Early Christianity on: Monarchianism (Full Script)

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Early Christianity on Monarchianism

Post-Apostolic Church

INTRO

This is the second video in a series on what the Pre-Nicene Christians wrote about the Divinity.

The early Christians wrote a lot about the three Persons of the Divinity.  One of the reasons they wrote so much is because of a doctrine that began to arise as early as the second century.  This belief says that there is one God in one Person and is called Monarchianism.  The Pre-Nicene Church wrote against this belief extensively.  So before we can discuss what early Christianity said about the Persons of God, let us first analyze Monarchianism and see what it claims the nature of God is like.

MONARCHIANISM

Justin Martyr was the first to write about this belief and he immediately opposed it.

They who affirm that the Son is the Father, are proved neither to have become acquainted with the Father, nor to know that the Father of the universe has a Son; who also, being the first-begotten Word of God, is even God.  (Justin Martyr.  AD 160.  ANF, vol 1, page 184.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.ii.lxiii.html)

Hippolytus wrote about an event when the church dealt with a person who was a popular Monarchianist.

Some others are secretly introducing another doctrine, who have become disciples of one Noetus, who was a native of Smyrna and who lived not very long ago.  This person was greatly puffed up and inflated with pride, being inspired by the conceit of a strange spirit.  He alleged that Christ was the Father Himself, and that the Father Himself was born, suffered, and died....  From his other actions, the proof is already given to us that he did not speak with a pure spirit.  For he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit is cast out from the holy inheritance.  He alleged that he was himself Moses and that Aaron was his brother.  When the blessed presbyters heard this, they summoned him before the Church, and examined him....  After examining him, they expelled him from the Church.  (Hippolytus.  AD 205, vol 5, page 223.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.iii.iv.ii.iv.html, 1)

It is very likely that Praxeas was one of Noetus' students.  Against him, Tertullian wrote,

[Praxeas] says that the Father Himself came down into the virgin, was Himself born of her, Himself suffered, indeed was Himself Jesus Christ....  He was the first to import this kind of heretical perversion into Rome from Asia.  (Tertullian.  AD 213.  ANF, vol 3, page 597.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.v.ix.i.html)

This heresy supposes itself to possess the pure truth in thinking that one cannot believe in one and only God in any other way than by saying that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the very same Person.  (Tertullian.  AD 213.  ANF, vol 3, page 598.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.v.ix.ii.html)

The numerical order and distribution of the Trinity they assume to be a division of the Unity....  They are constantly throwing out against us that we are preachers of two gods and three gods, while they give themselves above all the credit of being worshippers of the one God.  (Tertullian.  AD 213.  ANF, vol 3, page 599.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.v.ix.iii.html)

Why would someone believe in Monarchianism?  Hippolytus wrote,

They seek to exhibit the foundation of their dogma by citing the word in the law, "I am the God of your fathers.  You shall have no other gods besides Me,"* and again in another passage, "I am the first and the last.  Beside me there is none other."**  Thus they say they prove that God is one....  But the case does not stand like this.  For the Scriptures do not set forth the matter in this manner.  (Hippolytus.  AD 205.  ANF, vol 5, page 223-224.)

* Ex 3:6, 20:3.

** Is 44:6.

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.iii.iv.ii.iv.html, 2)

Here are a few Pre-Nicene Christian writings directly opposing Monarchianism.  Tertullian wrote,

Monarchians... say He Himself made Himself a Son to Himself....  A father needs to have a son in order to be a father.  Likewise, for a son to be a son, he must have a father.  However, it is one thing to have and another thing to be.  For instance, in order to be a husband, I must have a wife.  I can never be my own wife.  In like manner, in order to be a father, I have a son, for I never can be a son to myself.  (Tertullian.  AD 213.  ANF, vol 3, page 604.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.v.ix.x.html)

