All right, we're going to begin with reading from Psalm 2. Psalm 2. You see our topic for church history, ancient church history today is Athanasius and Arius. I want to give you a little introduction to them and then next week we'll talk about the Council of Nicaea where these two have their showdown that is known well in church history. So Psalm 2. beginning at verse 7. I'll just read 7, 8, and 9. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Let's pray. Father, as we continue to look at this timeframe within the history of the church, we do pray that you would help us to learn these lessons that church history has to teach us and that even through these, we would come to love you and your church more and more. And we pray in Jesus name. Amen. So we are back in Alexandria today in Egypt. We've spent some time talking about Alexandria in this class already. And really, one of the most important ancient church theological debates and problems breaks out within the city of Alexandria between a man named Athanasius and another man named Arius. So we'll meet both of them today. And then tomorrow or next week, we'll talk more about what their contributions are within the history of the church. So we're going to begin with Arius. Arius is described as a learned and cultural man. He was from Libya, a Roman province that's just west of Egypt. And he was noted to be serious and austere and he was eloquent in speech. So Arius is one that was able to gather a crowd. He was popular among young people and he was popular as a scholar but also able to relate to those that were not scholars and was able to capture their hearts as well. One historian said, in sermons that were popular among the people of Alexandria, Arius taught them that God was wholly singular, unlike any other being beyond human comprehension and thought he was unique. So rigorously did Arius stress the utter transcendence of God that he seemed to be suggesting that Christ, the Son of God, was less than God the Father, subordinate, and hence not fully divine. Christ, for example, had a beginning. He was not eternal like the Father. In the words of Arius, there was a time when He was not. And if Christ came into existence at a certain time, It was reasonable to call him a creature, a being like other beings that had been made, such as angels." So we hear that, and hopefully every one of you has red flags going off in your minds. Arius is teaching that Christ is a created being, that there was a time when he was not, and that the Father is the one who is divine. He created the sun as the first among the creation and then uses the Lord Jesus to be the one who would create the rest of the world. And there's a nuance in there that shows that Arius is teaching things that are not biblically true, things that at this time in the 300s the church was struggling through, struggling to figure out what the relationship between the persons of the Trinity was and where Jesus Christ stood within that. So Arius was a pastor of the influential Bacchalus Church in Alexandria. It was said to have been founded by Mark. and claimed to have the remains of Mark within the church. So there's a story that in medieval period, there were Venetian marauders that came over and raided Alexandria. And Alexandria was already under Muslim influence at this time. And they took the body of Mark, but they were not able to get his head. So the body of Mark is in Venice. and the head of Mark is still in Alexandria. So, whether it's Mark or not, I don't know, but there's a head in Alexandria and there's a body in Venice that are claimed to be belong to Mark. So, this church where Arius was a pastor in Alexandria, large congregation in the 600s, the church where Arius was pastor was destroyed by Muslim invaders. And then it was rebuilt as a mosque. And then it became a Coptic Christian church. And then in 2017, the building was destroyed by ISIS. So a very long history of a building that ended up being destroyed just a few years ago. So for several years, Arias was able to teach in Alexandria. And without drawing attention to himself, But eventually there would be a council of local pastors and elders that was called in the year 318, and they would condemn Arius for heresy. So the local, we would call it a presbytery. The local presbytery found him guilty of preaching things that were contrary to Christian teaching. So this is 318. This is going to blow up beyond a local problem, as often church problems do. It's going to spread, and it's going to consume much of the Christian world. So one by one, pastors and theologians and church members began to take sides, some of them defending Arius, saying there's no reason that he should have been condemned for the things that he said. And interestingly enough, as most heresies in church history that we'll see throughout all of the church history, there's a statement made that is interesting. People would say about Arius, as they've said throughout history when heresy pops up, that those teaching contrary are seeking to be biblical, not theological. Okay? So they're saying Arius is using words of the scriptures so he should be allowed to teach what he's