Slapped by Truth

Do you want to know why I love Church History? It is stories like this… one so unexpected and out of the perceived norm that you might expect it to appear on reality television instead of in the archives of church history. I am referring to the story of when a bishop in the early church got so worked up that he slapped the person he was debating over a theological dispute.  Want to know how that happened? Keep reading…

Let’s begin by setting the stage, it is in the 300’s AD and the church is still very new, and the apostles have all died off. Christianity has been an underground religion until recently when the new emperor legalized it. Now in the public eye, theological controversies are able to be freely debated.

One such controversy stated that Jesus was not God, but was the first created being by God the Father. It was championed by a guy named Arius. Here are his words, “If the Father begat the Son, he that was begotten had a beginning of existence: hence it is that there was when the Son was not. It follows then of necessity that he had his existence from the non-existence.” 

Essentially he believed that Jesus was created by God and was not eternal which is kind of a big deal. 

On the other side of the debate was a guy named Athanasius, who held the traditional Trinitarian view that is consistent with Christianity today. And so we have two opposing sides and to sort all of this out a meeting was called in 325 AD. It was held in Nicaea and was named the Council of Nicaea. 

With our stage set, now we can move to the aforementioned slap in the face. Both groups, led by their respective leaders, engaged in a vigorous debate over the course of a few months. On one such day when Arius was giving a speech, a young Bishop named Nicholas started getting worked up. Eventually, he couldn’t take it anymore, walked clear across the room, slapped Arius in the face, and returned to his seat. 

What a defense of truth! I mean maybe not the best way to handle things, but it sure does make for a great story, but a great story without a takeaway is just that, a story. So what is our takeaway?

I love this story because I think that more of us are like Arius than we realize. Let’s think about why he believed the way he did. 

The Trinity is impossible to explain, and that is just the truth. Arius, in an attempt to explain the Trinity, denied the truth of who Jesus is. It felt good because he could explain it, but in doing so he denied a critical aspect of the faith he held to.

God exists in a realm outside time and space (He created those). God exists where our physical limitations begin and where they end. The finite world we see was created by God and He is not limited by His creation. That being said there are things about God that we will not understand on this side of eternity. 

To explain them can be insanity, to deny them heresy, so we accept them as we accept Him.

Let’s look at one example, the miraculous. I cannot explain how the miraculous works. I cannot explain how healings happen. That is something that is outside my ability to comprehend, so I have two options, I can deny its existence, or I can accept it as a part of a God that exists outside this world He created. 

This week my question is this, are there areas where you might be limiting God because of your belief about what He can do? Are there areas where you have tried to explain something that cannot be explained? 

The invitation is always to grow closer to Him and there things that don’t make sense start to make sense. 

Garrett