In the year of our Lord, 316, the Roman Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, making Christianity the official religion of his empire. Only the ages hence would reveal the strange difficulties presented by the attempt to make Christianity a national religion. Sadly, this move on his part was in some ways more political than pious. He hoped to unite his crumbling empire under the banner of Christ, which is indeed a banner of unity, but the problems presented were grave. Many new souls were introduced to the church who were still steeped in paganism and not quite willing to give it up.
In this context, a man named Arius rose up, a presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. In 318 he began to teach that Jesus is not fully God, but rather created by God before the beginning of the world, “begotten,” but a lesser being and not actually God Himself. Alexander, the Bishop of Alexandria at the time, reprimanded him for this false teaching, and eventually he was excommunicated. This did not stop him, however. He continued to preach his false and damning message, denying the Deity of Christ, and before too long the entire empire was in an uproar. Bishop against bishop, man against man, province against province. Constantine could see that this issue was causing a problem, so he called the first universal synod, a gathering of 318 bishops, to settle the matter.
Arius attended the council, though he had been excommunicated, to defend his views. He and his followers drafted a statement which was overwhelmingly rejected by the attending bishops, following which almost all of his followers abandoned him. Another bishop suggested a second creed as a sort of compromise, which the overwhelming orthodox majority rejected because Arius agreed with it. Then the orthodox party wrote what we now know as the Nicene Creed, which was a triumph for the doctrine of the Deity of Christ. Present at this council was Bishop Alexander, with a young deacon, Athanasius, as his assistant.
The unfavorable ruling of the Council or Synod of Nicea did not stop Arius. He continued to preach his heresy throughout the empire, and despite the decision of the Council, his doctrine gained popularity. Over the next several decades, the false doctrine swept through the church, to the point at which Constantine ordered the Bishop of Constantinople to administer communion to Arius, welcoming him back into the fold of the faithful. The just Bishop would have refused to do so, but Arius died the day before it was to take place.
During this time, old Bishop Alexander had been succeeded by Athanasius as Bishop of Alexandria. The heresy had grown and grown and was finding acceptance in his own flock. He held that bishopric for 45 years, during which time he was exiled from it five separate times for a total of 17 years. Throughout all those years he worked, taught, preached, and wrote furiously against the Arian heresy and tirelessly stood up for the truth of the Gospel. He was not ashamed of Christ or His divinity. His work, On the Incarnation, spells out the absolute necessity of Christ’s divinity for the truth of the Gospel. Once he even stood before the Emperor and Arius, surrounded by those who opposed him and the truth, but he stood firm and boldly proclaimed Christ. The phrase was coined at that time, “Athanasius contra mundum,” meaning, “Athanasius against the world.” Sometimes he was, sometimes he wasn’t. But whether the world was for or against him, he was for Christ, and Christ was with him. His courageous stand for the truth and his faithfulness to the Lord and to his flock is inspiring to me.
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