Give us TRUTH or Give us death

The First Six Ecumenical Councils

Last week we celebrated July 4.  That’s not a celebration of the signing of the Constitution or any legal document. Instead, it celebrates the day that the Thirteen Colonies broke from the British Crown by signing the Declaration of Independence.  That declaration is a declaration of principles, a statement of what we, as a nation, believe.

In the same way, the Church has made declarations of principles, although it took three centuries to get started.  Up to that time, Christians were just trying to survive and avoid persecution!

From the year 325 to the year 787, the Church held 7 councils, councils that came to be called Ecumenical Councils.  Of course, there were also regional meetings, just like there are local and regional government meetings.  But, those 7 Ecumenical Councils affected the entire Church, east and west, and the Eastern Orthodox Churches continue to hold them as foundational.  Since then, the Catholic Church has continued to hold Ecumenical Councils. I’m sure we’re all familiar with the most recent, the 22nd Ecumenical Council, Vatican II.    

Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Kállistos Ware has said that the first seven Ecumenical Councils established the basic faith of Christendom.  They are our Declaration of Independence.

Today, we celebrate the fathers of the first 6 Ecumenical Councils, all of which were held in the Eastern Roman Empire, in what is today Turkey.  All six ultimately dealt with the question of the Trinity and Christ’s divinity.  The creed we recite comes to us from the first two.

Once the Church declared, at the first council in 325, that Jesus was God, and at the second council in 381, that the Holy Spirit was God, it got messy.  They spent 250 years debating, and yes, fighting, about just how Jesus was both God and Man. Ultimately, the issues were not only theological but linguistic and philosophical too – and, some would argue, politics also played a hand in it.

 

The Third Council, in 431, was called to combat Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople. The Oxford English Dictionary defines his teaching as a heresy “by which Christ is asserted to have had distinct human and divine persons.” The Council responded by teaching that Mary is Theotokos – the Christ Bearer, or Mother of God, rather than the term Nestorius preferred, Christotokos, the Christ Bearer.  By Theotokos it is asserted that, from the moment of conception, He Whom Mary bore was God; the Divine did not descend upon the man Jesus, but that He was always God.

The Ancient Church of the East did not accept the council.  It continues to exist today, not in communion with any other Church, with only a half million members.

The Fourth Council was only twenty years later in a city called Chalcedon, and it defined Jesus Christ to be True God and True Man. One would think it would end with the definition that He had both a Human Nature and a Divine Nature.  But it didn’t. The issue was debated for another two centuries and a total of three Ecumenical Councils.  Those who rejected the council are today generally called non-Chalcedonian, or Oriental Orthodox. They believe that He has a single united nature, human and divine.  (I told you earlier that the issues would be not only theological, but linguistic and philosophical, didn’t I?)

The Sixth Council dealt with a heresy that admitted two natures, but said that He has only one will.

What the one-nature group and one-will group forgot was the words of St. Gregory the Theologian.  He said, “What is not assumed is not healed”.  Jesus certainly had a Divine Nature. For Human nature to be healed, He had to assume human nature. For Human will to be healed, he had to assume human will.

Now, remember I said that there was a political element?  The EMPEROR was a part of the one-will crowd.  In the 650s, two men were put on trial for teaching against it.  Pope St Martin I was found guilty, and he died on the way to exile.  St. Maximos the Confessor was also found guilty.  In 662, he was sentenced to exile, but also to having the removal of that which offended the one-will crowd– the tongue and his right hand!  He died soon after.

In its eleventh chapter, the Epistle to the Hebrews talks about Old Testament heroes of the faith.  Let me add Pope St Martin and St Maximos to that list.  Let me add the Fathers of the first Six Ecumenical Councils to that list. They all understood what Paul was saying to the Romans (10:4) - Christ is the End – the whole purpose of the Law.  

They understood what Jesus told the Samaritan woman – The TRUTH will set you free. 

As the writer of Hebrews ontinues, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, …. let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us”.

 The American Founding Father, Patrick Henry, said, “Give me liberty or give me death”.

Let us stand with Saints Martin and Maximos and the Fathers of all Six Councils.  Let us say, “Give me truth or give me death”.