History, Terminology and Heresy

1
History, Terminology and Heresy

• Polycarp (69-155) - I glorify You, through the
  Eternal high Priest, Jesus Christ, Your beloved
  Son, through whom be glory to You, with Him in
  the Holy Spirit, both now and forevermore.
• Justin Martyr (100-165) - We worship the Framer
  of this Universe, and Jesus Christ, our Teacher
  in these things, having learned that He is the
  Son of the true God, having Him in the second
  place, and the Prophetic Spirit in the third rank

2
Tertullian

• Adv. Prax - sought refuge in the monarchy
• We believe in one only God, yet subject to this
  dispensation, which is our word for economy, that
  the one only God has also a Son, His Word,
  ...which Son then sent, according to His promise,
  the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, out of the
  Father.
• the mystery of the economy, which distributes
  the unity into Trinity, setting forth Father, Son
  and Spirit as three.
• pro,swpon or persona

3
Arius

• evx ouvk ovntw/n - out of nothing
• kti,sma kai. poi,ma - a creature and something
  made
• the whole world woke up to find itself Arian.

4
The Nicene Creed

• We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker
  of all things visible and invisible and in one
  Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the
  only-begotten of his Father, of the substance of
  the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God
  of very God, begotten, not made, being of one
  substance with the Father. By whom all things
  were made, both which be in heaven and in earth.
  Who for us men and for our salvation came down
  from heaven and was incarnate and was made man.
  He suffered and the third day he rose again, and
  ascended into heaven. And he shall come again to
  judge both the quick and the dead. And we
  believe in the Holy Ghost. And whosoever shall
  say that there was a time when the Son of God was
  not, or that before he was begotten he was not,
  or that he was made of things that were not, or
  that he is of a different substance or essence
  from the Father or that he is a creature, or
  subject to change or conversion--all that so say,
  the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes
  them.

5
Homoousion?µ???s???

• Identical essence
• term itself was intended to set forth the full
  deity of the Son

6
Calvin

• For who even of slight intelligence does not
  understand that, as nurses commonly do with
  infants, God is wont in a measure to lisp in
  speaking to us? Thus such forms of speaking do
  not so much express clearly what God is like as
  accommodate the knowledge of him to our slight
  capacity. To do this he must descend far beneath
  his loftiness. (I.13.1)

7
Calvin

• Now, although the heretics rail at the word
  person, or certain squeamish men cry out
  against admitting a term fashioned by the human
  mind, they cannot shake our conviction that three
  are spoken of, each of which is entirely God, yet
  that there is not more than one God. What
  wickedness, then, it is to disapprove of words
  that explain nothing else than what is attested
  and sealed by Scripture! (I.13.3)

8
Calvin

• If, therefore, these terms were not rashly
  invented, we ought to beware lest by repudiating
  them we be accused of overweening rashness.
  Indeed, I could wish they were buried, if only
  among all men this faith were agreed on that
  Father and Son and Spirit are one God, yet the
  Son is not the Father, nor the Spirit the Son,
  but that they are differentiated by a peculiar
  quality. (I.13.5)

9
Council of Constantinople (381)

• We believe in one God the Father all-powerful,
  maker of heaven and of earth, and of all things
  both seen and unseen. And in one Lord Jesus
  Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten
  from the Father before all the ages, light from
  light, true God from true God, begotten not made,
  consubstantial with the Father, through whom all
  things came to be for us humans and for our
  salvation he came down from the heavens and
  became incarnate from the holy Spirit And in
  the Spirit, the holy, the lordly and life-giving
  one, proceeding forth from the Father,
  co-worshiped and co-glorified with Father and
  Son, the one who spoke through the prophets in
  one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. We
  confess one baptism for the forgiving of sins. We
  look forward to a resurrection of the dead and
  life in the age to come. Amen.

