HT21 Ancient Church History Lecture 8

Together as we open praise the Lord praise the Lord oh my soul I will praise the Lord as long as I live I will sing my praises to my God while I have my being put not your trust in princes in a son of man in whom there is no salvation when his breath departs he returns to the Earth on that very day his plans perish blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob whose hope is in the Lord his God who made Heaven and Earth the sea and all that is in them

who keeps Faith forever who executes Justice for the oppressed who gives food to the hungry the Lord sets the prisoners free the Lord opens the eyes of the blind the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down the lord loves the righteous the Lord watches over the sojourners he upholds the Widow and the fatherless The Way of the Wicked he brings to ruin the Lord will reign forever your God o Zion to all Generations praise the Lord oh Lord Our God how we thank you that though these words were penned uh many centuries ago the

same reality is true and you are God the one who is our God forever and ever to all generations that you Reign Over all things for you are alone are the Creator of all that exists Lord you rule and reign in Holiness and in Justice and great goodness and mercy we thank you for your great Salvation thank you that you are the one who delivers men and women from the bondage of Sin from enmity with you from spiritual death into life and life abundant we pray that you would bless us in our class together as

we take up uh look looking at the history of your church again today we pray that you would help us to grow and to learn through these things help us especially to think Through them in the light of your word that we would gr gain true wisdom and understanding in Jesus name all right so we were just stepping into donatism and that's where we will then pick out so we talked about Constantine's conversion the fact that he is now reigning over the Empire and then the challenge of how to deal with of the after effects

of Persecution Constantine now reigning as the emperor uh feels it's incumbent upon him to restore what has been lost in the church through the time of persecution and then we came to the issue that in North Africa it's not quite so clear because you have two churches two bodies of churches both claiming to be the Catholic church and uh that split being uh LED on the one hand we had the Bishop cecilian I think we gave his name last class did we yes do you anybody need the spelling of his name missing that their notes

yeah yes just double check make sure I've got that right yes that's correct and the other Bishop donatus so the followers of donatus I called the donatists split has to do with at least Claimed lapses is under persecution and the impact of that and the donst particularly holding to the belief that if a bishop lapsed under persecution he was disqualified as a bishop permanently anything that he did as a bishop then really didn't count so if he administered the Lord's Supper after he had lapsed you know even let's say been restored but he lapsed once

and he shouldn't have lapsed then uh Lord suffer baptisms Ordinations wouldn't count and so that creates a divide because Catholic Church says these cases need to be investigated someone did lapse under persecution that needs to be examined but the question is was there repentance did this really happen or not the Catholics wouldn't necessarily say that someone should remain in office if they denied Christ they would want to know what happened what was a Circumstance where repentance looked like all those questions evaluate it more Case by case where the dontist said blanket uh such a man

is permanently disqualified from Ministry and so when Constantine orders that all Church property be given back grants be given back there is tension between the two groups local government on the ground has a direction to the authority to direct These funds And this restoration and the local government gives it to the side of cecilian we call the Catholic side excuse me I've got a really bad cool terrible itch in my throat see if the cop candy helps me work got you need some that I got M eggs you need some thank you I took something

already but it's not quite doing it what else you got and so what happens is the donatists appeal to the Imperial government in Rome to recognize them as the rightful owners of the property now as emperor Constantine is reluctant to make the decision himself so he allows tribunal of Bishops to investigate the decision finally goes against the donatists after which point donatus already Mentioned comes to the conviction that church and state should have nothing to do with each other so complete separation of church State famous quote somewhat like trolan what does Jerusalem have to do

with Athens what does Athens to do with Jerusalem backwards Theus said what has the emperor to do with the church the fact that the decision went against the donus didn't solve the Division in the church turmoil religious violence would continue and um it's hard for us perhaps to imagine but professing Christians here would actually times Riot against each other the violence and there was one extreme group of donatists the donatists a subgroup called the circum Celian contined to exist to the time of Augustine 70 or 80 years later and the circumcellions were all for assassinating

Catholics especially ministers Bishops Dustin would narrowly Escape at one point being assassinated by circum silans which uh raises Church conflict to a whole another level and Division I just can't imagine in our Day Baptist trying to assassinate that's that's the the depth of the vision yet these groups both hold to trinitarian Orthodoxy they're both preaching from the same Bible they not you know this isn't like they're gnostics or something um if you look at their doctrinal beliefs aside from the division over how to deal with Persecution really the same and so it probably suggests to

us at the least that even though there same on paper that in the life of the church there's some real issues with nominalism how they're professing Christians who truly love the Lord do this or would assume would be an external centuries later assessment there's got to be something spiritually off kind of ratcheting up professing Believers yes Schism controversy whatever you want to call it is it primarily an issue regarding the nature of the church or the relationship between church and the state was it certainly a both hand is there one that takes the charge is

it like more so like so after the decision it will be relationship of church state will play into it that's after the decision goes against them so I think if it went the other way They might have been happy with the church State relationship it's really to not just changed after the negative ruling but that does become a defining point of the donatists later on so that that makes it difference donst claim that they are holding to a pure church more pure Church View and later bodies in church history Like the anabaptists they would look

back you know their desire for a pure Church regenerate Church this as a precursor the reality again on the ground when you read the writings of Augustine and others of the time period the donst had problems of corruption in Ministry that weren't always dealt with discipline cases that weren't dealt with It's not as though they were they said that they held to a pure Church the reality on the ground weren't any different than the Catholic in their actual Administration discipline except for they were more they probably leaned being more Novation in their view of what

you do with somebody who failed under persecution sinned under persecution where the Sicilian party in North Africa would follow more in the lines of cyprian you know the middle sort of in churches not Nevada super soft examining the case and looking at repentance readmitting to them y Sicilians were in North Africa and the Donis were where primarily all North Africa oh all North AFC my knowledge the Donis never really expand Beyond North Africa so they're really a a Local spread a bit more widely and exist for several centuries the onst exist for a while too

a good stretch but they start a little later than the Nova and it's really the advance the vandals the collapse of the Roman Empire uh persecution by arens in North Africa that leads to sort of the end of the donst movement yes sorry maybe little bit confused but do these two groups has any connections with Noves or Novation missing that point again they don't have any explicit connection okay oh aside from you know novatus was in the area of Carthage yeah he was very soft on how right just somebody said just you know receive everybody

back who simply says they've rented cecilian would have been in line with cyprian's teaching okay cyprian's teaching denus was a bit more strict a bit more like Novation just to clarify so when the L when the church property was given back to Sicilian well not to him to that group on that side of um and then you had the donst they were trying to get that property to be given to them you said and then it still went into favor to civilians okay I'm researching this for for my paper yeah so donatus donatus Appealed to

