This content traces the historical development of early Christianity, focusing on how doctrinal disputes and the establishment of ecumenical councils shaped Christian theology and led to significant schisms within the church.
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I made up my mind. I'm going to be
Orthodox. Yay. Welcome home, brother.
Dude, he was talking about me. No, he
was talking about me. I'm the real
Orthodox church. You split from me when
you rejected the council of Calcedon.
No, I'm the real Orthodox church. You
split from me when you rejected the
council of Ephesus. No, I didn't. Let's
ask him then. Yeah. Who were you talking
about? Honestly, I was talking about the
Assyrian Church of the East, which is
more ancient than either of you guys and
is truly faithful to the Council of Constantinople.
Constantinople.
Early Christianity was spreading rapidly
across the Roman Empire despite being
persecuted. It was led by bishops who
each ruled over the church in a
particular place. In the very beginning,
there was a group of bishops over each
church, but that quickly evolved into
one bishop over each church, and that
quickly evolved into one bishop over a
group of churches in each region. >> [music]
>> [music]
>> The early church was decentralized
partly because of persecution, but the
bishops all recognized each other and
were accountable to each other. It
wasn't like modern Catholicism with one
bishop over all the others. And modern
Catholics admit this is a development.
And it also wasn't like modern
evangelicalism with a bunch of bishops
not accountable to each other, each
going their own separate ways. Except
they're not called bishops and they tend
to look like this. Wait, but if it was
decentralized, how did they deal with
heresy? [music] Easy. A few bishops
would get together in a cinnid to
declare things heretical and agree to
excommunicate all the heretics since
there were different heresies in
different regions. The cinnids that
addressed those heresies were also
regional [music] until Constantine took
over and made the entire Roman Empire
Christian and there was a heresy brewing
in [music] Alexandria and the bishop of
Alexandria asks for help. So Constantine
has a brilliant idea to unify his
empire. He thought what if I have a
sinnate of all the bishops in the world
[music] to agree on what Christianity is
for everyone. So he summons all the
bishops at Nika for the first ecumenical
council. For the first time there is
going to be a centralized authority over
the entire Christian world. The council
of Nika has to deal with this popular
pastor Aras who explains the [music]
father and the son in ways that are easy
to understand. He says since the son is
also called the word, the father created
the word and then created the [music]
world through the word. So Christ is the
greatest being God ever created. He's of
a similar nature to the father and he is
like God but not truly God the way the
father is. Arias even wrote songs about it.
it.
>> There was a time when the word was not.
There was a time when the word was not.
>> "Bro, that's heresy," said Santa Claus,
punching him in the face. "St. Nicholas
wasn't alone in this opinion. Most of
the bishops agreed that it was heresy."
And after some debate, it was almost all
of them. So, Aryanism was branded as a
heresy, and the council produced the
Nyine Creed to clarify the true doctrine
of Jesus. It says the father and son are
both equally god and the son is
eternally generated by the father but
not created by the father because he's
always existed. The father and son share
the same nature because they have
everything that makes god god like being
all powerful, all knowing and eternal.
Same nature in Greek is homosios.
Similar nature in Greek is homoyucus.
It's only one letter or one iota of
difference. That's where the phrase
comes from. [music]
But it made the difference between
orthodoxy and heresy. So Santa Claus
insisted that Jesus was ho ho
homolucioas with the father. Yay. Now
the issue is solved. Just kidding. You
see, back then people didn't just
automatically accept the decisions of a
council. Especially because this kept
happening. We just had a council that
declared Aryanism a heresy. Well, we
just had a council that rejected your
council. Well, we just had a council
that rejected your rejection of our
council. Well, we just had a council
that says anyone who rejects our
council's rejection of your council is a
heretic. Well, we just had a council
that says you can all kiss my ass. Since
councils were the highest authority,
there was no way to force all the
bishops to accept a particular council
except with another council which not
everyone would accept. [music] So,
places often switched between nyine and
Aryan. And eventually, Aryans became the
majority of bishops. As Jerome said, the
world groaned to find itself [music]
Aryan. The Nyine Christians were in a
bit of an awkward spot. They couldn't be
completely kicked out of the church, but
they also couldn't kick the Aryans out
of the church. So, what were they
supposed to do? Why don't you just give
up on the mainstream church and start a
new church in your basement? No. Why
don't you just plant your own parallel
nine bishops in the places that have
Aryan bishops? This is how a lot of
modern churches solve disagreements. But
both of these options were rejected by
all the church fathers as the sin of
schism. So, instead, the bishops had to,
no pun intended, keep playing
institutional chess with each other. The
solution came with a bishop named
Aanasius. He was the successor of
Alexander who had first raised the alarm
about the Aryan crisis in Alexandria. He
was mocked by his opponents as the black
dwarf. They said the world is against
you. Then I am against the world.