10
Standard Trinitarian phrase

• One ousia in three hypostases

11
Athanasian Creed

• Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is
  necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which
  Faith except everyone do keep whole and
  undefiled, without doubt he shall perish
  everlastingly. And the Catholic Faith is this,
  that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in
  Unity. Neither confounding the Persons, nor
  dividing the Substance. For there is one Person
  of the Father, another of the Son, and another of
  the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of
  the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all One, the
  Glory Equal, the Majesty Co-Eternal. Such as the
  Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy
  Ghost. The Father Uncreate, the Son Uncreate, and
  the Holy Ghost Uncreate. The Father
  Incomprehensible, the Son Incomprehensible, and
  the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible. The Father
  Eternal, the Son Eternal, and the Holy Ghost
  Eternal and yet they are not Three Eternals but
  One Eternal. As also there are not Three
  Uncreated, nor Three Incomprehensibles, but One
  Uncreated, and One Incomprehensible. So likewise
  the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the
  Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not Three
  Almighties but One Almighty.

12
Athanasian Creed

• So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the
  Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not Three
  Gods, but One God. So likewise the Father is
  Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord. And
  yet not Three Lords but One Lord. For, like as we
  are compelled by the Christian verity to
  acknowledge every Person by Himself to be God and
  Lord, so are we forbidden by the Catholic
  Religion to say, there be Three Gods or Three
  Lords. The Father is made of none, neither
  created, nor begotten. The Son is of the Father
  alone not made, nor created, but begotten. The
  Holy Ghost is of the Father, and of the Son
  neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but
  proceeding.

13
Athanasian Creed

• So there is One Father, not Three Fathers one
  Son, not Three Sons One Holy Ghost, not Three
  Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity none is afore or
  after Other, None is greater or less than
  Another, but the whole Three Persons are Co-
  eternal together, and Co-equal. So that in all
  things, as is aforesaid, the Unity is Trinity,
  and the Trinity is Unity is to be worshiped. He
  therefore that will be saved, must thus think of
  the Trinity.

14
Phillip Schaff

• Beyond the Athanasian Creed the orthodox
  development of the doctrine in the Roman and
  Evangelical churches to this day has made no
  advance. This Creed is unsurpassed as a
  masterpiece of logical clearness, rigor, and
  precision and so far as it is possible at all to
  state in limited dialectic form, and to protect
  against heresy, the inexhaustible depths of a
  mystery of faith into which the angels desire to
  look, this liturgical theological confession
  achieves the task . . . The Athanasian Creed . .
  . clearly and concisely sums up the results of
  the trinitarian and Christological controversies
  of the ancient church . . . The anathema is to be
  referred to the heresies, and may not be applied
  to particular persons, whose judge is God alone.

15
Charles Hodge

• As the essence of the Godhead is common to the
  several persons, they have a common intelligence,
  will, and power. There are not in God three
  intelligences, three wills, and three
  efficiencies. The Three are one God, and
  therefore have one mind and will. This fact of
  the intimate union, communion and inhabitation of
  the persons of the Trinity is the reason why
  everywhere in Scripture, and instinctively by all
  Christians, God as God is addressed as a person,
  in perfect consistency with the Tripersonality of
  the Godhead. We can, and do pray to each of the
  Persons separately and we pray to God as God,
  for the three persons are one God one not only
  in substance, but in knowledge, will, and power.
  (ST, I461-2).

16

• Dynamic Monarchianism orAdoptionism.
• Theodotus of Byzantium
• Paul of Samosata
• Modalistic Monarchianism or Modalism
• Noetus of Smyrna
• Praxeas
• Sabellius
• Pneumatochians

17
Filioque

• Does the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father
  alone, or equally from the Father and from the
  Son?
• Gregory of Nyssa - It is not possible to exchange
  money or to go out to buy bread... without
  someone bringing up the problem of whether or not
  we can speak of the issue of procession of the
  Spirit.
• Gal 46 Rom 89 Phil 119 Matt 1020 1 Cor
  211 Luke 2449 John 1526 177 2022 Acts
  233 Titus 36 Rom 33and John 1426.

