Arianism

Arianism was a doctrine that came from Arius, a 4th-century priest who taught in Alexandria, Egypt.[1] To many Christians, Arianism's teachings were heretical and wrong because they taught that Jesus was not God.[2][3]

Arianism opposed the dogma of the Holy Trinity. At the First Council of Nicea in 325 AD, Christian leaders said that Arianism was heresy.[4] They created the Nicene Creed to describe their beliefs.[5] It read, in part: "We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God... begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father."[6]

Many have claimed Arianism was a powerful part of Christianity from the 4th to the 7th centuries AD. However, its teachings disagreed with fundamental Christian beliefs. For this reason, its rhetoric was opposed by multiple theologians of the era as well as the early church (later the Catholic Church).

Beliefs

The main difference between the beliefs of Arianism and other main Christian denominations was that the Arians did not believe in the Holy Trinity, as other Christian churches use to explain God.

Everything historians know about the Arians' beliefs comes from the writings of people who were against Arianism and considered its beliefs to be wrong. Those writings claim that Arianism believed:

  • Only God the Father is truly God. He alone is not born and is eternal. He does not change.
  • God did not create the world by himself. He had help from something called Logos (Greek for word), which was created to create the world. That is God's "communication" with the world.
  • God's communication with the world is known as the "Son of God" or the "Christ". The Son of God existed before he helped his Father make man and is the perfect image of God the Father. There is one exception, however; unlike God the Father, he was created (from nothing) by the will of the Father at the beginning of time. Therefore, he is not eternal. There was a time that he did not exist. In the same way, his power, his wisdom, and his knowledge are limited.

Between the First Council of Nicaea in 325 and the First Council of Constantinople in 381, Arianists used 18 different creeds.

Antitrinitarianism today

In the 16th century, there was again a movement against the belief in the Holy Trinity. Fausto Sozzini (1539-1604) and Ferenc Dávid (c. 1520-1579) were well known for their opposition. Those movements developed into what is now called Unitarianism. Unitarians believe that there is only one person in God, not the three-in-one ideology known as the Trinity.

Some of the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses are similar to Arian beliefs. However, the Arians believed the Holy Spirit is a person, while the Jehovah's Witnesses teach that it is not a person but a force that God uses to do his will. That makes Jehovah's Witnesses different from Arians, as they reject many Arian teachings.

Mormons and Oneness Pentecostalism also reject the Holy Trinity, but for different reasons from those of Arianism.

References

  1. ↑ Brennecke, Hanns Christof (2018). "Arianism". In Hunter, David G.; van Geest, Paul J. J.; Lietaert Peerbolte, Bert Jan (eds.). Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/2589-7993_EECO_SIM_00000280. ISSN 2589-7993. S2CID 231892603.
  2. ↑ Berndt, Guido M.; Steinacher, Roland (2014). Arianism: Roman Heresy and Barbarian Creed (1st ed.). London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-14-09-44659-0.
  3. ↑ Witherington, B. (2007). The Living Word of God: Rethinking the Theology of the Bible. Baylor University Press. ISBN 978-1-60258-017-6.
  4. ↑ Bekker, Jonathan. "LibGuides: The Council of Nicaea & The Nicene Creed: The Arian Controversy". libguides.regent.edu. Retrieved 2025-09-16.
  5. ↑ "Nicene Creed | Christianity, History, Councils, & Text | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2025-09-16.
  6. ↑ "What We Believe |The Nicene Creed". www.usccb.org. Retrieved 2025-09-16.
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