Athanasius realized if the Aryans
weren't going to accept Nika, he would
have to beat them in debate based on the
Bible. He said it didn't matter if they
rejected the nyine councils because
[music] scripture is sufficient to
refute heretics. And he did refute them
again and again and again until all the
bishops were won back to the trinitarian
Christian faith and Aryanism only
lingered amongst the Germanic
barbarians. That was so cool, dude. I'm
your biggest fan, said a young bishop
named Apollina. Thanks. Look how
anti-Aryan I can be. So you know how
Jesus is God, right? If he's fully God,
he can't be fully human. He just has a
human body. But no human mind. He's a
divine mind with a human body like a
video game avatar. He could have done
quantum physics as a baby if he wanted
to. Wait, what? There were also some
people in Macedonia who agreed with the
Nyine creed that the father and son are
both God, but didn't believe the Holy
Spirit was God. Clearly, the Council of
Nika left some questions unanswered. You
know what that means, don't you? We need
a second ecumenical council. The council
of Constantinople condemned
Macedonianism and Apollinarianism as
heresies. The heroes of this council
were the Capidosian fathers. They
supported Athanasius in the council of
Nika, but they thought it needed some
improvements. They modified the Nyine
creed to clarify that the Holy Spirit is
God and they insisted that Jesus was
also truly human. As Gregory of Nazenza
said, that which is not assumed is not
redeemed. In other words, Jesus needs to
become everything that we are to heal
everything that we are. So Jesus needs
to have a human body, a human mind, and
a human soul to heal our human bodies,
minds, [music] and souls. They also
debated the Greek word hypostasis, which
means something like an individual
example of a nature. Athanasius had said
that God was one hypoasis because
there's only one individual divine
nature. But the Capidosians thought it
was wiser to say that the father, son,
and spirit each have their own hypoasis [music]
[music]
because the persons need to be a bit
more distinct so that the son can have a
distinct human nature that the father
doesn't have. They [snorts] agreed with
Athanasius, but they thought his
language led to apollinarianism by not
making the father and son distinct
[music] enough. It didn't take long for
the council of Constantinople to deal
with these heresies. The entire church
accepted the councils of Nika and
Constantinople, [music]
but different schools of thought began
to emerge. They didn't disagree with
each other and they weren't different
denominations, but they had slightly
different emphases. [music] You see, the
Alexandrians had a slight preference for
their local hero Athanasius and the
Council of Nika, whereas the Antiochines
had a slight preference for the
Capidosian fathers in the Council of
Constantinople. The Alexandrian school
focused more on the divinity and oneness
of Christ whereas the Antiochin school
focused on the humanity and tuness
[music] of Christ. This was because the
Alexandrians were more scared of
Aryanism whereas the Antiochines were
more scared of Apollinarianism which was
an overreaction against arenism. The
Alexandrians interpreted the Bible as a
more metaphorical divine text whereas
the Antiochines interpreted the Bible as
a more literal human text. So if you
went to church in Antioch, the sermons
would be something like this.
Philippians 2 says even though Jesus was
God, he took on the form of a servant.
This means you should be willing to
serve others in your life as well.