teaching, even though we find out that it's something that is not theologically true, therefore it's not biblically true. Now, one of the ways that Arius was promoting his error is interesting because it becomes the way that hymns start coming into the church. Arius had views that were popular because he had an eloquent preaching style and he was someone who had a flair for public relations, as one said. And in the opening stages of this conflict, where Arius is trying to defend his views, He begins to set his statements to music. And those hymns, or those early hymns, were set to simple tunes, which historians say that you could hear in Alexandria the dock workers singing the hymns, you could hear street hawkers singing the hymns, and even the school children of the city singing these hymns that were promoting the idea of of Arius. He has a hymn book called the Thalia and one said, Arius after his succession from the church composed several songs to be sung by sailors and millers and travelers along the high roads and others of the same kind which he adapted to certain tunes as he thought suitable for each separate case and thus by degrees seduced the minds of the unlearned by the attractiveness of his songs to the adoption of his own impiety." So a very important church history lesson. The church will only believe that which it sings. As far as our songs go, it is as far as we will believe. And we see that Arius understood this. He understood the value of taking music and putting it to the heart. Because things that are into the heart are things that we believe deeply. And he used songs to promote this idea that Christ is subordinate to the Father, that Christ is a created being, that there was a time when Christ was not. And it is something that enraptured the church. And we're going to transition to Athanasius as well. So Athanasius is one of the giants of Christianity because in part of his defense of the doctrine of the Trinity during what will be called the Arian Controversy. Like I said, we'll talk about Nicaea next week, but I just want you to get a flavor of who these men are and their personalities before we just talk about them sitting in a church council. So Arius was said to be a small, thin man. with a beautiful face, piercing eyes, and had a mysterious aura of power which affected even his enemies. Little is known of his early life, and all we can be sure of is that he was bishop. Before he was bishop, he was also a deacon and a secretary. So he was a secretary to the bishop, a deacon in the church, and then after this other bishop, Alexander, dies, which we'll look at, Athanasius moves from deacon to bishop and becomes the bishop in the church. But those that loved him said he was beautiful and had this mysterious aura. But those who did not love him, those that were his enemies, had a nickname for him. and the nickname was the Black Dwarf. So, probably not a nickname you would want to give to a dark-skinned man today, but he was called the Black Dwarf. It says he was short, dark-skinned Egyptian, and he had plenty of enemies in his life. We know very little about his education or about his family. So, the earliest evidence that we have of him, is his service under Alexander, the Bishop of Alexandria. So that's really where we first learn about him is when he's serving as his personal secretary and then a bishop. So changing political fortunes happen throughout the empire and what happens is After Nicaea, like I said, you have to hold on to Nicaea. But after Nicaea, there are shifts in the political and cultural milieu of the Roman Empire. And Athanasius, who is a champion at Nicaea, ends up being exiled. So as the emperors change, Constantine and then Constantine's son becomes emperor. Constantine, towards the end of his life, has a little bit of interest in the Arian side of things. And then his son is in favorable of Arianism. And these things result in Athanasius being exiled from Alexandria, where he's not allowed to preach and teach. And we're told that he is exiled five times in his ministry. We know that he spends time in Trier. He spends time in Rome. He lives among the monks in the Egyptian desert. And think back to a monk that we met in the Egyptian desert. You remember that story of Antony. And then eventually in concealment in Egypt. So all of this is because of this Trinitarian controversy. that happens between Arius and Athanasius and then the whole world taking sides within that controversy. So, after the Council of Nicaea, there are several other controversies that arise as well. So, Alexander dies. I mentioned that he was Bishop of Alexandria. Athanasius is a deacon under Alexander. He's the secretary. for Alexander and he dies and Athanasius is elected as bishop on May 9, 328. I love when we have these precise dates in church history rather than circa and then you have five or 10 years. Here we have a precise date, May 9, 328. And his election as bishop was immediately controversial, mostly because he was young. So there was what was called the canonical age where if you weren't old enough, you were not put in this office and Athanasius is young and yet he's put in the office. Now he's also the