WAS JESUS CREATED?
According to a very recent survey by Lifeway Research and Ligonier Ministries[1] among evangelicals, not the public at large, a whopping 73% believe that “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God,” 43% affirm that “Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God,” and 60% believe that “the Holy Spirit is a force but not a personal being.” By the way, one of the key doctrines of the Jehovah’s Witness cult today is that Jesus was a part of God’s creation, and thus he is inferior to God the Father.
One of the advantages of knowing church history is that there are almost no modern-day heresies that have not already surfaced somewhere throughout the last 2000 years of church history! Do I have your attention yet? If so, please read on!
Arius was a church leader in N. Africa (Cyrene, modern day Libya) who argued that Jesus was a created being, although the first among all creatures. He acknowledged that Jesus was a perfect creature, and outranked all other creatures, but was, indeed, created. Hence the famous phrase of Arius, “There was once when he was not.” So much for the Trinity!
Arius was attempting to draw on a number of biblical passages like in John 14 where Jesus said that the Father is greater than He is, plus in Mark 13 where Jesus said that no one knows when the second coming will be—not even Him—but only the Father. So, Arius and his followers maintained that Jesus was similar to the Father in nature or in essence, but not the same as the Father in nature or in essence.
This received a swift reaction from many within the church who were able to marshal an impressive number of biblical passages, which form the basis of orthodox Christianity today, to combat his ideas and point to the fundamental unity between the Father and the Son (ie. John 10:30, “I and My Father are one”). Also, the passages that Arius and his followers (Arians) used were shown to be misinterpreted, missing out on the subordination of the Son to the Father during the incarnation. In other words, in His incarnation, Jesus filled a different role temporarily while upon this earth. It was also argued that the divinity of Jesus was of central importance to the Christian idea of salvation. That is, if what Arius maintained was true, then Jesus could not save anyone, since a mere creature cannot save another creature.
The conclusion, affirmed at the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325, was that Jesus was God Himself in human flesh, the second Person of the Trinity, and any other view was heresy. Specifically, it was determined that Jesus was homo (same) ousios (substance/essence), “one in being” or “one in substance” with the Father. This word was selected as opposed to homoiousios, which means of “like substance” or “like being.” The difference between those two words is just one vowel, but that one vowel mattered, because it defined the very person of Jesus Christ!
The Council of Nicea produced what would eventually become known as the Nicene Creed, which stated that Jesus Christ was of the same nature/substance/essence and co-eternal with the God the Father.
Why have I put you through this technical, but critically important, bit of historical theology? Because Arianism is again on the rise as indicated in the recent survey mentioned above among evangelical Christians (not simply the public at large)! So, do not be led astray!
Devotedly your pastor,
Bill Blanchard
[1] According to the annual “State of Theology,” USA 2022.