18
Calvin

• But if some distinction does exist in the one
  divinity of Father, Son, and Spirit something
  hard to grasp and occasions to certain minds
  more difficulty and trouble than is expedient,
  let it be remembered that mens minds, when they
  indulge their curiosity, enter into a labyrinth.
  And so let them yield themselves to be ruled by
  the heavenly oracles, even though they may fail
  to capture the height of the mystery. (I.13.21)

19
Calvin on the Trinity

• Nicene Creed God of God, Light of Light, very
  God of very God.
• How does the theos ek theou" (?e?? ?? ?e??)
  relate to the Son as the second Person of the
  Trinity?

20
Calvin on the Trinity

• Pierre Caroli Calvin is Sabellian
• (Sabellianism - Christ is a 'mode' of God)
• Valentine Gentilis - Essentiationthree Gods,
  three eternal, omnipotent, and infinite Beings.

21
Calvin on 'God of God' (?e?? ?? ?e??)

• Christ is autoousia, or a se
• His deity, like that of the other Persons of the
  Trinity, was from Himself, and not from the Father

22
Calvin

• And they will not benefit at all by another
  evasion, that Christ was God in his Father. For
  even though we admit that in respect to order and
  degree the beginning of divinity is in the
  Father, yet we say that it is a detestable
  invention that essence is proper to the Father
  alone, as if he were the deifier of the Son. For
  in this way either essence would be manifold or
  they call Christ God in title and imagination
  only. If they grant that the Son is God, but
  second to the Father, then in him will be
  begotten and formed the essence that is in the
  Father unbegotten and unformed...(I.13.24)

23
Calvin

• With respect to His deity, He is a se, or
  autoousia.
• But they are obviously deceived in this
  connection, for they dream of individuals, each
  having its own separate part of the essence. Yet
  we teach from the Scriptures that God is one in
  essence, and hence that the essence both of the
  Son and of the Spirit is unbegotten... (I.13.25)

24
Calvin

• If the distinction between the Father and the
  Word be attentively considered, we shall say that
  the one is from the other. If, however, the
  essential quality of the Word be considered, in
  so far as He is one God with the Father, whatever
  can be said concerning God may also be applied to
  Him the Second Person in the glorious Trinity.
  Now what is the meaning of the name Jehovah? What
  did that answer imply that was spoken to Moses?
  I AM THAT I AM. Paul makes Christ the author of
  this saying. This argument is conclusive.

25
Charles Hodge

• If Christ be Jehovah, and if the name Jehovah
  implies self-existence, then Christ is
  self-existent. In other words, self-existence
  and necessary existence, as well as omnipotence
  and all other divine attributes, belong to the
  divine essence common to all the persons of the
  Trinity, and therefore it is the Triune God who
  is self-existent, and not one person in
  distinction from the other persons. That is,
  self-existence is not to be predicated of the
  divine essence only, nor of the Father only, but
  of the Trinity, or of the Godhead as subsisting
  in three persons. And, therefore, as Calvin
  says, when the word God is used indefinitely it
  means the Triune God, and not the Father in
  distinction from the Son and Spirit.

26
Calvin

• Can Christ be both autoousia and at the same time
  ?e?? ?? ?e???
• ...the design of the fathers was none other than
  to maintain the origin which the Son draws from
  the Father in respect of Person, without in any
  way opposing the sameness of the essence and
  deity in the two so that as to essence the Word
  is God absque principio (without principium, or
  beginning), while in Person the Son has His
  principium from the Father.

27
Turretin

• Although the Son is from the Father, nevertheless
  he may be called God-of-himself (autotheos), not
  with respect to his person, but essence not
  relatively as Son (for thus he is from the
  Father), but absolutely as God inasmuch as he has
  the divine essence existing from itself and not
  divided or produced from another essence (but not
  as having that essence from himself). So the Son
  is God from himself although not the Son from
  himself (I291-92).