Origen wrote about the Monarchians,

[They say] that the Son did not differ in number from the Father, but that both were one, not only in point of substance but in point of subject [that is, Person], and that the Father and the Son were said to be different in some of their aspects but not in their Person.  Against such views we must in the first place present the leading texts which prove the Son to be another [Person] than the Father, and that the Son must of necessity be the son of a Father, and the Father, the father of a Son.  (Origen.  AD 228.  ANF, vol 9, page 402.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf09.xv.iii.vi.xxi.html)

Novatian wrote,

For thus they say, "If it is asserted that God is one, and Christ is God," then say they, "If the Father and Christ be one God, Christ will be called the Father." In this they are proved to be in error, not knowing Christ, but following the sound of a name.  (Novatian.  AD 235.  ANF, vol 5, page 636.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.vi.iii.xxvii.html)

How serious did the Pre-Nicene Christians view Monarchianism?  They viewed it as blasphemy.  Tertullian wrote,

You blaspheme because you allege not only that the Father died, but that He died the death of the cross.  For "cursed are they which are hanged on a tree,"*  After the law, this is a curse which is compatible to the Son (only as "Christ has been made a curse for us,"** but certainly not the Father).  However, since you convert Christ into the Father, you are chargeable with blasphemy against the Father.  (Tertullian.  AD 213.  ANF, vol 3, page 626.)

* Deut 21:23.

** Gal 3:13.

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.v.ix.xxix.html)

Dionysius of Rome wrote,

Sabellius... blasphemes in saying that the Son Himself is the Father, and vice versa.  (Dionysius of Rome.  AD 265.  ANF, vol 7, page 365.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf07.vii.ii.html, 1)

CONCLUSION

This has been a brief look at Monarchisnism and how the Pre-Nicene Christians rejected the teaching that there is one God in one Person.  In the next video, we will look at their detailed evidence regarding the Persons of God.

Blessings and so forth.

Early Christianity on: The Nature of God (Full Script)

Too lazy to read?  Watch the video!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlERUtdNCsM

Early Christianity on the Nature of God

Post-Apostolic Church

INTRO

This is the first video in a series on what the Pre-Nicene Christians believed about the nature of God.

God simply means Deity.  But the nature of God is a bit more complex than just saying "God."  Many people refer to God as the Trinity (coined by Theophilus of Antioch (AD 180)) or the Godhead (coined by John Wycliffe (AD 1390)).  To avoid any dogmas that may come from those terms and to return to Paul's usage in Col 2:9 (theotes), the nature of God will be called "the Divinity" in this series.

The adjective form of this Greek word is theios, which is found in Acts 17:29.

BELIEFS TODAY

What have we heard about the Divinity?  How many Members or Persons are in the Divinity?  Some responses might include:

-One God in three Persons.

-One God in two Persons.  (Seventh Day Adventists, United Church of God)

-One God in one Person.  (Jehovah's Witnesses, Unitarians, Universalists)

-Two Gods, each in one Person.  (World Mission Society Church of God)

PRE-NICENE CHRISTIANS: ONE GOD IN THREE PERSONS

The Pre-Nicene Christians always had the same, universal belief: that the Divinity is one God in three Persons.  As far back as 107 AD with Ignatius, the student of the apostle John, this belief was taught.  Ignatius wrote implying that Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit were all equally God.  (See his letter to the Magnesians, chapter 13; www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.v.iii.xiii.html.

One confusing thing is that when Christians today say “God,” they could be referring to the Divinity as a whole or specifically to God the Father.   The same thing is true with the writings of the early Christians as well as the Scriptures.  The context always dictates whether “God” means the Divinity or the Father.  Please keep this in mind whenever you hear anyone refer to “God.”  On this channel, I will try to use “The Father” and “The Divinity” to differentiate between the two.

