Hi,
What scriptural passages were most commonly raised by the Arians in support of their view that the Son was not equal to the Father?
And, if I understand correctly, the heresy predates the settled canonization of the holy books. Is that correct?
I’m discussing Mormonism with a Calvinist and attempting to illustrate how difficult the Arian/Mormon doctrines are to refute without resorting to extra-scriptural authority.
Please feel free comment on the wisdom of this exchange. I [am] young in the Catholic faith (two years).
Thanks,
John Coalson
From
Answer.com:
Arius taught that God the Father and the Son did not exist together eternally. He taught that the pre-incarnate Jesus was a divine being created by (and therefore inferior to) God the Father at some point, before which the Son did not exist.[4] In English-language works, it is sometimes said that Arians believe that Jesus is or was a “creature”; in the sense of “created being”. Arius and his followers appealed to Bible verses such as John 14:28 where Jesus says that the father is “greater than I”, and to Proverbs 8:22 which states “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work”[5] although this verse is now generally held to refer to some concept of “wisdom” rather than to the Son of God.[6]
Of all the various disagreements within the Christian Church, the Arian controversy has held the greatest force and power of theological and political conflict, with the possible exception of the Protestant Reformation. The conflict between Arianism and Trinitarian beliefs was the first major doctrinal confrontation in the Church after the legalization of Christianity by the Roman Emperor Constantine I.[7]
Beliefs
Because most extant written material on Arianism was written by its opponents, the nature of Arian teachings is difficult to define precisely today. The letter of Auxentius,[8] a 4th-century Arian bishop of Milan, regarding the missionary Ulfilas, gives the clearest picture of Arian beliefs on the nature of the Trinity: God the Father (“unbegotten”), always existing, was separate from the lesser Jesus Christ (“only-begotten”), born before time began and creator of the world. The Father, working through the Son, created the Holy Spirit, who was subservient to the Son as the Son was to the Father. The Father was seen as “the only true God”. 1 Corinthians 8:5-6 was cited as proof text:
Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth — as in fact there are many gods and many lords — yet for us there is one God (Gk. theos - θεος), the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord (kyrios - κυριος), Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
—NRSV
A letter from Arius to the Arian Eusebius of Nicomedia succinctly states the core beliefs of the Arians:
Some of them say that the Son is an eructation, others that he is a production, others that he is also unbegotten. These are impieties to which we cannot listen, even though the heretics threaten us with a thousand deaths. But we say and believe and have taught, and do teach, that the Son is not unbegotten, nor in any way part of the unbegotten; and that he does not derive his subsistence from any matter; but that by his own will and counsel he has subsisted before time and before ages as perfect God, only begotten and unchangeable, and that before he was begotten, or created, or purposed, or established, he was not. For he was not unbegotten. We are persecuted, because we say that the Son has a beginning, but that God is without beginning.
—Peters, Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe, p. 41
The Bible canon came from the Council of Laodicea, about 35 years after the Council of Nicea.
