We were looking for books destroyed by Christians in the early years and came across Arian and Arianism. After a little searching we found an old book on the subject called Arian Controversy.

Author

This author is a H.M Gwatkin. We know very little about him and did not bother very much to searching. We did find that he lived from 1844 to 1916. He was an English theologian and a chruch historian. On the inside page he is listed as Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Cambridge.

Publication notes

The book was published by Longmans, Green, and CO. in 1914.

Book cover

Introduction

H.M Gwatkin is telling the story of Arian and his movement, later called, Arianism. The whole book tells us how this understanding of Christian god was very popular before Constantine tried to crush it in favor of unity among all sects of Christianity. The movement when through some phases and then was completely eliminated by other more acceptable theories.

Summary of content

It is very difficult to put any value on the book since all the works of Arius were burnt or eliminated by force. Most events are joined with historical events, thus, we can establish that those events did take place.

Analysis

Arius (256 – 336) had plenty of time to study the scriptures and came to his own conclusion. His conclusions were similar to many others, such as Origen who said that the son is not the father. The difficulty H.M Gwatkin has in the whole book is to give a proper understanding of the statement, “one who is man cannot be god.”

In the books there are many theories floated, three most prominent are:

• Homoiousian
  • One incarnate and two created beings. This was also Arianism or subordinationism.
• Homoousian
  • Current Christian trinity where all three are eternal aspects of the divine nature. Also known as Trinitarianism.
• Sabellian
  • Trinity where father, son, and ghost are three different beings or modes. Also known as Sabellianism.

The biggest problem Christianity faced at that time and still faces is because some writings are taken as scripture and thus cannot be refuted or negated. One just has to come up with theories to shoe fit these accepted claims and make some more theories on top of it. They started with a non-mono theological theory where they claimed that there are three. Once you start with more than one, you can never go back to one but rather create fancy words to confuse things even more. One of these fancy terms is Hypostatic union. All it means is two status in one. Does not prove anything but the term just sounds pretty cool and makes people stop thinking more about how a man can be fully god or how can a god be a full man.

Arius did pose some difficult questions about the nature of Jesus. He said, “did the son of god exist before his generation? Were you a mother before you had your first child?”

Q. Who is the center of religion?

A. Page 2. The center of Christianity is Jesus, the second person in the three god system. His own person is mightier than the father entity.

Q. How does the author justify multiple gods but equal as in Christianity?

A. Page 4. The author uses polytheists and heathens as an example and says that the serious heathens also admit to unity of god.

Q. Who was Arius’ teacher?

A. Page 5. Lucian of Antioch (240 – 312) from Syria was the teacher of Arius. It is unclear what his theology was based on about Jesus.

Q. What does the author say about Arius’ difficulty?

A. Page 6. The author says that the main problem with Arius was that the one who is man cannot be god, and therefor a second god.

Q. What does the author call the theory of Arian?

A. Page 7. Arian trinity is called a step-ladder trinity. Where father is at top then son and lowest level is the ghost. The author considers this a heathen idea. He says, “Never was a more illogical theory devised by the wit of man.”

Q. How does Gwatkin justify the need for a son?

A. Page 8. Between father and ourselves there is a great gulf fixed, which neither he nor we can pass. So, the author is listing the limitations of the father that he can’t pass a gulf. But, god can, however turn into a man, come down, eat and use the toilet and then fake die.

Q. Has the fear of death gone?

A. Page 10. “The old fear of death is gone.”

Q. When was Christianity established as lawful worship?

A. Page 12. Christianity was established as the lawful worship by the edict of Milan in 312.

Q. What is the main difficulty among thinking people?

A. Page 13. The author says, “Lord’s divinity was a real difficulty to thoughtful men.”

Q. What sects sprang up?

A. Page 13. The sects that sprang up were Arianism (one god uncreated, 2 created gods), Saballianism (trinity of three temporal aspects of the one god) and Trinitarianism (three eternal aspects of the divine nature).”