target of opponents of Nicene theology and they work to eliminate the conclusion that the father of that relationship between the father and the son. And then Athanasius also has this conflict with Constantine's son who is ruling the eastern half of the empire. So Athanasius, it feels like the world is against him. And as the world is against him both in the church and in the state and those that are dock workers and school children and those that are in the mills, as all of them seemingly are against Athanasius, he is frequently portrayed as a divisive and angry bishop who spends his time sowing division. Now I want you to think about that. He's being accused of sowing division because he's a promoter of truth. He's not accused of sowing division because he's doing anything wrong. He's standing for that which is right. And the world's looking on, church, and the state, and the school children, and the miners, and millers, and the dock workers, and they're looking at their pastor in Alexandria, the primary pastor in Alexandria, and they're saying, he is an angry, divisive man. He just won't submit to what we all know. And yet, Athanasius stood for truth. Now, in those five exiles, over the course of his ministry, Those exiles are not things where he's consenting to that. It's not something where, you know, the pressure comes on and he says, I need to back off. It's you are going into exile. You are going here. You are leaving Alexandria. And I want to tell just a couple of those stories of exile or a couple notes from them. But first off, Alexander dies and Athanasius is elected. I noted that. He's the target of those opponents of Nicene theology and he comes up against Constantine's son. He's, I mentioned, portrayed as divisive and angry and sowing division. And then he goes into exile. So this is the first photo that I want to show you. the Atarin Mosque that's in Alexandria. I don't remember, has anyone here been to Alexandria? I know we have Egypt, so you've been to Alexandria. This is the primary mosque in Alexandria, and this is originally a church that was Saint Athanasius Church. So it's a church built where Athanasius is the pastor, and then in the 600s, when Egypt goes from being a Christian nation to a Muslim nation, the churches are converted to mosques. And so you can go and you can visit this mosque today, and you can know that when you're walking through this mosque, that at one time, Athanasius preached the gospel there and preached Jesus Christ truly. The next, on February 8, 356, soldiers break into this church, this church that I showed you. And Athanasius prepared the worshipers, was preparing the worshipers for communion the next morning. And while the soldiers came in, Athanasius doesn't flee. He takes a seat as the pastor in the church. And he tells the deacons to lead the congregation in the singing of Psalm 136. So Psalm 136 has that refrain for his steadfast love endures forever. And you think about these soldiers coming in and they're going to take Athanasius and they're waiting and they're just hearing repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly that the steadfast love of God endures forever. And they're almost in shock. What do we do with this? When do we take him? He's not going to give himself up. And what happens is the soldiers advance and towards Athanasius and he refuses to flee until all of the people were safe. And then a group of monks and other leaders finally seized him and removed him from the scene among confusion and he would at that point be gone for the next six years. Now imagine the trauma of that for a congregation, right? Like if soldiers came in and took me and took me away, you would probably know where I was, right? Like I could send you a text, hey, I'm down at the jail, I'll be all right or, you know, I'm you know on the beach. I'll be fine. Whatever whatever it is, but for athanasius It's just commute communication is cut off And for six years, you could hear the story of people telling maybe the young people in the church. You know, there was this time several years ago when these soldiers broke in and the congregation is praising God and this soldiers come and they take our pastor. We don't know what happened to him. You imagine what that is like for a congregation. Now another time in exile, I love this story, is Athanasius' enemies are chasing him on the River Nile. So Athanasius, with a couple of others, is on one of these small Nile boats. And what is it called? It's a fluka. A fluka. There it is. And he's being followed by those that are trying to arrest him. So Athanasius and his friends are rowing along, and they're looking back, and they see this other boat coming. And they know that those that are going to capture him so that he could be arrested. And one of the friends says to Athanasius, the friends on the boat, he says, they're catching up to us. And Athanasius, we're told, is not even worried. He's not worried because what he does is he turns the boat around. And he starts going towards those that are coming for him. And as they row towards him, those in the other boat, they say, hey, have you seen Athanasius? He's on the Nile. And