Why did Arius reject the Nicene Creed?

Answer 1

In St. Athanasius' own words: "What is at stake is not just a theological theory but people's salvation."

Simply put, he meant that if Jesus were not God, as Arius asserted, then people were not saved by his coming, death, and resurrection.

Answer 2

A:Arius did not reject the Nicene Creed; the relevant part of the Nicene Creed was developed in opposition to him. The issue here was the nature of Jesus. Debate had taken place throughout much of the third century regarding the relationship of Jesus with God. The developing hypothesis was Trinitarianism, the belief in the Holy Trinity of three persons in one God. Arius held to the view that Jesus was neither absolutely God (because "the Father is greater than I") nor absolutely man (because he was "the word of God"). He came before all the rest of creation but was himself created.

Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, excommunicated Arius about the year 320. With much controversy, Alexander had the Council of Nicaea condemn Arianism in 325 CE and declare it heretical (the Nicene Creed was amended centuries later in the west by the addition of the filoque clause).

Emperor Constantine issued an absolute command that Arius should be solemnly readmitted to the communion in the cathedral of Constantinople, but Arius died on the very day he was to have been accepted back into the Church. The circumstances of his untimely death raises a suspicion that the priesthood had contributed in some way. Constantine's son and successor, Constantius, was keen for the Church to accept the Arian creed. At Councils in Arles in 353 and Milan in 355, Constantius pressured the bishops to adopt a formula that the Son was unlike the Father. It was Emperor Theodosius who, at the end of the fourth century, declared that all Christians must reject the views of Arius and follow the Trinitarian concept in the Nicene Creed.

Answer 3

Followers of Arius in the early Christian Church claimed that Jesus Christ and God the Father were not always contemporary, seeing the Son as a divine being, created by the Father (and consequently inferior to Him) at some point in time.

Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, excommunicated Arius about the year 320 and went to the Nicene Council determined to oppose the doctrine of Arius. He was successful in having the Council refute Arius, yet the controversy raged throughout the remainder of the fourth century, until Emperor Theodosius ruled that Christians were no longer to believe the Arian teaching.