Ecumenical �Councils:

They were assembled in response to a certain Heresy

• To keep the unity of the church
• Because Christ desires us to be united as one body

Heresy:

A belief contrary to the faith or dogma of the church; denial or perversion of the faith

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one , as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us” (John 17: 20 - 21)

�“Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul ;

(Acts 4:32)

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Unity: Spirit lead

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of

your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5)

Agenda

Brief history

• The councils we will look at all happen when the church was one and there were no schisms

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• This was before 451 when we split so our church recognizes them

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• We mention these councils during the Liturgy (commemoration of the saints) and Absolution of Servants

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Why is this relevant to me now?

1. Knowing your church’s history is valuable whenever you may doubt

2. Knowing your church’s history is valuable when communicating to other people the reliability of Christianity and Orthodoxy

3. There are still people today who believe in these heresies, but they are called something else

Arians: JWs

Nestorians: Assyrian church of the east

Macedonians: Iglesia ni Cristo (church of Christ)

3 Major councils

Apollinarian Heresy: Christ not totally human

The Eutychian Heresy: Divine nature swallowed the human

Nicaea: Athanasius and arius + more

Arius (c.250–c.336)

• Arius started his Heresy during the reign of Pope Peter The Seal of Martyr
• Pope Peter anathemized (means the “cutting off” or the excommunication from the church) Arius
• While in prison, Pope Peter saw a dream of our Lord Jesus with a torn garment

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Arius was absolved by Pope Achilla for 6 months only (He claimed that he repented)

• He was a priest or presbyter
• Spread Heresy saying Christ was not equal to God
• He quoted John 14:28 “... ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.”

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• He commanded his two disciples Achilla and Alexandros not to absolve Arius
• He wanted to maintain unity of the church

Pope Peter Seal of the Martyrs

Pope Alexander of Alexandria

(Bishop 313)

St. Athanasius

• Young deacon
• Disciple of Alexander

Arius’ heresy

• Arius understood Monotheism (believing in one God) as a numerical
• He couldn’t understand the “unity” of the Holy Trinity, which is three in one essence.
• He believed that the Son was created by the will of God before times and ages, and He received life, being, and glories from the Father.

Arius thought:

• God is without beginning, the Son has a beginning.
• “There was a time when he was not”
• “He was not before He was begotten”

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Arius does not differentiate between created and begotten. He says there was a time he was not. And that the Son has a beginning.

The Son is from nothing: He came into existence from nothing.

For Arius, the terms “begotten”, “created”, “defined”, and “established ” are all synonyms.

What Happened Next

Bishop Alexander of Alexandria responded to the wrong teachings of Arius:

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If everything created through the Son (including the time), how was there a time before his existence? There could not have been a time without Him.

When the Arian’s teachings spread throughout Alexandria, Bishop Alexander called for a local council of Alexandria in 320.

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Pope Alexander presided over the council, which was attended by 100 bishops from Egypt and Libya. The Council condemned and exiled Arius.

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Arius fled Egypt and went to Nicodemia, and went to Eusebius.

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Eusebius supported him, but he was resisted by the bishops of Jerusalem and Antioch.

From Nicomedia, Arius started to spread his teachings and made the city the center of his activities.

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From there, he sent letters to Alexandria in poetry to be sung, called the Thalia. He also sent letters to the Bishops to get their support.

Arius

Eusebius

Thalia

DISCLAIMER THALIA IS THE HERESY THAT ARIUS WROTE AS A POEM; WHATEVER IS WRITTEN ON THIS SLIDE IS HERESY

What happened next

This controversy then became international problem, not limited to Alexandria.

Pope Alexander of Alexandria

St. Athanasius

At the council of Nicaea, many famous Bishops attended including Pope Alexander and his Deacon Athanasius.

Outcome

The question focused on the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ: on the one hand, how real is His Divinity and Equality with the Father?

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On the other hand, how is He Distinguished from the Father?

In other words, how within the monotheistic system was it still possible to maintain the unity of God while insisting on the Divinity of One who was distinct from God the Father?

Father

Son

Holy

Spirit

Trinity

Our Lord Jesus Christ very clearly mentioned the Holy Trinity:

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“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19)

Similarly, the Holy Trinity was mentioned clearly in the early rites of the Church.

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Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)

Athanasius’ Arguments

St. Athanasius makes the point that it is only God who can save.

God, and God alone, can break the power of sin, and bring us to eternal life.

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[the Jews crucified Christ because He was claiming to be God!]

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An essential feature of being a creature is that one requires to be redeemed. No creature can save another creature. Only the creator can redeem the creation

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The New Testament and the Christian Liturgical Tradition alike regard our Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. Yet, as St. Athanasius emphasized, only God can save. So how are we to make sense of this?

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The only possible solution, St. Athanasius argued, is to accept that Jesus is God incarnate.

Athanasius’ Arguments

a) No creature can redeem another creature

b) According to Arius, our Lord Jesus Christ is a creature.

c) Therefore, according to Arius, our Lord Jesus Christ cannot redeem humanity.

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Athanasius’ Arguments

The second point that St. Athanasius makes is that Christians worship and pray to our Lord Jesus Christ.

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He argues that if our Lord Jesus Christ were a creature, then Christians were guilty of worshiping a creature instead of God–in other words, they had lapsed into idolatry.

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Christians, St. Athanasius stresses, are totally forbidden to worship anyone or anything except God alone.

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He thus argued that Arius seemed to be guilty of making nonsense of the way in which Christians prayed and worshipped.

St. Athanasius argued that Christians were right to worship and adore our Lord Jesus Christ, because by doing so, they were recognizing Him for what He was: God incarnate

Outcomes

Three main documents:

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1. Nicene Creed with its Anathemas (it ended at the “Yes we believe in the Holy Spirit…” since that is finished in Council of Macedonia)
2. 20 Canons
3. Letter to Egypt

Nestorius’ Heresy: Ephesus

The heresy: Nestorius said “that which was formed in the womb of Mary is not God Himself … God dwells in Him (Jesus)… It is not God who has suffered, but God conjoined with the crucified flesh”

St. Cyril sent a letter to Nestorius in which he explained the nature of Christ, as the Incarnate Son of God, one Person, and declared St. Mary’s right to be called “Theotokos” Θεοτόκος (God bearer)

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Nestorius’ Heresy: Ephesus

• During the council of Ephesus St. Cyril explained the names of Christ, Emmanuel and Jesus, then defined the Hypostatic Union as opposed to mixture or external association only.
• Emmanuel is very God, and therefore the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God, since in the flesh she bore the Word of God made flesh, “the Word became flesh” Jn. 1:14

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Outcomes:

• The Twelve Articles of Anathemas: statements of the dogma of Incarnation and Christ’s unity of nature.
• Introduction to the creed

Verses to understand

• John 14:28: “I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.”
• Mark 10:18: “So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.”
• Matthew 24:36: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of ^[a]heaven, but My Father only.”
• John 17:3: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
• Acts 2:22:  “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—”
• 1 Timothy 2:5:  ^”For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,”
• Colossians 1:15: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”