Page 82 - THE ARMENIAN CHURCH_Neat

Essentials of Faith 83

1) The Council of Nicea addressed the
nature of the relationship between the
Father and the Son. Arius (256-336) was
the originator of a controversy that came
to be known in church history as Arianism.
According to Arius, God is one, He is
supreme, He is the Creator, and out of God
everything is created, including the Son,
who is inferior to Him; therefore, Arius
concludes, there was a time when the Son
was not. In an attempt to single out the
absolute uniqueness of God, Arius made
Christ less than God, thus jeopardizing the
salvatory mission of Christ. The Council of
Nicea condemned Arianism as a heresy and
proclaimed the Orthodox faith by affirming
the eternal co-existence of the Father and the
Son and thus co-essential divinity of the
Son: "We believe… in one Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, the begotten of God the Father, the
Only-Begotten, that is of the substance of the
Father. God from God, light from light, true God
from true God, begotten and not made; of the
same nature of the Father, by whom all things
are made in heaven and on earth, visible and
invisible" (Nicene Creed). During the Ar-
menian Holy Mass, after the recitation of
the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, the dea-
con says: "The catholic and apostolic holy church
anathematizes those who say that there was a
time when the Son was not; or that there was a
time when the Holy Spirit was not; or that they