🖼️ In the image, which is a Byzantine-style iconographic depiction of the First Council of Nicaea (325 CE), the central figure is Emperor Constantine the Great, seated in regal attire, symbolizing his role as convener and imperial authority over the council.

Arius is depicted at the bottom, lying down, which symbolizes his condemnation. This artwork likely represents the First Council of Nicaea, where Arius was declared a heretic for his views on the nature of Christ, which were deemed contrary to the established doctrine.

✝️ Arius and the Council of Nicaea: The Fight for the Nature of Christ

In the fourth century, a major theological controversy shook the early Christian Church—one that would shape the foundations of Christian doctrine for centuries. At the heart of this controversy stood Arius, a presbyter from Alexandria, whose teachings sparked one of the most consequential debates in church history.

🧠 Arius and His Controversial Theology

Arius was not an outsider to the Church. He was a well-educated man who had studied under Lucian of Antioch, a respected Christian teacher. Yet, Arius proposed a radical interpretation of the relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ (the Son).

📖 Referring to verses like John 14:28, where Jesus says, “The Father is greater than I,” Arius concluded that the Son was not eternal. According to him, the Son was a created being, begotten by the Father, and therefore there was a time when the Son did not exist.

🗣️ His teaching was summarized in the chilling axiom:

“There was a time when He [the Son] was not.”

For Arius, this preserved the absolute uniqueness and transcendence of God the Father. But for many in the Church, it endangered the full divinity of Christ and struck at the heart of Christian faith.

🔥 Crisis in Alexandria

Arius’s views ignited fierce conflict within the Church of Alexandria. His teachings challenged the traditional understanding of Christ’s divine nature and caused deep theological unrest among both clergy and laity.

🏛️ Constantine and the Council of Nicaea

The growing theological strife eventually drew the attention of Emperor Constantine, who had recently embraced Christianity as a tool to unify the Roman Empire. Troubled by the divisions in the Church, Constantine took an unprecedented step: he convened the First Council of Nicaea in 325 CE.

📜 He summoned bishops from across the Christian world to settle the theological dispute once and for all.

⚔️ Debate and Imperial Influence

At the council, Church fathers debated Arius’s theology with rigorous conviction. While many bishops opposed Arius on theological grounds, the most decisive factor was Constantine’s own intervention. The emperor ultimately sided with the Nicene faction, which upheld the belief that the Son is “of the same substance” (homoousios) as the Father.

🏛️ Constantine’s imperial authority carried immense weight. The result: Arius’s teachings were condemned, and he was excommunicated from the Church.

🕊️ The Verdict: Homoousios — Of the Same Substance

The Council of Nicaea declared that Jesus Christ is fully divine and not a created being. The term homoousios (Greek for “of the same substance”) was adopted to describe the relationship between the Father and the Son.

🕊️ This was enshrined in the Nicene Creed:

“True God from true God, begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father.”

This declaration affirmed that the Son is coeternal and coequal with the Father—not a lesser being, but fully divine.

✍️ Final Thoughts

The Arian controversy and the Council of Nicaea were pivotal moments in the history of the Church. They forced Christians to confront profound questions:

❓ Who is Jesus, really?

❓ Is He truly God, or merely a creature?

❓ What does it mean for God to become man?

By affirming the coeternity and equality of the Son with the Father, the Church not only rejected Arius’s doctrine but also laid the cornerstone for Trinitarian theology that would define Christianity for generations to come.

📚 The history of theology is not just about the past—it is a mirror reflecting timeless questions about divine identity and faith.

— Azahari Hassim

Founder, The World of Abrahamic Theology