Arianism: A Christological Heresy

Historical Background

Arianism (named after the 4th century presbyter (elder) of Alexandria, Egypt) didn’t just appear on the scene. There had been about 150 years of debate and conversation about how to understand the relationship between the Oneness of God and the Three-ness of God: the Persons of the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Two of the views that had surfaced are known collectively as “Monarchianism,” even though they are opposing viewpoints. These views are known today as “Sabellianism” or “Modalism” and “Adoptionism.” (Noll, Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity, p.48; Hägglund, History of Theology, 70)

Dynamic Monarchianism/Adoptionism

Theodotus – excommunicated by Victor, Bishop of Rome ca. AD 190

Taught that Jesus isn’t of divine origin. He was born simply a man just like anyone else, except for His degree of righteousness. Jesus becomes the Son of God at his baptism, hence, he is “adopted” into the Godhead.

Denies the Trinity. Only the Father is God. Jesus is not fully man and fully God, but “Christ” speaks of a power that came upon the human Jesus at His baptism and was active in Him from that time on. Jesus is only united with God after His resurrection.

Paul of Samosata – bishop of Antioch ca. AD 260. Declared heretical by a synod of Antioch in AD 268.

Taught that Jesus was not divine. He was only a human being who received power from God. The Holy Spirit was the grace infused into the apostles.

Paul of Samosata’s teaching carried on in Socinianism (named for Faustus Socinus, and is the modern progenitor of Unitarianism) and in other Unitarian schools and can also be found in various branches of liberalism.

Dynamic Monarchianism was one attempt to resolve the tension between the Oneness of God and the Three-ness of God. This teaching sided so heavily on the oneness of God that it made the error in thinking that there was only one personality in God. Because of this, Jesus couldn’t be divine, because that would create two persons, and so had to be less than divine. This view teaches that Jesus was “adopted” as the Son of God at His baptism and before that He lived as an ordinary man.

Dynamic Monarchianism denies the fundamental and essential doctrine of the divinity of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and thus denies the essential Christian/Biblical doctrine of the Holy Trinity. It was rightly condemned as heresy. Unfortunately it still lives on in Unitarian schools and “churches” and in Liberal Christianity. (Hägglund, History of Theology, p. 70-71)

Sabellianism/Modalism

Noetus and his disciples

Taught that the Father alone is God

Is hidden from man’s sight but can make Himself known

The Father and the Son are not only the same essence, they are also the same God under different names and forms.

Refused to differentiate between the three Persons of the Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).

Praxeas in Rome

Sabellius – began to teach in Rome ca. AD 215

Taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in essence and can only be differentiated from each other by name.

God doesn’t exist as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the same time, but rather as need arises He reveals Himself sometimes as Father, sometimes as Son, and sometimes as Holy Spirit.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then, are the ways, or modes, that God uses to reveal Himself at different times–hence the name Modalism.

This, like Dynamic Monarchianism, is a rational attempt to explain the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

Sabellius’ teachings were condemned as heretical in AD 261

Sabellianism/Modalism shows up today especially in the theology of Oneness Pentecostalism. Some adherents of this theology is Bishop T.D. Jakes and the band members Philips, Craig, and Dean.

Sabellianism, or modalism, teaches that God is one in that there is only one divine essence. God is three only in the sense that there are three modes or manifestations of the one God. So sometimes God appears as Father, sometimes as Son, and sometimes as Holy Spirit, and never any more than one of them at a time. Instead of recognizing the personhood of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as Scripture teaches us, modalism reduces Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to three different roles that God plays.

Modalism shows up also unfortunately in many kids’ devotional books. One that I had as a kid tried to describe the Holy Trinity in this way: A mother was trying to explain this to her child. So she said that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the same way that she is a wife to her child’s father, a mother to her child, and a sister to the child’s aunt.

This is modalism being taught simply for a child. The woman is one person. Yet she has three roles or relationships that she highlights: she is a wife, a mother, and a sister. Three roles, one person. Perfect description of the modalistic heresy. And, what’s more, she is also a daughter, perhaps an aunt, a niece, a sister-in-law, one day a mother-in-law, etc. She has far more than three roles. So if this is supposed to teach us about the nature of God, then we might just as well conclude that there are myriad different modes or roles or ways that God reveals Himself to us. And so we very quickly end up in the heretical quicksand.