Constantine yeah Constantine establishes the tribunals to examine the whole matter the Bishops and those tribunals way in on the side and they say this stream here is Catholic Church the question is which stream of these two is actually the continuing faithful Catholic church and they decide it's this side not this side and that's why this this group ends up being called The donatists and they're called that by the Catholics what the dontist call themselves Catholic Church continue right that's good to know is I I have that backwards in my notes then or from something I

read is I had that um the decision eventually ruled in the DST favor they were given the property however this decision only led to more Division and turmoil which in fact end up resulting in the dontist sure Probably being confiscated and they were exiled from North Africa is what I have from notes that I took not from your class but might study well in the midst of the whole debate I'm not sure if it didn't bounce back and forth the end result is the dawn sister I have them they were exiled from North AF Africa

in 316 and then they were eventually brought back again for Constantine trying to bring peace yes it didn't happen it didn't happen And they continue to exist as a separate body to Augustine's day and there are still problems then augustin's day uh there will actually be again State actually state sponsored persecution of the donst to force them all into the Catholic [Music] Church which augustin's initially opposed to but then eventually he decides it works what pragma um we thought it would Bring all this you just bring division into the church he concluded that locally in

hippo people just don't but that detail that you have there of the back and forth that may well be detail what I knew all right uh so that's the the dontist Catholic controversy second major issue under the reign of Constantin that he deals With uh as Emperor or to some degree is his intervention in the Aryan controversy the Aran controversy course named after Aras Aran of course not the same as with a Y which refers to to ethnic group or Origins so aryanism arianism was the teaching of Aras and as he followed him and as

a heretical movement it was addressed by the Council Of NAA which met in 3:25 to settle this controversy which have implications for both doctrine of Christ and doctrine of the Trinity well Constantine summons the Council of Nia to meet in 3:25 not only does he summon them call them to meet he actually joins in the council he goes to the council in person sits in its Deliberations and speaks uh into the whole discussion weighs in so here we have a case of a government intervention not only in the church's you could say Financial property Affairs

but actually in its theology Aras of course refuses to sign the Creed of NAA and as a result the state punishes him First time in the New Testament era that you have that I'm aware of unless something happened in Armenia that we have an uh State punishment of someone for being a heretic first the the church was very happy uh in large part what we know to accept this new position of a Christian Emperor who was involved in the Affairs of the Church of the life of the life of the Church that Constantine's friend usus

of cesaria said this I'm sorry didn't say this this is uh he was just enthusiastically defending the emperor's role in the church this is the usus who wrote The Great church history the ecclesiastical history the early church according to usias uh the the Empire and the church reflected in different ways the Kingdom of Heaven the EMP fire was the image of God's rule over the universe where the church reflected Christ's rule over the church and he thought it was only natural that Empire and church should work together the emperor's conversion to Christianity had brought the

Empire to its Perfection usus of cesaria Had No Reservations about Constantine's Intervention in church Affairs in fact he saw in this way that Constantine through his conversion was now Christ's representative on Earth Christ had adopted and Sanctified the Roman Empire so usus is writing in this area actually he thinks it's right for the emperor to act uh in a leaderly role in the church as well as in the State well Constantine dies in the year 337 at the age of 64 he was not baptized until shortly prior to his death he'd reigned for a long

time he was Emperor for 30 years it's the longest Imperial Reign since Caesar Augustus his sons would take up rule stanus rules the East up to 353 and then the West as well 361 was much more aggressive against Paganism than his father had been the year 356 he forbade all animal sacrifices in ordered Pagan temples to be closed down it's under constantius that not only has the church continue to grow but it also becomes social fashionable to be a Christian especially in the East interesting not as much in Rome because the old Roman aristocratic Families

were still very much attached to the old paganism so you have this social Trend towards Christianity especially in the East and the church it doesn't really make the church stronger a great influx of people into it there is a reversal of this trend in the year 361 when a man called named Julian becomes Emperor he'd been raised as a Christian as a young man he rejected Christianity in favor of neoplatonism actually known in church history as Julian the apostate Julian becomes very hostile towards Christianity tries to revive Roman paganism restricts government jobs to pagans temporarily

under his Reign actually the official observance of Sunday is abolished and he required all educational institutions to teach Pagan Religion even wrote an anti-christian book titled against the galileans built new Pagan temples he reintroduced animal sacrifices try to even organize kind of a pagan Church on an empire-wide basis with himself as its head so Julian uh I mean he just charges out of the gates in 361 doing all of these things however the Lord's Providence he's also a military Leader engaged in a battle with the Persians where he's personally among the soldiers with his generals

and uh fighting the Persians he is uh killed in 363 don't know how accurate is but there's a account in the early church that said that Julian's dying words were you have conquered oh Galilean speaking of Christ so that's some of the sweep of History going forward now let's dive in in some more detail stepping back into the actual events of the Council of NAA what takes place there uh in relation to Constantine we're walk now into this great raging controversy this great challenge to the Church of the rise of arianism which uh you know

we had gnosticism before this monism errors but arianism Just it will infiltrate the church it's going to be a battle decades and decades decades in the long for a church at times it will appear that everything is going backwards Arians are getting more and more control of the Catholic church that's a major major words major battle in the life of the church well it all started in Alexandria in the Year 318 preser there named Aras 256 to 336 been a preacher in Libya started teaching that the father alone was God the logos or son he

said was a created being formed out of nothing created ex nilo by the father before the creation of the universe as such according to Aras the sun was not of the same substance as God not only that he was not Eternal there was a time when the Sun or the logos had not existed so according to Aras the son of the logos was the first and greatest of all that God had created he was closer to God and then all others he said the rest of creation Related to God through the son God had created

all all other things through Christ but only the father was truly God infinite Eternal and uncreated so the logos's son was inferior to God Aras taught that this logos entered a body at the time of the Incarnation taking the place of the reasoning spirit in Man so you've got you've got a denial of you've got a a monatic God right only the father rejection of the Trinity now it comes to the Incarnation of this created spirit being who's different you know different than God though of high order the spirit being is Incarnate incarnate in a

hybrid way replacing basically the mind the soul of the Human Aras argued that he's defending the truth that there is only one God said that if somebody taught the Divinity of Christ this would mean that the father and the son are two separate Gods Aras was also critical of Origins teaching origin taught us subordinationism remember origin did teach the Eternal Generation of the sun did make a distinction within the essence of God subordinating subordinating the son to the father now he held to an eternal generation Aras rejected this Aras said no there is an infinite

difference between God and all that is not God the son is not God must be a created being that aras's view of course on Today in what group Witnesses his Witnesses much exactly now Aras used High language about Christ as Jose's witnesses will do he would say Christ was as like God as it's possible to be greatest under God the firstborn of all creation so it's like he's trying to cover his heresy With sounds like the ex exalting Christ language well as Aras begins to teach this he's teaching This in Alexandria the bishop there whose

name is Alexander was aware of what he's teaching and it's a little side note here scripture tells us that just as false prophets arose in the Old Testament so false teachers will arise among you what Alexander ends up having to Deal with here it's the ministry this could end up happening with a Sunday school teacher in your church or an elder friend who pretor Presbyterian very much a reality of spiritual battles that take place in the life of the church Alexander becomes aware he was a bishop of Alexandria from 313 going forward so this Is

five years into Alexander's Ministry five years after being called to this church uh inste having to deal with this Aras guy teaching this where origin had taught that the logos or the sun was subordinate to slightly less full in Divinity than the father and where Aras was saying no the son is a created being Alexander said no the scriptures teach but the son is fully and truly God in as absolute a sense as the father is now Aras would respond by saying well then you're believing in multiple gods Alexander is going to have to show

that how this does not mean multiple gods well as the controversy starts to spread Alexander assembles a council of Egyptian Bishops they meet together they review aras's teaching and they depose him from his office for Heresy arus however is not ready to give up without a fight goes to Palestine Alexandria has problem with Palestine repeatedly we had origin in his case the bishop was unhappy with the origin where did origin go to the presbyter of Palestine went out there and what happens here well Aras goes to Palestine and seeks to get support from Bishops in

the Easter Church we had a network of friends many of the other Bishops of the time like Aras had studied under Lucien of Antioch was previously a teacher at the theological School of Antioch they had grammatical historical hermeneutics um but some errors creeping in theologically Lucien had died as a Martyr in the year 312 Aras has studied under him and Aras now writes his friends former fellow students from Seminary and he sends out letter to these friends addressing them as dear fellow pupil of Lucien there's some historical theological argument actually that Lucien may have actually

been teaching precursor to aras's own error connection There but Aras in his letter writing in his relational Network proves to be very successful in popularizing inside of things is eror hery what we see is multiple parties develop in this conflict some people side completely with Aras some people side completely with Alexander and the Egyptian Bishops some people stand Between you read Ferguson he gives you five categories I think we could make it a little simpler three groups say the first group would be Aras or sorry Alexander and his supporters which include the arch Deacon of