Whereas if you went to church in
Alexandria, it would be more like
Philippians says even though Jesus was
God, he became a servant. This refers to
how in the person of Christ, the Godhead
took on human flesh and physical matter
in order to sanctify it and he serves us
by bridging the gap between the infinite
creator and the So even though this
difference wasn't a huge problem at
first, it would soon lead to two [music]
major schisms. The last Apollinarians
left like to say that Mary was the
mother of God because they thought Jesus
was just God wearing a human costume.
And the patriarch of Constantinople, who
was a radical Antioch, very scared of
Apollinarianism, did not like [music]
that. His name was Notorious. He
explained, "Mary's just the mother of
Jesus's human nature. So, it's more
accurate to call her the mother of
Christ than the mother of God." "Bro,
that's heresy," said Sirill, who was
Pope of Alexandria. Back then, it wasn't
just the bishop of Rome that was called
a pope. So, now you have a major leader
of one school calling a major leader of
another school a heretic. You know what
that means? We need a third ecumenical
council. Ntorious and his followers were
radical anti-akin. So, Sirill was able
to turn the more moderate anti-aken
against them. Notorius taught that
Christ has two natures. The divine
nature is called God the [music] Son.
The human nature is called Jesus. And
Christ refers to the union of them. So
if Mary's the mother of Jesus, you can
call her the mother of Christ, but not
exactly the mother of God. You can only
call her that indirectly. Sirill said
that's heresy because Christ is one
hypoasis after the incarnation. If
Christ is really one individual, you
need to be able to use the names Jesus,
Christ, and God interchangeably. If
Mary's the mother of Jesus, you can call
her the mother of God without any
trouble. If you think that's even
slightly improper, Sirill says you're
splitting Jesus into two persons. Now,
were the notorians actually saying
Christ is two persons? No. They said
Christ is one proapon, which basically
means person. [music] They were saying
that Christ has two. Koma is a Syriak
word, and they said the father and
spirit each have their own koma. This
led many people to translate koma as
hypostasis because everyone already
agreed God has three hypostasis, which
could mean [music] person. But in
reality, Koma just means an individual
entity. But this was suspicious enough
for Notorious and his buddies to be
forced out of the Roman Empire and into
the Persian Empire where nobody could
force them to accept the Council of
Ephesus. They called themselves Church
of the East and the Ephesian Christians
Church of the West. And this schism
lasts to this day. The Assyrian Church
of the East still exists, but sadly the
only well-known person vaguely
associated with it is this guy you might
have seen on Tik Tok, but he's not a
good representative because he's split
from a group that split from them. But
to this day, they lumped Protestants,
Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and
Oriental Orthodox, all under the
category of Western Christianity because
they all accept the Council of Ephesus.
So, everyone loves Sirill cuz he was the
hero of Ephesus. Oh, wait, he's dead.
So, he gets replaced by Pope Dascorus,
who says, "Man, I'm so glad Sirill
defeated the Ntorians and said Christ
has one nature." Wait, what? Said Pope
Leo. Wait, not that one. That one. Jesus
has two natures. No, Sirill said one.
No, Jesus is one person, but he has two
natures. Siriel said one hypoasis which
means person but it also means nature.
Two natures is an historian. No it
isn't. Yes it is time for a pope war
which means we need a fourth ecumenical
council. The council of Calcedon was
literally a debate over how to interpret
the previous council. What did St.
Cirill mean by one hypostasis? What did
Sirill mean by hypothatic union? Leo
said he meant a union of two natures in
something else called a hypoasis which
implies hypostasis means person. This
position is called diophysitism or two
natures. But Dascorus said serial meant
a union of two hypoases in one
hypotheasis which implies hypoasis means
individual nature. This position is
called maphysotism or one nature out of
two natures. Now the council of Ephesus
did have a lot of statements that sound
very maphysite. And serial himself
believed in one incarnate nature of the
logos. Some people say that's an
apollinarian forgery. But what's
definitely not in apollinarian forgery
is where he says if anyone divides the
hypostases after the union let him be
anathema which implies the hypostases
are distinct before the union which
implies hypoasis means nature. It's also
very unlikely that pope Leo would
interpret serial better than his own
students. Still the council sided with
Pope Leo cuz they thought the
Meaphysites did not distinguish nature
in person well enough. Still the
Maphsites refused to accept Calcidon
because they said it clearly
contradicted Ephesus. Calcidon was a
Notorian council. No, it wasn't. Yes, it
was. That's crazy. We're nothing like
Notorious. Hey guys, Notorious, you're
still alive. I just want to say I fully
This was a complete disaster for the
Calcedonians because they looked so
similar to Ntorians. The Maphsites were
able to convince more and more people to
join their side, especially in the East.