Modalism expresses itself today not only in carelessly published kids’ devotionals, but also has made its way into prominent mainstream Christianity. Bishop T.D. Jakes of televangelist and TBN fame belongs to the denomination called Oneness Pentecostalism, which denies the Trinity. Jakes has said that he believes in “One God, Three Persons, if by ‘person’ you mean ‘manifestation.’” The language of “manifestation” instead of “person” and defining “person” as “manifestation” is classic modalism. Thus, by his own confession, T.D. Jakes is a heretic because he denies the personhood of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The members of the “Christian” band, Philips, Craig, and Dean, also belong to Oneness Pentecostalism, and thus belong to a heretical and anti-Christian sect that denies the Christian/Biblical doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

Arianism

Named for Arius, presbyter (elder) of Alexandria, Egypt ca. AD 310

Arius was a disciple of Lucian of Antioch, who was a disciple of Paul of Samosata (of Adoptionist/Dynamic Monarchianism fame (or infamy))

Taught that Jesus was not of the same substance as the Father, but was less than God. Taught that Jesus was the highest of the created beings, but He was created nonetheless, and so Arius denied the divinity of Christ.

He also taught that though (in his view) Christ was a created being and not divine, Jesus should nevertheless be worship as divine. This is, in effect, idolatry and placing the created order on the same level as the divine.

Calls into question the salvation of sinners. Such salvation could only be accomplished by Jesus if He is not only human but also divine. No mere human being could accomplish such salvation.

Arianism attacks the assurance of the Christian in another way as well. If Jesus was a created being, and not God Himself, then Jesus could not know the mind of God in its entirety and we would be left to wonder if the salvation that Jesus presents to us in the Scriptures is really the will of God toward sinners. Without being divine Himself, there is no way that Jesus could have known that with certainty.

Even though Arius was condemned as a heretic ca. AD 320, Arianism continued to live on for another 60 years. It wasn’t until the Council of Constantinople in AD 381 reaffirmed the Council and Creed of Nicaea (AD 325) and gave us what we know as the “Nicene Creed” that Arianism was finally removed as a major threat to Christianity.

Arianism lives on most directly in the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They teach that Jesus was born of God in heaven and is God’s first creation. As a creature, Jesus is a separate entity from God and thus not divine. This would have been gladly accepted as true doctrine by the heretic Arius.

Arianism is named for the 4th century presbyter of Alexandria, Egypt named Arius. Arius was condemned by the Church as a heretic because he denied the divinity of Christ, regarding Him instead as one who was created by God. He was a disciple of Lucian of Antioch, who was in turn a disciple of Paul of Samosata–who was a proponent of the Adoptionist/Dynamic Monarchianism view of Christ. (Hägglund, History of Theology, p. 75) Arius would say things about Christ such as,

“The Son was not always, for when all things emerged out of nothingness and all created essence came into being, then it was that God’s Logos also came forth out of nothing. There was a time when He was not (ἦν ποτε ὅτε οὐκ ἦν), and He was not until He was brought forth, for even He had a beginning, when He was created. For God was alone, and at that time there was neither Logos nor Wisdom. When God decided to create us, He first produced someone whom He called Logos and Wisdom and Son, and we were created through Him.” (Athanasius, Orationes contra Arianos, I, 5, cited in Hägglund, History of Theology, p. 75-76)

He and his followers would speak of Jesus as being of “like the substance of the Father” but not “the same essence as the Father.”

Arius thus denied such essential Christian doctrines as The Holy Trinity and the divinity of Christ. A major contender against Arius was a man by the name of Athanasius, who was the bishop of Alexandria, Egypt from about AD 295-373. Athanasius would suffer being exiled 5 times over 45 years for his opposition to Arianism and upholding of the divinity and eternality of Christ. (Who’s Who in Church History, p. 43)

In AD 325, Emperor Constantine called for an ecumenical (universal) council of the Church to take place at Nicea. The result of this Council was the first formulation of what we know today as the Nicene Creed. Arianism would continue to be influential in the Church for a number of decades, in fact, it would almost win the day. But by the grace of God, His Word was preserved and in AD 381, at the Second Ecumenical Council at Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, Turkey), Nicene Orthodoxy was upheld and the Nicene Creed was modified somewhat into the form that we are familiar with today.

Though Arianism suffered a substantial blow at the Council of Constantinople, it did not entirely die out. It remains today most clearly in the teachings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who teach that Christ is not divine nor eternal, but rather the first created being.