occurrence in Paul’s writings and its only appearance where “the body” is not mentioned or assumed. Later when Paul speaks of Christ as head it is not a metaphor for lordship but for the supportive, life-giving role that... the head was understood to have in relationship to the.. body.” Fee goes on to paraphrase Cyril who discusses how by nature, we are of our prospective head. Also here Paul is not directly discussing the church, but individual men. To Fee, the needed elements to read κεφαλη as authority over are not present, so it is open to reinterpretation.
Church Father St. Hippolytus also falls into the misunderstanding of the Word and the Father, by saying, like Theophilus, that God is the sole creator, as well as that he does not distinguish the Father and the Son both as God, only instead the Father as God, and also, he is guilty of subordinating the Son to the Father, which by the Council of Nicaea, is considered heresy, as the early formed creed at the council states that the Son is a consubstantial Person equal to the Father. Within his work Contra Noetum, Hippolytus, like Theophilus, states that for us it is "enough for us to
Throughout history there has been one common denominator in Christian congregations worldwide. The single most important aspect that is universal of each Christian denomination is the belief that God and Jesus are one. As defined by the Trinity, The father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit make up God. The truth of the unification of Jesus and the Father is manifested in multiple ways. God has the sole power to create in the universe and in the Bible it says that through Jesus all things were created. The union of God and Jesus is also shown in the Forgiveness of Sins. According to the Old Testament forgiveness of sins is a power reserved exclusively for God the Father and in the New Testament it very clearly displays Jesus as one who was sent to forgive us of our sins. The Nicene Creed is right in saying that Jesus and God are one because creation and forgiveness of sins are actions reserved for God that Jesus also carry outs. Since Jesus possesses the ability to do things that God has left for himself, it is apparent that Jesus and God are one.
In Christianity one of their primary beliefs is the idea of a Triune God, which means the belief of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as one entity not three separate beings. This would result in God being indivisible and could not be divided into three different parts for an ...
Athanasius was Greek; He was born in Alexandria to Christian parents. His theology is linked to Irenaeus and Bartholomew; we can see this in his use of Logos as Christ. Athanasius was the Athanasius dealt with the Arian Controversy, where he was able to develop his theology of the Trinity. His theology was developed with Athanasius' fourty-five years as bishop of Alexandria from 328 to 373. Unfortunately, some modern scholars have criticized Athanasius for his lack of discussion on Christ’s human soul, whether he had one and if he did, what that meant in regards to Soteriology. The divinity of Christ was more important to Athanasius than the humanity. As well, how Arius viewed the Bible as privatized teaching as opposed to public teaching that was to be used with all teaching. “Athanasius regarded as divinely inspired. Most importantly, the Bible contained the words of Christ. Accordingly, the Bible is sufficient for the exposition of the truth, about both the things of philosophy and the things of God and so it demands our obedience.” In Athanasius' writings there is the influence of Platonism in his thought, though Athanasius himself does not hold to be a Platonist. We can see his Platonist influenced education w...
Four movements, now heresies, of the past each adopted one of these four views mentioned previously. They are: Nestorianism, Eutychianism, Apollinarianism, and Arianism. Nestorianism and Eutychianism fall under the controversy of the relationship between the two natures. The controversy of Nestorianism arose over the propriety of the term theotokos (“God-bearing”) as a description of Mary. At the Council of Chalcedon in 428 Nestorius gave his view of theotokos to which he held and overly dividing view of the two natures of Christ. Nestorius felt that the term was of doubtful propriety unless the term anthropotokos (“human-bearing”) was also used. Nestorius was later condemned when Cyril of Alexandria; who held the belief in Christ having one nature got involved. Nestorius’ pronouncement towards the birth of Christ caused Cyril to oppose him. Nestorius said that God cannot have a mother; no woman can give birth to God. Cyril of Alexandria suggested that Nestorius was proposing that Jesus has two natures joined in a purely moral union. After Nestorianism came Eutychianism. Eutyches who was repeatedly summoned to the standing Synod of Constantinople in 448, finally appeared and stated his position whereas Christ has two natures before the incarnation, that was but one afterwards. The result of the Synod was the Eutyches was deposed and excommunicated and the one- nature doctrine rejected.
This essay affirms that the Council of Chalcedon made significant achievements with regards to the person of Christ. The aim of the Council was not to write a new creed but to re-enforce previous creeds and also to produce a statement of faith defining orthodox Christology. The Council?s aim was to stop the controversy and arguments caused by the extremism of Nestorianism and Euytichianism. At the council, Eutyches was condemned, and Dioscorus was excommunicated and deposed of his position as bishop. Also, the two natures of Christ namely, full divinity and full humanity which cannot be changed nor separated in the one person of Christ was affirmed as orthodox.
How, then, is it possible to refer to God as three separate entities but still be unified in the same breath? The immergence of the doctrine of the Trinity was a development within the movement of Christianity rather than a sudden occurrence.
The early Church period lasted until 325 C.E when Constantine came to power and instituted the Christian church as a state religion in Rome. This new era was called the “era of the seven Ecumenical Councils” (325-787). However, it was during the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325), where orthodox Christianity was first ratified. It was during this council that the issues of Christ’s divinity and His relationship to the Father was settled. Arius (260-336) was an ordained presbyter from Peter’s line of succession who apposed the church’s christological position. Arius argued that Jesus was not fully God, thus making him ontologically inferior to God the Father. Alexander, then the senior Bishop of Alexandria apposed Arius’ error thus convening
27; John, x, 36), while the Fourth Gospel declares Him to be the Word (Logos),
...t recurring argument against his Christology. “It was man’s rational soul, with its power of choice, which was the seat of sin”; if the word is un-united with a human rational soul then the salvation of mankind is not achieved.
In the second chapter of his work titled An Introduction to Ecclesiology, theologian Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen discusses the idea of “The Church as the People of God”, a Roman Catholic ecclesiology. Kärkkäinen writes about the contention between a Christ-centered and a Spirit-centered ecclesiology that was present in early and later ecclesiologies of the Roman Catholic Church. He goes on to mention a problematic reason for a Spirit-centered ecclesiology when he identifies that, “In the New Testament, the church is never called the ‘body of the Spirit,’ but rather the body of Christ.” If we understand “the body of Christ” to be the group of people who believe in the salvation through Christ, then this would support my understanding of what the church is. The potential trouble with this goes to context and content. How one interp...