February 1 - Just make a decision!

February 1 – Just make a decision!

The Council of Nicea’s declaration that Jesus was fully God was great, but now what to do about whether or not Jesus was fully human? Oh yah – that was still being argued over (and over and over).

The church in the early 400s was in a battle. The churches of Alexandria and Rome tended to work together against the churches of Antioch and Constantinople. Politics + Religion? Oh, this isn’t going to be good, no matter what happens.

In Alexandria, the general teaching was that Jesus was divine – they emphasized the LOGOS – the divine Word much more than Jesus’ humanity. A man named Apollinarius, in his haste to fight against Arianism pushed things a bit too far by stating that the LOGOS replaced Jesus’ human soul – Christ was only human in bodily form. Whoops.

In Antioch, the focus was primarily on Jesus’ humanity. Though he was divine, His humanity was complete.

Nestorius – patriarch (yah – they have patriarchs now – they’re the archbishops) of Constantinople got upset because of teaching from Apollinarius was still out there that said Mary was the ‘bearer of God’. He wanted people to understand that Jesus was God … and human. Well, so that blew up in his face.

The patriarch of Alexandria – Cyril, accused him of saying that Jesus was two separate natures in one body. Cyril was kind of corrupt – he’d even approved the murder of a woman in 415 AD.

So, with the threat of a church split on them, a council was called in 431. Cyril got there first, condemning Nestorius and his followers and adjourned the council! Nestorius’ friends showed up, convened the council and condemned Cyril and adjourned. Finally representatives from Rome showed up, convened the council a third time, sided with Cyril and exiled Nestorius. Oh the craziness!

Jesus with one nature was the ruling of the council. This didn’t set well with people. There was still a lot of argument.