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"For This Purpose . . ." Athanasius on the Reason For the Incarnation

From Athanasius, On the Incarnation, II.8

(8) For this purpose, then, the incorporeal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God entered our world. In one sense, indeed, He was not far from it before, for no part of creation had ever been without Him Who, while ever abiding in union with the Father, yet fills all things that are. But now He entered the world in a new way, stooping to our level in His love and Self-revealing to us. He saw the reasonable race, the race of men that, like Himself, expressed the Father's Mind, wasting out of existence, and death reigning over all in corruption. He saw that corruption held us all the closer, because it was the penalty for the Transgression; He saw, too, how unthinkable it would be for the law to be repealed before it was fulfilled.

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Athanasius, Biblical TheologyKim RiddlebargerDecember 20, 2022Why the Incarnation? Comments

Athanasius on the Death of Arius

I am the first to admit the temptation to take delight in the affliction experienced by obvious villains. But when it comes to the death of an arch-enemy of the gospel (Arius of Alexandria), there is a measure of satisfaction when what appears to be divine justice prevails. It falls to Athanasius (the famed defender and of the faith) to inform us of manner of Arius’s death, the very night before the latter was to be ordained as Bishop.

“When the Bishop Alexander heard this (that Arius had under oath declared that he held the right faith) he was greatly distressed, and entering into the church stretched forth his hands unto God, and bewailed himself; and casting himself upon his face in the chancel, he prayed laying on the pavement . . . . `If Arius is brought to communion tomorrow let me, Thy servant depart, and destroy not the pious with the impious; but if Thou wilt spare Thy Church . . . . take off Arius, lest if he enter into the Church, and the heresy also may seem to enter with him, and henceforth impiety may be accounted for piety.’ When the Bishop had thus prayed, he retired with great anxiety, and a wonderful and extraordinary circumstance took place. . . . Arius . . . talked very wildly, [but] urged by the necessities of nature withdrew, and suddenly, in the language of Scripture, `falling headlong he burst asunder in the midst,' and immediately expired as he lay, and was deprived both of communion and of his life together. Such has been the end of Arius.”[1]

Athanasius concludes, “the antichristian gang of the Arian madmen has been shewn to be unpleasing to God and impious.”[2] Indeed, “will not the judge of the whole earth do right” (Genesis 18:25)?

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[1] Athanasius, “To Serapion, Concerning the Death of Arius,” in NPNF, Vol. IV. (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1978), 564 ff.

[2] Athanasius, “To Serapion, Concerning the Death of Arius,” in NPNF, Vol. IV. (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1978, 565.

Athanasius, History and CultureKim RiddlebargerAugust 31, 2022Death of Arius Comments