Great Christian Biographies with John Piper: Athanasius Part 1

Biblical Mandate for Biography and Prayer for Faithfulness

The following message is by Pastor John Piper. More information from desiring. God is available at www .desiringgod .org.

Consider your leaders who spoke to you the Word of God Consider the outcome of their faith and imitate their lives. This is biblical mandate for biography and I take it seriously. And I ask now that among the Untold number of things that you plan to do here now in this hour and in this conference You would grant us to love the gospel of the glory of Christ Who is the image of God and is our everlasting?

Satisfaction more because of this. I Pray that you would make these pastors more courageous Because of this and less fearful and anxious in dealing with the truth. I pray that you will illumine our minds concerning the nature of truth and The way it should be expressed and defended in our day.

I Pray that we would know our times and render far-seeing service to the church and I pray that we would stand against the world For the sake of the world Mingling properly Do not be conformed to this age and Become all things to all people and I pray that someday.

None.

Would be missing from this room when we gather to be and see and And delight and display the glory of Christ. Forever and ever with ever-increasing joy. Help me now to be faithful to the truth. Concerning Athanasius and concerning our day as your word comes to bear on both in Jesus name I pray amen a few comments about books and then we launch.

Books on Athanasius and the Trinity

This is the Nicene and post-nicene fathers Athanasius selected words everything he wrote that's available is in here. So put this in your library if you don't have the Multi-volume set you can get the one on Athanasius and I could mention individual works that are in here that are worth the whole volume.

But maybe that later and then this you can read in one sitting and it's a good overview of his life very popular. Written by a nun I believe and I that was my first thing I just jumped in here first last summer and loved it just got the big overview of his life because I don't know anything about Athanasius except contramundum and so and Then the Holy Trinity he didn't write this.

This is the most recent big book on the Trinity that's been published. Bruce has a little accessible one that you can get at your people will not read this one. But you might and it's got a big chapter on Arius and a big chapter on Athanasius and I got help from Robert Lethem or however, you pronounce it the Holy Trinity in scripture history theology and worship.

Athanasius’s Life, Office, and Exile

Athanasius was born 8298 in Egypt and became the Bishop of Alexandria June 8 328 at the age of 30. He was viewed by his people as the Bishop of Alexandria his whole life long until he died at the age of 75 in 373 and I say he was viewed that way because He wasn't always there as bishop.

He spent 17 years of his 45 years as bishop in exile because he was banished by Imperial forces five times from his country or from his city at least and nevertheless all of the alternate bishops that the forces installed were never viewed as rightful bishops by the people he was deeply deeply loved by his people and they waited for him imagine Yourself being forcefully evicted from your church for seven years and your people waiting Eagerly until you came back and then welcoming you with palm branches after that seven-year Exile, we don't know much.

I think that's one of the reasons why there aren't more biographies. There aren't a lot of Details about the life just the controversies in the whole of our minute knowledge of his life. This is Archibald Robertson who did the editing and wrote the biography at the front of this in the whole my new knowledge of his life.

There is a total lack of self-interest. The glory of God and the welfare of the church absorbed him fully at all times. The Emperor's recognized him as a political force of the first order. But on no occasion does he yield to the temptation of using the arm of the flesh?

Almost unconscious of his own power. His humility is the more real for never being conspicuously paraded courage self-sacrifice deadiness of purpose.

Versatility.

Resourcefulness width of ready sympathy. We're all harmonized by deep reverence and the discipline of a single-minded lover of Christ. And as we all know the way that love this single-minded love for Christ expressed itself was through a life of defending the deity of Christ over against the competing heresies.

Arius, the Council of Nicaea, and the Nicene Creed

The war.

Started in 319 with Arius the deacon of Alexandria writing a letter to Alexander the bishop of Alexandria in which he argued that if the son is Truly a son then like all sons He must have had a beginning and there was a time when he was.

Not.

Now Arius wrote Almost nothing that's preserved. We have three letters and a fragment and so everything we know about areas we learned through those who were against him and. They were many and yet not as many as you might think.

Athanasius was a little over 20. When that letter was written Arius was 38 years older.

Then.

The young Athanasius which is a little lesson I think in itself that Older doesn't mean wiser. Always. That's one of the points of the section on Elihu in the book of Job as well, by the way.

He.

Wrote.

The.

Deposition by which Arius was Put out of his job and that was the role that Athanasius fulfilled the rest of his life. He was a writer in defense of.

Orthodoxy.

For the next 45 plus.

Years.

321 a synod was held in Alexandria and Arius was removed from his Diaconate and declared to be a heretic by the bishops in the area of Alexandria and.

Egypt.

Eusebius of Nicomedia that's up in the Turkey it's the same as Ismet Turkey today picked up the cause of Arius and was the head and center of the Aryan cause for the next 40 years in the eastern part of the Empire by Eastern usually the Roman Empire is like the Gauls over towards Spain and then the center part where Italy is and then Eastern means Turkey and Syria and around that direction and to my amazement in this study, I realized that Most of the bishops in the East During Athanasius lifetime were Aryan.

