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In Honor of Athanasius


Today, Feb 8, is a memorable date in the Church's History.  On Feb 8, 356, while leading a worship service in Alexandria, Egypt, the Bishop of the church in Alexandria, Athanasius, had the service interrupted by armed troops of the emperor who sent them to arrest him for heresy.
Athanasius was one of the early church's most important individuals.  He was a brilliant theologian who wrote the great masterpiece - "On the Incarnation" - which defines the important tension of Christ as both human and divine.  This was a direct attack upon the heresy of Arianism that had crept into the church and was becoming a popular alternative to what is true.

So What Was the Big Deal? 

Arius, whom Athanasius deposed, maintained that Jesus was "divine" but not fully God. Rather, he was a created being. Athanasius insisted that Jesus was fully God. Is all this idle theological speculation? Not according to Athanasius. At stake was nothing less than this: God so loved the world that for our salvation He did not send one of His creatures to do the dirty work but came Himself.
For this, Athanasius was exiled by the Emperor several times.

At the Council of Nicea - Nicea was the first of the great church councils - Athanasius went as an assistant to his bishop, Alexander, and helped win the day for the orthodox. He replied to the Arians and drafted the council's creed.

He also helped define what we have as the Bible. Writing his Easter letter to his people in 367, Athanasius set forth the authoritative list of Christian writings (27 books) that would be finally approved at the Council of Carthage in 397 and accepted by the Christian church as the closed canon of the New Testament.

He also wrote An Early Christian Biography: Athanasius's Life of Antony
Athanasius was so impressed by the spirituality of St. Antony of the Desert, the first notable Christian monk, that he wrote his life--one of the first Christian biographies. In the selection that follows, he tells how Antony gave up all that he had.

After the death of his father and mother, Antony was left alone with one little sister: his age was about eighteen or twenty....

"It was not six months after the death of his parents, and going according to custom to the Lord's House, he communed with himself and reflected as he walked how the Apostles left all and followed the Savior; and how those in Acts sold their possessions and brought and laid them at the Apostles' feet for distribution to the needy, and what and how great a hope was laid up for them in heaven. Pondering over these things, he entered church, and it happened the Gospel was being read, and he heard the Lord saying to the rich man, 'If thou wouldest be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor; and come follow Me and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.'
Antony, as though God had put him in mind of the Saints and the passage had been read on his account, went out immediately from the church, and gave the possessions of his forefathers to the villagers--they were three hundred acres, productive and very fair--that they should be no more a clog upon himself and his sister. And all the rest that was movable he sold, and having got together much money he gave it to the poor, reserving a little, however, for his sister's sake."

SO...on Feb 8, 2013, it's my desire to honor this man of great faith!

Peace

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