Transcript of a radio broadcast by the Church of Piraeus, in its series of programs titled "Orthodoxy and Heresy", by B' Biblikos and collaborators - Homily No. 88

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The study that we will be reading to you today is titled: “From the Arianism of Arius to Modern European Arianism”, published in 1925. Albeit quite old, nevertheless, all the ideas are contemporary and they also touch on contemporary problems, many of which regard Christ - in one way or another – as just a man who lacks divinity; for example, that He is simply a “good person”, a “sage” - or even worse, when some who, albeit claiming to be Christians, nevertheless, reduce Christ to the level of a mere created being.

Before we begin reading the study by Saint Justin, we would like to remind you that Saint Justin Popovic reached the end of this life on the day of the Annunciation, the 6th of April in 1979, which however also happened to be the day his life began - also on the feast of the Annunciation in the year 1894, in Serbia. He had served the Lord throughout his entire life and with all his strength, until the very end of this life.

So let’s now begin to read his text:

“The mystery of evil is not lesser than the mystery of good. The mystery of the former is often more appealing than the mystery of the latter- and man loves the mysterious, in whichever versions it may be.

There is nothing in the world that man can explain fully and state: ‘Behold this thing - in which and around which - there is no mystery and is not mysterious’. In every phenomenon in the world, and in every thing in the universe, there is always something that man cannot grasp in the cage of his mind. From whichever point of view we may look at the world, it will appear thus to us: as a query.

The mystery of evil and the mystery of good, always battle each other in the world, especially within man. If the philanthropist Lord wasn’t maintaining balance, the world would have fallen into chaos long ago. The mystery of evil is artfully appealing. It fascinates man to the point of love, and man enthusiastically offers himself to its broad and terrible love as a burnt offering. Whereas the mystery of good is humble and meek, reviled and spat on in the world.  This is the reason that fewer are the lovers of the mystery of good and more are the lovers of the mystery of evil. The mystery of good would have been led to the grave long ago if Christ had not risen from the grave and in His resurrected person had not shown all of His wondrous charm and His appealing beauty.

Pitted against a small good is a small evil, and pitted against a huge good is a huge evil. Against the weaker athletes of good, Satan will send his soldiers, whereas against the good God - the Lord Jesus Christ - Satan himself will come forth.”

Saint Justin then quotes from Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13, where it mentions that directly after His baptism, the Lord Jesus Christ had departed for the desert and was tested there by the devil. And Saint Justin continues: 

“If anything, this mobilization by the god of evil - of Satan and all of his army - against Christ, is proof that Jesus is not only a Person of good, but also the God of good.

Satan’s entire war against Christ has one purpose: to “de-carnate” the Godman. To drive God out of the human body, out of matter, and thus dominate matter himself completely; in other words, to prove that Christ is not God, but merely a simple and weak human, and thus deter humans from believing in Christ - Who alone is in a position to defeat the god of evil.

Satan's strategy is ingeniously developed; he thus battles from all sides against Christ - against His Holy Body (the Church): He battles against Christ through many and various people: through Herod and through Nero; but even worse than Nero, through Arius. Nero fought the Church from the outside, that is, externally. Arius fought Her from within. Nero killed the disciples of Christ, but Arius sought to eradicate Christ Himself."

At this point we would like to emphasize how serious it is for someone to demote the Son and Logos of God to the level of a creation.  This is a topic that we constantly touch on, but on which the blessed father Justin also focuses his attention and his effort to crush.

So he continues:

“If Judas ever had a competitor in his crime, it is Arius, who had sprung forth from the deicider and suicider Judas.”

Father Justin characterizes him as such, because on the one hand Judas was a deicider, by being the one responsible -with his betrayal- for the condemnation and the execution of the God-man Jesus Christ (in His human nature), and also a suicider, because he subsequently committed suicide by hanging himself.

So, we repeat:

“...who had sprung forth from the deicider and suicider Judas. Satan had entered (“possessed”) Arius, and through no one else had he acted so thoroughly, as he had through Arius.”

