The Apostolic church means not only the church which existed in various places in the time of the Apostles, but also in the following two or three centuries. But eventually they began to tear the door of the temple off its hinges, and like thieves to break into its sanctuary. The temple means the church, its door the Lord God the Redeemer, and the sanctuary His Divinity. For Jesus says:

Truly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up another way, is a thief and a robber. I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved. [John 10:1, 9.]

[2] This crime was committed by Arius and his followers. Consequently a Council was summoned by Constantine the Great to meet at Nicaea, a city of Bithynia*; and its members, in order to expel the damaging heresy of Arius, invented, concluded and laid down the doctrine that the three Divine persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, existed from eternity, each of whom had a personality, and came into and continued in existence by Himself and in Himself. They also held that the second person, the Son, came down and took upon Himself human form and carried out the redemption, and by this means His Human has divinity by hypostatic union, so that by this union He has close kinship with God the Father. This was the beginning from which there spread over the earth heaps of unspeakable heresies about God and the person of Christ. Antichrist then began to rear his head, and split God into three, and the Lord the Saviour into two, thus destroying the Temple the Lord had built by means of His Apostles; this went so far that every stone was pried loose, until not one was left upon another, as predicted by His words (Matt. 24:2). Here 'Temple' does not mean just the Temple in Jerusalem, but also the church; and the whole of that chapter deals with its consummation or end.

[3] But could anything else have been expected of that Council, or those which followed it, seeing that they likewise divided the Divinity into three parts, and put the incarnate God on their footstool beneath them? For they cut off the church's head from its body by climbing up another way, that is, by by-passing the Lord and crossing over to God the Father, as if He were another God, simply keeping on their tongues the phrase 'Christ's merit,' so that He should pity them for its sake. Thus, they thought, justification would flow directly into them, together with all that accompanies it, forgiveness of sins, renewal, sanctification, regeneration and salvation, and all this without any intervention on the person's part.

* The ancient name for the north-western province of Asia Minor.