Council Day 3- Athanasius

I am thoroughly dissatisfied with the proceedings of our council. I cannot support a creed that omits that Christ is “uncreated” and “co-eternal” with God. I have devoted my life to the study of the nature of God and his relationship to God. I have written profusely on this topic and if you all would like, you may read http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/theology/incarnation_st_athanasius.pdf.  The coming of flesh did not change Christ’s abilities. He embodied flesh, but was not born, out of the goodness of God for the salvation of man. I could continue continue on about my findings, but it would be almost a waste of my pen’s strokes as my findings will only be discredited for immaterial reasons such as an apostle I quote was not a worthy person and we should therefore not use their gospel when we have used it for a hundred years.

The Arians refuse to even hear or compromise on the creed. We Alexandrians were willing to omit “true God from true God” and include “begotten” for the sake of finding middle ground with the Arians. Arius even went as far as to cry out that he would leave the church if the creed was not what he wanted. This goes against all of his promotion of unity he had previously claimed. Our emperor Constantine’s goal is unity, and Arius took that to his advantage to say he wanted unity to gain the emperor’s support and thus more power in the church. His only goal was to get his way, by whatever means possible.

Arius also seems to advocate for unity because he knows his beliefs are of the minority.  The Alexandrian belief of Christ is not simply the majority in our council, but also in the empire. If the Arian creed is passed, his views will continue to conflict with the majority of Christians and further disrupt the church and the empire, disrupting the unity he claims to support. I urge you all to not think of your own egos and to instead do what is best for our brothers in Christ who have no say and do what is best for the empire. Let’s create a creed that will not alienate or confuse our parishioners.

I am also aware of Constantine’s noble power to exile those who do not agree on the creed. I would like to say that there are many well-respected leaders of the church in attendance at the council. If one of these individuals is exiled, it will send the church into a frenzy because what is known and established will be destroyed, breaking any building ground that we would have had for unity.