It got to the point where the emperor
Justinian was calcedonian, but his wife
Theodora was literally a mophysite. So
Justinian was motivated to modify
calcedonianism to make it more
reconcilable with mophysitism. So
Justinian calls the fifth ecumenical
council, which is basically calcedonian
damage control. [music] After a century
of fighting the mophysites, they're
finally going to compromise and make
sure they distinguish their view from
notorianism. The reason it was so
confusing is because everyone was using
different categories. Calcedonianism was
more simple because it came from Pope
Leo who spoke Latin which is a more
philosophically simple language. They
only had two categories, nature and
person. So they could say Jesus has two
natures and is one person. Easy. But
both the mapsites and the notorians
spoke Greek which was more
philosophically complex. So they each
had three categories. One for general
nature, one for individual example of a
nature and one for outward identity.
They both agreed Jesus was from two
general natures and had one outward
identity. But where they disagreed was
on the middle category. Was Jesus one
individual example of two natures or was
Jesus a union of an individual human
nature and an individual divine nature?
So you can see how Caledonianism looks
in historian from a meapysite
perspective. The council clarified that
Jesus is one individual subject and
therefore we worship Jesus as one
subject. [music] We don't worship parts
of Christ separately. Some Eastern
Caledonians tried to translate
Calcedonianism into the Greek three
categories model [music] saying Jesus
has one hypotheasis and it's a divine
hypoasis, but it hypoatizes or
individuates the human nature. There's
no separate individual human hypoasis
that Jesus assumes because that would be
notorian. So it preserves the
distinctness of the natures while also
preserving the individual hypostasis.
That's why we say technically Jesus
isn't a human person. [music] He's a
person who's truly human but not a human
person. He's only one person and that's
a divine person that has a truly human
nature and a truly divine nature. So
once they got that worked out, the
Calcedonians were able to win back many
of the moderate mapsites. Yay.
Compromising with the Meaphysites is
going well. What if we can think of one
final compromise that will reunite us
forever? The patriarch of Constantinople
has an idea, two ideas, actually.
[music] Monoenergism and monotheitism.
Monoenergism is the idea that Jesus's
two natures perform one action. And
monothealatism is the idea that Jesus's
two natures share one will. And everyone
loves this idea, including the Pope of
Rome. We're closer than ever now to
being one big happy Christian family and
reuniting Christendom just in case a big
new religion forms and tries to conquer
us. One small problem. There's this one
annoying monk, Maximus the Confessor,
who just won't get with the program. He
insists on dioenergism and diialtholism,
meaning Jesus has two energies and two
wills. He debates Purus, the patriarch
of Constantinople. Purist thinks that
will and energy come with personhood,
not with nature. This is also what the
average modern person thinks. But
Maximus thinks that will and energy come
with nature. Just like Gregory of Nazi
said, Jesus needs to become everything
[music] we are to redeem everything that
we are. Jesus needs to have a human will
and energy to redeem our human wills and
energies. Purus thinks that's
ridiculous. He thinks if Jesus has two
wills and energies, they're going to be
in conflict with each other. But Maximus
assures him that there's no conflict
between divine working and human
working. And honestly, Purus' arguments
are very similar to some popcists who
believe in radical monarchism. Monergism
is not a historically reformed term, but
it's very popular in popcalism. It's
similar to monoenergism because the
basic idea is that God's action
contradicts human action. That's why
popcanists act like God is completely
active in our salvation and we are
completely passive. But that's not the
historic reformed position. Historic
reformed and Calvinist theology sees no
contradiction between God's full
sovereignty and our participation in
free will actions. Sadly, nobody listens
to Maximus and the church cuts out his
tongue. So, he can't keep teaching his
views. But he still didn't leave the
church. So, keep that in mind next time
