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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