Alexandria aenasius group one Alexander and AES they teach that God the son is Equal God the Father shares in the same full divine nature second group those support Aras in these this is about 20 Bishops that when the OPC or PCA or something like that conflict like this came up aryanism I know there's 20 ministers in support of them would be a shock uh now it seems that of the 20 who Support Aras only a few of them actually fully understood and believe what he was saying seemed to others were more friends who thought he

was being poorly treated and uh because Aras was somewhat slippery in his wording they didn't quite even know what he was saying and that becomes clear later on as some of them drop off uh the third group is The Aras and uh followers friends third group is those really who stand in between and they are their leader really in this third group is mavius cesaria the influential Theologian teachings that are informing this third group are the writings of origin this is actually the majority group one of the challenges is the Orthodox group is smaller than

the in between group you've got a smaller Orthodox group The the full-blown arens are actually smaller than the right group the wrong group smaller than the right group but you've got this big middle group and they held to an originis view of the Trinity and they're they're not ready right away to condemn Aras because they don't necessarily see The implications of or understand what he is saying of course origin's teaching because it teaches the subordination you know an Aras saying these things know is that what Aras is saying is just really a step further than

talk about an ontological subordination yeah origin and and the third maybe closer to like what we see now and by functional subordinate yeah there would be Parallels with that think origin is probably worse but the functional subordinationism arguably is Step a stepping stone towards ontological well yeah I it's difficult to have one without the other consistently how do they get around John 10:30 I and the uh the second and third group like do they say oh Jesus was wrong here like how does their hermeneutic Get Around Jesus clear statement that I and the Father are

one uh well an Aryan would probably argue that that you know there's just like you are united to Christ kind of thing they would they would argue in that that kind of an argument and so so Constantine becomes aware of all this division getting back to Constantine he knows that there's division in the church in the East it feels it is his duty as a Christian Emperor to restore the unity of the church and this is why he summons this first acumenical Council of bishops from all over the Eastern Empire and a few from the

West as well to settle this dispute me and mycia 318 Bishops here and for some of them it's quite a journey as you can imagine your options are a boat a wagon or Walk Bo probably the fastest way if you weren't too far inland but if you're Inland which is a long journey to get there um so 318 Bishops even larger number of presbyter as well as deacons uh for the Bishops 311 of them are from the eastern part of the Church of course it's one it's all one denomination at this point one church for

the Donis who are for me seven are from the West which would have Latin as a primary language where the men in the East would have Greek as their primary language and a number of these men who gather for this church Council have suffered persecution firsthand their bodies are scarred from the tortures they have suffered many of them have lost friends loved ones family members who've been executed Church members who've been executed so all of this is just right here just coming out of terrible persecution and this new massive problem in the life of the

church you say a cesaria gives us this Vivid description of The Emperor's arrival at this church Council in Nia when the whole assembly was seated with proper dignity silence fell on all before the emperor Arrived first three members of his family entered in order of rank and then others came in heralding his approach they were not the soldiers or guards who usually accompanied him but friends in the faith then everyone stood up as a sign was given that the emperor was about to enter and at last he himself made his way through the midst of

the assembly looking like some Heavenly angel of God covered in a garment that glittered as If it was radiant with light reflecting the glow his purple robe adorned with brilliant Splendor of gold and precious stones when he reached the upper end of the seats he remained standing at first and when a servant brought a low chair of rot gou for him he did not sit down until the Bishops signaled him to do so and then the whole assembly sat down well other accounts of this time uh account that there are tears running Down the cheeks

of many of these Bishops uh tears of thankfulness this man even though you know there's a lot of ecclesiastical problems here what's about to happen in terms of doctrine of the church Pol and things this is the man who in God's Providence has brought an end to horrific persecution the man who the Lord has used to deliver the church from incredible sufferings the last few decades and Uh these men as they gathered here as a church Council uh many of them weep as they see this man some of them for the first time they've never

met him before Constantine Emperor come in here's the man the Lord has used to give them Freedom peace and uh it's a man who professes to be a Christian they're overwhelmed as they think about everything so it is it's It's really a very a moving moment in the history of the church even as there going to be some you know should it be done this way um but it's easy for us to say lots of good poity discussions since then and so Constantine walks in he is seated and uh uh these Bishops uh probably some

of them overwhelmed here they are in the Presence of the ruler of this vast Empire ruler of much of the world who's come and called them to restore peace to a divided church he himself as a divinely chosen protector of that church and so as a council meets and as they take up the matters of the teaching of AR Constantine takes an active part in the debates and discussions fact he basically acts like he's the moderator of the Assembly now he did have a very sound theological personal adviser jius Cordova mention his name from Spain

josus was strongly committed full deity of the Lord Jesus Christ josus is instrumental in moving Constantine to commitment to accept fle statement that teaches that the son Is not a created being but is eternal and divine well after much debate drafting redrafting of a doctrinal statement the confession of Faith emerges from this Council becomes known as the Creed of Nia creative NAA 325 is not the same as what we call the nyine Creed is really the NY of constantinopolitan creed some decades later similar but there'll be some things that are further Added forther clarified later

on what year was that we'll get there 381 I think I remember right and so what does the Creed say at this point we believe in one God the Father Almighty creator of all things visible and invisible and in one Lord Jesus Christ the son of God begotten of the father only begotten that is from the essence of the Father God from God light from light true God from true God Begotten not created of the same Essence as the father through whom all things were created both in heaven and on Earth for us and for

our salvation came down and was incarnate was made man suffered and rose again the third day ascended into heaven it is coming to judge the living and the dead and we believe in the holy spirit so particularly the language from the essence of the Father God from God light from light true God from true God Begotten not created of the same essence of the father they that's all anti- Aran language States very clearly that the son is true God begotten of the very essence of the father and the important word of the Creed here is

the Greek word homo usus which means of the same essence usia essence refers to the the reality of an object we could translate it nature or substance or Being by stating that the son is of the same Essence as the father the Creed is clearly affirming that the sun has the same nature and being ask the father and so the father is divine is eternal unchanging uncreated so is the sun homeo Ferguson says this homo usus was a word that the Aryans could not accept well the council then added a series of anathemas to the

Creed anathema is a pronouncement of uh Judgment it's even stronger than excommunicating someone anathematizing uh meant declaring to be entirely outside the bounds of Christianity and the Council of NAA pronounces this anathema against the arens as for those who say there was a time when he was not and he was not before he was created and he was created out of nothing or out of another essence or thing and the Son Of God is created or changeable or can alter the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematized those who say such things well at the Council

of n in 3:25 all but two of aras's supporters give in and sign the Creed of Nia Aras refuses along with two other men suus and Theus and they are all sent into Exile constant All right when don't we take a break for a couple minutes two people and did they disagreed with Aras and agreed with the Creed of Mia no no they agree with so remember Aras had about 20 20 followers 20 Bishops yeah yeah so these are the only two guys who keep on agreeing with the Aries at the council and then remaining