This is not a marginal Problem. This was a major major Empire wide problem. Constantine as you know saw a sign of the cross in 312 was converted to Christ and Issued the edict of Milan by which Christianity was made a legal religion and became very interested in Ecclesiastical affairs because when the bishops aren't happy It doesn't make well for the kingdom and he didn't like this dispute at all.

And therefore he called the Council of Nicaea. And that's also up in Turkey near Istanbul. He had an advisor named Hosea's and the Hosea's said do this we need to get this resolved. And so 318 at least that's the traditional number bishops came together as well as non bishops which included Athanasius and Arius.

Athanasius wasn't a bishop and Arius wasn't a bishop but they were there and They worked for three months, you know, I thought in passing I wonder if we could pull off Councils like this today and they were there for May through August.

What church would let us have four months off to go debate? Theology and Yet if that happened If you pulled together all the all the pastors you could For three months to debate contemporary issues, I just wonder if we might not get somewhere but.

We'll see.

The Nicene Creed and Its Anathema

Let me read the creed of Nicaea. The Nicene Creed that we recite today as you know is not identical to the creed of Nicaea of 325. It's identical to the creed that was tweaked at Constantinople 381 which the Holy Spirit was filled out.

The anathema was dropped a few refinements were made and that's what we recite. Let me read the original one. This is very easy. You can read this in Greek if you've had one year. The Greek is is very simple and I want to point out a few things.

We believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of all things visible and invisible and in one Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God begotten of the Father the only begotten that is of the essence of the Father.

Ek case Ouseas to Patras this would Ousea became mega important for years decades. God of God they on a clue and light of light kifos ek photos. Very God of very God. They on Alethanon ek that ooh, I'll eat the new begotten not made geneth enter ooh poyeth enter.

Being of one substance with the father and here it is homoous ion toe Pottery you heard that that word homoous ion of.

One.

Substance, it's very hard to use language. That's adequate here because if you say similar or same or even the word identical Which is what Bruce was using they could weasel on those it can weasel on those and it was Unbelievably difficult to find a word and we'll come back to that issue of wording our doctrine.

So as to exclude weasel errs. By whom all things were made in heaven and on earth. Who for us men and for our salvation came down and was incarnate and was made man. He suffered in the third day. He rose again Ascended into heaven from thence.

He cometh to judge the quick and the dead and in the Holy Spirit period now the anathema. And those who say there was a time when he was not and he was not before he was made and he was made out of nothing or out of another substance or thing or The Son of God is created or changeable or alterable.

They are condemned by the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, which was really an absolute exaggeration. I mean this did not happen overnight. There were 60 years of war after the Council of Nicaea. During which time whole decades went by where very few people affirmed this.

Interestingly all but two of the 318 signed it.

Half of them threw their teeth duplicitous.

Like many today Athanasius.

Was.

Mentored by Alexander the Bishop of Alexandria. He was there. He didn't formulate it. He inherited it. He loved it. It was in his blood. He spent all of his life defending Nicaea and then his bishop died and he was in 328 now made Bishop of Alexandria and under his influence Arianism in that vicinity died away in a hurry, but not in the Empire by a long shot.

Most of the bishops who had signed the creed of Nicaea did not like Athanasius and they didn't like the way he Said that people were heretics if they didn't believe this. They were just kind of loosey-goosey and they wanted peace they they were called political theologians and so they did everything in their power over the next 40 years to get rid of this man and There was political intrigue all along the way.

Political Intrigue, False Accusations, and the Trial of Arsenius

Let's begin and watch it happen first. They accused him of levying illegal taxes. Then they accused him of being ordained too young and then they accused him of using magic and then they accused him of subsidizing treasonable Persons and finally Constantine is so worried about all these accusations.

He brings him to Rome puts him on trial. He's acquitted. And then the real intrigue begins. I'll give you just one story because it's the most remarkable. To get rid of Athanasius the bishops including Eusebius far away.

Conspire to get Arsenius a bishop in Hypsilee, which is up the Nile River to the south to disappear hide in a monastery up in the desert and Then they claimed that Athanasius had had him killed cut off his hand and was using it for magic.

Well Constantine didn't know what to make of this and so he called a council in Tyre and The bishops gathered and they summoned Athanasius to account well. Athanasius had a lot of friends in Egypt and he sent one of his deacons on one of these.

Search and find missions and they found Arsenius and So they smuggled him off to Tyre and kept him in secret while the trial was going on and at the right moment Athanasius asked did you know Arsenius personally?

Yes.

The bishops say.

And so they ushered Arsenius in with a big cloak on and The bishops demanded holding up the human hand. How did he lose his hand? Why did you cut off his hand? At which time they took off one hands cloak and he held that up and another one and held that up at which time Athanasius asked and whence did they cut off the third hand and Believe it or not.

This is the kind of people you're dealing with. He was condemned and escaped in a boat with four other bishops and headed for Constantinople to make his case if he could with the Emperor and The Emperor Did not find sympathy with him Because they trumped up another charge namely that he tried to starve the king's capital by not letting wheat shipments leave Alexandria and he was banished to Trevory which is Trier near Luxembourg and he was there starting 336 ad.