Athanasius' response was, you are not far from him. And they keep going, knowing that they are not far from Athanasius. And he's able to get away, and his friends are safe. Now, we mentioned the Council of Nicaea and its relationship to the Arian controversy. So you remember, Arius is teaching these false doctrines about Jesus Christ. At the time, Alexander of Alexandria is the bishop and then Athanasius becomes bishop in the year 328. And he affirms Nicene doctrine. But of course, there is Constantine who at times is sympathetic to Arianism. And there are many bishops that are Arian in their beliefs. And Athanasius in Alexandria refuses to admit Arians to communion. So he knows this is not This is a dividing line. This isn't something where we can agree to disagree, brothers. This is a dividing line, something that stands between Christianity and a false religion that appears to be Christianity. So Athanasius said, I will not admit Arians to communion in my church. And you can imagine how well that goes over among the Arians and how well that goes over among those even that believed in Nicene theology but maybe wanted to focus on the nice part of Nicaea. They wanted to be kind and loving and just say, why rock the boat, Athanasius? Why would you rock the boat? Now, despite this threat, you know, his life is constantly in danger. He's been exiled five times. He comes back. It's something like 16 years of his 35 years of ministry in Alexandria. He's in exile. So he's in and out of exile. And there's this one story where a friend says to Athanasius, essentially, he says, look around. Look around to the Christian world. Look at the Roman Empire. And he says, Athanasius, don't you know that the whole world is against you. And Athanasius' response was, let it be said that if the whole world is against Athanasius, Athanasius is against the world. He stood for truth. The Latin phrase for that is contramundum. against the world. And it's a phrase that you'll see throughout church history when the church needs these battle cries to stand for truth. You'll hear contramundum, or you'll read it in writings of people. Contramundum, this understanding that truth is not settled by majority opinion. Truth is settled by the word of God. And Athanasius understood that. He understood that even if he was a man that stood alone, he was standing for that which was right, and that which was biblical, and that which was godly. Now let's look at some of his writings. You can purchase this. This is a medieval late medieval Latin works of Athanasius. They're online right now. So if you want to buy those, you can Google that and spend lots and lots of money on that. He writes over 20 books. Some of them he writes against the heathen, on the incarnation, a statement of faith. He writes a small commentary on Luke 10. He writes a defense against the Arians. He writes a defense of the Nicene definition, a defense of Dionysius. He writes the life of Saint Antony which we have already talked about which became a bestseller for over a thousand years. He wrote a circular to the bishops of Egypt defending the emperor. He writes a defense of his flight, a defense of why he goes into exile and very interesting, He writes a history of Arianism. So he writes an unfolding of how this happened in church history. I'll just comment on a few of those. So on the incarnation, this is a book that has probably been in print since it was written. It's still in print. You can go on Amazon. There's hundreds and hundreds of versions of it, mass market paperbacks available. It was written between 335 and 337. So it sets out basic theological viewpoints. Christ was made human that we may become like the divine. He argues that if Christ is less than God, he is not able to be our savior. And he says that only God could restore the human race to communion with himself. So a lot of our Christology, a lot of what we believe about Jesus and how that relates to our salvation, how the person and work of Christ relates to us, Athanasius is giving early formulations of that. He writes an Easter letter that is really important in church history because all of the books of the New Testament are noted in the letter. So when we talk about canon, and why we have the books of the New Testament. And there are those that will tell you that the canon is not finalized for hundreds and hundreds of years at a council, that Catholics are the ones that told us what's in the Bible. It's not true. Athanasius is recognizing what the word of God is here, even before the church canonized what's in the scripture. So very important Easter letter. He writes the defense of flight. In that, he says, it's not very evident to everyone that they do not reproach me with cowardice from regard to virtue, but that being thirsty for blood, they employ these base devices as nets, thinking to catch those whom they seek to destroy. That such is their character is shown by their actions. which have convicted them of possessing dispositions more savage than wild beasts and more cruel than the Babylonians. But although the proof against them is sufficiently clear in all this, yet since they still dissemble with soft words after the