18 so these three they get exiled they get kicked Out yes with modalism and aryanism be like not the same thing but like in the same like category similarity uh modalism is a bit different in that so it's it's a denial of the doctrine of the trinity modalism says that initially you had God the Father who created all things and then really Muslim would say at the time of the Incarnation God the Father morphs into becoming the son and then the Son usually typically viewed at the time of the Resurrection Ascension somewhere around there morphs

into being the Holy Spirit and so today we live in the era of the Holy Spirit the age of the Holy Spirit and you might and they would maybe still use the labels Father and Son but they would say it's just there is one being one person effectively so it would be wrong to say like mother like kind of like a strand of like arianism I guess Or you know in a way except for they're not saying so Aras is saying that um the sun is a created being modalism is not saying the sun is

created being modalism is saying there's one God who basically has three masks three presentations but not three persons the one is Pentecostals would be modals today if you see United Pentecostal Church it's a modalist church they reject the doctrine of the Trinity and uh at first that might sound to you like they're talking in gospel language you start pressing them on what they believe uh you would find out that they don't believe that there are three persons Trinity no like use the same argument as like Jehovah's Witness would say as like a a god instead

of like yeah they would use some of the same arguments but then they would also be different Because your J's witness is going to argue that the son Jesus just is created being all right we will come back into uh what happens right after the council ni you after our break here could I ask gracious Lord we thank you for how you work throughout all things Lord as we reflect on church history would you bring us to a greater appreciation for what you've done for us on the cross What you were doing for us present

right now as we're learning here in seminary would you give us a greater love for you and we're just very thankful for our professor how he leads us through these things and we ask you give him strength you'd help his throat it is sore and we thank you for these things amen well the Council of NAA seemed to have settled things sometimes what happens in church Debates and controversies you have what seems like a decisive moment you think like everything all the problems are solved on we go can happen in the local church maybe as

a pastor you deal with some issue and you think okay got everybody together you know things have been all sorted out on we go this is now behind us no it's not comes back around or it continues to hang around for another decade or another 20 years or 30 years or 40 years Uh it's not all over yet so the appearance of this restored unity and peace as wonderful as it was and it was a good statement it's a good credal statement that was made faithful statement you know as as in a way as simple

as the statement is it is it's faithful it's a good statement the appearance of Peace was deceptive the church in the East would be torn apart for for another 50 years by the Aryan on Y the problem was really this that despite the outward Unity at the Council of NAA three parties remained of these three parties after this point in the continue really it's the same three groups would be the nice scene party which matches up with Alexander and a then you got the Aryan party which matches up with Aras and his Followers and then

you've got this group down here which is usus and many others who are labeled by Church historians as the origin part now the only true Heretics in the controversy are the Aryans the origins were an error and that error is not without significance and could lead to heresy that be described as being Heretics the main dispute actually turns out to be in the long run between the Nyes and the origins Nyes are very clear on the doctrine that Christ is fully and truly God but they expressed their belief in the Divinity of Christ by using

language that concerned the origins what would concern the origins about the use of language well the Nyes were the champions that they used Of this term hello usus that Christ is homo usus with the father father and a son share the same usia and what the Nyes meant by this the father and the son share in the same divine nature same Divine being well there's a problem because outside of these three groups there another heresy that floating around this was the heresy of sabellianism Also known as monarchian modalism modalism the sealians use the word usia

to mean that the father and the son were the same person one person so it was really the father who took flesh and became Jesus of Nazareth the son and so you know you have the whole meeting and ni see you 325 everybody kind of gets along they All make this statement but then as they walk away way as the origins in a sense talk about this later on think about this process how everything went start saying whoa wait a minute usus usus the word the sellion have been using and uh so when they think

back on it and they they think of the nice scenes like athanasius and Alexander and others Saying of the father and the son of the same but are they Mists they sealians that were they're promoting and uh the origins were very concerned about civilianisation and they start thinking well the Aryans yeah they're kind of confused on their language but at least they're not sellan and I think one of the things this illustrates in the reality of Theological conflicts in the life of the church is that a we need very clear definition of terms clear definition

of terms all around right when you're having a theological just calm clear definition of terms help a lot um and where there are questions clarifying those questions and and not getting all riled up about well this is our side there you know getting into party spirits and my Friends your friends because that often what happens in life of the church is we start grouping together because we've been through a lot of battles together and we and there's the other side the other danger is being someone on the other side of a particular dispute and we

can be good at seeing the error that is beyond them we think okay they've taken a step towards this particular era and look Where that goes you know if you keep going in that direction this is where that goes we're not always as good as seeing perhaps ourselves we have a weakness where potentially that could go that seems to be the case here where uh the or orist look at the nenes and they're like looks like you're on the way to sabellianism well nenes are looking at the origin and saying looks like you're on the

way to Aryanism and the reality was the origin weren't arens even though there's confusion and murkiness they weren't actually arens and the Nyes weren't actually civilians however the terminology hadn't been guarded enough and Def mind clearly enough either way to actually prevent that from happening more work that needed to be done and that hard work comes through trials and Disputes uh and probably at times wrong tempers and wrong attitudes heart that are mixed in uh even as men are seeking to contend for the faith and be faithful but you have this case then where the

origins now start opposing the Nyes thinking they're cellion this is not the case certainly the vast majority of Nyes are not cellion but we will See couple of them do become sabellians um majority of Origins are not actually Aryan in their teaching but some of them actually end up that direction the NES look at the origins and say well you know here you are moving into aryanism now the origins were very clear God the father and God the son are two distinct persons you have the nenes who are very clear that there's a shared divine

Nature [Music] the origin is very clear on two distinct persons but of course the weakness of the origin their error was that the the person of the son was actually inferior to the father well another criticism that the originis had to this word homus was not only that it could mean modalism but they also felt you know it could mean that the Divine usia the Divine Nature has been split apart into two no that's not what the Nyes meant now it seems tell that there's only one divine nature possessed equally by the father and the

son father and the son are two persons fully and equally sh share one divine nature and of course the Holy Spirit as well at this point the debate is over the father and the son we'll get to the issues with the Holy Spirit uh Origins will often use language about the son's inferiority to the Father which makes it seem to the NY scenes that they're unclear about the Divinity of the Sun and uh the Nyes would refer at times to the origins as semiarians well the problem is one of the problems is there is so

much to be sorted out between these two Groups guys in the middle kind of get away Heretics um sabellians are bad Heretics too uh not as influential as the Arians U but but they kind of get away in the midst of the battle between the two parties the two larger parties the origins actually form the majority in the East the question needs to be raised how how do you even get this when in 325 Everybody has signed on to this word except for three people right you've got over 300 Bishops even way more presor deacons

all signed on to the Creed of NAA which use the word homo usus so what's going on why are the origins you know walking away from the didn't you just subscribe to this well what did they say the origin said well the reason we signed on to the Cre of NAA word you know use of homo usus was because Constantine was there intimidated and quite a number actually admitted this they said this is why we did it you know we were kind of bothered by it we were a little worried about the term uh but

you know the context everything just all of us coming out of persecution and Constantine there and strong Push by the nice scenes we just we just sort of Gave in but we had some mental reservations about it which again the courts of the church we talk about things like confessional subscription men have exceptions or you have mental reservations about something it's good to be clear about that right in in these discussions some of them uh didn't like the word homus simply because it wasn't found in scripture you won't find the term homus in Scripture all

right word found in scripture and so you have this uh widespread reaction that occurs after the Council of NAA to the creative NAA in the Eastern Church regionally it's really the region of Africa around Alexandria that's the only solidly nen region if you go up Palestine through Israel up to Syria Asia Minor it's all dominated by Origins there are a few nice scenes sprinkled through Predominantly Origins and then some Aryan sprinkled through and so uh they're just you know that one grouping in the East that's firmly behind that and it's Alexandria which has deposed Aras

in the first place they're the ones who deposed him from the ministry for his false teaching well the year 328 Alexander of Alexandria died Athanasius who had been a deacon had attended the Council of NAA as a deacon now ordained as Bishop athanasius lived from 296 to 373 athanasius will become the great champion of uh nyine Orthodoxy in the east one of the great theologians of the early church I've heard this saying athanasius contam mundum athanasius against the World there were times where it seemed like he was Elijah like um the last man standing at

least in the East again in the west you have more nyine Orthodoxy but that's further away and they're speaking Latin um and so uh receive the strong influence of athanasius who was athanasius as I mentioned born in 296 his friend Gregory of nanis from Asia Minor described him in this way apparently he was a small Thin Man piercing eyes and strength of character marked by an Integrity of character don't know much at all about his early life we know he was there at the Council of NAA and at the Council of Nia he made eloquent

