Pastor of the influential Baucalis Church in Alexandria where Alexander was bishop. Around A.D. 318, Arius challenged Alexandrian teachers by asserting that Christ's divinity was not of the same order of God's, since he was a created Being — sort of half-God, for "the Son has a beginning, but … God is without beginning." He spread his doctrines with simple jingles. His teaching appealed to the common people and former pagans, since it resembled the Gnosticism of their youth. Quarreled with Bishop Alexander at a synod in Alexandria in A.D. 320 and won the partial support of Eusebius, the Bishop of Nicomedia. His heresy spurred the formulation and acceptance of the Nicene Creed. All bishops present, excepting Arius and two others, accepted this creed. Arius and the remaining two bishops were consequently exiled.
[tags]Alexander, Arius, BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Creed, Gnosticism, history, Nicene-Creed[/tags]
(1st General Council, 325)
Called by the Emperor Constantine to settle the question of Christ's divinity raised by Arius. Gave birth to the Nicene Creed. Established that Christ is fully divine, "true God from true God."
[tags]1st-Council-at-Nicea, Arius, BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Constantine, Creed, history, Nicene-Creed[/tags]
A Creed developed in the Council called by Emperor Constantine in 325 largely in response to Arianism. From this council emerged the Nicene Creed, which to this day is the standard of orthodoxy in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and some other churches:
"I 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, God of God, 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, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried;