Saint Justin then exposes Arius’ central teaching:

“Arius’ basic idea is that Christ is not God. In his work ‘Thaleia’ he says the following - verbatim: ‘Neither is the Logos a True God.' In relation to God the Father he is not God, and for this reason, he is not perfectly familiar with the Father, nor also with His own essence: The Son did not know his own essence (Thaleia). But neither in relation to people is Christ God; he is only a ‘perfect creation’. It was through moral perfection and the energy of Grace that Christ became what he is, and could thus be called ‘God Almighty’... Christ is not truly God in relation to anyone or anything, and as such, all his characteristics are relative, and relative also is his knowledge and his wills and energies. By nature – as with everyone – neither is the Logos himself immutable.'

These are what Arius states verbatim in his work “Thaleia”, and Saint Justin continues, exposing  Arius’ central teaching:

“In relation to the world, the Logos is the creator and mediator between God and the world. God did not directly create the world; instead, He created the Logos, so that the Logos could create the world. The Logos was created before everything else.”

He quotes again from “Thaleia”:

“The Logos came to be, out of non existence; and there was a time when he was not.”

That is, the Logos supposedly came into being out of nothing, and that there was a period - a time - when the Logos didn’t even exist at all...

This, therefore, was the teaching of Arius. And it is so truly amazing, that the modern, so-called Jehovah’s Witnesses - as genuine descendants of Arius - advocate exactly the same things about Christ, by repeating Arius’ impieties and blasphemies.

We will continue reading from the study by Saint Justin Popovich, which is titled: “From the Arianism of Arius to Modern European Arianism”.

Father Justin exposes the gravity of Arius’ blasphemy and his cacodoxy, by theorizing that Jesus Christ was a mere creation; which is precisely why we are using this study - to discern and realize the gravity of the delusion that many people have in our time regarding their faith in Jesus Christ - where some people consider Him to be a remarkable, great, wise man, and others say they do believe in Him, but in reality demote Him to the level of a mere creation – the way that Jehovah’s Witnesses do, for example.

So, to continue with Saint Justin:

1.  Arius’ influence on Western heresies

“It was only natural that this teaching of Arius would provoke opposition among the genuine confessors of the Christian truth. No persecution, no other suffering had shaken the Church so much, the way that Arianism had, because this was the worst kind of persecution. Arius was evicting God from Christ.

That is, he was “removing” divine nature from the Person of Christ, leaving Him with only His human nature.” 

“This is about the worst kind of horror...” (continues Father Justin) “...that Christ is not God!"

Either Christ is God, or this world is a laboratory of ghosts and horrors.

There is no salvation, if Christ is not God.

For this reason, in order to defend the Lord Jesus Christ from the blasphemy of Arius, the entire Church was up in arms; they gathered together in one, overall and conciliar corpus,at the First Ecumenical Council, where, in their opposition to the heresy of Arius they officially formulated the Apostolic and Overall (‘catholic’) Orthodox teaching; the Apostolic and Overall (‘catholic’) conscience, the Apostolic and Overall (‘catholic’) faith and experience;  the Apostolic and Overall (‘catholic’) tradition.

The Council did not create anything new; it simply expressed and formulated the ancient faith and teaching of the Church, which had been sacredly and reverently preserved by the charismatic life of the Church, through the Holy Spirit.”

The overall (‘catholic’) faith and teaching of the Church was expressed unanimously in the Symbol of Faith (the ‘Creed’)- and especially in the powerful term “consubstantial” (Gr.: omo-ousios, of the same essence).

The entire Christian concept of life is essentially what?

It is the developing of the musical theme that is comprised of the dogmas – of dogmatics.

And what are dogmatics? The development of the Creed.

And what is the Creed? Nothing else but the expanded formulation of Baptism, with the wording: “.......in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”.

And these words are, undoubtedly, the expansion of the word “consubstantial”.

The word “con-substantial” expresses precisely that (seemingly contradictory), ’antinomian’ seed of the Christian perception of life: it is in the formulation with the words “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”, and not “in the names of”  the three Hypostases.