Proceeding through the Pre-Nicene church, let’s read a few quotations regarding what they believed about the Divinity.  Clement of Rome, a student of Peter and Paul, wrote before the end of the first century,

Have we not one God and one Christ?  Is there not one Spirit of grace poured out upon us?  (Clement of Rome.  AD 96.  ANF, vol 1, page 17.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.ii.ii.xlvi.html)

Justin Martyr wrote,

We confess that we are atheists, so far as gods of this [Roman] sort are concerned, but not with respect to the most true God, the Father of righteousness and temperance and the other virtues, who is free from all impurity.  But both Him, and the Son (who came forth from Him and taught us these things…), and the prophetic Spirit, we worship and adore, knowing them in reason and truth.  (Justin Martyr.  AD 160.  ANF, vol 1, page 164.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.viii.ii.vi.html)

Theophilus wrote,

The three days which were before [the creation of] the lights, are types of the Trinity, of God [the Father], and His Word [the Son], and His Wisdom [the Spirit].  (Theophilus.  AD 175.  ANF, vol 2, page 101.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.iv.ii.ii.xv.html)

Athenagoras wrote,

[Christians] know God and His Logos, what is the oneness of the Son with the Father, what [is] the communion of the Father with the Son, what is the Spirit, what is the unity of these three, the Spirit, the Son, the Father, and their distinction in unity.  (Athenagoras.  AD 177.  ANF, vol 2, page 134.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.v.ii.xii.html)

Irenaeus, a student of Polycarp who was a student of the apostle John, wrote,

Thus one God the Father is declared, who is above all, and through all, and in all.  The Father is indeed above all, and He is the Head of Christ.  But the Word is through all things, and is Himself the Head of the Church, while the Spirit is in us all.  And He [the Word] is the living water, which the Lord grants to those who rightly believe in Him, and love Him, and who know that “there is one Father, who is above all, and through all, and in us all.”*  (Irenaeus.  AD 180.  ANF, vol 1, page 546.)

*  Eph 4:6

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.ix.vii.xix.html)

Clement of Alexandria prayed,

[All of us should, in praise,] thank the Alone Father and Son, Son and Father; the Son, Instructor and Teacher; with the Holy Spirit; all in One, in whom is all, for whom all is One, for whom is eternity, whose members we all are.  (Clement of Alexandria.  AD 195.  ANF, vol 2, page 295.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.iii.iii.xii.html)

Tertullian wrote,

The mystery of the economy [of God] is still guarded, which distributes the Unity into a Trinity, placing in their order the three: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  However, [they are] three not in condition, but in degree; not in substance, but in form; not in power, but in aspect.  Yet of one substance, and of one condition, and of one power, inasmuch as He is one God, from whom these degrees and forms and aspects are reckoned, under the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  How They are susceptible of number, without division, will be shown as our treatise proceeds.  (Tertullian.  AD 213.  ANF, vol 3, page 598.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.v.ix.ii.html)

Hippolytus wrote,

The blessed John, in the testimony of his gospel, gives us an account of this economy [of God] and acknowledges this Word as God, when he says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”*  Then if the Word was with God and was also God, what follows?  Would one say that he speaks of two Gods?  I shall not indeed speak of two Gods, but of one; of two Persons however, and of a third economy, that is, the grace of the Holy Spirit.  For the Father indeed is One, but there are two Persons, because there is also the Son, and then there is the third, the Holy Spirit.  The Father decrees, the Word executes, and the Son is manifested, through whom the Father is believed on.  The economy of harmony is led back to one God, for God is One.  It is the Father who commands, and the Son who obeys, and the Holy Spirit who gives understanding: the Father who is above all, and the Son who is through all, and the Holy Spirit who is in all.  And we cannot otherwise think of one God, but by believing in truth in Father and Son and Holy Spirit.  (Hippolytus.  AD 205.  ANF, vol 5, page 228.)

*  John 1:1

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.iii.iv.ii.iv.html, 14)

Origen wrote,

The Father generates an uncreated Son, and brings forth a Holy Spirit, not as if He [the Son or the Spirit] had no previous existence, but because the Father is the origin and source of the Son or Holy Spirit.  (Origen.  AD 225.  ANF, vol 4, page 270.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf04.vi.v.iii.ii.html, 1)

Cyprian wrote,

The Lord says, “I and the Father are one.”  And again, it is written “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: And these three are one.”*  (Cyprian.  AD 250.  ANF, vol 5, page 423.)

