Remember those who
rule over you,
who have spoken the
word of God to you,
whose faith follow,
consider the outcome
of their conduct.
Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, ad
forever. Do not be
carried about with
various and strange
doctrines. For it is
good that the heart
be established by
grace,…..
Hebrews 13:7–9a
The one who
rules in this verse is not speaking of secular rulers, rather those men who
hold the position of leadership in the Church. The work of congregants monitor
the leadership of the Church new Christian Church and are even taught in
several Churches today. Yet, Jesus Christ has never changed, He is the same,
yesterday, today, and forever. This monitoring by the Church occurred in the
history of the Church by seven councils: Nicaea Council (325 A.D.), to settle
the Arian dispute; Constantinople Council (381 A.D.), to assert the personality
of the Holy Sprit and the humanity of Christ; Ephesus Council (431), to
emphasize the unity of Christ’s personality; Chalcedon Council (451 A.D.), to
state the relationship between the two natures of Christ; Constantinople
Council (553 A.D.), to deal with the Monophysite dispute; Constantinople
Council (680 A.D.), to condemn the Monothelites; Nicaea Council (787 A.D.), to
deal with the problems raised by the image controversy. As can be seen the
working out of solutions to theological problems that dominated the thinking of
any era is more than just history: it is a definite mark of the Church that it
holds to the proving of Scriptures on any doctrinal position so that by
Scripture the truth will be proven and heresy condemned.
One such
doctrinal problem was the relationships of the Persons in the Trinity. Seems as
though that problem is still affecting many churches today who will not admit
that the findings of those early Christians and councils were and are
Scriptural. This problem arose early in the Church after the cessation of
persecution. In Western Europe, the church father and theologian Tertullian
insisted that the three personalities were of the same essence, in unity by
that essence, and that this is the correct interpretation of the Trinity. The
dispute was more prominent in the Eastern section of the Empire. The Church had
from its beginning to fight against Unitarian conceptions of Jesus Christ.
Modern Unitarianism has its foundation in the teachings of Arianism and in the
sixteenth century Socinianism. Jehovah Witnesses are Arian in their Christology
that has affected their theology of the Godhead and of salvation. Mormons have
a form of Arianism and Hinduism. As I have written before that ascetism has as
its founding in Africa; Alexandria in particular where many people flocked to
live lives of poverty, or exclusion from society and in ascetism. Arius was
such an ascetic, and ascetic scholar and very popular, in fact he wrote music
for Christians as this was a successful manner by which he taught his theology:
just set it to music. Is this not happening today in the Church? Yes! Many of
the “dittys” sung in the Church today are not theological correct or are
teaching some form of “sloppy agape.” I read where it was said that a famous
‘ditty” by Arius was set to the tune of “Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes”
and the lyrics went this way: “There was
once when he was not (he was not)
He was made and not begot (not
begot)
So
hang this sign on the weeping willow tree:
There was once when he was not (he was not)!!”[1]
Music touches the emotions of a person and is a fantastic
method to teach people: just listen to rap, or some of the music our children
listen and see for yourself how the children act by means of the lyrics, and
the beat. Arius attacked a sermon by Alexander,(. 273(1)
-313-326 A.D.), the bishop of
Alexandria (?318, or 319 A.D.) because the sermon did not uphold a distinction
among the persons in the Godhead. Arius had the desire to avoid a polytheistic
conception of God, but Arius’ position did injustice to the true deity of Jesus
Christ. The issue was a soteriological one in nature for could Jesus Christ
save a person if He were a demi–god, less than true god, and be of a similar or
different essences from the Father? The question then is: “Just what is Jesus’
relationship to the Father? Major was this controversy that Alexander had Arius
condemned by a synod. Arius fled to Eusebius, the bishop of Nicomedia who had
been his schoolmate and held to the same position of Jesus Christ, as did
Arius. This dispute was centered in Asia Minor therefore it threatened the
unity of the Empire as well as the Church. Constantine the Emperor called a
council to settle this dispute. Constantine was concerned for the Empire, and
would and did all that he could to hold the Empire together: this will become
more apparent as to how he presided over this council. This will be in the next
blog.
Stay with
me, history is of major importance. A problem in our era is the loss of history
or even a rewriting of history. Allow this study to increase not only our
understanding of this doctrine and, to increase your faith.
Beloved, while I was very diligent
To write to
you concerning
Our common salvation, I found it
Necessary
to write to you
Exhorting you to contend earnestly
For the
faith which was once
For all delivered to the saints.
For certain
men have crept in
Unnoticed, who long ago were
Marked out
for this condemnation,
Ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God
Into
lewdness and deny the only
Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jude 3–4
May our joy in the Lord increase
Richard L. Crumb
[1] Retrieved
from internet: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/exploringourmatrix/2010/06/arian-theology-in-song.html:
August 16, 2013
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