you want to leave your church just cuz
it got a little bit woke. And then he
dies. But after he dies, more and more
people begin realizing that he was
right. So the sixth ecumenical council
deposes Pope Anonorius as a heretic and
affirms dioenergism and diiothalitism
and that will and energy come with
nature not with person. This is
necessary to explain certain Bible
verses like Mark 6:5 where Jesus seems
to have limited power. This only makes
sense if he has a human energy distinct
from his divine energy. Or Matthew 26:39
where Jesus appears to submit his will
to the father. This only makes sense if
he has a human will distinct from the
divine will. Because of this, the
glorious reunion with the Meaphysites
never happens. The Meaphysites are alive
and well today as the Oriental Orthodox
churches. But since Christendom is
divided, when Islam shows up, it's able
to conquer a lot of Christian lands very
easily. Because of this, the
non-caledonian churches mostly faded
into obscurity and the Byzantine emperor
was wondering why things had gotten so
bad for Christendom. He said, "God must
be punishing us for venerating images."
In the Old Testament, God punished
idolatry by letting enemy nations
conquer his people. So, he ordered
iconoclasm, which means no images of
God. Icons were removed from churches
and replaced with crosses and Bibles.
But many other people were like, "Dude,
you can't take away our [music] icons.
Those are an essential part of Christian
worship." So, the question of whether
icons were good or bad divided the
church for over a century. [music]
The iconoclasts were able to show that
iconoclastic tendencies were rampant
amongst the church fathers. But icon
like John of Damascus said iconoclasm is
a denial of the incarnation because
[music] the invisible god became
visible. Iconoclasts appealed to earlier
church historians like who explained
that many pagan customs were
Christianized when Constantine [music]
converted Rome to Christianity such as
icons, altars, lurggical vestments and
incense. He said that ancient Romans
would burn incense before an icon of
their supposedly divine emperors and
Christians transferred that practice to
Jesus. Modern Catholic scholars like
John Henry Newman admit this is what
happened historically but they still
agree with John Damosine's arguments for
icon veneration based on
christologology. Damosine says we can't
depict the divine nature but we can
depict the human nature. So iconoclasm
denies the humanity of Christ. The
iconoclasts argued that Iconulia was
notorian by splitting Christ's person
into a nature you can't depict and a
nature you can depict. Since Christ is
one divine person, you can't depict him
even if he has a human nature. Let's
just have another ecumenical council.
That'll solve this debate. We just had a
council that bans all images of God.
Yeah, well, I just called a council that
rejects your council and says you'll go
to hell if you don't kiss icons. Hey,
Mom. Don't you think that's a bit harsh?
Oh, you don't like icons? How about I
take your eyes out so you never have to
look at them? You guys are both cringe,
said Charlemagne. I just called a
council that rejects both of your
councils and says you can have images of
Christ for teaching as long as you don't
venerate them. And so the three sides
fought well into the 800s. And it didn't
help that they each had a council
supporting them. Eventually after
centuries of bloody conflict, the icon
emerged on top. But towards the end, the
iconoclast started criticizing other
practices, not just icon veneration.
They said we should stop praying to
saints because that's also idolatry. If
that sounds kind of prototestant, it's
because it is. Iconocclasm would persist
in small pockets throughout the church
for centuries following. Iconoclass
theologians never stopped resurfacing.
Now you might be wondering, were there
any other ecumenical councils after
this? Well, it depends who you ask. You
see, after this point, people stopped
agreeing on which councils to accept. To
this day, every denomination has a
different number of councils. The
Assyrian Church of the East has two, the
Oriental Orthodox have three,
Protestants have six, the Eastern
Orthodox have seven, and Catholics have
21. And in the medieval church, groups
kept resurfacing that didn't even accept
Nika 2. The Waldenzians in the 1200s,
the Lards in the 1300s, the Hussites in
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