The Trinity – Part seven

There is One God

“The object of our worship is the One God” (Tertullian: Apology, xvii). A characteristic teaching of the Chris­tian faith from the beginning was that there is one God. In this respect, Chris­tian teaching mirrored Jewish belief as opposed to the pagan concepts of the time.

All who bore the name of Christ recognized this fact, and even when trinitarian ideas had taken hold, the basic concept of One God was always declared. The inconsistency between monotheism and the doctrine of the Trinity, obvious to Jews and perhaps to pagans, was not admitted by trinitarians.

While exalted by many denominations today, the trinitarian concept was not part of the original gospel and took some time to develop in the early church. It began with confused ideas about the nature of Christ and his eternal relationship with his Father.

The Second Century

The Epistle of Barnabas speaks at length of the work and atoning sacrifice of Christ, and the author’s teaching appears to be scriptural.

Irenaeus makes some statements that are bold and true: “He created all things, since He is the only God, the only Lord, the only Creator, the only Father, alone containing all things, and Himself commanding all things into existence” (Against Heresies, II, i).

“The Father Himself is alone called God … the Scriptures acknowledge Him alone as God” (II, xxviii, 4). “These (the apostles) have all declared to us that there is one God, Creator of heaven and earth, announced by the law and the prophets; and one Christ, the Son of God” (III, i, 2). “Neither the prophets, nor the apostles, nor the Lord Jesus Christ in His own person, did acknowledge any other Lord or God, but the God and Lord supreme…and the Lord him­self handing down to his disciples, that He, the Father, is the only God and Lord, who alone is God and ruler of all” (III, ix, 1).

“Such, then, are the first prin­ciples of the Gospel; that there is one God, the Maker of the universe; He who was so announced by the prophets, and who by Moses set forth the dispensation of the law, which proclaim the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and ignore any other God or Father except Him” (III, xi, 7).

Such clear declarations of the unity of God would seem to leave no room for trinitarian teaching, and indeed, that dogma had certainly not been formulated when Irenaeus wrote late in the second century. It is very important to emphasize that the doctrine of the Trinity is foreign to New Testament teaching. The word “Trinity” and the phrases “God the Son” and “God the Holy Spirit” never appear in the Bible. As illustrated by the following quotations, trinitarian teaching developed slowly as a result of attempts to adapt Christian theology to ideas current in the Greek philosophical systems. The attempts began with ideas relating to the personal pre-existence of Christ.

The pre-existence of Christ

Justin Martyr writes as follows late in the second century: “His Son, the Word, who also was with Him and was begotten before the works, when at first He created and arranged all things by Him, is called Christ” (Second Apology, vi). Justin is called to task by a Jewish antagonist for his view that Christ was the angel who led the children of Israel. Trypho: “For you utter many blasphemies, in that you seek to persuade us that this crucified man was with Moses and Aaron, and spoke to them in the pillar of the cloud” (Dialogue with Trypho, xxxviii). There follows a lengthy argument in which Justin affirms this curious belief. However, it is noteworthy that Justin does not argue a trinitarian view; it would be some time before that doctrine would be fully defined.

“This Offspring was begotten by the Father before all things created” (Dialogue, cxxix). Justin Martyr assumed the apostle’s words in Col. 1:15, 16 (“For by him were all things created”) to refer to the Genesis creation, and this view came to be commonly accepted. Thus, in their misguided attempt to give honor to the Son, these men gradually went astray on the most fundamental teachings of Scripture -­that there is one God and that Jesus Christ is a man descended from Abraham and David although born Son of God because of the miracle of the virgin birth (Matt. 1:1; Luke 1:35).

Irenaeus on the Sonship of Christ

From the end of the second century onward there would be much controversy about the nature of Christ and the relationship between the Father and the Son. It would, by the beginning of the fourth century, evolve into the trinitar­ian dogma. Irenaeus himself reflects the beginning of this confusion. Even as he declares the Father to be the only God, he sees the Son as having been with the Father before creation.

“For ‘shall reveal’ was said not with reference to the future alone, as if then only the Word had begun to manifest the Father when he was born of Mary, but it applies indifferently throughout all time. For the Son, being present with His own handiwork from the beginning, reveals the Father to all” (Against Heresies, IV, vi, 7).

Several New Testament passages were being misinterpreted by the writers of this period. In addition to passages already cited, the first chapter of John’s Gospel was interpreted incorrectly. The belief had evolved that Christ, as the Word, had been literally, as a person, with the Father in heaven before his birth in Bethlehem. At this point, however, the co-eternity that was later to characterize trinitarian teaching was not suggested. Instead, the belief was held that before the creation, the Son emanated (was begotten) from the Father.

There were pagan sects, as well as gnostic groups at the time which personified the Logos (word) as a deity, and this concept found its way into the church (Irenaeus: Against Heresies, II, xii).

Tertullian contradicts himself

Tertullian correctly stated: “We also affirm that there was in Christ the same flesh as that whose nature in man is sinful. In the flesh, therefore, we say that sin has been abolished, because in Christ that same flesh is maintained without sin, which in man was not maintained without sin. Now, it would not contribute to the purpose of Christ’s abolishing sin in the flesh, if He did not abolish it in that flesh in which was the nature of sin, nor would it conduce to his glory” (On the Flesh of Christ, xvi).

