By Pastor Duke Taber
There is something that stops me every time I think about the Armenian Church. It is not the incense or the ancient liturgy, though both are striking. It is the weight of what this people has carried. For seventeen centuries they have bled for their faith, survived genocide, outlasted empires, and still gathered on Sunday mornings to confess the same creed their ancestors recited before the Roman Empire collapsed. You cannot study the Armenian Apostolic Church without feeling the gravity of that.
If you are an Evangelical, you may have encountered Armenian Christians in your community and wondered: What do they believe? Are they brothers and sisters in Christ? Where do we agree, and where do our theological roads diverge? These are fair questions. And they deserve a careful, honest answer rather than a dismissive label.
Armenia: The World’s First Christian Nation
The story begins with a king, a prisoner, and what can only be described as a miracle.
In the late third century, a man named Gregory was thrown into a pit called Khor Virap by the Armenian king Tiridates III. His crime was refusing to worship a pagan goddess. For thirteen to fifteen years, Gregory survived in that underground dungeon, kept alive by a kindhearted woman who lowered bread to him each day. According to historical sources, it was only after the king fell ill and his sister had a dream pointing to Gregory as the one who could heal him that Tiridates finally released the prisoner. Gregory healed the king, preached the Gospel, converted the royal family, and in AD 301 King Tiridates declared Armenia a Christian nation.
This was not a small moment in church history. Armenia became the first state in the world to officially adopt Christianity as its national religion, more than a decade before Constantine’s Edict of Milan. Gregory, who would come to be called “the Illuminator,” was consecrated as the first Catholicos of the Armenian Church. He tore down pagan temples, built churches throughout the land, and planted a faith that has never been uprooted.
The Armenian Church traces its origins even further back, to the apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus, who tradition holds were the first to preach the Gospel in Armenia and were later martyred there. The church’s full official name is the One Holy Universal Apostolic Orthodox Armenian Church, and the word “Apostolic” is not merely decorative. It is a claim about roots.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” — Matthew 28:19 (NKJV)
That commission traveled to Armenia in the first century. The fruit of it is still standing.
What the Armenian Church Believes About God and Scripture
At its doctrinal core, the Armenian Apostolic Church is solidly Trinitarian and creedal. It affirms the Nicene Creed in full, upholding the Apostolic doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the fullness of Christ’s divinity and humanity in accordance with the first three ecumenical councils. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are worshiped as one God in three persons. This is not disputed territory.
Members of the Armenian Apostolic Church believe that God is a Holy Trinity, made up of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They believe that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary and died to atone for human sins. The church also confesses the resurrection of Christ, his ascension, his ongoing intercession, and his promised return to judge the living and the dead.
The Armenian Church holds Holy Scripture in high regard alongside Holy Tradition. Tradition, for them, encompasses the liturgy, the writings of the church fathers, the councils, the canons, and the sacred life of the community across the centuries. The faith of the Armenian Church is transmitted through the Church’s Holy Tradition that is preserved in the ongoing life of the church from the time of Christ to our times, formulated and rooted in the Holy Bible, liturgy and worship, and the writings of the church fathers.
This is where Evangelicals will begin to notice a difference. For Evangelicals who hold to sola scriptura, Scripture alone stands as the supreme authority in matters of faith and practice. The Armenian Church, like Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians, gives Tradition a co-equal or nearly co-equal weight alongside Scripture. This is a real and significant difference, not a minor quibble.
If you want to think clearly about this distinction, our article on faith versus works in the Bible gives a helpful framework for understanding how authority questions intersect with salvation questions.
The Christological Question: What Happened at Chalcedon?
This is the most historically significant point of departure between the Armenian Church and the broader Christian world, and it deserves careful treatment.
In AD 451, the Council of Chalcedon convened and produced what became the standard Christological definition for Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and virtually all Protestants and Evangelicals. The council declared that Jesus Christ is one person existing in two natures, divine and human, without confusion, change, division, or separation.
The Armenian Church rejected this formula. In 506 at the Council of Dvin, the Armenian church rejected the ruling of the Council of Chalcedon that the one person of Jesus Christ consists of two natures, one divine and one human. The Armenians instead embraced a position called miaphysitism, drawn from the theology of Cyril of Alexandria.
It is critical to understand what miaphysitism actually claims, because it is frequently misrepresented.
Miaphysitism does not teach that Christ was only divine and only appeared to be human. That would be a heresy called Docetism, and the Armenian Church has never held it. The Armenian Apostolic Church believes that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, who became fully human in the Incarnation, born of the Virgin Mary without ceasing to be divine. The Armenian theological position holds that after the Incarnation, Christ has one united nature, simultaneously and fully divine and human, inseparably joined.
