“…from the essence of the Father, God from God,
Light from Light, True God from true God, Begotten, not created,
Of the same essence as the Father,”
Nicene Creed, 325 AD[1]
If there has ever been a theological hill to die on, it is for the doctrine of the Trinity. In fact, this is the exact place where many have drawn a line in the sand. In this brief defence, I desire to step aside as much as possible for you to hear their voices.
Setting the Stage
The Nicene Creed is a landmark confession in Christian history. Though not the first church council[2], it is the first ecumenical[3] council. After nearly three centuries of Empire-wide persecution of the church and her saints, Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (272-337) issued the Edict of Milan (313) which brought about a shift in the religious landscape of the Empire. This Edict granted Christians the right to worship and many other previously prohibited rights. At the same time a theological storm was brewing in the East.
The great city of Alexandria, the ‘bread-basket’ of the Empire, had erupted into a monumental dispute. At the centre of the unfolding drama stood the influential Libyan elder, Arius (256-336). Arius taught that the Father alone was God. In an attempt to maintain the unique supremacy of the Father, Arius argued for a Creator-Creature distinction and placed the Son, that is Jesus, on the Creature divide. In defending himself, Arius pointed to passages like Colossians 1:15 as a prooftext, stating, “There was once a time when the Son was not.”[4] This argument drew many to his side. After a failed synod in 321, in the city of Alexandria, the stage was set for the church to respond to these dangerous teachings. The Council would convene at Nicea, a city in Asia Minor modern day Turkey, in 325 AD.
Many have looked back at the Council of Nicea with some suspicion. Claiming that the Trinity was an invention of this particular Council. Others question the role of the State in the proceedings: Constantine was clearly present in most of the meetings as the Creed was drafted and redrafted.[5] In our day, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Unitarians and some of our Muslim friends argue that the Trinity was an innovation with no historical basis prior to Nicea. Is this the case? Was this some innovation, or is there evidence in support of a pre-Nicene Trinitarian commitment? I will argue for the latter.
Let us set forth clear evidence that the Bible and the early Christians, who lived and died before the Council of Nicea, were committed to the Trinitarian doctrine. Five fundamental truths will anchor this inquiry: the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, the Son is not the Father, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father nor the Son.
The Biblical Data
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”[6] The oneness of the God of Israel had distinguished this nation from their neighbours and had a similar effect on the Christian Church that had burst onto the world stage following the death and resurrection of her Lord. At the baptism of Jesus, the distinct voice of God from heaven being heard while the Spirit of God descended like a dove exclaimed the previously concealed wonder of the Trinity. Here we see three Persons, yet one Being.
The church fathers understood that Scripture alone should to be their final authority. An example of this can be seen with Gregory of Nyssa (335-389), in a conflict with his Arian opponents, declared: “Let the inspired Scripture, then, be our umpire, and the vote of truth will surely be given to those whose dogmas are found to agree with the Divine words.”[7]
2 Corinthians 1:3 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.”[8]
Titus 2:13 – “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus”[9]
Acts 5:3–4 – But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit … You have not lied to men but to God.’”[10]
John 1:1–2 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”[11]
John 14:16–17 – “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth…”[12]
The Ante Nicene Fathers[13] “The early church was faced with both belief in monotheism and belief in the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—what would later be called Trinitarianism. And the early church affirmed both.”[14] As Aristides of Athens (c. 125) put it, “For they (Christians) know God, the Creator and Fashioner of all things through the only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit; and beside Him they worship no other God.”[15]
Irenaeus of Lyon (130-202) spoke of “the preaching of the apostles, the authoritative teaching of the Lord, the announcements of the prophets, the dictated utterances of the apostles, and the ministration of the law—all of which praise one and the same Being, the God and Father of all.”[16]
Justin Martyr (100–165): “Permit me first to recount the prophecies, which I wish to do in order to prove that Christ is called both God and Lord of hosts.”[17]
And,
Tatian (110–172): “We do not act as fools, O Greeks, nor utter idle tales when we announce that God was born in the form of man.”[18]
And,
Polycarp of Smyrna (69–155): “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.”[19]
Athenagoras (d. c. 190): (in response to the pagan accusation that Christians were atheists) he wrote “The Holy Spirit Himself also, which operates in the prophets, we assert to be an effluence of God, flowing from Him, and returning back again like a beam of the sun. Who, then, would not be astonished to hear men who speak of God the Father, and of God the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and who declare both their power in union and their distinction in order, called atheist.”[20]