Q. What argument did Arius use?

A. Page 14. Arians argument was, “Did the son of god exist before his generation?”

Q. When was the council of Nicene?

A. Page 19. Summer of 325 in Bithynia is where the first council of Nicene was held. 318 showed up which is a mystic number for the cross of Christ.

Q. Did the Christians have any creed?

A. Page 22. There was no creed till 340. They had catechumens, outline of faith which were all different, they got it from Matthew 28:19.

Q. Why was Arius creed torn up?

A. Page 26. Arius’ creed was torn up because it was too complicated. The dumb-down version of creed was accepted with two lines for father, sixteen lines for Jesus and one miserable line of mention for the ghost with no definition or explanation of what is a ghost.

Q. What creed was accepted?

A. Page 27. This was the Cesarean creed.

Q. What word does Gwatkin use to define the difference between Islam and Christianity?

A. Page 28. Gwatkin says that the main difference between Islam and Christianity is “Mysticism.” He says, “Many of our most earnest enemies would gladly forget their enmity if we would only drop our mysticism and admire with them a human Christ who never rose with power from the dead.” He also says that the one main reason Christianity exists is because of a Christ risen. This is something he got from Paul’s writings who never met human Jesus but talked and wrote all about a spiritual Jesus which only he could see and talk to.

Q. How did the council of Nicaea choose their day of celebration?

A. Page 38. Constantine did not want to share a day of celebration with the wicked Jews, so he chose Sunday for resurrection.

Q. What was the condition after 323?

A. Page 43. After 325, Nicene ago was full of heathens and Christians. Heathens did not understand Christian worship and Christians only visited the church once or twice a year and only got baptized out of fear or illness. There was no difference between the two.

Q. Who’s side did Jews take?

A. Page 44. Jews took the side of Arian. They were still looking towards the east for a deliverer.

Q. Did the Trinitarians have any arguments against the Arians?

A. Page 53. Trinitarians had no argument against Arians. Arian said the son of god is neither eternal not equal to the father. It is a creature. All Trinitarians could say is that the son has a peculiar relation with the father. Their secondary god was just that, a secondary god unequal to the father.

Q. Who has the kingdom of god?

A. Page 55. The author says that the kingdom of god was given to the son and when he gets done it shall be returned to the father. Then the son will forever be with the father, as before. This page did not make much sense, if these two are supposed to be one, but they are exchanging gifts as if they were two? Or, is it one person just taking out a dirty handkerchief from his left pocket, just to put it back in his right pocket. Is that what it really means when Christians say he will sit on the right hand of god?

Q. Was Constantine ever baptized?

A. Page 61. The hero of Christianity, Constantine, was never baptized.

Q. What happened during the reign of Julian?

A. Page 111. During the reign of Julian (355 – 360), roman gods were brought back as worship. Christian now joined with Arians and forgot their differences.

Q. What new questions were being asked?

A. Page 137. Every man and woman were asking questions about Jesus, such as, was Jesus made of flesh, did he have a free will, free will leads to sin. All men are sinners, but Jesus did not sin. This would make him an untrue man, unlike other men. Maybe Jesus was like the terminator guy from the movies, flesh on the outside and god on the inside?

Q. What was he, according to Christians?

A. Page 139. If he was sinless then he was not human. If he was human then he can’t be sinless.

Christianity has to make Jesus into a god because of salvation. Man can’t pay for the sins of humanity, a dying god can. So, god faked his death to pay for the sins.

Conclusion

This book enlightened us into what type of questions people were asking back when it all began. It seems that after the passage of two thousand years the questions remain the same. Was he god or man, and if he was god, then how could he die, but then only man died. One man can’t pay for sins of humanity, so he must be god; and round and round we go in the circles of Christianity. One thing is very clear that the most ridiculous thing is still calling any human being a god.