In practical terms, the Armenian Church confesses the same Jesus as Evangelical Christians. He is fully God and fully man. He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for sin, rose bodily from the dead, and will return in glory. The philosophical debate is about how to describe the mechanics of the union between his divine and human realities, and the two sides use different Greek terms to do it. Both sides have accused the other of oversimplifying. Some modern theologians from both Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian traditions have acknowledged that the difference may be more linguistic than substantive.
Paul’s words in Colossians still hold the whole conversation together:
“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” — Colossians 2:9–10 (NKJV)
That is precisely what the Armenian Church has confessed through seventeen centuries of persecution. The fullness of God dwelt bodily in Jesus Christ.
Salvation and the Sacraments
Here is where Evangelical Christians will feel the sharpest differences from the Armenian tradition.
The Armenian Apostolic Church is a fully trinitarian, creedal, sacramental church rooted in the theology of the early Christian councils. Its beliefs on salvation, the role of the saints, and the necessity of the sacraments are broadly shared with both Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. For the Armenian Church, salvation is not merely a one-time declaration of justification. It is a lifelong participation in the grace of God mediated through the sacramental life of the Church.
The Armenian Church recognizes seven sacraments, called in Armenian khorhootrooteon, meaning mysteries. They are Baptism, Confirmation (Chrismation), Penance, Holy Communion, Matrimony, Holy Orders, and Unction of the Sick.
Baptism is the sacrament through which the believer is absolved of sins, is regenerated by the Holy Spirit, becomes a Christian, and attains adoption by God. Infant baptism is the standard practice, and it is understood not as a symbol but as an actual regenerative event. Confirmation follows immediately after baptism, with the newly baptized being anointed with holy oil called chrism.
Holy Communion is a sacrament by which the believer receives Christ’s Body and Blood in the form of bread and wine for remission of sins and the reception of eternal life. The Armenian Church, like Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, holds a high, real-presence view of the Eucharist.
Penance involves confession to a priest and absolution. Anointing of the sick with oil is tied to healing prayer from James 5:14, which Evangelicals also honor though without calling it a formal sacrament.
For Evangelical believers who understand salvation as resting fully on Christ’s finished work received by faith alone, these sacramental structures raise genuine concerns. Our article on law versus grace explores the biblical distinction that lies at the heart of this conversation, and our piece on grace and sanctification offers a grace-oriented framework for thinking about how God works in the life of the believer.
The Armenian understanding of grace is real. They believe in God’s sovereign, unmerited favor. But grace, for them, flows primarily through the institutional sacraments of the Church and through the mediation of ordained clergy. Evangelicals locate grace more directly in the Word and the Spirit working through personal faith.
Mary, the Saints, and Intercession
The Armenian Church gives Mary an honored title that Evangelical Christians will recognize from ecumenical discussions: Theotokos, or God-Bearer. This is not an optional decoration. It was the title affirmed at the Council of Ephesus in AD 431, which the Armenian Church accepted in full.
Mary is venerated as the preeminent saint, and the Armenian Church encourages believers to ask for her intercession before God. The church does not worship the saints, since worship belongs to God alone; it only honors them, asking their intercession before Christ. The distinction between worship and honor is important to the Armenians themselves.
Evangelicals, of course, do not ask Mary or the saints to intercede for them. The New Testament presents Christ as the one and only mediator:
“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” — 1 Timothy 2:5 (NKJV)
This is a real theological difference, not a matter of mere style. The Armenian honoring of Mary and the saints is deeply embedded in their liturgical and devotional life.
Worship, Liturgy, and the Divine Liturgy
The experience of worship in an Armenian church is ancient, beautiful, and deeply formal. The Divine Liturgy is conducted in Classical Armenian, one of the oldest Christian liturgical languages still in use. Incense fills the sanctuary. Elaborate vestments are worn. Chants that predate the Reformation by a thousand years fill the air.
Unlike Byzantine Orthodox churches, Armenian sanctuaries do not typically fill with icons lining every wall. Instead, a curtain or veil conceals the altar during parts of the liturgy. This gives the worship a particular sense of holy mystery.
For Evangelical worshipers, this is a dramatically different environment. There is no expository sermon in the way Evangelicals use that term. The liturgy itself carries the theological weight. This is not wrong, it is simply very different from the Spirit-led, Scripture-centered, participatory worship that characterizes Pentecostal and Evangelical congregations.
Our article on worship in spirit and truth explores what Jesus himself said about authentic worship and gives believers a biblical lens for evaluating any worship tradition.
Church Government and the Catholicos
The Armenian Church is governed by a hierarchical structure that flows from the top. The church is governed by a leader known as the catholicos, who is elected for life and oversees a hierarchical structure that includes bishops, priests, and deacons. The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, located in what is now Vagharshapat, Armenia, is the spiritual headquarters of the church worldwide. There is also a second catholicate based in Cilicia, representing a historical division in the diaspora communities.
