The Three Ecumenical Councils and the history of the church

Marianne87

I was just reading that Fr. Zakria Mikhail topic, and was wondering about what are the counsels and all the heretics that the church went through. Like I never really got in depth with that, but I learned the names quite a few years ago, and I remember our creed was as a result of one by Athansuis, but don't really know much about that, so if anyone has a specific website or info about that...that will be great..thanks in advance and god bless.

PS: I guess maybe a general history about the church would be good too...I just wanna know more about our Coptic Church and how it standed that strong through the ages.

Unknown

Ecumenical Council #1: The Council of Nicaea, 325 A.D.

Attendance:

It was convened by the Roman Emporer St Constantine The Great, and was attended by 318 fathers including the great St Athanasius of Alexandria.

Heresies condemned:

1) Arianism - which teaches that The Son of God was created, and of an inferior substance to the Father such that they were not co-equal.

2) Sabellianism (or paulianism) - which teaches that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the same person, as opposed to three distinct persons in a Trinity.

Other condemnations:

Quartodecimians and Meletians were also condemned, but I don't think this had anything to do with doctrinal matters, so they weren't exactly heretics, simply schismatics.

Ecumenical Council #2: The Council of Constantinople, 381 A.D.

Attendance:

It was convened by the Roman Emperor Theodosius, and presided over at first by St. Meletius of Antioch, but following his departure, was presided by St. Gregory the Theologian, Patriarch of Constantinople (which by then was the New Rome), and it was attended by 150 bishops.

Heresies condemned:

- Arianism (again) - see above

- Semi-Arianism - which teaches that Christ is of a "similar", yet nonetheless different, essence to the Father.

- Macedonianism (or Pneumatomachism) - which teaches that the Holy Spirit is a mere creature.

- Apollinarianism - which teaches that Christ does not possess a rational human mind.

- Marcellianism - which teaches that the Son and Holy Spirit are not eternal persons, but are rather transitions of the Father that would again unite into one person with the Father at the end of the ages.

- Millenarianism - which teaches the literal thousand-year reign of Christ.

Ecumenical Council #3: The Council of Ephesus 431

Attendance:

It was convened by the Emperor Theodosius II, and presided over by the Coptic Pope St. Cyril of Alexandria, and attended by more than 200 other fathers.

Heresies condemned:

- Nestorianism - which teaches that the person of Christ consists of two hypostasis/persons, a human and divine. It also teaches that the Theotokos is therefore to be called Christotokos, since she supposedly gave birth to the man Christ who was later indwelt by the divine Word, such that The Word was not the subject of the Incarnation, but a separate person who worked with the human person of Christ.

Peace.

Marianne87

Thanks Iqbal, that was very detailed and thanks for correcting the name too...lol

Another kinda of a related question, did other branches of Christianity resulted of those heresies, or called themeseleves "Christians," because I think jehovas witnesses believe of that heresy of Arianism.

Thanks again and God Bless

Unknown

Another kinda of a related question, did other branches of Christianity resulted of those heresies, or called themeseleves "Christians," because I think jehovas witnesses believe of that heresy of Arianism.

I wouldn’t call them “branches of Christianity” since they are not within the bounds of the true Christian Church; I wouldn’t even call some of these sects “Christian” at all – but that’s not any sort of official position or anything.

In any event, certain heretical sects which are in existence today have indeed maintained certain heresies condemned at these three authoritative councils, in various modified forms. Jehovah’s Witnesses and other “Unitarian” heretical sects have a “sort of” Arian conception of Christ – denying His consubstantiality to and eternal generation from the Father. Oneness Pentecostals seem to adhere to a form of the Sabellian heresy, and most protestant sects ascribe to the heresy of Millenarianism. I believe, the church going under the title of “The Assyrian Orthodox Church” have maintained the Nestorian heresy - though I should point out that i'm not absolutely confident about this. I’m not so sure about the rest…

Ofcourse, there exist many hundreds and hundreds of other heretical sects out there adopting heresies not dealt with by these three Ecumenical Councils.

Peace.

Safaa

Hello Marianne87,

Thank you for this rich and informative thread, however I can not add to much to it after what Iqbal has excellently written. I just can elaborate to the development of the Creed.

The Nicean Creed, also known as the Athanasian Creed, for he is the sole writer of it, start with " Truly we believe in one God..........whose kingdom shall have no end "

In The Concil of Constantinople, the Bishops Added to the Creed " Truly we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Live giver, who proceeds from the Frther..........."

In the Council of Ephesus. chaired by St. Cyril the Great, called The Pillar of Faith, the 24th Patriarch of Alexandria the following was put at the begining of the Creed " We magnify you, O mother of the true light, and we glorify you, O holy virgin mother of God,............Lord have merce, Lord have mercy, Lord bless us Amen ."

Marianne87

Oh..I didn't know the Creed was developed over the three councils, I just thought it was a result of one. Thanks for that Safaa.

Unknown

Oh..I didn't know the Creed was developed over the three councils, I just thought it was a result of one.

As you can see, each part of the creed was dealing with a particular heresy, that is how it developed; as a solid affirmation of the Orthodox faith in the face of those who tried to corrupt it. Thus, in the face of Arianism which became a problem at the time of Nicea, we declared with boldness that Christ is:

"...the only begotten Son of God, (1) born of the Father before all ages light of light, (2) true God of true God. (3) Begotten not made, (4) consubstantial to the Father, by whom all things were made."

These above 4 principles directly contradicted and refuted the Arian teaching:

(1) Addressed the fact that Christ's relationship to the Father is such that He is eternally begotten of Him. The Church Fathers likened this beggeting, to the Sun which begets rays. As long as the sun exists, so too does its rays which are begotten of the sun. Likewise, since the Son is begotten of the Father like the rays of the sun are generated from the sun, so too does The Son exist along with the Father, as the rays of the sun exist along with the sun. Therefore as The Father is eternal, so too is The Son eternal.

(2) Addressed the fact that Christ is truly and genuinly the One God as is The Father. It shows that since the Father is true God, he must beget none other than true God, for he cannot beget that which is of a different essence. A very simple analogy to this would be with regards to humans. Humans beget humans, they do not beget for example trees - they beget that which is of the same essence as they are.

(3) Addressed the fact that Christ is begotten as opposed to created. The sun does not create its light rays, it generates them. Likewise the father eternally generates The Son - He is not created by the Father, He is eternal like Him.

(4) Addressed the fact that Christ is of the same self-substance as the Father.

The second half of the creed, concerns the Holy Spirit - and this was developed later at Constantinople, because as i mentioned in my first post - this is when certain heresies regarding the Holy Spirit started to rise, so the Church had to react and solidify its faith in written form, and so we find added:

"Yes we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who together with the Father and the Son is to be adored and glorified."

Peace.