Tuesday, February 16, 2021

J. Reuben Clark Jr and Bijhan Nasser-Faili: For Latter-day Saints, Arianism is a Heresy

 

The doctrine of the divinity of Christ is the most fundamental tenet of the Christian religion. Without a knowledge of the divinity of Christ, his unchangeableness, and his eternal nature it would be impossible for anyone to exercise faith in him for eternal life and salvation. R. Reuben Clark Jr has correctly recognized the historical and theological significance of the Arian controversy:

 

For the first Christian centuries, and following Simon the sorcerer, heretics and heresies, great and small, sought to distort or wipe out the recognition of Jesus as the Christ. Time buried the heretics and most of heresies. But one heresy has lived on, usually in the dark corners of ecclesiastical discussion, but sometimes in the open. I speak of Arianism that nearly wrecked the Christian Church in the time of Constantine. It is an obscure and shifting doctrine that, shortly put, and in general terms, denies the Godhood of Jesus Christ. (J Reuben Clark Jr, tract, Our Bible. Emphasis added)

 

Thus Arianism was indeed a heresy, possibly the most serious that had arisen in Christianity up to that time, and the most controversial. It struck at the roto of the most fundamental tenet of Christian faith: the divinity of Christ. (Bijhan Nasser-Faili, Essays on Doctrine: Nine Articles Relating to the Doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [3d ed.; Antum Publications, 2020], 9)

 

Further Reading


Is Latter-day Saint Christology "Arian"?