About Jesus    Steve Sweetman

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Before turning to the Scriptures to see what they have
to say about the Trinity I will give a brief historical
account of the formation of this particular doctrine.

The word Trinity obviously does not appear in the
Bible. It is fairly clear and evident that the original
apostles, including Paul did not really have a clear,
concise, well thought out and formulated doctrine of the
Trinity that they taught in the churches. If they did it
is not clearly stated in their writings. Yes, Paul
believed in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, yet,
according to church history as we know it, the Trinitarian
doctrine was formulated later.

It is important to note the progression of leadership
in the church at this point. After Jesus ascended into
heaven the leaders of the church were the Twelve. As time
passed these twelve men settled in as leaders of the
overall church that had extended throughout the
Mediterranean region. Each local church had its own body
of elders that did have some relationship with the
Jerusalem apostles.

From these local elders arose what were called
bishops. Bishops appeared to be lead elders. These
bishops also became known as Church Fathers. These
so-called Church Fathers came into existence around the
turn of the century (AD 100). The main purpose and focus
for these men were to care for the church. Writing and
teaching were part of this caring process. There was one
bishop for each city church. Therefore you had the bishop
of Antioch, or whatever city a church could be found in.
It is historically believed that John, the writer of the
New Testament letters was one of the early bishops, if not
the first one.

About the middle of the second century another group
of leaders appeared within the church. These men were
called Apologists and Polemicists. These men did not just
decide to call themselves by these names and create some
kind of new office within the church. Like many things in
the church these men arose as a result of a need.

Two major needs of the church were the result of two
major problems. One problem the church faced was
persecution from the Roman government. The other problem
was heretical influence within the church.
The Polemicists diligently strove to defend the faith
by writing and teaching against these heresies. The
Apologists presented their faith to the governing forces
of Rome. They did this by public speaking and writing.
Both of these groups rationally, and intellectually
defined their faith and Christian teaching in a most
vigorous way. It is this that distinguished them from the
Church Fathers who did not necessarily rationalize their
faith, especially with such a fighting spirit.

These men often approached their thinking from a more
philosophical approach rather than a theological stance.
This likely was an outgrowth of the Roman culture which
most of these men came from and were taught in before they
became Christians.

This is where the historical account begins to relate
to our topic. A Roman named Tertullian was born around AD
160. He was trained as a lawyer and teacher and practiced
both. By nature he was a fiery sort of guy with a
fighting spirit. He became a Christian and due to his
academic background and zeal became one of the most well
known Apologists of our faith.

He often presented his case to the government against
their persecution of Christians. He would say that
Christians lived a higher standard of morality than the
government and therefore any such persecution was not a
logical or even legal approach to the situation.
Tertullian was the first known person to give clear
definition to the doctrine of the Trinity. In or around
AD 215 he wrote Adversus Proxean where we first find the
word Trinity used. The idea of "trinity" and "substance",
words used to describe the Godhead were further developed
in another writing called Against Praxeas (about AD 220).

Tertullian wrote in Latin and thus used the Latin form
of the English word Trinity. Theophilus of Antioch who
wrote in Greek seemed to be the first one to actually use
the word Trinity in AD 181, but with little development of
the idea behind the word. Therefore we say that
Tertullian was the first to develop the doctrine of
Trinity.

The second century saw great persecution of the
church. As a result the church was quite unified in its
allegiance to Christ, and for the most part to each other.
They knew that unity was the key to a strong offense
against the onslaught of the Roman Empire. Because of
this external threat there was no time for internal
disputes over theological issues.

Once the age of persecution ended, and Christianity
became acceptable, and even favourable, things began to
change. The church no longer had to devote all of its
attention to unity and threat from the outside. As a
result major theological disputes began to break out
in the church.

By AD 300 the church was in a much different position
than it ever had been before. Its faith was accepted by
all. It became the legal faith of the Roman Empire. The
church of Rome took precedence over all other churches and
the Bishop of Rome became the leader of the church
universal, and was so acknowledged by the Roman
government.

It was in this period of time that we say "orthodoxy"
was born. This was the formalization of ideas and
thoughts that would stand as eternal church dogma
concerning theological issues.