Constantine died the next year and the Empire was divided between Constantius his son Constans and Constantine the second and three sons they divided up Gaul Italy and the east Into those pieces and two of those emperors were happy with Athanasius and one of them Wasn't he was returned?

To his sea. Because they persuaded the Emperor on his side to let him come back, but two years later Eusebius who's running the Aryan cause Persuaded Constantius to get rid of Athanasius so he snatched ecclesiastical power sent another bishop named Gregory to take over in Alexandria put in his own secular governor there Constantius did and by force.

Drove.

Athanasius out into his second exile. This was the longest time away about seven years.

Away from.

339 to.

346.

And during that time there was a Council of Sardica held by the other two emperors who appreciated Athanasius in order to declare him vindicated and after several years Constans Threatened war on his brother Constantius if he didn't reinstate Athanasius in his bishopric and so Constantius relented and he was back and now he had ten years of peace basically and in those ten years poured his life out Loving his people and defending the cause of truth in Alexandria.

Then Constans was murdered in.

350.

Ad and that freed Constantius to go back to what he really believed and oppose Nicene theology and oppose Athanasius and so he drove him out again and this time it was very bloody. Let me read the account of the way they moved in on Alexandria and this bishop.

On Thursday night February 8 356 Athanasius was presiding at a crowded service of preparation for a communion on the following morning in the church of Theonis the largest in the city. Suddenly the church was surrounded and the doors broken in and just after midnight Sirianus entered with an infinite force of soldiers.

Athanasius calmly took his seat upon the throne in the recess of the apps and ordered the deacon to begin the 136 psalm the people responding at each verse for his mercy endureth forever. Meanwhile, the soldiers crowded up to the chancel and in spite of entreaties the bishop refused to escape.

Until the congregation were in safety he ordered the prayers to proceed and only at the last moment a crowd of monks and clergy seized the archbishop and Managed to convey him in the confusion out of the church in a half-fainting state.

But thankful that he had been able to secure the escape of his people before his own. From that moment Athanasius was lost to public view for six years and 14 days. And just a few months later the bloodletting was huge as.

They.

Came in with vengeance to try to find Athanasius and to put to death and imprison those who had Followed him. They forced a new bishop in his name was George. Instigated a violent persecution and at last the people lynched George and killed him because of their Exasperation at the way the city and the bishops and the clergy were being treated.

That was the mingling in those days of secular and ecclesiastical.

Power.

The Third Exile, the Desert Monks, and the Triumph of Arianism’s Collapse

But at the darkest hour. There's a lesson here at the darkest hour for Athanasius and for the cause of orthodoxy. The dawn was just about to break the third exile. This third exile that he's just now been launched into for six years proved to be the most fruitful of all of his times.

Away.

He had spent a lot of his time up till now in the peaceful seasons visiting the desert monks. He loved the ascetics and there formed a bond of deep friendship and they became his lifeline. Nobody knew where he was because the monks would never tell where he was and That was absolutely crucial and therefore for these years he wrote all of his major works and half of everything in this volume was written during these These six years in exile.

The Aryan history tracks against Aryans to serapion on the councils of Arimian the life of Anthony and so on to me. It is one of the great ironies of history that the triumph Over Arianism would happen largely through the ministry of a fugitive living and writing inches from his own death.

Here's the way Archibald Robertson described the triumph of the third exile. The third exile of Athanasius marks the summit of his achievement. Its commencement is the triumph and Its conclusion the collapse of Arianism.

The breakup of the Aryan power was due to its lack of Reality. As soon as it had a free hand it began to go to pieces. But the watchful eye of Athanasius followed each step in the process from his hiding place and The event was greatly due to his powerful personality and ready pen.

Knowing whom to overwhelm and whom to conciliate where to strike and where to spare. His period then of forced abstention from affairs was the most Stirring in spiritual and literary activity in the whole life of Athanasius.

It produced more than half of his entire extant works. Let it be noted Once for all how completely the amazing power wielded by the wandering fugitive was based upon the devoted fidelity of Egypt to its pastor towns and villages Deserts and monasteries the very tombs were scoured by the imperial inquisitors in the search for Athanasius but all in vain.

Not once do we hear of any suspicion of.

Betrayal.

Pays to cultivate deep friendships in seasons of peace. He returned to Alexandria February 21 362 having been gone for six years. Another irony about that is that he came back because Julian was now the Emperor and Julian was the first really pagan Emperor in a long time and he Brought him back undid all those banishments of Constantius.

But that favor was very short-lived and when Julian discovered what kind of saint he was dealing with who didn't make a place for the gods He also banished him into a fourth exile and then he was brought back from that by a prophecy among the Desert monks who on the very day that it happened predicted the death of Julian in Persia hundreds of miles away proved to be true and Athanasius came back and a few months later six months later He was driven out again that only lasted a few months and he came back February 13 66 and then spent the rest of his day seven more years Loving his people writing Letters, especially around the Empire to solidify the cause and he died May 2nd.

373.