Recent anti-Trinitarian questions have stated that the early Church did not believe in the Trinity. If that is your position, how do you explain these early Christian writings, some about the second person and some about all three persons of the Trinity?
1. Justin Martyr referred to the deity of Christ so often that space does not permit the reproduction of his statements here. But this statement of his sums it up succinctly: "We will prove that we worship him reasonably; for we have learned that he is the Son of the true God Himself, that he holds a second place, and the Spirit of prophecy a third.” This is a clear description of the Trinity.
2. In the Huleatt Manuscript from 50 AD is found a description of Mark 14 (where a woman pours perfume on Jesus). It says “...But, when the disciples saw it, they were indignant.... God, aware of this, said to them,: “Why do you trouble this woman?’” Jesus is the speaker about whom the writer says, “God ... said to them ....”
3. The letter of Barnabas in 74 AD says, “And further, my brethren, if the Lord endured to suffer for our soul, he being the Lord of all the world, to whom God said at the foundation of the world, 'Let us make man after our image, and after our likeness,' understand how it was that he endured to suffer at the hand of men" (Letter of Barnabas 5).
4. In 140 AD, Aristides wrote, "[Christians] are they who, above every people of the Earth, have found the truth, for they acknowledge God, the creator and maker of all things, in the only-begotten Son and in the Holy Spirit" (Apology 16).
The list goes on and on, but nobody likes a lengthy question and this one’s too long already.
2007-07-13
01:07:28
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8 answers
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cmw
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Religion & Spirituality