Presbyter Arius pondered through his platonic philosophical sieve: ‘If He is begotten,’ he mused; ‘then He has a beginning. And if He has a beginning, surely He is not truly God.’
Arius was an eloquent, persuasive, and able leader who lived between AD 250-336. As a Priest in the famous first-century African city of Alexandria, he served under the venerable Bishop Alexander.
Arius, like many early Christians, had grown to conceive God in thought systems championed by Plato, Socrates and the 3rd century Egyptian named Plotinus. This thinking saw God as transcendent and immaterial, unbegotten and unchanging.
In sharp contrast to God is this finite, material changing and changeable world. The distinction between Creator and creation seemed to be an unabridged chasm.
To bridge this gap, the Greek-speaking Christians, conceived of the Logos as the means through which the transcendent God relates with the finite world.
But how to conceive the nature of this Logos created one of the major controversies in Christian history that led to the formulation of one of the most foundational Creeds for orthodoxy.
Arius conceived of the Logos as essentially an exalted creature rather than divine. Arianism argued that the language of ‘begotten’ or ‘sonship’ refers to a time when Christ, the Logos, was not. For Arius, what is begotten comes to be, and what begins to exist could not have been from the beginning.
Thus, if Arius were asked to draw a line between Creator and creature, he would place Christ among creation. If Christ is the firstborn of creation, he argued, then He must have been the first to be created.
As you follow closely, I hope you notice that the theological heritage of Charles Tez Russel and the Jehovah’s Witnesses comes from this third-century thought line called Arianism.
Watchtower theology is a modern reincarnation of Arianism. We must be aware of the consequence of ideas. We should also be provoked to study Church History since, as we see, there is no new heresy under the sun. What is once was, and what was will also be.
The Early Church Response to Arianism
Arius’ views sent shocking waves through North Africa, causing a Council of about 100 North African Bishops from Egypt and Libya to convene.
The first response, as expected, was from Arius’ Bishop Alexander. Himself a great communicator and theologically grounded, Bishop Alexander insisted that the testimony of scripture explicitly stated that everything made was made through the Logos (Epistle Catholic, cf. John 1:1).
For whoever heard such things? Or who, now hearing them, is not astonished, and does not stop his ears that the pollution of these words should not touch them? Who that hears John saying, “In the beginning was the Word,” does not condemn those who say there was a time when He was not? Who that hears these words of the Gospel, “the only-begotten Son;” and, “by Him were all things made,” will not hate those who declare He is one of the things made? For how can He be one of the things made by Him? Or how shall He be the only-begotten who, as they say, is reckoned with all the rest, if indeed He is a thing made and created?
The convened Council condemned Arianism. But undesired ideas have a habit of overstaying their welcome. Every heresy is unique in its death, and this one was not about to die quietly.
Soon, the first Catholic (universal) Council was convened by Emperor Constantine. The Council of Nicaea gathered over 300 Bishops in AD 325, the product of which was the Nicene Creed. In this Creed, orthodoxy was maintained, and heresy condemned.
John 1:1
Many non-Christians often say to me that the doctrine of Christ’s divinity was created by the Council of Nicaea. I always remind them to read their Bibles. Notably, John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
In a masterstroke of great penmanship, the Apostle John remarkably killed two heresies with one verse. The first, as we will see, is Arianism, or, the Watchtower heresy. The other is Sabellianism.
In this text, with outstanding word order, smart play with the Greek definite article, the Apostle John says three crucial things about the Logos, the Word, or Christ:
The first point is that the Logos was in the beginning. Although John has Genesis 1:1 in mind when crafting this text, he insists that Christ preceded Genesis 1:1. He is saying, ‘before everything came to be, Jesus existed.’
Indeed, Alexander would wonder how anyone could claim that there ever was a time when He was not, knowing that through Him all things, including time, were made! How could there be a time when He was not, seeing that He had to exist also to create that time that supposedly was when He was not?
The second point John is making about Christ is that Jesus always existed in relationship with God the Father. ‘The Word was with God.’ There was no time the Word did not live with God. This is a clear refutation of Sabellianism, which holds that the Father is not distinct in personhood from the Son. John insists that Jesus and the Father have always been distinct Persons.
Thus, His begottenness or sonship excludes any time factor. He simply is. He also has always been the Son of God before time begun and beyond time’s limits.
The third thing John wants us to know is that the Word was always God (or divine). This refutes Arianism and Watchtower theology which teach that Jesus is not indeed God.
Thus, concerning age, He is eternal. As to relation, the Son of God. As to nature, He is divine.
John’s teaching has consistently been the vital confession of the Church through the ages.
Why It All Matters
The early church considered it crucial to contend for the divinity of Christ because our salvation hangs on this. If Christ is not God, then we cannot be saved. We are not reconciled to God.
Salvation is life in the Trinity. And we have this life in Christ because He is true God and true Man. In Him, humanity and divinity are united without confusion or separation.
As Man, He was judged on our behalf when He died on the cross. And we rose in Him, vindicated when He rose from the dead. But how could He die once for all sins of all the Elect unless His value transcends that of all the sinful mortals combined?
If One offends and insults infinite Majesty, it is required by divine justice that the offender pays an infinite price, since the penalty must match the offense for justice to be served.
Now, if the offender is finite, he needs eternity to pay an infinite price. If the offenders are many, then they all need eternity for each to pay the price.
But if multitudes offend and insult His Holiness multiple times, the cost for their rebellion is eternal separation without restoration, and yet even then they could not have begun to satisfy Justice.
How then, could one sacrifice, of one Man, fully satisfy divine justice for all men, who ever lived, forever, unless this One is more than a Man? Either finite men suffer infinitely for their sins, or the Infinite One dies once for all sinners, and all offenses.
But seeing that no man can pay an infinite cost and live, God, becoming Man, paid the price for us, so that He who is indestructible by death died once in His humanity, to purchase redemption for us who are by nature unable to meet the cost of our rebellion against God.
Thus, to deny the deity of Christ is to remove all hope of salvation. That is why the early Church Fathers fought hard against the Arian heresy.
This is also why we need to refute the Watchtower theology. But in our repudiation, we must yet witness to the Witnesses about the infinite worth of the sacrifice of Christ, who alone can save all men from sin by the perfect unity of humanity and divinity in Him, which they fervently fight to deny daily.
For, He whose body was broken for us is true Man and true God.