Is Jesus Eternal?

Is Jesus Eternal?

The question was whether Jesus had a beginning..

ARIANISM was a heresy dating to the early fourth century, when an Alexandrian named Arius denied the eternality of Jesus Christ, God the Son. Arius argued that, as a human who had a beginning and experienced development, Jesus could not have been eternal. In 325 the Council of Nicea condemned Arianism. This put an end to the controversy in the Roman Empire, but Arianism maintained a following among some Germanic peoples, such as the Vandals.

In 429 Gaiseric, then king of the Vandals, led his eighty thousand people out of Spain and conquered North Africa. The Roman Empire ceded part of the territory to the Vandals by treaty. Four years later Gaiseric took Carthage. At the height of the Vandals’ power in 455, they sacked Rome.

Gaiseric was primarily interested in the wealth to be acquired through conquering North Africa; however, his son Huneric wished to promote Arianism. When Huneric first took power in 477 at his father’s death, he showed some religious tolerance by allowing a Catholic bishop to be ordained in Carthage, the first time the position had been filled in twenty-four years. But near the end of his life he launched a brutal campaign to force Catholic Christians to convert to Arianism.

In 483 Huneric announced that beginning on February 1 of the following year, he would sponsor a debate that would decide the superior merit of either Arianism or Catholic Christianity. Hundreds of bishops from the two sides gathered in Carthage in spite of serious misgivings by the Catholics. It turned out the debate was a sham—in fact, it never took place, as the Arian bishops used technicalities to forestall discussion. On February 25, 484, Huneric published a decree accusing the Catholic bishops of “[taking] it upon themselves, with consummate foolhardiness, to throw everything into confusion with seditious shouting, with the intention of bringing it about that the debate did not take place.” Huneric cancelled the debate and decreed that non-Arian worship be prohibited, all Catholic churches be turned over to the Arians, and all Catholic bishops convert to Arianism by June 1 of that year.

Hundreds of Catholic bishops were stripped of their possessions and exiled for their refusal to convert. Even in exile they were scourged, and some were killed. The Vandals divided families and subjected their victims, young and old, to beatings, mutilations, draggings, and hangings.

Huneric died in December 484, the same year of his decree, and his successors did not continue the violent persecution he had begun. The hold of Arianism and the strength of the Vandals waned. In 533, when the Vandals were defeated, North Africa once again became part of the Roman Empire, and orthodox Christianity was reestablished.

Reflection

Do you believe that God the Son always existed? If you do, how would you explain that to the next Jehovah’s Witnesses (modern-day Arians) who come knocking on your door? Why not prepare your answer now so you are prepared when they come.

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before God made anything at all and is supreme over all creation. Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—kings, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities. Everything has been created through him and for him. He existed before everything else began, and he holds all creation together.

Colossians 1:15-17