The catholicos is the functional equivalent of the patriarch in Eastern Orthodox churches, though without the claims to universal jurisdiction that attach to the Roman papacy. Authority flows downward through bishops and priests. Laypeople have representation in some governance structures but cannot hold sacramental functions.
For Evangelicals who value congregational or elder-led church government, this hierarchical model is one more significant difference. The New Testament’s picture of servant leadership and mutual accountability among elders looks quite different from the monarchical episcopate of the Armenian tradition.
The Armenian Genocide and Suffering Witness
No honest treatment of the Armenian Church can ignore the genocide of 1915 to 1923.
The Ottoman Empire targeted Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks in a systematic campaign of mass murder. Estimates of Armenian deaths range from 600,000 to 1.5 million people. Entire communities were destroyed. Churches were burned. Clergy were killed alongside their congregations.
And yet the Armenian Church survived. More than survived. It continued to baptize, ordain, bury its dead, and lift its liturgy toward heaven. If you want to understand the resilience of the Armenian Church, you cannot look past this history.
The Armenian Apostolic Church has faced numerous challenges throughout history, including persecution during the Ottoman Empire and the Armenian genocide, yet it continues to thrive today. Today, in a 2024 survey in Armenia, 79% of respondents self-identified as belonging to the Armenian Apostolic Church. A faith that has walked through that kind of fire and comes out still standing deserves respect, even where theological disagreements remain.
The Psalms understood this kind of suffering witness:
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me.” — Psalm 23:4 (NKJV)
For Armenian Christians, this has not been a metaphor. It has been a biography.
Where Evangelicals and Armenian Christians Stand Together
Before concluding, it is worth naming the common ground clearly.
Both Evangelical Christians and Armenian Christians believe in the Trinity. Both confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, fully divine and fully human, crucified for sin and raised from the dead. Both believe in the inspiration of Scripture. Both affirm the second coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead. The Armenian Church affirms that Christ suffered, was crucified, rose on the third day, and ascended into heaven, and it awaits his glorious return to judge the living and the dead. Both practice baptism and the Lord’s Supper, though their understanding of those ordinances differs substantially.
The Armenian Church is not a non-Christian religion. It is an ancient Christian tradition with real doctrinal differences from Evangelical Protestantism. Those differences matter and should be engaged honestly, not minimized for the sake of a warm feeling about unity. But neither should Armenian believers be treated as strangers to Christ.
For a thoughtful framework on how to engage believers from other traditions with both truth and grace, our series on what the early church believed about divine healing and why grace is so hard to receive offer useful grounding in how we read the same ancient texts from different angles.
What This Means for You
If you have Armenian friends, neighbors, or coworkers, this is your invitation to a deeper conversation rather than a dismissal. Ask them about Gregory the Illuminator. Ask them what they believe about Jesus. You may find more common ground than you expected, and you will certainly learn something about faith under fire that Western Evangelicalism desperately needs.
If you are an Armenian Christian who has wandered into this article, hear this: the Gospel of grace, the finished work of Christ, the direct access to God through Jesus alone, these are gifts that belong to every believer. If your tradition has obscured those realities, it is worth sitting with the New Testament on your own and asking the Spirit to make it plain.
The Gospel does not belong to any ethnic tradition or liturgical heritage. It belongs to everyone who calls on the name of the Lord.
“For ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.'” — Romans 10:13 (NKJV)
That promise crosses every ecclesiastical border.
Keep Exploring at AnsweredFaith.com
If this article raised questions about grace, salvation, the nature of Christ, or how to engage other Christian traditions, you will find more help here:
- What Is Amazing Grace? The Word Behind the Hymn
- Law vs. Grace: Understanding the Difference
- Core Beliefs of Christianity
- The Trinity 101: One God in Three Persons
- Faith vs. Works: What Does the Bible Teach?
- What the Early Church Believed About Divine Healing
Resources
- Armenian Apostolic Church — Britannica
- History of the Armenian Church — Armenian Prelacy
- Armenian Apostolic Church Beliefs: The Complete Guide — The Eastern Church
- Our Belief — Armenian Apostolic Church of Holy Resurrection (Sydney)
- The Early Christianization of Armenia — World History Encyclopedia
- The Seven Sacraments — St. John Armenian Apostolic Church
By Pastor Duke Taber
Duke Taber is the pastor of Mesquite Worship Center in Mesquite, Nevada, and the founder of AnsweredFaith.com. With over thirty years of ministry experience, he writes to help believers navigate Scripture, theology, and the Christian life with clarity and grace.
Pastor Duke has been preaching and teaching the Bible since 1988. He has shared his knowledge online since 2011.
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