Athanasius: Against the World
- Ken Kalis
- May 2
- 7 min read
Updated: May 3
(Anglicans, Catholics, and Lutherans honor Athanasius on May 2, but his place stands firmly in the Eastern Orthodox Church.)
We need an Athanasius (299-373) today!
---The World is against the truth.
---Not just the truth table, logic truth but
---against THE TRUTH, the Son of God
who said, I am the way, the Truth and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6
Last week, the Roman Catholic Church buried a pope who said the opposite! Athanasius would not stand for that.
Nor would he stand for the Protestant Leaders who claimed to be Christians but denied that Jesus rose from the dead and conquered death, among whom are Nobel Prize winners Albert Schweitzer(1875-1965), and Martin Luther King (1929-1968), and German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945).
Athanasius would have stood with J. Gresham Machem*(1881-1937) when he was exiled from the Presbyterian church and Princeton Theological Seminary when he refused Harry Emerson Fosdick’s*(1878-1969) denial of the virgin birth, the second coming of Jesus and the Truth of the Bible as the Word of God.
An asterisk* after a name means the person is in SPIRITUAL LIVES.
He would also have agreed with Machem’s statement: one thing is perfectly plain–whether liberals are Christians, it is at any rate perfectly clear that liberalism is not Christianity.
Athanasius was born into the Gospel and raised in a Christian home in Alexandria, Egypt, at that time a center of Hellenic scholarship and science. As a boy, he saw Christians imprisoned and persecuted under the Emperor Diocletian (244-316), who reigned (284-305).
His parents were wealthy enough to give him a good education, and he was so fluent in Greek that some assumed he was Greek, although he also wrote in Coptic. He lamented that he knew no Hebrew but used the Septuagint in his works on the Old Testament.
One day, the bishop of Alexandria saw a group of small boys moving back and forth with solemnity and dignity. He asked his assistant to bring the children to his palace, where he asked them what they were doing.
"We have selected Athanasius as our bishop, and we are following his order," one of them said.
"What order?" asked the bishop."We are baptizing some heathen children,"
Athanasius explained to the bishop, "I have chosen some of these Christian boys to be priests, and we were baptizing the others, just as the priests do in the Church." He had instructed the heathen boys in the Christian faith, then, following the church service of baptism exactly, he had led the children into the water to be baptized.
The bishop was very pleased that Athanasius knew and understood the service so well. He called the boy's parents and advised them to give their son a good education in preparation for the priesthood.
Alexander became especially fond of Athanasius. The boy spent so much time at the bishop's home that he became like a son to the venerable old man. Under his guidance, Athanasius studied hard and wrote important theological works even before he was twenty.
Two of these works were Against the Heathen and On the Incarnation. Although he had not yet encountered Arianism or met Arius (256-336) these quotes show how he was firmly prepared to stand against it:
“Evil, then consists essentially in the choice of what is lower in preference to what is higher.”― St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Against the Heathen.
“For the Word, realizing that in no other way would the corruption of human beings be undone except, simply, by dying, yet being immortal and the Son of the Father of the Word was not able to die,
for this reason he takes to himself a body capable of death, in order that it, participating in the Word who is above all, might be sufficient for death on behalf of all, and through the indwelling Word would remain incorruptible, and so corruption might henceforth cease from all by the grace of the resurrection.”― Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation
In 318, Arius attacked a sermon by Bishop Alexander stating the Son's similarity to the Father. Arius interpreted Alexander's speech as a revival of Sabellianism (there is only one Person in the Godhead). Arius condemned it and argued that
"if the Father begat the Son, he that was begotten had a beginning of existence: and from this it is evident, that there was a time when the Son was not. It therefore necessarily follows, that he [the Son] had his substance from nothing." This quote describes the essence of Arius's doctrine.
This teaching spread so widely that the Emperor Constantine* (272-337) called the Nicene Council (325 AD), 6 years after he began his reign. 1800 bishops were invited, but a much smaller number came:
More than three hundred of the faithful Bishops argued against a few more than a dozen Arian prelates, fomenting a spectacle that was neither gracious nor serene. Alternating voices shouted in Greek:
— Christ is pure man!
