Greetings again Towerwatchman,
I am not sure what you want here. The speaker gave a lecture on the Trinity and part of this was the gradual development of the Trinity over the first three centuries. I have a copy of both the slides and the one hour talk. I do not have a transcription but could spend some time writing some of the details of what he stated for each part of these slides. Nevertheless the slides are a good summary of the change from One God the Father and that Jesus is the Son of God to the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Kind regards
Trevor
Clement of Rome (1st Century)
The Father alone is God; Jesus is the Son of God, born a mortal man, raised to immortality; the Holy Spirit is God’s power.
Ignatius of Antioch (1st Century)
The Father alone is God; Jesus is the Son of God, born a mortal man, raised to immortality ; the Holy Spirit is God’s power.
Polycarp of Smyrna (1st-2nd Century)
The Father alone is God; Jesus is the Son of God, born a mortal man, raised to immortality; the Holy Spirit is God’s power.
Papias of Hierapolis (1st-2nd Century)
The Father alone is God; Jesus is the Son of God, born a mortal man, raised to immortality; the Holy Spirit is God’s power.
Justin Martyr (2nd Century)
The Father alone is ‘true God’; Jesus is a pre-existent divine being created by God; the Holy Spirit is a type of angel
Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd Century)
The Father alone is ‘true God’; the Son and Holy Spirit are the divine ‘hands of God’, but not fully God in their own right
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Did any of the ECF write what is here? Did Polycarp write "The Father alone is God; Jesus is the Son of God, born a mortal man, raised to immortality; the Holy Spirit is God’s power," and if so, the speaker should have cited his source. Notice what is written below each ECF is almost identical word for word. Seems more of a summary by the speaker than a quote from an ECF. Also I did a word search of Polycarp's writings and did not find 'The Father alone' anywhere.
Yes, the doctrine of the Trinity evolved over time. That is different than the deity of Jesus evolving over time. One should ask "Is the belief that Jesus is God a result of the evolution of the doctrine of the Trinity, or did the doctrine of the Trinity evolve based on the belief that Jesus is God?" If the belief that Jesus is God is a byproduct of the doctrine of the Trinity we should not find any such claim in any of the ECF that were either a disciple of an Apostle of a disciple of a disciple. If we do find it then the Trinity evolved based on the early belief that Jesus is God.
Note the following. Each is cited, you are able to verify this.
Ignatius [50-117 AD] a disciple of John the Apostle.
"Continue in intimate union with
Jesus Christ, our God."
[Epistle to the Traillians chapter 7]
"I pray for your happiness forever
in our God, Jesus Christ."
[Epistle to Polycarp chapter 8]
Polycarp (AD 69-155) a disciple of John the Apostle.
Now may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal high priest himself, the Son of God Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and truth...and to us with you, and to all those under heaven who will yet believe in our
Lord and God Jesus Christ and in his Father who raised him from the dead.
[Letter to the Philippians 12:2]
Irenaeus A.D. 115 - 202, a student of Ignatius and Polycarp, two students of the apostle John, and the eventual bishop of Lugdunum, now Lyon France,
"For He fulfills the bountiful and comprehensive will of His Father, inasmuch as He is Himself the Savior of those who are saved, and the Lord of those who are under authority,
and the God of all those things that have been formed, the Only-Begotten of the Father."
[Against Heresies Book 3 chapter 16]
ibid: "I have shown from the Scriptures that none of the sons of Adam are, absolutely and as to everything, called God, or named Lord. But
Jesus is Himself in His own right, beyond all men who ever lived,
God, Lord, King Eternal, and the Incarnate Word.... He is the Holy Lord, the Wonderful, the Counselor, the Beautiful in appearance, and the
Mighty God."
[Against Heresies book 3 chapter 19]
ibid: "Thus He indicates in clear terms that
He is God, and that His advent was in Bethlehem....
[Against Heresies Book 3 Chapter 20]
ibid: Carefully, then, has the Holy Ghost pointed out, by what has been said, His birth from a virgin, and
"He is God, for the name Emmanuel indcates this."
