Arianism & Jehovah s Witnesses Pastor Matt Richard www.pastormattrichard.com Paging through the passages in scripture, such as 1 st, 2nd, and 3 rd John, you notice that the first heresies of Christianity were not against Christ s Divinity but against his incarnation. Gnosticism was an early belief that all matter was evil. Because of this belief, Gnostics did not believe that Christ was born from a virgin because this would have put him under the power of the material world. They rejected His crucifixion, His incarnation, and His resurrection. These were all items that pointed to His incarnation. Docetism 1, which branched from Gnosticism, believed that Jesus Christ s body was an appearance, a sort of ghost that miraculously seemed to be a real body. 2 Following Gnosticism, it was only a matter of time before the rejection of Christ s Divinity would be debated. It was in the year 325 A.D. that the debate on Christ s divinity came to a climax. It was around this time that the spotlight gently moved from Gnosticism to the Arianism controversy. The man responsible for the debate/rejection of Christ s Divinity is a man named Arius. Arius, was born in Egypt in 256 A.D., and was a parish priest in Alexandria. His mentor, whom he studied under, was St. Lucian of Antioch, who was the founder of the school of Antioch. The teaching Arius received from Lucion 3 was questionable. Because of this, Arius had a difficult time with the concept of the Trinity. Arius final conclusions on the Trinity and Christ are as follows: He identified the eternal Godhead with the Father and regarding the Logos as no more than a power or quality of the Father, he said that before time began the Father had created the Son by the power of the Word to be His agent in creation. The Son was not therefore to be identified with the Godhead, He was only God in a derivative sense, and since there was once when he did not exist He could not be eternal. Arius stressed the subordination of the Logos to such an extent as 1 Docetism means to seem 2 Gnostic Notes taken from Matthew Richard s sermon notes on 1 John 1:1-4 ~ Titled Three Senses. 3 Lucian had been condemned for holding that Christ was only a man; although he was later reconciled. ~ Arianism Versus the Council of Nicaea By John Raymond ~ Church History
to affirm His creaturehood, and to deny His eternity. This teaching of Arius "drove the distinctions outside the Deity and thus destroyed the Trinity. It meant solving the difficulty of the One and the Many by proposing a theory of one Supreme Being and two inferior deities (Ward 1955, 43)." The Person of Christ "belonged to no order of being that the Church could recognize... He was neither God nor man (Ward 1955, 42)." 4 Alister E. McGrath in his book, Historical Theology, summarizes Arius doctrine into three categories. They are: 1) The Son is a creature, who, like all other creatures, derives from the will of God. 2) The term Son is thus a metaphor; an honorific term intended to underscore the rank of the Son among other creatures. It does not imply that Father and Son share the same being or status. 3) The status of the Son is itself a consequence of the will of the Father; it is not a consequence of the nature of the Son, but of the will of the Father. 5 Essentially, the Divinity of Christ was on trial. Was the s 6 coeternal with God, or in other words, was the s God? This was the question that was under such debate. Arius did not see Christ as man or God, he believed Jesus was somewhere between the two. Higher then man but lower than God. As previously mentioned the climax to the Arianism controversy was in the year of 325 A.D. at the 1 st universal council in Nicea. Approximately 300 people attended this council to discuss various issues of the church and the main subject of Arianism. The results of this first Council will be discussed in detail in later parts of this report following a discussion on basic doctrine & tenets of the Jehovah s Witness Sect. 4 Raymond, John. Arianism Versus the Council of Nicaea (Church History ~ (www.monksofadoration.org/arianism.html), June 26, 2002. 5 McGrath, Alister. Historical Theology (Blackwell Publishers, 2000), 49. 6 s= word
Jehovah s Witnesses In 1852 the founder of the Jehovah Witnesses, Charles Russell, was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. As a child he only had approximately 5 years of formal education and worked for his father during the day and studied his Bible during the evenings. Russell was most intrigued with the prophetic books, such as Daniel. He would often be seen writing scripture verses with colored chalk on the sidewalks. Biblical accounts and passages about predestination and hell were exceptionally tough for Charles to understand and/or accept. 7 Throughout Russell s twenty s he accumulated a mass amount of wealth that he was quite willing to use it in distributing and marketing his religious beliefs. Following his involvement with a group called the Millerites, 8 the only religious group that Charles Russell didn t reject during his lifetime, he published 50,000 copies of a book titled The Object and Manner of the Lord s Return. Russell funded this project and also had the financial and emotional support of his father. 9 In 1879 the first periodical of Zion s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ s Presence was published. By the early 1880 s there were about 30 Jehovah s Witness congregations that were established in the seven states. In 1891 the sect s tract society had grown to be so large that it moved its headquarters to Brooklyn, NY where it remains today. 10 It is also important to note the Personal Characteristics of Charles Russell. When any particular new sect/religion is formed from one individual, it is important to understand the 7 Kephart, William & Zellner, William. Extraordinary Groups: An Examination of Unconventional Life-Styles, 5 th Edition (St. Martin s Press, 1994), 280-281. 8 Millerites were founded by William Miller who believed Christ s second advent would be in 1840. After his failed prophecy and death his followers recalculated Christ s 2 nd coming to 1873 or 1874. ~ Kephart, 281-282. 9 Kephart, 281-282. 10 Kephart, 282.
founder s tenets, lifestyle and overall vision. William Kephart and William Zellner describe Russell as: A small thin man with an ascetic demeanor. A spellbinding speaker who possessed charm and appeared to enjoy meeting people. Russell was a workaholic. It is estimated that in the forty years of his ministry, he traveled a million miles, delivered 30,000 sermons, and wrote more than 150,000 pages of biblical exposition. In 1879 Charles was married and by 1909 he was divorced because of alleged complaints that he had sexual relations with female members of the congregation. During his ministry, two serious scandals, apart from his marital difficulties, received much press attention and caused some loss of Society membership. In his Brooklyn congregation, Russell sold bushels of western wheat that was alleged to have marvelous properties. The wheat sold for sixty dollars a bushel. Grandiose claims for the magic grain brought vigorous press attacks. A similar episode involved Russell s endorsement and sale of a cancer cure, a compound of chloride of zinc, which may have sped some of his followers to an early retirement. The caustic paste was not only ineffective as a cure but also damaging to those who used it. 11 Following the death of Charles Russell, in 1916, the sect of Jehovah Witnesses pursued and continued their publications and preaching of their doctrine. There doctrine is very unique and they have other basic tenets that they adhere to. 12 The most significant belief that they hold would have to be their doctrine of who Jesus really is. Christ is at the center of the Bible and the center of salvation. The belief of who is Jesus is essential to understand and essential for our salvation. A recent article from the Web states that: Jehovah's Witnesses deny the deity of Christ, his physical resurrection and his visible return. They teach that the first creative act of the Father was to create the spirit being, Archangel Michael, who later donned a physical body to be seen by his followers in the persona of Jesus. Additionally, they hold that as Jesus, the Archangel was a perfect man who became the Messiah at the time of his baptism. The resurrection of Jesus is said to be a spiritual one, not a physical one. 13 I have found that their doctrine of Christ is very similar to the doctrine of Christ that Arius and his followers adhere to. Refer to the chart below for this example. 11 Kephart, 282-283. 12 See Appendix A for a table of their beliefs. 13 http://www.raptureinfo.com/witnesses.htm ~ June 26th, 2002.
Jehovah s Witness Tenets of Christ Arianism Tenets of Christ Jesus was a Created Spirit Being. 14 Christ was a Created Being. 15 The Word could not be God 16 The s is not God 17 Reject the Trinity Doctrine 18 Arius theology of Christ destroys the Trinity 19 Jesus is the first-born of all Creation 20 Jesus is the first of all creatures. 21 Jesus had not existed before his creation. 22 Word was not co-eternal with God. 23 God and Jesus are two separate beings, God the senior Jesus the junior--in time, position, power and knowledge. 24 The Father and Son do not share the same being or status. 25 As you will notice from above the Jehovah s Witnesses share many of the same characteristics and doctrines about Christ. For the remainder of this report I will be focusing in on these doctrines, the doctrines on Christ. The reason for devoting so much attention to this Doctrine is; if Christ is not incarnate God, then Eternal Salvation is simply not possible. As previously stated, the Jehovah s Witness sect shows very similar characteristics to the 4 th century Arianism heresy. In my studies, I found no reason to believe that the Jehovah s Witness beliefs came or were branched from Arianism. However, their beliefs are derived from their improper methods of Biblical Exegesis. Before I examine support verses Jehovah s Witnesses use for their doctrine and their methods of understanding them, I believe it is beneficial to surface and review the results of the Council of Nicea. The results from the council of Nicea may be valuable in examining the tenets of Jehovah s Witnesses since I have already established, with the table and references, that they hold to similar views of Christ Jesus that Arius did. 14 Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. Should You Believe in the Trinity? (Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1989), 14. 15 Hagglund, Bengt. History of Theology (Concordia Publishing House, 1966), 77 16 New World Translation of John 1:1 17 Gonzalez, Justo. The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Present Day (Prince Press, 1999), 161. 18 Should You Believe in the Trinity, 31. 19 Raymond, John. www.monksofadoration.org/arianism.html 20 Should You Believe in the Trinity, 14. 21 Gonzalez, 161. 22 Should You Believe in the Trinity, 14. 23 Gonzalez, 161. 24 Should You Believe in the Trinity, 16. 25 McGrath, 49.
Is Jesus Christ the Almighty God? The result of the Council of Nicea Section two of the report left off with the subject of Arianism and the Council of Nicea, the climax of the Arianism controversy. Having now examined the similarities between Arianism and the sect of Jehovah s Witnesses, I believe a basis has been established on which the subject of the Council of Nicea can now be properly discussed, even though they are separated by approximately 1700 years. The mentality and theology of Arius produces two particular problems. Bengt Hagglund says that the two criticisms that were directed at Arius because of his doctrine are: 1) He introduced polytheistic ideas and the worship of creation. 2) He destroyed the basis of salvation by denying the divinity of Christ. 26 If Christ is not Incarnate God then salvation is not possible. 27 How could a mere man or anything less than God forgive sins? Athanasius, Arius opponent, expounded on this idea by saying: It is only God who can save. God, and God alone, can break the power of sin, and bring us to eternal life. An essential feature of being a creature is that one requires to be redeemed. No creature can save another creature. Only the creator can redeem the creation. 28 Hagglund surfaces another interesting aspect that was hammered out during the struggle of Arianism. He states in his book on the History of Theology that: If Christ is not the Lord of Creation, neither could He carry out the work of redemption. If He is not God, He cannot make man divine. The real meaning of salvation is that it brings life and immortality to man. God s Son in human form could have conquered death, made atonement for guilty man, and restored man to life and immortality only if He is of God s own essence. 29 Gonzalez states that: 26 Hagglund, 77. 27 See Appendix B for Chart prepared by Matthew R. Richard titled If Christ is not Incarnate God then Salvation is not Possible. 28 McGrath, 49. 29 Hagglund, 77.
From the beginning, the church had worshiped Jesus Christ, and Arius proposal would now force it either to cease such worship, or to declare that it was worshiping a creature. Both alternatives being unacceptable, Arius was proven wrong. 30 All these issues and problems with the theology of Arius were surfaced at the Council of Nicea. Arius was not an official Bishop so he was not allowed to personally attend the Council. So, Eusebius of Nicomedia, along with a small number of Arians attended. This group was so convinced of Arius teaching that they believed after presenting their explanation and reasoning that the Council would unanimously agree and rebuke Alexander (Arius main opponent). Well, needless to say, they were wrong. Gonzalez in his book, The Story of Christianity, says that the Bishops, at the council, hoped to achieve a compromise on the Arian Controversy so that it would be possible to move on to other matters. But when they heard the assertions of Eusebius of Nicomedia, that the Word or Son was no more than a creature, this induced anger and hostility. In fact many bishops yelled: You lie! Blasphemy! Heresy! The yelling became so bad that he was shouted down and his speech was snatched from his hands, was torn to pieces and dropped to the ground where they stomped all over it. 31 The mood and atmosphere of the Council immediately changed from a feeling of compromise to an outright condemning attitude. The bishops were absolutely determined to reject the Arianism controversy. So, they drafted the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed 32 is a creed that was specifically drafted to combat this new heresy of Arianism. Looking to the second section of the Creed the language is definitely anti-arianism and clearly shows that Christ is Incarnate God. 30 Gonzalex, 161. 31 Gonzalez 164. 32 See Appendix C for the Nicene Creed.
The One Lord Jesus Christ Only-begotten Son of God Begotten of the Father before all worlds God of God Light of Light Very God of God Begotten, not made Being of one substance with the Father The Nicene Creed has become the most widely accepted Christian creed in the world. It is fully accepted by the Western churches (Protestant Churches stemming from the Reformation, and the Roman Catholic Church) and the Eastern churches (Greek Orthodox, Russian, and Orthodox alike). Additional Note: Following the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. there were many years were the followers of Arius continued to promote their stance of Arianism. It wasn t until the Council of Constantinople in 381 (later referred to as the Second Ecumenical Council), where the Nicene decision was confirmed anew and triumphed. 33 33 Hagglund, 78.