Fighting for the Holy Trinity

The major aspects of the Trinitarian thought of the Church Fathers were built upon a belief and profession of faith in the mystery of the Blessed Trinity that was grounded in New Testament Scripture, catechetical instructions, and prayers in sacred liturgy.[1] These Fathers - active pastors shepherding their flocks through Scriptural commentary and tradition - would become the framers of a thoughtful and coherent definition of the Trinity; a doctrine that would be forged in the fire of adversity. 

In the immediate post-Apostolic era the Church was confronted by questions and doubts related to the Trinity; a word not found in Scripture.  Influenced heavily by a Jewish Monotheistic and Scriptural viewpoint, the idea sounded polytheistic (or gnostic), hence the question arose, “How can there be ONE God when Sacred Scripture mentions the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?” Such questioning required a reasonable answer in order to defend the faith (against error), and enable articulation for evangelistic reasons.  In this context the Fathers realized how quickly such questions could (and did) become problems when a plethora of erroneous solutions were presented; solutions which appealed to various audiences in both the monotheistic and polytheistic camps.[2] 

One erroneous solution, Arianism, became entrenched in the Eastern Church.  This non-Trinitarian error was vigorously promulgated by Arius (d. 336), a priest at Alexandria, and asserted that Jesus was the only begotten human son of God, but not God.  Such teaching, “…denied the divinity of Christ which would result in the whole transcendent dimension of our life in Him being leveled out.  Christianity would be reduced to a rational philosophy.”[3]  To sustain and defend the integrity of the Trinity the Fathers were compelled to develop an in-depth understanding of the Godhead in toto.[4]

The Church Fathers addressed the “Trinitarian” problem in homilies, letters and treatises.  Justin Martyr (d. 165 AD), Irenaeus of Lyons (d. 202 AD), and Tertullian (d. 240 AD) were but a few of the early Church Fathers who reacted against non-Trinitarians by stressing the divinity of Jesus Christ as equal but distinct in the doctrine of the “divine Logos” or “Word” of God (John 1:1).  And, to their innovative credit, they utilized elements of Jewish and Greek philosophy by incorporating them without compromising the Scriptures; a communication coup when dealing with various audiences.  For example, Tertullian’s introduction of culture-based terminology greatly enhanced our own understanding of the Blessed Trinity. Tertullian spoke of the ONE substance of God and of the THREE Persons of the Trinity; distinct but not divided. Tertullian provided the terminology that would be applied in the councils of the Patristic era.  

The work of defining and defending the doctrine of the Trinity was affirmed at the Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.).  After the legalization of Christianity in the Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine convoked a council of over three hundred Bishops to deal with the Arian problem.  This gathering resulted in a new Creed built upon the foundation of the earlier Fathers.  The major aspects of the Nicene Creed refuted both those who denied the Trinity as well as those who tried to alter the concept of a “trinity” to meet a monotheistic mold.  The aspects that expressed the one divine substance of God in three Persons are as follows:

1.     The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three facets of one Divine Person, but three distinct Persons.

2.     Each Person is co-essential (same in essence or being) and denoted by the Greek term homoousias ?μοο?σιος (?μο- meaning “same” and -ο?σιος meaning “being or essence”). 

3.     The order of origin is not subject to time or subordination.  The Father has no source, but is source of the Son by way of generation, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.  All three Persons are co-eternal.

4.     Each divine Person, distinctive only by origin, is one God.

While the council formally refuted the various heresies that denied the Trinity in part or in whole, it did not completely quell all dissenters[5], however, by 381 A.D., at the Council of Constantinople, the heresies and erroneous “solutions” that threatened the Churches’ core teaching on the Trinity were defeated.  By the end of the fourth century the Blessed Trinity was defined, affirmed and reaffirmed in terms that could be understood by friend and foe alike. 

We are sustained today by the diligence of the early Church Fathers, those great shepherds of the faith, who developed and refined a rational doctrine of the Trinity. Working from what was already believed and professed in Scripture, early catechetical instruction and liturgical prayers, they met the challenges of the day and provided the Church with a thoughtful and unified doctrine.  To this day, however, there are those who would call themselves “Christians” or followers of the God of the Bible, who do not believe in the Holy Trinity.  Many of these groups were “founded” within the United States over the past 200 years and include the Church of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), Jehovah’s Witnesses, Oneness Pentecostals, Church of Christ Scientists, and Unitarians.

[1] New Testament Scriptures tell us that the Son is the Image of the Father and that the Son is Lord (Kyrios); the Greek equivalent of the sacred name of God venerated by the Jews. St. Paul included many triadic formulae (e.g., Galatians 4:4-6; I Corinthians 12:4-6).  Catechetical instruction handed down the faith in relation to belief in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, including the use of baptismal creeds, (e.g. Matthew 28:19). Liturgical prayers of the early Fathers (e.g. Justin Martyr and Polycarp) included “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”      
[2] With a Church scattered geographically, and outlawed in the Roman Empire, it was easy for heretical teachings to take root and grow during the first centuries of the Church.  The Fathers had to contend with many heresies that denied the Trinity on several levels, including denial of the divinity of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.    
[3] This heresy was repelled by St. Athanasius, who in his works Discourses against the Arians and his Treatise the Incarnation of the Word, established our Orthodox belief that Christ as Lord, (Kyrios), is equal to the Father in every way. 
[4] The Trinitarian problem also included the “Christological” question regarding the divinity of Jesus Christ, as well as the divinity of the Holy Spirt.  Regarding Jesus: that Jesus Christ is God and the Second Person of the Trinity was affirmed, but how could God become human and still remain One? (The answer would later be found in the Hypostatic Union).  Regarding the Holy Spirit (and after the Christological question was dealt with), the Great Eastern Cappadocian Fathers, Saints Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa, would contend for the divinity and Personhood of the Holy Spirit.
[5] Arius rejected the Nicene Creed.  St. Athanasius would spend 50 years thereafter combating the error of Arius.