HISTORY OF THE DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE NATURE OF GOD
IN THE EARLY CENTURIES OF CHRISTIANITY
Part 2
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE
DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY
Christianity inherited the monotheism of Israel but gradually developed it by
the elaboration of the doctrine of the trinity, until the 4th
century an elaborate theory of a “threefoldness” in god appears. In this Nicene
or Athanasian form of thought God is said to consist of three persons: Father, Son
and Holy Spirit, all equally eternal, powerful and glorious. It was
<held> that this tri-personality of god was not inconsistent with
monotheism, since the father is the “Fons et Origo” of deity <from whom the
son and spirit are derived by an eternal process of generation>, and because
the divine essence is one. The doctrine this included these three elements: (1)
the coequal eternity of the three persons; (2) the subordination and
<derivation> of the second and third from the first; and (3) the
consequent oneness of the divine nature of which all three persons alike
partake. [2]
The term “trinity” is not a biblical term, and we are not using biblical language when we define what is expressed by it as the doctrine that there is one only true god, but in the unity of the godhead there are three coeternal and coequal persons, the same in substance, but distinct in subsistence. As the doctrine is indiscoverable by reason, so it is incapable of proof from reason. There are no analogies to it in nature, not even in man, (for the body, soul and spirit constitute only <one person>.). The doctrine of the trinity lies in the New Testament rather in the form of allusions than in express teaching. [4]
The church dogma of the trinity was the work of three centuries and was fairly accomplished in the Nicean age; in the apostolic fathers we find for the most part only the simple biblical statement of the deity and humanity of Christ. [11]
(The Apostolic Church taught the Revelation of God throughout the Mediterranean
area, and it is significant that at the end of the Apostolic era, we find no
trace of Trinitarianism—but we do find the concept of one God in three
manifestations, later called Modalistic Monarchianism.).