And,
Origen (185–254): “From all which we learn that the person of the Holy Spirit was of such authority and dignity, that (the formula for) baptism was not complete except by the authority of the most excellent Trinity of them all, i.e., by the naming of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and by joining to the unbegotten God the Father, and to His only-begotten Son, the name also of the Holy Spirit. Who, then, is not amazed at the exceeding majesty of the Holy Spirit, when he hears that he who speaks a word against the Son of man may hope for forgiveness; but that he who is guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit has not forgiveness, either in the present world or in that which is to come.’”[21]
Justin Martyr (again): “We can indisputably learn that [God] conversed with someone who was numerically distinct from Himself and also a rational Being.”[22]
Tertullian (160–225): “Thus the connection of the Father in the Son, and of the Son in the Paraclete, produces three coherent Persons, who are yet distinct One from Another. These Three are one essence, not one Person, as it is said, ‘I and my Father are One,’ in respect of unity of substance, not singularity of number.”[23]
With One Voice
These are the voices of those who have gone before. Their teachings echo the Divine Writ with such subtlety and precision that by the time the Nicene Creed was formulated it was merely an affirmation and articulation of what the saints have been saying for nearly three centuries. Consider Constantine’s Letter to the Church of Alexandria at the close of the Council, “May the Divine Majesty forgive the dreadful horror of the blasphemies which some were shamelessly uttering about our Saviour, who is our Life and Hope, declaring and acknowledging that they believe things contrary to the divinely inspired Scripture and the holy faith. More than 300 bishops (elders), distinguished by their moderation and insight, were united in confirming one and the same faith, which is in accurate harmony with the truth revealed in God’s decrees. Arius alone, deceived by the subtlety of the devil, was discovered to be the propagator of this mischief, with unholy purposes, first among you Alexandrians, then among others too. Let us therefore accept the judgement which the Almighty has presented to us; let us be re-united with our beloved brothers, from whom this shameless servant of Satan has separated us; let us go with zeal to the common body of Christ to which we all belong.”[24]
Every aspect of the life of the Church has been grafted and shaped by Trinitarian belief. From her Baptismal formula, her Praying, her Worship, her Ecclesiology, and her Apologetics have been rooted and governed by the God who is Triune. All glory be to our God!
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.[25]
Notes
1. https://christthesavioroca.org/files/2020-Resurrection-Classes/The-Nicene-Creed- of-325.pdf
2. Acts 15, for instance.
3. The concept of promoting or tending toward worldwide Christian unity or cooperation.
4. Upon hearing Arius’s false teaching, Athanasius immediately refuted the idea that the Son is not eternal: the “begetting” of the Son, or the “uttering” of the Word, by the Father, said Athanasius, denotes an eternal relationship between the Father and Son, not a temporal event.
5. “Then everyone stood up as the sign was given that the emperor was about to enter; and at least, he himself mad his way through the midst of the assembly, looking line some heavenly angel of God, covered in a garment which glittered as if it were radiant with light, reflecting the glow of his purple robe…” – Eusebius of Caesarea, Oration on the Thirtieth Anniversary of Constantine, Chapter 2
6. Deuteronomy6:4
7. Gregory of Nyssa, On the Holy Trinity, and of the Godhead of the Holy Spirit
8. Also see: Matthew 6:9, 14; John 17:1–3; 1 Corinthians. 8:6; Ephesians 1: 3 Philippians 2:11; Colossians 1:3; 1 Peter 1:2.
9. Also see: Isaiah 9:6; Matthew 1:23; John 1:1, 14, 18; 20:28; Acts 20:28; Romans 9:5; 1 Corinthians 1:24; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Philippians 2:6, 10–11; Colossians 1:15–16; 2:9; Hebrews 1:3, 8; 2 Peter 1:1; 1 John 5:20
10. Also see: Genesis 1:2; 6:3; Job 33:4; Psalms 139:7–8; John 3:3–8; 14:23; 1 Corinthians 2:10– 11; 6:16,19; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Hebrews 9:14; 10:15–16; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:10–11; 2 Peter 1:21
11. Also see: Matthew 11:27; John 3:35; 4:34; 5:30–32, 37; 6:38; 10:36; 12:49; 14:8–11; 17:20–24; Galatians 4:41; John 2:1; Hebrews 7: 25
12. Also see: Isaiah 48:16; Matthew 28:19; Luke 3:21; John 14:26; 16:13–14; Romans 8:27; Hebrews 9:8
13. A way of referring to those theologians and writers who predate the Council of Nicaea, 325 AD
14. Gregg Allison, Historical Theology, 232
15. Aristides, Apology, Greek version, 15
16. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 2.35.4. ANF, I:413
17. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 36. ANF, 212
18. Tatian, Address to the Greeks, 21. ANF, II:74
19. Polycarp, Philippians 12:2. Holmes, AF, 295
20. Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians, 10. ANF, II:133
21. Origen, De Principiis, ANF, IV:252
22. Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 62. ANF, I:228
23. Tertullian, Against Praxeas, 25. ANF, III:621
24. From the Letter of Constantine to the Catholic Church in Alexandria, The Emperor
Speaks
25. 2 Corinthians 13:
