Welcome to Boot Camp IV

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Welcome to Boot Camp IV Warriors of the Faith
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Athanasius Against the World
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I. Historical and Political Backdrop

• A. The Roman Empire (27 B.C.-476 A.D.)
• B. Emperor Diocletian (244-311)
• Roman Emperor from 284-305
• The Diocletian Persecution

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Emperor Constantine (272-337)
I. Historical and Political Backdrop

• Successor to Diocletian, Emperor from 306-337
• Reversed Diocletians persecutions
• Issued Edict of Milan in 313 religious
  toleration
• Considered first Christian Emperor

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II.Background of Athanatius (298-373)
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II.Background of Athanatius (298-373)

• Secretary for Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria,
  Egypt
• Became Bishop of Alexandria in 328 at age 30
• Viewed as bishop in Alexandria until his death in
  373 at age 75
• Driven into exile by Romans 5 times

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II.Background of Athanatius (298-373)

• He returned after six years away during his third
  exile
• amid such delight of the people of the city and
  of almost all Egypt, that they ran together from
  every side, from the furthest limits of the
  country simply to hear the voice of Athanasius,
  or feast their eyes upon the sight of him.

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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry

• A. Athanasius Contra Mundum Against the World
• orthodoxy a belief in the standards of
  accepted and true doctrines taught in the Bible
• At stake Christs deity
• Known as Father of Orthodoxy

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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry

• B. The battle with Arius (256-336)
• A deacon in Libya
• Wrote a letter to bishop Alexander in 319 that
  said
• If the Father begat the Son, then he who was
  begotten had a beginning in existence, and from
  this it follows there was a time when the Son was
  not.

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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry

• Firestorm in the Christian Community
• In 321, a synod was convened under Bishop
  Alexander
• Arius deposed and views declared heresy

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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry
Synod at Alexandria to depose Arius

• Firestorm in the Christian Community
• In 321, a synod was convened under Bishop
  Alexander
• Arius deposed and views declared heresy
• Athanasius wrote deposition against Arius
• Arianism spread for 40 yrs

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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry

• Firestorm in the Christian Community
• In 321, a synod was convened under Bishop
  Alexander
• Arius deposed and views declared heresy
• Athanasius wrote deposition against Arius
• Arianism spread for 40 yrs

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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry

• B. The Battle with Arius
• 1. Key tenets of Arianism
• The Son had a birth.
• There was a time when the Son of God did not
  exist.
• The Son of God was _______ than the Father.
• There can be no distinctions within the divine
  nature.
• God can have no real __________ with the world.
• God is unknowable, even to the Son.
• The Son exists by an act of ____________ of the
  Father.

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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry

• B. The Battle with Arius
• 1. Key tenets of Arianism
• The Son had a birth.
• There was a time when the Son of God did not
  exist.
• The Son of God was less than the Father.
• There can be no distinctions within the divine
  nature.
• God can have no real __________ with the world.
• God is unknowable, even to the Son.
• The Son exists by an act of ____________ of the
  Father.

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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry

• B. The Battle with Arius
• 1. Key tenets of Arianism
• The Son had a birth.
• There was a time when the Son of God did not
  exist.
• The Son of God was less than the Father.
• There can be no distinctions within the divine
  nature.
• God can have no real contact with the world.
• God is unknowable, even to the Son.
• The Son exists by an act of ____________ of the
  Father.

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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry

• B. The Battle with Arius
• 1. Key tenets of Arianism
• The Son had a birth.
• There was a time when the Son of God did not
  exist.
• The Son of God was less than the Father.
• There can be no distinctions within the divine
  nature.
• God can have no real contact with the world.
• God is unknowable, even to the Son.
• The Son exists by an act of creation of the
  Father.

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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry

• B. The Battle with Arius
• 1. Key theological implication of Arianism
• Jesus is not true God He is not true man
  therefore He cannot be the mediator between God
  and man.

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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry

• C. The Council of Nicaea (325)
• Emperor Constantine was concerned.
• Constantine called the Council at Nicaea in
  Constantinople.
• 318 bishops
• Others were allowed to attend including Arius and
  Athanasius
• May through August
• Concluded with statement defining orthodoxy

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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry

• C. The Council of Nicaea (325)
• Emperor Constantine was concerned.
• Constantine called the Council at Nicaea in
  Constantinople.
• 318 bishops
• Others were allowed to attend including Arius and
  Athanasius
• May through August
• Concluded with statement defining orthodoxy