[Against Heresies Book 3 Chapter 21]
ibid:
"Christ Himself, therfore, together with the Father, is the God of the living, who spoke to Moses, and who was also manifested to the fathers."
[Against Heresies book 4 chapter 5]
ibid: "Or how shall man pass into God,
unless God has first passed into man?"
[Against Heresies Book 4 chapter 33]
ibid: "It is plain that He was Himself the Word of God, who was made the son of man. He received from the Father the power of remission of sins.
He was man, and He was God. This was so that since as man He suffered for us, so as God He might have compassion on us."
[ Against Heresies Book 5 Chapter 17]
ibid: He received testimony from all that He was very man, and that
He was very God, from the Father, from the Spirit, from angels, from the creation itself, from men, from apostate spirits and demons.
[Against Heresies book 4 chapter 6]
ibid:
Christ Jesus [is] our Lord, and God, and Savior, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father.
[Against Heresies Book 1 Chapter 10]
As to your source {History of the Dogma of the Deity of Christ by A Reville 1904 }
Page 9: Such is the doctrine which, having been slowly elaborated, arrived at supremacy in the Christian Church
towards the end of the fifth century,
This suggest that the belief in the deity of Christ should not have existed till around the time of the Council of Nicene. The above disproves it.
Page 59: The Platonists began to furnish brilliant recruits to the churches of Asia and Greece, and introduced among them their love of system and their idealism. To state the facts in a few words, Hellenism insensibly supplanted Judaism as the form of Christian thought, and to this is mainly owing the orthodox dogma of the deity of Jesus Christ.
This is true to some extent. It was not the Hellenist but the Gnostics, who were influenced by the Hellenist that infiltrated the early church. Keeping it short, they had two camps, one that taught that Jesus was non physical, and another that Jesus was only physical. John wrote his epistles as a counter to Gnosticism.
Page 60: Hence the rapidity with which a philosophical doctrine of much earlier origin than Christianity, and at first foreign to the Church, was brought into it, and adapted itself so completely to the prevailing Christology as to become identical therewith, and to pass for the belief which had been professed by the disciples from the beginning.
The above would disagree with this. The belief that Jesus is God was taught by the Apostles.
Page 108-109: … From this sprang two doctrines, that of Arius and of Athanasius. In reality, though under other forms, it was a renewal of the struggle between rationalism and mysticism.
Page 115: In reality, Arius, whose character and doctrine have been unjustly vilified by orthodox historians, was stating the ecclesiastical doctrine that had been in common acceptance.
Seems the author is bias. Notice page 108-109 he identifies Arianism as rational and the common accepted beliefs as mysticism.
Modern Arianism would be the Jehovah's Witnesses. Both believe that Jesus was a created being, first creation of God, who preexisted time, created all, and is somehow a lesser god, not on par with the Father. Others include Unitarians, Christadelphians, and Ladder Day Saints.
Arianism.
"Author of all things [made to exist] by the Father, after the Father, for the Father, and for the glory of the Father...
He was both great God and great Lord and great King, and great Mystery, great Light and High Priest, the providing and law-giving Lord, Redeemer, Savior, Shepherd, born before all time, Creator of all creation."
God was not always a Father… Once God was alone, and not yet a Father, but afterwards He became a Father. The Son was not always… [He was] made out of nothing, and once He was not.
I believe that
there is only one God the Father, alone unbegotten and invisible, and in
His only-begotten Son, our Lord and God, creator and maker of all things, not having any like unto Him… And I believe in one Holy Spirit, an enlightening and sanctifying power...[who is] neither God nor Lord, but the faithful minister of Christ; not equal, but subject and obedient in all things to the Son. And I believe the Son to be subject and obedient in all things to God the Father."
Would you call these beliefs rational?
Speaking of the Nicene Creed:
The three ECF that I quoted are the earliest. I counted 36 quotes from nine different ECF who believed and wrote that Jesus is God who predate the Nicene Council. But I wish not to labor this.
Thankyou
TWM