Arguments for the Divinity of Christ and it was uh Alexander when Dying as Bishop that he recommends that the alexandrian church call athanasius to serve his successor athanasius writes numerous Works he preaches a series of sermons on the resurrection that are well known writes about the Incarnation the resurrection of Christ uh in athanasia theology if you dig into it we see he uses the language of deification something that becomes part Of the stream of the Eastern Church this language uh what synonymous with sanctification but with a different semantic range it didn't mean that Christ actually

changed the believer's human nature into God's nature but that Humanity those who are saved through Christ come to share in the glory of God Athanasia particularly Drew on second Peter 1:4 language of partaking in the divine nature um but that a has eastern Orthodoxy develops a whole sort of mystical U stream to this that does seems to really blur the lines of soteriological sanctification to glorification view of humanity to really an ontological or Mystical being swallowed up in the Divine so there's some weaknesses along that trajectory uh who was it Robert leam takes a pretty

charitable view of athanasia use of this language and he will argue that his argument is that it's should be understood in athanasius more in terms of sanctification not in terms of some kind of divinization Place man so just put that on your radar in terms of athanasius himself um now athanasius was very clear that uh if uh Salvation means uh Union and communion with God Christ is the savior sinful mankind God the son he must be both God and man in one person only through the Incarnation sinful Man be brought into the communion of the

triun god communion with the triun god athanasius also makes arguments so that's that's one of the The Roots he will take into arguing that Christ is must be fully God and fully man one person another root or argument he makes is that it's clear in the scriptures that uh Believers worship Christ in the New Testament was worshiped and athanasius makes the very Clear line how can he be worshiped unless he is fully God we're worshiping a created being we are idolators only God can be worshiped athesia wrote this no one else but the Savior who

in the beginning made everything out of nothing could bring what had been corrupted into a state free from corruption no one else but the image of the father could recreate human beings In God's image no one else but our Lord Jesus Christ who is life itself and give immortality mortal man no one else but the logos who imparts order to everything and is the one true and only begotten son of the father to teach us about the father and destroy our idolatry and then he goes on to say and this is again this language that

you see in athanasius he became man that we might become Divine he revealed himself in a body that we might see the invisible father he endured men's insults that we might inherit mortality and again that that use of language there becoming Divine deification uh obviously that could be taken in problematic ways then I think as we look at Aus certainly not was intended on his Part but as we go down the road of Eastern Orthodoxy see problematic use of language there well athanasius then is a great defender of the full Divinity of Christ and as

well de defender of the Divinity of the Holy Spirit and he wres numerous Works including one titled the Incarnation of the logos another one called orations or speeches against the Aryans And a series of letters to a man named sarapan s e r a p i o athanasia served as the bishop of Alexandria for 45 years a long Ministry in one place and through those years he is steadfast in a in a right understanding of Christ his person nature defends that articulates that and stands against and rebukes aryanism in all its Forms very strong defender

of the doctrine of Trinity but he also suffers greatly for this and uh we'll be persecuted and harassed particularly as Aryans gained political power parts of the East and we'll see some of the Emperors at times uh moving into aryanism that will mean some real difficulties and challenges apparently athanasius also Had a sense of wit and humor the soldiers of the Pagan Emperor Julian the apostate uh who did not like orthod Ox Christianity and was happy to give aryanism wider Reign uh he wanted the church to divide and really be destroyed uh he was seeking

to have athanasius arrested and there's an account where athanasius flees in a boat he's rowing a boat at Night by himself he's rowing up The Nile try to get away from soldiers that are chasing him other boats uh up the Nile River it was far enough ahead of them that they managed to come around a bend and disappear from their View and uh uh had the wit or sense about him maybe desperation to turn around and head the other direction a little further on go across the river a bit and come back towards the Soldiers

and uh apparently he rode back towards the pursuing soldiers they didn't recognize him because it was dark and they shouted out and asked if he had seen athanasius growing up ahead of them the athanasius shouted out yes you're quite close to him calmly rode on back in the direction of home as the soldiers powered away further up the river Well uh the Aryans were able to build up strength and influence in the East and uh here some new names there's another usias wonderful things for exams early church history we got usus cesaria is an or

origin usus of nicom media is an ARA both live at the same Time Apostle right we have possible people with the same names within our seminary community same first names that happens uh well nvus of nicomedia was a real politic politician he was influential already in Constantine's Court time becomes the bishop of Constantinople by the year 328 saus of nicomedia has managed to networking Through the political powers that existed to get Aras recalled from Exile yeah Aras will end up dying in 336 but he comes back and eavas then uh starts a campaign to have

supporters of the Creed of NAA deposed from their Church offices and exiled and uh Constantine's first Exile occurs because of maybe it's of nicomedia in this context 335 usus of Nic media manages to persuade Constantine to banish athanasius now it's really a dirty move because it's he doesn't do it on the basis of theology per seavus of nicomedia falsely accuses aanus who's Bishop in Alexandria the being behind a dock worker strike a planed dock worker Strike the dock worker strike in Alexandria would cut off wheat Supply Constantinople it's the major port grown in North Africa

at this time this is the Bread Basket of the Roman Empire the doc worker strike would have severe repercussions on food supply Constantinople and usus said that athanasius was uh planning this as a way to twist the arm of the the court the Imperial Court At Constantinople to get rid of the Aryans none of it was true but Constantine believes it there was the Imperial Court believe usus and Nick comedian and so athanasius finds himself being sent into exile for the first time the reason he's really being sent into Exile is because he's a defender

of nyine Orthodoxy Sav media as an Aryan and wants to get rid of nien Leaders this is only the first time athanasius will be banished four more times from his church you know he's 45 years he's the bishop of Alexandria he spends 17 of those 45 years in Exile well 337 Constantine died and Constantine died you have his his son's boy this is another early church history trivia challenge Constantine dies remember anybody remember what Constantine's Father's name was Constantin constantius yeah that's what he named his sons yeah const or something Constance in the west and

named after grandpa constantius in the East so we go from constantius to Constantine to constantius and Constant yes is it true that Constantine became Aryan before he died well I mean he's he's going on board with eavas and nicomedia and exiling athanasius yeah he's influenced by the arens in his latter years to what extent he actually understood all the theology all the way through been questioned yeah you may have as a other issues with Constantine's life that I I I just don't know if he was a Christian just a question mark maybe he was hard

to know for sure the theological questions and moral questions you said eus served for 47 years as a bishop 45 45 and then in that 45 17 years he was 17 years in Exile five times in Exile those 17 years are five different episodes banished he's government authorities out of the City so Constantine dies in 337 the Empire is divided between his two sons constant constants in the west favors the nying so he's ni SE and friendly however constantius in the East is Aran friendly and so while athanasius returns from Exile after Constantine dies comes

back home to his ministry his congregation loves him every time he Comes back they receive him with very great deal of warmth and Thanksgiving happy to have him back back again U but conus con sorry constantius banishes him again in 339 years later and at this point athanasius along with another deposed nyine bishop aanus and marcelus both guys who are deposed from their Ministries through political interference Head West to Rome for safety Rome is in the west which means it's under the rule of constant and he is friendly to the NY party so two brothers

who are Emperors uh how Emperors arianism never had much support in the west to this point most western Bishops were solidly nien in their theology so like for back a little earlier guys like trolian very clearly Trinitarian in their theology we'll see that as we move forward in the West in the Maine uh up to the time of time of Augustine when you start the Aran vandals invading well Pope Julius I first or Bishop Julius of Rome reviews the case of athanasius and marcelus and a local church Council meets together in the year 340 and

declares that they were Wrongfully deposed 340 Council of Rome I see these guys have been wrongfully deposed the Eastern Bishops react to this by calling a council in Antioch next year 41 they reject Rome's right to judge this case say it's not your jurisdiction Church to deal with This and the Council of Antioch drafts up a new Creed and this Creed leaves out the word homo usus and instead of the term homus what we now start seeing increasingly being used in the East is the term homo usus that one letter makes a big difference significant

serious difference hu homo usus means the same Essence homoy Ence usus means similar Essence not the same but similar hus same Essence homo usus similar Essence well who can agree to homoy usus Aran can orist can the only ones who would really be troubled by it would be the SC and sellion would be too actually and so you have this you so now you've got in the west have this Council Of Rome supporting the Nyes in the East Council of Antioch supporting anti nines and it's really turning into a division as well between East East

and West within the one Catholic Church that exists at this point well there's an attempt the two Emperors the two brothers constant and constantius these brother Emperors one who tilts nyine the other one who tilts Aryion side for the sake of the unity of the church the unity of the empire fire that they co- rule over that there should be an acumenical Council to sort this out 343 have the council right sardica sarda would be it's in modern day Bulgaria city of Sofia Bulgaria so the goal have a council is try to reconcile East and

