THE GRINCH THAT ALMOST STOLE CHRISTMAS
Can you imagine this time of year without Christmas and its celebrations?
Can you imagine an end of the calendar year with no festivities, no decorations in the home and community,
no gift-giving, no special meals, no TV specials, no special music on the radio, no special worship services,
and no family gatherings? Can you imagine a Christianity with no Christmas? It almost happend.
The setting of this true story is the pagan Roman Empire as it was slowly, but surely,
becoming Christian in the fourth century A.D. Before Christianity became a tolerated religion in 313 A.D.,
it was persecuted and had no public festivals. Thus the earliest origins of public festivals of the Christian
church are from the time when Christianity was tolerated, i.e., from the fourth century A.D. and thereafter.
But which Christianity was this going to be? As soon as Christianity was accepted by the Roman
Emperor Constantine the Great, a theological battle was drawn between two religious factions for the soul
of the church. One faction, led by Bishop Alexander of Alexandria, upheld the biblical doctrine that Jesus
was with the Father eternally, before the creation of anything, and that Jesus was "of the same
substance as the Father." Another faction known as "Arianism," led by Arius, a pastor in Alexandria,
did not believe that Jesus was fully God in the same way as the Father, but was something like what
Roman Catholics today venerate as "saints."
Arius in this story is the "Grinch." If Jesus was just another "saint" as Arius believed, then
his birthday would be no more special than any of the other Christian "saints." Alban Butler published his
Lives of the Saints in 1756. The latest revision of this book contains the lives of 2,565 saints.
On averange, that is enough to celebrate seven saints per day for every day of the year.
If Arius had won his theological battle, Jesus would really be no more important than the rest of the 2,565 saints,
and there certainly would be no special day known as "Christmas." Among Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox,
if Arius had prevailed, the merits of Christ would not count for anything more than the merits of any of
those 2,565 saints. If Arius had this way, Jesus would not be THE savior of the world in Christendom,
just one of many "saviors."
Emperor Constantine was a smart guy, so he tried to get the Christians together on the "same page."
That page was the words of the Nicene Creed written at the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.
That creed, which we still use today, was a short-lived victory for the "Nicene" faction, i.e., the faction
that confessed that Jesus was equal to God. The Nicene faction was led by Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria
(he became successor to Alexander in 328). The politics soon got ugly. Athanasius was banished from the
Empire in 335 A.D., and Constantine and his family became Arian. For a long forty-five years, Arianism had
the upper-hand in defining Christianity, though the Nicene faction did not give up. It looked like
there never would be a Christmas, thanks to Arius.
Then the imperial power passed out of the family of Constantine, and in 380 A.D., a new family
of Constantine, and in 380 A.D., a new Roman Emperor was elected, Theodosius the First, who was fully committed to
the Nicene Creed and the belief that Jesus was fully God in every way. In the same year as his accession,
380 A.D., Theodosius issued the Edict of Thessalonica, which guaranteed that Christianity was to be the official
church of the Roman Empire -- and that it would be defined by the Nicene Creed, just as we know it today.
This guaranteed that the official doctrine of the West and East portions of the Roman Empire would include:
Jesus' unique position among all the persons of the Bible, the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity,
and the orthodox doctrine of Jesus' eternal-and-coequal divine nature.
The ideas of the Grinch-oops, I mean Arius-have never gone away entirely. In the sisteenth century,
there were a group of religious people whose doctrine was essentially Arian. They were known as "New Antitrinitarians,"
"New Arians," or "Socinians," after their founder Fausto Sozzini (1539-1604). Their doctrine was explicity rejected
by the Lutheran Formula of Concord, Article XII. The Lutheran Book of Concord also added an Appendix called a
"Catalog of Testimonies" to defend the Nicene position with Scripture passages and citations from the councils
and theologians of the early church.
"Socinians" were persecuted in Italy, were not welcome in Protestant lands, and finally found a
home in Poland where they were known as the "Polish brethren." Their official doctrine was summed up in the Racovian Catechism
(1605). Socinian theology rejected the views of Nicene Christianity regarding the knowledge of God,
the doctrines of the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, original sin, and Jesus' suffering and death as
punishment for the sins of the world. This was the origin of the Unitarian denomination
which still exists today in the United States and other places. Socinian writings were eagerly studied by English
and French "free-thinkers" such as Isaac Newton, John Locke, Voltaire, and Pierre Bayle.
Wider-ranging acceptance of Arian/Socinian ideas began with the Deist controversies in the
late 17th and 18th century England and France. It continued in Germany in the development of
Liberal Protestantism in the 19th century. Today, sad to say, no Liberal Protestant mainline
denomination affirms that "Jesus is the only Son of God begotten from eternity." Thankfully Nicene Christianity is
still confessed by The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, other conservative Protestants, the Roman Catholics,
the Eastern Orthodox churches, and many other churches founded in the first centuries A.D., such as the
Egyptian Copic and Indian Mar Thoma churches. That is something worth celebrating this Christmas and every year,
until Jesus returns in glory with all the angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven!
Yours in Christ,