*  1John 5:7 in some Bibles

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.iv.v.i.html, 6)

Dionysius of Alexandria wrote,

If, from the fact that there are three Persons, they say that they are divided, there are three whether they [who disagree] like it or not, or else let them get rid of the divine Trinity altogether.  (Dionysius of Alexandria.  AD 260.  ANF, vol 6, page 94.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf06.iv.iii.i.iv.ix.html)

Dionysius of Rome wrote,

Therefore, that admirable and divine unity, must neither be separated into three divinities….  But we must believe on God the Father Omnipotent, and on Christ Jesus His Son, and on the Holy Spirit.  Moreover, that the Word is united to the God of all, because He says, “I and the Father are one,”* and, “I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me.”**  Thus doubtless will be maintained in its integrity the doctrine of the divine Trinity, and the sacred announcement of the monarchy.  (Dionysius of Rome.  AD 265.  ANF, vol 7, page 366.)

*  John 10:30

**  John 14:10

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf07.vii.ii.html, 3)

ILLISTRATION

Tertullian probably wrote the most about the Divinity and how there are three Persons in one God.  He made the following illustration to help people understand it, comparing the Divinity to the sun and its light, to the spring and its river, and to the parts of a tree.

God [the Father] sent forth the Word [the Son], as the Paraclete [the Spirit] also declares, just as the root puts forth the tree, and the fountain the river, and the sun the ray.  For these are emanations of the substances from which they proceed.  Indeed, I should not hesitate to call the tree the son or the offspring of the root, and the river of the fountain, and the ray of the sun, because every original source is a parent, and everything which issues from the origin is an offspring.  Much more is [this true of] the Word of God, who has actually received as His own peculiar designation the name of Son.  But still the tree is not severed from the root, nor the river from the fountain, nor the ray from the sun.  Indeed, nor is the Word separated from God [the Father].  Therefore, following the form of these analogies, I confess that I call God and His Word—the Father and His Son—Two.  For the root and the tree are distinctly two things, but correlatively joined; the fountain and the river are also two forms, but indivisible; so likewise the sun and the ray are two forms, but coherent ones.  Everything which proceeds from something else must needs be second to that from which it proceeds, without being separated on that account.  However, where there is a second, there must be two.  And where there is a third, there must be three.  Now the Spirit indeed is third from God and the Son; just as the fruit of the tree is third from the root, or as the stream out of the river is third from the fountain, or as the apex of the ray is third from the sun.  However, nothing is alien from that original source from where it derives its own properties.  In like manner the Trinity, flowing down from the Father through intertwined and connected steps, does not at all disturb the Monarchy [of God], while at the same time it guards the state of the Economy [of God].  (Tertullian.  AD 213.  ANF, vol 3, page 603.)

(www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.v.ix.viii.html)

This is not the end of what the Pre-Nicene Christians want to tell us.  The next two videos will go into more detail, showing how the doctrine of one God in three Persons is the only way to describe the Divinity.

SCRIPTURES: ONE GOD IN THREE PERSONS

Finally, let’s look at some common Scriptures the Pre-Nicene Christians used to explain the Divinity.

Firstly and most importantly, they relied on Matthew 28:19.  This verse was a big deal to them and had practical applications to their teachings on the Divinity.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  (Matt 28:19)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  (John 1:1-2)

The Father and I are one.  (John 10:30)

Yet for us there is one God, the Father.  All things are from Him, and we exist for Him.  And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ.  All things are through Him, and we exist through Him.  (1Cor 8:6)

CONCLUSION

The Divinity is such an endless mystery for humans to understand.  All we can do is scratch the surface.  I mean, what could be explained in a twelve-minute video?  Please continue this series to learn more.  I invite you to watch the next couple videos where we will discuss what early Christianity had to say about the Person or Persons of God.

Blessings and so forth.

Update - Nov 2016

This has been a great month.  I have scripts finished for the next three videos, which will kick off what the early Christians believed about the nature of God.

I plan to share the first video this Friday!

Then I hope to share the next videos 2 weeks apart from each other.  That will take us into December, so I'm excited about that!

Blessings and so forth.