manner of their father the devil and pretend to charge me with cowardice, while they themselves are more cowardly than rabbits, Let us consider what is written in the scriptures respecting such cases as this for thus they will be shown to fight against the scriptures more than they fight against me. So you see that that fighting spirit within Athanasius as the rumor mill among Christianity is saying he's a coward and he's in hiding and he won't face his enemies. He says, I am no coward. I will write. And I will stand here and I will defend myself and I will use the word of God and you will be shown to be against the scriptures, not against me. So Athanasius really tries to put himself in the background and not be seen, but have the scriptures elevated in his ministry. The life of Antony, we've talked about. This does much to promote monasticism. And he praises Antony, he praises the Desert Fathers as a good way of life and this really becomes something that becomes central in later medieval piety within the church. And then lastly, a letter to Marcellinus. The letter to Marcellinus, it's more than a letter, you know, it's beefier than a letter. It's actually an introduction to the Psalms as central to personal devotion and worship. And he goes through the Psalms and he shows theology from the Psalms. He shows the life of Christ in the Psalms, a Christology in the Psalms. And he's one that first said that the Psalms echo the experience and emotion of the worshiper. So he talks about theology, he talks about Christ, but he says the value of the Psalms is that they echo what we should be feeling as worshipers. And he helps the early church to understand that as well. And I wonder in part, Is he thinking about that in light of the hymns of Arius that are capturing the heart of those that are the Arians? You know, they'll say, oh, you should, you sing these and you'll know this is true. You know, you can almost hear that being said. And Athanasius writes this introduction to the Psalms and he says, sing this and know the truth. So those are some of the writings of Athanasius. And in the last few minutes, I would like to speak on the death of Arius. So some of you may know this story. I've told this story to one of my children several times this week who cannot get over the story. But we think. So we have Arius that you were introduced to who's in Alexandria from Libya originally. You have Alexander. the Bishop of Alexandria and Alexander and Arius are going head to head. And then eventually, Athanasius becomes Bishop of Alexandria. In the middle of that is the Council of Nicaea. That's 325. We'll talk about that next time. But Arius stands as one of the great protagonists in church history. Taylor Swift would call him an anti-hero. So there's your one Taylor Swift reference in my entire ministry But the story goes that in the year 336 Alexander is still the pastor in Constantinople or is the pastor in Constantinople He's devout and he's godly and he is against Arius and what happens is that Arius, after the Council of Nicaea, after he's condemned as a heretic, he is going to appeal that ruling. And he appeals it not to the church, like we would appeal a ruling that we disagree with. He appeals it to the emperor. So the church has decided, you are a heretic. You are outside of the bounds of Christianity. And you remember Constantine moves the center of the Roman Empire from Rome to a new city called Constantinople. And so he goes, Arius goes to Constantinople so that he can have a hearing with the emperor. We're told that when Arius arrives in the city, the people begin to divide into two. The city is thrown into confusion and there's Alexander and those that defend Nicene theology, Athanasius being one of them. And then there are those that are following Arius and saying that Arius needs to be left alone. And he had some famous thinkers that joined with him. Remember the church historian Eusebius that we talked about. Eusebius is going to stand with Arius for a while in this controversy. Now, Eusebius, he is threatening to have Alexander deposed until Arius is allowed to take communion. So you can picture this fight, right? You guys have been church men and church women long enough to understand what this would look like as it was unfolding. And Arius, remember, had been excommunicated from the church. And then he goes, as I said, to Constantinople along with his ally, Eusebius and their common supporters in order to petition the emperor Constantine directly. And what their hope is, is that they are going to force the local Bishop Alexander to allow Arius and all of that group of supporters to come into the church on the Lord's day and to take communion. And it's in part for show. It's in part for show, meaning that Arius doesn't want to slip in quietly, worship God, take communion, and then slip out quietly. He's gotten the city in an uproar. Those that come with him, they want to make a show that the Nicene pastor is being forced to give communion to Arius because that is a great story to promote Arianism through the ancient world. So their petition, as they go before the emperor, it works. And Arius has sworn to the emperor