2 Cor. 11:3-4 (ESV) But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
For the first few centuries of the church, Christian theologians struggled with one major problem: what to do with Jesus. The New Testament writers said Jesus was God (Matt. 1:23; John 1:1, 14, 5:18, 8:58, 20:28, etc.). The Apostolic Fathers (disciples of Jesus’ disciples) taught Jesus was God:
“For our God, Jesus Christ, was, according to the appointment of God, conceived in the womb of Mary, of the seed of David, but by the Holy Spirit.” (Ignatius’ Letter to the Ephesians, cir. 110 a.d.) Ignatius was one of the Apostle John’s disciples.
So, how does this work? We know of God the Father, but now God the Son is presented to the followers of the faith. We also know there is only one God. How can the Father and Son both be God when there is only one? This was a major difficulty in the early church and by the end of the third century, was a common topic of conversation not just among church leaders but also among the average believer.
A lot of theories were proposed. Most of these centered around the nature and character of Jesus which indirectly affects Trinitarian doctrine. Let’s look at some of these:
The Judaizers These folks were around during the time of the apostles. They taught Jesus was just a man and, therefore, His sacrifice wasn’t enough to save. Christians needed to continue in the Jewish rituals to be saved. The Jerusalem Council was convened to deal with this error in Acts chapter 15.
Gnosticism was an early heresy and stated Jesus was not a man at all but a phantom. The Gnostics thought the material world was evil and only the spiritual was good. As a result of this belief, they taught Jesus was good and so was not physical. He only seemed to be. This false teaching was common even in New Testament times and survived for centuries thereafter. It has reappeared in the modern Christian Science and Unity schools. John the Apostle wrote against it:
1 John 1:1 – 2 (NASB) What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life— 2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us
Modalism was another early heresy and was developed by a guy name Sabellius in the early third century. He taught Jesus was just a “face” or mode of God, that God is only one Person but wears three different “hats” as the Father, the Son, or the Spirit depending on the need of the Christian. The early church saw this was contradictory to the standard writings of the church. The Bible teaches the three persons of the trinity interacting with one another and not acting as one Person.
Patripassionianism is a form of Modalism which teaches that Jesus is both God and man but the God “part” is the Father who indwells the Son. Only the Father is God, Jesus is a human. The belief taught “as the Son suffered on the cross, so did the Father.” This is contrary to biblical teaching since we see Jesus, the Son, addressing the Father a number of times and indicating the Father is in heaven while the Son is on the earth as in the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9).
Tritheism was an errant doctrine developed in the early third century by Dionysius of Alexandria to combat Modalism, but he pushed things too far and ended up teaching Jesus was one of three Gods: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The church pointed this out to Dionysius, and he quickly turned back to the classical Trinitarian view.
Arianism is a teaching begun by Arius of Alexandria (256-336 a.d.). He said Jesus was created and not God at all: “There was when the Word was not” was a famous saying of his. His teaching became so dominant by the beginning of the fourth century the Council of Nicaea was called by Emperor Constantine (an Arian) to decide whether Arianism or classical Trinitarianism was biblical. About 300 bishops were called together and argued the evidence. The Trinitarian doctrine we hold today was defended against Arianism and stood the test. Arius was excommunicated and cursed by the church.
Why is this important?
To have the wrong Jesus is to stand before God at the judgment and be rejected:
Matt. 7:21-23 (ESV) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Paul taught us to check what we believe against Scripture, to test our beliefs to see that we are in the faith, that we have the true Jesus. Let’s do that.
2 Cor. 13:5 (NIV) Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?
Believers Armed and Dangerous 