— No, Jesus is God!
— Only God the Father is eternal!
As the madness of Arius and his followers gained momentum, a young deacon arose to confront them. His clear and decisive eloquence displayed the superiority of the Church’s spirit in face of her adversaries. With the expressiveness and coherence of those with a clean conscience before God and men, the deacon knocked over the arguments of the Arian heresy.
After his brilliant intervention, he humbly and modestly returned to his place. The doctrine of consubstantiality (of the same nature or spirit, kk) had triumphed; mystery was victorious over mere reason devoid of faith.
Some argue that Athanasius was too young to have spoken at Nicea. He was probably unknown to many of the Bishops.
Some years later, St. Gregory Nazianzen (329-390) would call him the Pillar of the Church, astutely affirming:
“In Nicaea, the Arians watched the courageous champion of truth: small in stature, almost delicate, but with a resolute posture and head raised. When he stands up, it is as if a wave of loathing passes through him. Most of the assembly proudly look upon him who is the interpreter of its thought.”
This was Athanasius, herald of the truth and courageous athlete of the Faith, who would later become a Father and Doctor of the Church.
Athanasius became a deacon at 30 and the Archbishop of Alexandria shortly after that. The Arian army was still active, and depending on which emperor was on the throne, they persecuted Athanasius and drove him into exile 5 times. He always returned triumphant and wrote to others persecuted for their faithfulness:
Perhaps his most notable letter was his Festal Letter, written to his Church in Alexandria when he was in exile, as he could not be in their presence. This letter clearly shows his stand that accepting Jesus as the Divine Son of God is not optional but necessary:
I know moreover that not only this thing saddens you, but also the fact that while others have obtained the churches by violence, you are meanwhile cast out from your places. For they hold the places, but you the Apostolic Faith.
They are, it is true, in the places, but outside of the true Faith; while you are outside the places indeed, but the Faith, within you. Let us consider whether is the greater, the place or the Faith. Clearly the true Faith. Who then has lost more, or who possesses more? He who holds the place, or he who holds the Faith?
Athanasius wrote forty-five festal letters. Athanasius' 39th Festal Letter, written in 367, is widely regarded as a milestone in the evolution of the canon of New Testament books. Some claim that Athanasius is the first person to identify the same 27 books of the New Testament that are in use today.
He used the Bible as the Sword of the Spirit to defeat Arianism, and we should follow his lead. Arians are still with us today, openly in Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses. These lost people claim to be Christians and have produced their own Bibles and Holy Books to convert others to their foolishness.
The spirit of Arianism has taken over what used to be known as the Main Line Protestant denominations and the Episcopal, Lutheran and Presbyterian churches. They have dethroned Jesus andputin His Place a corruption of scripture spawned by "higher Criticism," and put social action and justice in Jesus' place.
Praise God, faithful people in those churches have withdrawn from them and established solid evangelical churches founded on the Word of God. If you are in one of these corrupt churches, find an assembly of the faithful in the Anglican Church of North America, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church or the Missouri, or the Wisconsin Synod.
Be like Anathasius and stand up for Jesus! Remember, the crowd is Untruth, and St. James' warning: know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.-- James 4:4
1 Stand up, stand up for Jesus
ye soldiers of the cross;
lift high his royal banner,
it must not suffer loss.
From vict'ry unto vict'ry
his army he shall lead
till ev'ry foe is vanquished
and Christ is Lord indeed.
2 Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
the trumpet call obey;
forth to the mighty conflict
in this his glorious day.
Ye that are men now serve him
against unnumbered foes;
let courage rise with danger
and strength to strength oppose.
3 Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
stand in his strength alone;
the arm of flesh will fail you,
ye dare not trust your own.
Put on the gospel armor,
each piece put on with prayer;
where duty calls or danger,
be never wanting there.
4 Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
the strife will not be long;
this day the noise of battle,
the next, the victor's song.
To him that overcometh
a crown of life shall be;
he with the King of glory
shall reign eternally.
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