Early Unitarians in Christianity 91Alexander was completely taken aback. The more he tried to
explain them, the more confused he becarne. Arius, by the use of
reason, and relying on the authority of the Scriptures, proved the
new doctrines to be false.
Arius began his refutation of Alexander's explanations with
reference to Jesus: if Jesus was in reality the 'son of Cod', he ar
gued, then it followed that the father must have existed before the
son. Therefore, there must have been a time when the son did not
exist. Therefore, it followed that the son was a creature composed
of an essence or being which had not always existed. Since God is
in essence Eternal and Ever-Existent, Jesus could notbe of the sarne
essence as God.
Arius always appealed to reason and logic, and sinee Alexan
der could notfurnish any reasonable counter-arguments, he always
ended up by losing his temper. 'Given the premises', Arius would
say, 'where is the fault of my deduction and where does my syllo
gism break down?' By the year 321 AD, Arius was a popular rebel
lious priest, profoundly confident and certain of what he believed.
After receiving this personal setback, Alexander called a pro
vincial synod to pronounce judgement on the doctrine of Arius.
About one hundred Egyptian and Libyan bishops attended. Arius
boldly maintained the stand he had taken, and with great ability
stated his case: there was a time when Jesus did not exist, whereas
God existed even then, Sinee Jesus was created by God, his being
was finite and so he could not possess the attribute of Eternity.
Only God is Eternal. 5ince Jesus was a creature, he was subject to
change like all other rational creatures. Only God is unchanging.
Thus, he asserted, it was clear that Jesus was not God. As well as
his appeal to logic, Arius backed up his arguments with numerous
verses from the Biblewhich nowhere teaches that Jesus is God.
IfJesus said, 'My father is greater than 1,' 13 then to believe that
God and Jesus were equal or somehow identical, argued Arius,
was to deny the truth of the Scriptures.
The arguments of Arius were irrefutable, but Alexander, by vir
tue of his position in the Church hierarchy, excommunicated him.
However Arius had such a large following that he could not be
ignored-by the Pauline church, especially since many of the East
ern Bishops did not accept Alexander's decree. The controversy
which had been simmering for nearly three hundred years carne to
a boil. Alexander was troubled and annoyed that so many of the
Eastern bishops supported Arius, whose greatest ally was Euse
bius of Nicomedia.