David Thornton - Sacred Tradition of Christianity

Being in Visions of Chrisitianity I have been exploring the historical aspects of the religion of Christianity. I has been interesting to see how different figures in early church have affected the Sacred traditions of Christianity’s core beliefs. The heretical views produced by Arius in early church history are some thing I believe that has helpfully formed and guided the formation of Christian theology. After investigating his views on God I think his main points can be summed up in his well known phrase “there was, when Jesus was not.” His opinion on the nature of God was driven by his belief in God’s creation of Jesus as apart of creation and in a separate existence from God. I believe that God exists in all dimensions of reality and that Jesus is one hundred percent God and one hundred percent human. Paul actually sends his letter to the church at Colosse because of heresy and other such evils infiltrating the Christians there. In Colossians 1:15 he says “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation…all things were created by him and for him.” Paul is explicitly discussing here the supremacy of Christ in fully being Divine. Also, I would like to point out that what Arius said was an extremely logical and valid idea of the nature of God in relation to the person of Jesus. What he said I believe is wrong but it still helps form the theological values of the early church and that situation is invaluable in shaping people’s values and faith. I think that it is a scary situation to have people speak untrue principles that appear and can be proven to be true, but regardless they should still be considered heresies. I think it is interesting though that the early church was quick to call him out on being wrong but took basically until that time to have motivation in taking leadership for a universal measuring stick of scripture for the Christian world to use. Arius as a figure in early church history gave motivation for early church fathers of Christianity to explore what they truly believe in regard to their values of the Sacred traditions of Christianity.