It is characteristic of the period that such well reasoned and scriptural statements as the one just quoted were presented alongside mistaken, even paganistic, assertions.

For example, Tertullian later argues for the pre-existence of Christ: “…this one only God has also a Son, His Word, who proceeded from Himself, by whom all things were made (Against Praxeas, ch. ii). This misconception was shared by many of the third century writers, and it led the church straight to the doctrine of the Trinity.

The Third Century

In their efforts to win pagan intel­lectuals to Christianity, Christian apolo­gists often compared the Greek philoso­phers to Moses and the prophets. A kind of circular reasoning developed. The best of Greek philosophy, they said, had actually been derived from the ancient Hebrews; therefore the Greek writings could be accepted as compatible with their supposed Biblical source. Clement of Alexandria employs this process. Citing a passage from Plato, he com­ments: “I understand nothing else than the Holy Trinity to be meant; for the third is the Holy Spirit, and the Son is the second, by whom all things were made according to the will of the Father.”

Origen made considerable strides toward the development of the doctrine of the Trinity. “Jesus Christ himself, who came into the world, was born of the Father before all creatures; that, after he had been the servant of the Father in the creation of all things – Tor by him were all things made’ – he in the last times, divesting himself of his glory, became a man, and was incarnate although God, and while made a man, remained the God which he was; that He assumed a body like to our own, differing in this respect only, that it was born of a virgin and the Holy Spirit…” (Preface to De Principiis).

“The person of the Holy Spirit was of such authority and dignity, that saving baptism was not complete except by the authority of the most excellent Trinity of them all, i.e., by the naming of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” (De Prin­cipiis, I, iii, 2). Origen represented the Alexandrian school in the third century church. It was characterized by its attempts to merge Scripture teaching with Greco-Roman philosophy.

Paul of Samosata

One of the opponents of Origen on the subject of the Trinity was Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch (AD 260). He denied the pre-existence of Christ, except in the foreknowledge of the Father. His doctrine was “akin to the primitive Jewish-Christian idea of the person of Christ” (H. Chadwick, The Early Church, p. 114). Though Paul had some support in the church, he found himself in trouble with other bishops, and he was excommunicated in 269 A.D.

A later opponent to the trinitarian concept was Marcellus, bishop of An­cyra. He “wanted a strictly Bible theology, based on texts, not on Plato or Origen” (H. Chadwick, The Early Church, p. 135). At a council at Constantinople in 336, he was deposed and later exiled.

Arianism

Arius was a presbyter and teacher of Alexandria. A persuasive preacher, he gained a following, and in about 318 he clashed with the bishop, Alexander. Arius in his teaching ran counter to the trinitarian views that were now rapidly gaining favor. (While he was surely closer to the truth on the subject than his Catholic antagonists, Arius’ views were not really correct. His concept included a pre-existent Christ.) A council at Alexandria soon excommunicated Arius and others who agreed with him, but he continued to exert influence, especially in the East, and the Arian controversy continued for many years.

The Council of Nicaea

When the emperor Constantine moved toward elevating Christianity as the State religion, he found it divided over “a theological trifle.” He used his influence to settle the matter, convening an assembly of bishops at Nicaea in AD 325. The council met in the imperial palace with Constantine presiding at the opening session. The Creed of Nicaea defined the doctrine of the Trinity and condemned Arianism, but the dispute did not end for several decades. In later councils the doctrine of the Trinity, and other errors, were further defined and enforced.

Constantine and the Church

“What has the Emperor to do with the church?” This question had been asked in the third century, and it must have occurred to faithful believers of this period. It was Constantine himself who proposed the reconciling word, homoousios (Greek for “of one essence”), to describe the relationship of Christ to the Father, making the Trinity official church doctrine. The idea probably originated with one of his ecclesiastical advisors, (Eerdman’s Handbook to the History of Christianity, p.134). Though the emperor was not even a baptized Christian, the church, by now in an advanced state of apostasy, welcomed his support.

The progress of apostasy

In an attempt to do honor to the Son of God, misguided men declared him to be “of one substance with the Father.” The blasphemous phrase, “very God of very God” (and “God the Son”), now entered the vocabulary of the apostate church. The ratification of the creed states: “those who say There was a time when He was not…or that the Son of God is of any other substance [than the Father]…these the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes.” Such a position is in direct conflict with the Biblical warning that denying Christ has come in the substance of human flesh would be a mark of the apostasy (Rom. 8:3; 1 John 4:3). At the same time, the Holy Spirit (the spirit or power of God) was deified as the third “person” in the trinity of gods.

The doctrine of the Trinity did not originate in the teaching of the apostles. It was the result of an attempt to blend pagan philosophy (“love of wisdom”) with Christian teaching. But, “the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (1 Cor. 3:19). What a blessing is simple, scriptural truth: “To us there is but one God” (I Cor. 8:6). “For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).