West however it's a dis disaster um Western Bishops insist that athanasius and marcelus need to be allowed to take part Eastern Bishops refuse to let them take part Council ends up breaking up in two separate Council meetings in the same city both of which uh declare very strong uh disapproval of each other Abol They like an mathematizing each other and this split deepens all the more and so things are really getting to a low bad point here now things do improve a little bit in the following years and uh what happens is in the west

uh West which is nice scene remember we had the guys they're protecting they're protecting athanasius And this other guy marcelis well marcelis nice scene turns out to be sellion starts teaching sabellianism openly and what helps the west or the some of the uh the the bringing back of these two sides is that as Bishops in the west become aware that marcelus is teaching sabellianism now they act against him and so that willingness to deal with an issue beond Themselves remember the origins have always been looking at the Nyes saying hey you're our step on the

way to sabellianism well now the Nyes are actually disciplining clear example of spell that gives some sense of oh look maybe they're not so bad as we thought they're actually willing willing to deal with something that we thought they would never deal with that was an error on their Part or a direction of error that we thought they were going and so that's helpful and the East now agrees to take back athanasius who now returns to Alexandria in the year 346 too much happiness in his congregation and uh he has one of the longest uninterrupted

stretches maybe the longest can't remember exactly but it's 10 Years uninterrupted Ministry that he now enters into however by the year 350 things begin to get worse again what happens in the west they had the good Emperor Constance murder by one of his generals so in the year 353 constantius angry over the murder of his brother invades the West defeats the general who killed his brother and executes him and becomes the sole ruler of the entire Roman Empire problem is he's Aryan now you've got an Aryan Emperor reigning over the whole Roman Empire a new

period of Aryan persecution of Nyes begin constantius who had been emperor in the East he was a very proud man he was Cruel apparently had very high views of himself in terms of his leadership and his theological abilities uh the reality though seems to be that uh was easily manipulated there was often people around him that were just vying for control pulling him this way that way a pagan historian from this time named marcelinas made a mocking comment about him that this is the Emperor whose great Influence was with his chief Butler but theologically constantius

was really driven by a circle of Aryan [Music] Bishops strongly influenced him to put Fierce pressure on western church leaders now to accept aryanism and where Western nyine Bishops appealed to him and said no this is not sound an orthodox but we cannot do this constantius retort Was arianism must certainly be true because I believe it and if it wasn't true God would not have delivered the world into my hands and so constantius now begins to act to Exile any Bishops or presbyter who refuse to submit who refuse to agree to work together with Aryan

Bishops one of his most famous Exiles from the West there a man named Hillary not sure exactly how to say that um actually there's another i e o i c i e r sers um Hillary lived from the year 35 to 368 and Hillary is probably of this generation one of the maybe the greatest trinitarian Theologian in the West it's easy to Remember by the title of one of his great writings which is on The Trinity he is a steadfast Defender the full deity of the Lord Jesus Christ he's referred to as the athanasius of

the West he's also a great hym writer I can't remember which ones but I believe there are at least one him in the Trinity Salter himn which was written by Hillary in there um and this is sort of the era of the Battle of the songs the Aryans were composing Aryan hymns for use in worship and uh singing is a is quite a singing words is a way of inculcating things into our hearts and Minds uh it's true it's reality as we memorize things as we sing them settles into our minds and so Hillary and

others who are nien start writing Orthodox trinitarian hymns to teach their People sound trinitarian Doctrine sound christology in response to the Aryan well Hillary is put sent into Exile in Asia Minor uh he was a bishop in Western France in the city of poers or poer um he doesn't return until 361 so he's an exile for five years the year he is sent into exil is a year where everything is seeming to fall apart for The Nyes uh the bishop of Rome is also exiled into Gree GRE stanus goes beyond that same year he's exiling

all of these other guys he imprisons hosius of Cordova where hosius of Cordova we mentioned him he was the counselor constantius his father Constantine way back at the beginning of all this at the Council of Nia Jus of Cordova is now a hundred years old he's an old man rail uh Faithfully stood faithful trinitarian Orthodoxy through all these years of his life sometimes as a minor lonely voice in the context where he was constantius tries to press him to give in he does doesn't he's thrown into prison and he's Tortured and under severe torture hosius

gives in signs an Aryan statement of faith this is in the midst of him being just brutalized suffering incredibly but hosius then repent of this and uh renounces this confessing aresh his faith Christ God the son holy Divine and he dies really because of the effects of what he suffered the year 357 finally constantius comes after athanasius again the Aran Emperor sends troops to Alexandria to arrest him but athanasius manages to escape and goes into hiding for six years in the Egyptian desert where he's sheltered by desert monks it was during this time that Athanasius

develops a a high regard for the desert monks and through these events this is the beginnings of monasticism as well which is going to have a huge impact Med evil church because there will be particularly a biography of Anthony one of the desert monks that becomes very popular Next Generation so he hides in the desert and at the same time the the Imperial IAL troops they persecute not only bishops and presor but also ordinary Christians who are trinitarian um and it's really it's really terrible um one example Imperial troops seiz a group of women who

have gathered for prayer Cemetery uh the arens have SE seized all the church buildings in Alexandria Orthodox trinitarians are wor Shing outside uh this group of women had Gathered for some kind of prayer meeting in a cemetery uh soldiers are aware of this they're arrested they Kindle a huge fire and uh try to force these women to convert aryanism or they'll throw them into the fire the women refuse to do so and the soldiers uh strip them naked and just beat them and beat them some of them died others survive the methods of the Aryans

were Were very brutal under constantius by the year 360 constantius has terrorized much of the church in east and west into accepting aryanism a full-blown arianism now has two new eloquent spokesmen amen uh Aus is one and the other is Unius both these men are ordained as Bishops and they are boldly teaching that the son is unlike the father now what's interesting is as Things become more and more anti- nyine the arens have now basically pressed NY scenes out of church office all over the place and so who do you have left in church office

they got arens and you've got Origins the Arians having sort of done a Lot of what they wanted to do with the NY scenes now go out after the [Music] origins because Origins also aren't actually Aryan they may hold to a subordinationism andhr so but they do believe that the son is eternal and uncreated like the father and now the Aryans go after these men and they start to find themselves depos osed and exiled and Imprisoned famous origin victims of Aran persecution includes sirel of Jerusalem another Bishop named basil of ankyra a n c r

c y r a constantius Exiles both of these men in the year 360 and so the church historical events continuing on down the year 360 arianism has become dominant through political pressure on The church still lots of nice scenes but they're suffering as are the origins now and uh what happens through these things is that for one thing some of these origin Bishops now start looking at the whole the whole landscape and start moving to a NYSE position the midst of all of us well constantius dies in the year 361 the new emperor is Julian

the Apostate Julian who had mentioned earlier he does harass athanasius athanasius has to flee Julian's troops Julian's a neoplatonist on initially becoming Emperor Julian who hates Christianity wants to see the church diminish he wants to see paganism revived see neoplatonism revived worship the pantheon of gods and goddesses Pagan temples all of that uh he doesn't believe that the old Methods of bloody persecution are particularly effective doing this so he looks at all of this divide and debate in the church and he thinks ah I know it will destroy the church the Aryans have sort of

made it all Aryan right now but how would I just let all these groups go back to their ministerial positions and just fight and destroy each other and so Julian out of enmity Towards the church thinking that it will destroy the church allows all exiled Bishops to return to their ministerial charges across the empire a great example of the fact that the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord ultimately this means many Faithful Men are able to come back to their congregations and uh really the opposite of what he hoped for Happens and

many of the Nyes as well through these persecutions and seeing the origin is persecuted as well become convinced that they and the origins are actually fighting the same essential battle they need to sort things out still there needs to be more theological Clarity there are concerns they have of each other but it's very clear about the arens 362 a local Council athanasius makes the suggestion that the the Nyes and Origins should work together this is what he says he says we need to work together and reach doctrinal agreements so that we can together defeat the

true Heretics who teach that the son is a created be athanasius when want to say this those who accept the nyine Creed but have doubts about the word homo usus must not be treated as enemies we will discuss the matter with them as brothers with Brothers they mean the same as we mean our argument is about the use of a word I think it might have been a little bit more than the use of a word however uh there's truth in the fact that they're probably they are closer to each other than either of them

are to the Arens while this moved towards peace and unity in the Church of course not what Julian the apostate expected or wanted that's actually why he sent his soldiers to go after acius athanasius had his boat on the Nile experience Julian however doesn't live long this is the year 362 and 36 3 fighting the Persians the Lord used the Persians on a number of occasions to get rid of bad Emperors providentially here fighting the Persians Julian is killed now it doesn't initially make things better in one way what happens 364 a man named valentinian

becomes emperor and again with this going back to deian East and West he places the East under the authority of his brother bance we got valentinian and balance West valentinian East Balance this is in the year 364 Valance is an Aryan bance starts persecuting both NY scenes and Origins where Ethan Asus he just gotten back home again Julian has died and what happens that he is exiled once again a valan person persecuting Fury against both n scenes and origin now binds NY scenes and origin together all the more they often find themselves in Prison C

together while they're suffering together I remember they're still part of the same body of the church separate denominations both these groups are within one Catholic Church Valance starts to feel that his policy of persecution isn't working very well so he decides to give up on it and he allows athanasius among others to go back to their charges so athanasius comes back Again the fifth time he's coming back home to his congregation the year 366 the last six years of his life and of his ministry are carried out in peace 366 he dies in 373 through

all of these trials and persecutions athanasius does not back down on Orthodox Nene Christianity he speaks steadily for it he writes he encourages suffering Believers he's not the only one they men Like Hillary of pruters old josus of Cordova struggled under horrible torture and recanted um you look at an example like that it's like there but for the grace of God go I you know I don't know if I was under horrible physical suffering I pray I would be be able to stand and be steadfast but so encouraging that when the intense pain was gone

and he he repented of his recanting look to Christ um the Lord had preserved his people through many trials and some have said that it's particularly athanasius's leadership in the East is steadfast the positive defense of the doctrine of Christ and is speaking against the error perhaps did more than anything else to bring about the defeat of aryanism within the Catholic Church arianism will continue on Afterwards it will be it'll be forced out of the church and what we'll see will soon happen well athanasius of course is elderly by the time peace finally comes there

is a new generation that the Lord has raised up with younger men it's also encouraging thing in life of the church like what happens in seminaries ministers pastors professors get older they age they die but the Lord in his mercies throughout the history's Church keeps raising up more more people and this is what happens and so uh we'll take a break for a couple minutes right after I get these three names New Generation includes these three men who become known as the capid Doan fathers one basil and two gregories again to keep church history confusing

multiple people with the same first Names Basel of cesaria Gregory Nisa and Gregory of nanis Basil was born in the year 330 died 379 Gregory was born in 335 died in 394 Gregory of n sorry 39 335 to 394 Gregory of nanis born in 330 died in 390 all them from the same region in Asia Minor caposa and uh these men will be very influential in the next chapter which is the Council of C uh Constantinople that after our break Brothers uh yes two of them are brothers one of them is a friend so it's

uh basil of let me check the dates again here basil and Gregory are brothers uh the one who born in 335 is The brother of basil yes was the guys are not twins nice really helpful updated it now yeah or depending on what you're like it can make a for you Trail watch iter that usually I would just type on here and like I go have like the word document source that makes sense Dogs 70 you watching athus in the water to watch I'd watch that movie near the very end he's just flying by the

soldiers exam this guy has some good [Music] point not are all right brothers everybody got the names of these three guys down sir all Right we're gonna pick up we're gonna do a quick run here of about 29 minutes exactly because I need to be outdoor at four o'clock so we're gonna end right on time so let's uh just pick up and begin again I want to quickly outline stepping back and we named a few of these already but dive into now some of the wording issues is important for historical theology that take place in

this era We've covered various councils where they're you know defending athanasius uh opposing athanasius what happens in terms of language that's used regarding Chris of Christ doctrine of the Trinity so let's step back here to Antioch 341 council at meets in Antioch at 391 this is the council that reacts to the western church said that athanasius and Marcelis ought to be restored to office the Eastern Church here at Antioch in 341 rejects that and what are some of the issues at play here well the western church use what language or do you mean what spoken

[Laughter] language of Latin the East the use of Greek uh and in the west challan and Other theologians you know why is the West more nyine part of it had to do was just their their terminology the language they used and the like the way they used it in the west following on trellian and others they had used the word substantia to refer to the substance the nature of the godhead GRE in the west Greek in the East what term Have been used luia have been used in the east in Greek U there's also another

word that have been used in the East sorry what's that some a question hypostasis hypostasis yes me East up to this point in discussions the terms us and hypostasis had been used interchangeably the closest actually eological equivalent of the Latin substantia was actually the Greek Hypostasis by this point in the debate Antioch 341 people in the East are talking about things the homo usans right which are Origins and Aryans they're starting to use the word hypostasis for the persons of the godhead so the impression on the part of the Greeks was that when the Latins

use the word substantia they mean one Individual because of the close langage it's a Greek and Latin World a lot of people speak Greek know some Latin a lot of people who speak Latin is so Greek and people know that these is kind of interchangeable in the East they're starting to use this to refer to persons here they're using it to refer to be that's their intentional use however when they see substantia from the East looking there what do they Conclude modalism one person is what you're really getting at and having marcelis we initially received

in the west didn't help things there marcelus was a modalist to the Latins however the great concern is that the Greeks who have been using hypostasis in their conversations actually more to refer to persons Uh but from the Latin view this actually refers to being it sounded like those in the East were saying there are three substances in the godhead and of course what are the errors out here that they're both worried about aryanism in that direction ISM in that direction and so you have this issue this problem that results we talked about the other

Councils in between some of them we mentioned the Council of sarda 343 where they anathematize each other everything falls apart they declare anathemas against each other um that doesn't solve anything constantius became the Emperor as we remembered just from what we talked about he is very anti- aasian he's Aryan he pushes it things the aryanism becomes much Worse in the East and the arens themselves actually I mean they're already heretical but they become even more heretical possible and there's a radical group of arens known as the ano Ians they say that the father and the

son are enemies nomies that means they are unlike one another Persecution starts to ramp up in the East this is starting to make some of the origins as they're starting to feel persecution because the aring starting to look a little more warmly at they're nice seeing friends or opponents U there's some coming closer together at least emotionally if not theologically through these issues 357 this is Antioch 341 the sarda 343 which went nowhere the next Council after this was the Council of serium in 357 Sor and 35 7 there's still lots of persecution of NY

scenes this was they Senate included some Western Bishops but it seems like all the people who attended this sener made it made it out to this Senate were sort of politician type Theologians like just we just need peace and so what they decided at this Senate council serium in 357 was that the problem is the terms homus and homo usus and so the solution is don't let anybody use those words they said we're going to forbid the use of the word homus same substance as the father myus like the substance of the father you can't

use either of those They also decide to Outlaw all previous Creeds and at seran we decide we're going to make a new term Gan which just means like this will solve the problem the son is like the father they thought you know you're nice scene sure he's like the father he's the same as a father U or you could be originis oh He's like the father he's very similar to the father or you could be an Arian like the father or an nobian he's could cause a whole range of views so this is the the

Council of surum 357 is basically the liberal solution just make it all really vague say let's bring everybody back together get rid of all our credle language from the past just embrace it all stop fighting let's all get along together bury all of this of course Doesn't work committed nice scenes spoke of this Council and its declarations as the blasphemy of serium and so you have all these church councils and it's you imagine if you're committed ni scene it's a pretty depressing uh number of decades to minister through if this is your denomination Catholic church

and boy you've got these persecutions and you've got Flatout Heresy in many pulpits and you're trying to deal with it through church councils you get this and this and this and there are some Faithful Men In the Mix steadfast through great hardship uh but it doesn't look very encouraging until finally in the Lord's Providence in the year 381 well there are a number of things that happened leading up to this and there's a new emperor Theodosius the Great theodosius the great Reign from 379 to 395 as a young man he was educated by a nyine

teacher was committed to nyine Christianity theodosius the great had Gregory of nanson called to become the bishop of Constantinople theodosius the great uh banished Aryans from the city of Constantinople and made an imperial decree that nyine Believers were the only ones legally allowed to use the name Catholic which gave them as well the possession of Catholic Church buildings many of which have been taken over by Aryans and theodosius the great also called for a church Council called all Bishops many has could come from throughout the Empire to come to Constantinople in the year 381 well

in the intervening years they mentioned the nenes and the origins some of them come closer together together conversations about the Eternal generation of the sun understanding how do they understand uh the essence of the godhead the being of the godhead nature of the godhead and the unity that begins to develop through correspondence through theological writing is really moved Along by the efforts of men like athanasius though he's elderly by this point Hillary of poters then these three younger men whose names we mentioned basil of cesaria Gregory of Nisa two brothers Gregory of nonan is sometimes

referred to as Gregory of nanen and what they propose is how the terms ought to be used they argue that the best way to Deal with these issues is that the ter ology of hypostasis should be used to refer to the reality of the persons the three persons and the term homoa went back to the original Creed of Mya should be understood as referring to the uh substance nature essence of the godhead the hypostasis thess and homia to the Oneness of the trinity men who were Origins who had been holding on to homoy usia a

number of them once basil and the gregories and athanasius in his latter years these these things you know there's these discussions writings on this they become much more comfortable with this these two terms are used in this way paired together you're not a modalist and from the other side if These used terms are used together paired together with this definition you also can't be an ARA and so to state that God is three hypostasis in one usia other words in English God is three persons existing eternally in one single being or nature is what the

Nyes and the origins now come together around many of the origins but not all many of the origins now give up saying that the son is inferior to the father In his divine nature and they give that up partly because providentially they've started to see what aryanism you know where that could go uh their own weakness and error and the Nyes also realized that they needed a more careful delineation to guard against modalism and so the middle of these groups they come Together and uh what happens now is there is actually after all of these

def Decades of difficulty uh you know you thought the problem was solved in 325 60 years later almost uh you're still dealing with these issues but the reality is through all the hard things there's actually more true unity and far better theological definition now than there was in 325 Bishop's gather Together think it's almost entirely bishops from the East just providentially the way it works out and they produce a Creed which is a reworking of the nyine Creed we refer to it as as what we call the nyine Creed commonly it's really the Nyo constantinopolitan

Creed and you can find Philip sha U if you Have the volume the Creeds of Christendom do any of you have that three volume set by Philip sha hard cover is a great set you ever want to buy a set that has a lot of the all the historical Creeds in it shaft's volume has it from the early church right up to the present three volumes it's in the library but uh what he does is he he parallels a number of these things and still parallel even the Apostles Creed compared with the nyine Creed as

it's Enlarged in 381 NY of constantinopolitan creed and he puts the nyine Creed of 325 as well side by side with 381 so what are some of the differences Excuse me yes I'm sorry he did that uh Philips sh is the history of Christian Church is that yes he has the he's the one who's the author of the six volume history of the Christian Church okay and what was the one that you're mentioning now he's also the editor of the Creeds Of Christendom three volume set separate set probably get it on logos I'm sure it's

in logos as well you get it probably online for free internet archive or something that Google Books I'm sure you can find it it's from from the 1800s you can find for free different places online and so the Nyo constantinopolitan Creed we believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of heaven and Earth and Of all things visible and invisible and in one Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God begotten of the father before all worlds 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 from heaven was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made man was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate suffered and was buried and the third Day he rose again according to the scriptures and ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of the father there he shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead whose kingdom shall have no end and we believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord and Giver of Life

who proceeds from the father together with the father and the son is worshiped and glorified who spoke by the prophets one Holy Catholic and a Apostolic church we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come amen so that's the the form that we have for in the Trinity Suter Himel would be 381 U form language that we have Dr Vander yes um it's interesting to me if I'm wrong please let me know but it does seem like even all of

these uh Disagreements and errors and even the heretical it I never read anything that they were questioning what the scriptures said it seem does seem like they were looking at what they knew of as the scriptures uh for their for their what they believed well and so we've sort of skimmed over this but the debate does get exotical and say forance if you read the Basil and the gregories or athanasius I mean they are dealing with texts of scripture the testimony of scripture we haven't gotten into all that in this class because we're just skimming

the surface with the terminological debates but behind this is also exegetical uh discussion and at times exegetical Battle back and forth and so for if you read the letters of athanasius uh against aryanism you will See that he gets into exegetical arguments for this so so it's not just you know battling over logical use of terms and definitions the the history itself is what does the scripture teach does that help Rick yes sir thank you all right well next class we're at 356 here so uh next class we will get into a little bit of

the life of basil and the Two gregories so we'll pick up there together um and then one of the things we will will need to look at yet is uh timing because we missed a session together so I will try to come next week with a proposal on how we could deal with the missing three hours way that's so again I don't think I don't think adding an hour making it four hour class is for three weeks is I Think it's probably better if we uh we either have an additional session or I can try

to look through uh from the last time I taught it if there are recordings which might be the easiest way to go I don't know it's nicer to do it in person which we could possibly do during the reading week or somewhere in one of the latter weeks that are to come yet have an extra three hour slot somewhere that works for everybody extra day of Coming in the other alternative would be if I can find recordings then you do it on your own time scattered through your days where it fits but what would be

your vote if you're preference looking ahead to the coming month yeah that's why I lean too in person better all right I will come with somay proposal what days do you all have the least classes I know there are not many people around on Fridays think there's no classes on Friday there no classes on Fridays at all the semester yeah does does Friday work for most of you and I know for some of you maybe if you're a distance you know maybe a Friday won't work if there's you know if there are a couple exceptions

those can watch it by recording if we can get like 90% of us all right well let's let's plan for I will I will take a look at the Fridays looking ahead and we'll plan for a Friday morning block how does that sound till noon we'll have church we'll have Thursday afternoon and we'll just see each other again the next morning Nathan could I ask you close it father we do thank you for this time that we were able to reflect upon uh your church history Lord we do ask as we are uh are presented

with all of the various uh um heresies that we were talking about that you would guide us by Your word that we would be men who uh have our Ministries defined by Your Word we do pray now father we do pray for all of us as we uh uh reflect upon our studies as we are preparing preping for our papers and we do ask that ultimately it would be an act of worship as we are learning more about what Christ has done for us it's in his name we pray amen amen thankful of my voice

held out this afternoon that was worri I thought I Might not make it like h no try to figure out another three-hour SL every Friday from now on something something cheap for