that he holds proper theological ideas. He says, yeah, I'll talk that way. I'll submit to this. And I'll sign a statement saying that I'm not going to promote my My views and the emperor in return says that he is allowed to be admitted to church and he's allowed to take communion. Now, just as a side note, the emperor has no business telling the church who can take communion, right? There is a biblical separation of church and state. The emperor has responsibilities to Jesus Christ and the church has responsibilities to Jesus Christ. And just like the church, like the elders don't have the right to inflict capital punishment on a sinner, in the same way, the civil magistrate, the emperor, has no right saying who can come to communion. It is totally inappropriate. But anyways, he says that he can come to communion. And this is told to Alexander. And Alexander is at wit's end. He is upset, and he's hurt by this. He says we've come to the end of human wisdom and he doesn't know what to do. So as the pastor, he devotes himself over the next several days as he's preparing for coming to the Lord's table and administering the sacrament. He gives himself to prayer and fasting. And what he does is he shuts himself up in the church and we're told that he pressed prostrates himself before the communion table He lays on the floor and he begins to pray and he begins to pour out his heart fervently unto God with weeping and we're told that in preparation for the Lord's Day he does that day and night and fasting and praying and asking that God would intervene because he doesn't know what to do and his conscience will not allow him to have Arius come to the Lord's table. We have something of his prayer recorded. In part, he says, if Arius's views are right, may I not be allowed to see the day appointed by the emperor for discussing them? But if I myself hold the true faith, may Arius suffer the penalty of his ungodliness or which his ungodliness deserves as the author of these evils. So he's just in this bind. If Arius is right, Lord, just let me go. And if Arius is wrong, take him away. Let him stop doing danger to the church. And on this Saturday before Arius is supposed to take communion with the church. He's there with all of his cohort and they leave the palace and they parade themselves through the center of the city and much like other ancient Middle Eastern cities, Constantinople has a great market in the middle of the city. And he approaches this place called Constantine's Market, and he gets this sharp pain in his gut. Historians say that he had a seizure of the bowels. All right, so think of all your worst bathroom experiences. He gets this tight pain in his gut, and he's in the middle of a market. in the middle of a city. And so what he does is he asks if there is somewhere nearby where he could relieve himself. And he was directed to the back of the market. There's a bathroom or whatever they were using. Go to there. And he starts to go. And we're told that he faints and that blood starts coming out of his rectum and his bowels spilled out of his backside together with the streams of blood and part of his spleen and his liver and Historians say that it poured out in a bloody flow and Arius died almost instantly in the middle of that market. Now that's called a bowel prolapse, right Lisa? That's what it's called. So if you want to Google bowel prolapse, you can read about the medical side of it. Don't click images, just read. But you can also read medical historians that note this incident and put together all of the eyewitness accounts of Arius's death in this way and write discussions on this. The first recorded event of this is 1500 BC in Egypt and there, I guess, is some sort of parasite in this area of the world that would allow for this to happen from time to time. So there's different places in history where this has been recorded to have happened. So it's not something that is merely supernatural. It's not something that we would call miraculous, but we would say it's a providence that God used to stop this heresy within the church. Athanasius writes about this event later, and he says, Immediately, according to what is written, falling face first, he burst in the middle. And upon falling, he expired, deprived of both communion and life at the same time. So upon hearing of Arius's peculiar death, the church quickly interpreted this as a vindication of biblical Trinitarian theology. Now, Athanasius would live for 37 years after the death of Arius, and the world would go back and forth between promoting Nicene theology and struggling, and this caused many struggles in the church. And as I said, next week we'll look at Nicea, but today I wanted to introduce you to these two people that will be at the center of this Controversy that we'll see next week and I want to end with a quote from Athanasius Let no one who hath renounced the world Think that he hath given up some great thing the whole earth set over against heavens infinite is scant and poor Athanasius understood that when he stood against the world and that when he gave up the world, it was nothing in comparison to the greatness of the glory of God that he fought for.