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
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
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
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.)
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.)
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.)
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
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
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.)
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
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.)
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
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
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
* John 10:30
** John 14:10
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.)
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.
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