The Council of Nicaea (325) Emperor Constantine,
presiding
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The Nicene Creed
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
Maker of all things visible, and invisible. And
in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
begotten of the Father the only-begotten, that
is, of the essence of the Father, God of God,
and Light of Light, very God of very God,
begotten, not made, being of one substance with
the Father
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The Nicene Creed (Contd)
by whom all things were made in heaven and on
earth who for us men, and for our salvation,
came down and was incarnate and was made man
he suffered, and the third day he rose again,
ascended into heaven from thence he cometh to
judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy
Ghost.
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The Nicene Creed (Contd)
And those who say there was a time when he was
not and he was not before he was made and he
was made out of nothing, or out of another
substance or thing or the Son of God is created,
or changeable, or alterable they are condemned
by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.
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The Nicene Creed (Contd)
Athanatius at Nicaea
And those who say there was a time when he was
not and he was not before he was made and he
was made out of nothing, or out of another
substance or thing or the Son of God is created,
or changeable, or alterable they are condemned
by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.
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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry

• B. The First Exile (336-338)
• Bishop Arsenius was bribed to disappear
• Athanasius trial
• Arsenius is alive
• Athanasius was still condemned, more false
  accusations
• Constantine banished him in 336
• Restored to office in 337

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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry

• C. The Second Exile (339-346)
• Eusebius persuaded Constantius to get rid of
  Athanasius
• Athanasius is forced out of the city
• His longest time away from his flock (7 yrs)
• Constantius restores Athanasius in 346

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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry

• D. The Third Exile (356-362)
• Women were murdered, the church wrecked and
  polluted with the very worst orgies of
  heathenism, houses and even tombs were ransacked
  throughout the city and suburbs on pretense of
  seeking for Athanasius.

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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry

• E. The Fourth Exile (362-364)
• But in October of 362 Athanasius was again
  driven from his office by the emperors wrath
  when he realized that Athanasius took his
  Christianity seriously enough to reject the pagan
  gods.

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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry

• F. The Fifth Exile (365-366)
• Athanasius I have no fear, for many long years
  I have suffered persecution, and never has it
  disturbed the peace of my soul. It is a joy to
  suffer, and the greatest of all joys is to give
  ones life for Christ.

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III. Athanatius Life and Ministry

• G. Final Years
• In 368, it was decreed that no bishop should be
  consecrated unless he held the Creed of Nicaea.
• He spent his last years shepherding pastors and
  writing in the support of orthodoxy.
• Athanasius died on May 2, 373.

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IV. Application of Athanatius battle to our
battle

• 1. Sound doctrine is not optional, it is a matter
  of life and death.
• Whats at stake? __________

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IV. Application of Athanatius battle to our
battle

• 1. Sound doctrine is not optional, it is a matter
  of life and death.
• Whats at stake? Everything!

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IV. Application of Athanatius battle to our
battle

• 1. Sound doctrine is not optional, it is a matter
  of life and death.
• Whats at stake? Everything!
• There is no salvation if Jesus Christ was not
  fully God
• There are doctrines in the Bible worth our life

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IV. Application of Athanatius battle to our
battle

• 2. Courage and joy, in the face of conflict, go
  hand in hand.

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IV. Application of Athanatius battle to our
battle

• 2. Courage and joy, in the face of conflict, go
  hand in hand.
• Athanasius lived Contra Mundum Against the World

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IV. Application of Athanatius battle to our
battle

• Let us be courageous and rejoice always Let us
  consider and lay to heart that while the Lord is
  with us, our foes can do us no hurt But if they
  see us rejoicing in the Lord, contemplating the
  bliss of the future, mindful of the Lord, deeming
  all things in His hand - they are discomfited
  and turned backwards.

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IV. Application of Athanatius battle to our
battle

• 3. Loving Christ includes loving true
  propositions about Christ
• a. 4th century
• Arius There was a time when the Son of God
  was not.
• Truth from Scripture/Nicene Orthodoxy

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IV. Application of Athanatius battle to our
battle

• 3. Loving Christ includes loving true
  propositions about Christ
• a. 4th century
• Arius The Son of God is created.
• Truth from Scripture/Nicene Orthodoxy

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IV. Application of Athanatius battle to our
battle

• b. 21st century
• McLaren Orthodoxy is "a way of seeing and
  seeking, a way of living, a way of thinking and
  loving and learning that helps what we believe
  become more true over time, more resonant with
  the infinite glory that is God."
• Truth from Scripture

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IV. Application of Athanatius battle to our
battle

• b. 21st century
• McLaren The core message of Jesus focused on
  personal, social, and global transformation in
  this life.
• Truth from Scripture

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IV. Application of Athanatius battle to our
battle

• b. 21st century
• Doug Pagitt Are you suggesting to me that
  Heaven is actually a place? When you say where
  do I go?, youre suggesting to me that the reign
  of God, that the place of God is an is an
  individual PLACE that you go? Is that what youre
  suggesting?
• Truth from Scripture

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Athanatius Contra Mundum