The method which the church took to formulate its
thinking was through Councils, which were called and
overseen by the Emperor of Rome. The Council of Nicaea,
AD 325 was the first real time in church history that the
State was in charge of church affairs and overseeing the
decision process. It makes me wonder a bit about the
conclusions that were made. This in itself was a major
problem, yet was not seen as one at the time due
to the fact that there was great division in the church
over certain ways of thinking.

The first great division came over the doctrine of the
Trinity. It seemed to be the main reason why Emperor
Constantine called the first of the seven great councils.
Three hundred bishops came to the Council of Nicaea to
deal with the problem. Only ten came from the western
church since Tertullian's thinking which we have already
mentioned was strong. The rest were from the eastern part
of the church.

To say that there was a bitter dispute over the
Trinity would be an understatement of the problem. This
was one major dispute, probably the intensity of which has
not really been experienced by us, or in this century.
At the Council of Nicaea there were three different
ways of thinking concerning the Trinity. The first two
were quite different from each other while the last was
somewhat of an attempt to compromise the first two.

The main issues dealt with the Deity of Christ, and
His relationship to the Father. We see once again that
Jesus is the centre of the controversy. He is that
"stumbling block" that people so often struggle with.
There is no struggle with God, or God as a Father, but
when it comes to Jesus, that is a different issue.

The first viewpoint at the council stated that Christ
was not eternal, that He was created before time as we
know it. It said that Christ was created out of nothing.
People holding to this viewpoint said that Christ was of a
different essence and substance than the Father, somewhat
subordinate, yet still He was divine, yet not deified.
They said that Christ was not co-equal, not co-eternal,
and not consubstantial with the Father. In short they
were saying that Jesus was a lesser of two gods, separate
and apart, holding to a divine nature due to creation, yet
not of the same essence of the Father. He then, really,
was not God.

The other view point, quite the opposite, held that
Christ was eternal, having no beginning. He was therefore
co-eternal with the Father. This view also held that the
essence of the Father and the Son were the same. They
were one in essence and substance. This way of thinking
stated that unless Jesus was co-equal, co-eternal, and
consubstantial, He could not logically be the Saviour of
man.

A man named Arius was the main promoter of the first
view at the Nicaean Council. The second view was promoted
by a thirty year old man named Athanasius, who had
suffered exile on five different occasions before his
death because of his position.

A quiet mannered man, not liking controversy, named
Eusebius of Caesarea, put forth the third and final
viewpoint as a compromise. This is what was settled on by
the majority of bishops. He taught that Christ was not
created out of nothing, but that He was "begotten" before
the foundation of time. He also said that Christ was of
"like", or "similar" substance to the Father.

The creed that was finally drawn up at Nicaea was that
which Eucebius had promoted, except it said that Christ
was of the "same essence" as the Father, and not "of like
essence". So the Nicaean Creed was written in AD 325.
Yet this is not the same Nicaean Creed that is read in
many churches today.

Though the Nicaean Creed was written and accepted by
the majority at the council there was still much
dissension over this matter. Between AD 325 and AD 381
the matter of Trinity still raged on.

As a result of further controversy the Council of
Constantinople was held in AD 381. This Council decided
that the faith of the Fathers at Nicaea "would not be set
aside but remain dominant".

In AD 451 at Chalcedon the creed that was rewritten at
Constantinople in AD 381 was approved. It is this creed
that we now call the Nicaean Creed. It took 116 years to
solve this problem of the Trinity.

The one sad result from Nicaea and the controversy is
that the state stepped in to help solve the problem. From
Nicaea, in AD 325 the church lost its control to the
secular government. Many words could be said on this
point alone.

Nicaea only dealt with the Father and the Son. There
was no real decision made concerning the Holy Spirit.
Some believed that the Holy Spirit was not of the same
essence as the Father, and that He was more like an angel.
The Council of Constantinople began to deal with this
point. It was agreed upon that the Holy Spirit was, like
Jesus, co-equal, co-eternal, and consubstantial. In AD
589 at the Council of Toledo the Holy Spirit`s place was
entered into the creed, as having the same essence, thus
finalizing man's attempt to define the One and Only God.

Many centuries later through John Calvin the doctrine
of the Trinity of God moved into the Reformed Church and
has been passed down to us today.

This is in brief a very short history lesson on the
orthodox view of the Trinity. Now let us see what the
Bible has to say about the subject.