Post-Apostolic Christian HistoryIn this study we will look at Christian History in the centuries following the Biblical period described in the Book of Acts. We will examine some of the writings and beliefs of various Christian leaders, and what they taught in comparison to what the Bible teaches - to that outlined in Apostolic Christian History .Then we will look at the Nicene Creed and how it was formulated in the third century out of these doctrines to have a common religion for the both the pagans as well as the Christians.
The Didache (70 AD)In the Didache, “the teaching of the twelve apostles” (but not the original apostles), there are two sections that deal with baptism:
Section 7:1
Click Here To Return to top of Post Apostolic Christian History Even though these baptismal instructions were written shortly after the Apostle Paul’s death, Bible truth was being altered. The Bible clearly says that the baptismal formula is done by immersion and in the name of Jesus. It is interesting how in Section 9 the “name of the Lord” was used correctly in the formula, but not in Section 7. Either they knew the truth or they didn’t! An apostolic born again Christian would never use any terminology other than in “the name of Jesus (or Lord or Christ or Jesus Christ). Most likely it was altered at a later date to match traditional beliefs of Christian history. Justin Martyr (150 AD)Justin Martyr was known as a Greek apologist and his baptismal beliefs are as follows:
Chapter LXI -- Christian Baptism Justin obviously believed that entering the Kingdom of Heaven was dependent on being born again. You can readily see that he used the name of Jesus in the baptismal formula. On the other hand, one observes a deviation from apostolic Christian history as he calls on God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the baptismal formula.
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Irenaeus (130-200 AD)In Irenaeus' "Fragments of Lost Writings of Irenaeus - 34" he writes,For as we are lepers in sin, we are made clean, by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord, from our old transgressions; being spiritually regenerated as new-born babes, even as the Lord has declared: Except a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
which gives credence to the fact he used the correct baptismal formula. But he also wrote "The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching - 3" which states, First of all it bids us bear in mind that we have received baptism for the remission of sins, in the name of God the Father, and in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was incarnate and died and rose again, and in the Holy Spirit of God. At this time in Christian history, as was the case of Justin, lost souls were still being baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins. Another significant preservation of truth in Christian history is written in his "Against Heresies V-6-1",
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Now the soul and the spirit are certainly a part of the man, but certainly not the man; for the perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul receiving the spirit of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly nature which was molded after the image of God. For this reason does the apostle declare, "We speak wisdom among them that are perfect," terming those persons "perfect" who have received the Spirit of God, and who through the Spirit of God do speak in all languages, as he used Himself also to speak. In like manner we do also hear many brethren in the Church, who possess prophetic gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages, and bring to light for the general benefit the hidden things of men, and declare the mysteries of God, whom also the apostle terms "spiritual," they being spiritual because they partake of the Spirit... This speaks to the truth about the gift of the Holy Ghost. He confirmed exactly what the Apostle Paul said in I Corinthians 2:6, that the brethren - born again Christians - will speak in tongues as evidence of being Holy Ghost filled.
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Tertullian (155-230 AD)Tertullian was the first writer in Christian history to call God a "trinity",
But keeping this prescriptive rule inviolate, still some opportunity must be given for reviewing (the statements of heretics), with a view to the instruction and protection of divers persons; were it only that it may not seem that each perversion of the truth is condemned without examination, and simply prejudged; especially in the case of this heresy, which supposes itself to possess the pure truth, in thinking that one cannot believe in One Only God in any other way than by saying that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are the very selfsame Person. As if in this way also one were not All, in that All are of One, by unity (that is) of substance; while the mystery of the dispensation is still guarded, which distributes the Unity into a Trinity, placing in their order the three Persons-the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: three, however, not in condition, but in degree; not in substance, but in form; not in power, but in aspect; yet of one substance, and of one condition, and of one power, inasmuch as He is one God, from whom these degrees and forms and aspects are reckoned, under the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. How they are susceptible of number without division, will be shown as our treatise proceeds. Against Praxeas 2 Through his own declaration, Tertullian preserves for Christian history, that up unto this point in time, about 210 AD, humanity believed that God was the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost in the self same person. He also declared that there was no reason why the Unity of God in one person could not be the Trinity of God in three persons.
Click Here To Return to top of Post Apostolic Christian History Then he makes the Son, or the Word, subordinate to the Father, I may therefore without rashness first lay this down (as a fixed principle) that even then before the creation of the universe God was not alone, since He had within Himself both Reason, and, inherent in Reason, His Word, which He made second to Himself by agitating it within Himself. Against Praxeas 5 Whatever, therefore, was the substance of the Word that I designate a Person, I claim for it the name of Son; and while I recognize the Son, I assert His distinction as second to the Father. Against Praxeas 7 For the Father is the entire substance, but the Son is a derivation and portion of the whole. Against Praxeas 9 Still, in these few quotations the distinction of Persons in the Trinity is clearly set forth. Against Praxeas 11 For these things certainly are not written that you may believe that Jesus Christ is the Father, but the Son. Against Praxeas 25In the same dissertation he relegates the Holy Spirit to third place, Now the Spirit indeed is third from God and the Son; just as the fruit of the tree is third from the root, or as the stream out of the river is third from the fountain, or as the apex of the ray is third from the sun. Against Praxeas 8 Click Here To Return to top of Post Apostolic Christian History As would be expected, he reinforced that the Trinitarian formula of baptism would be a fixture in Christian history,
After His resurrection He promises in a pledge to His disciples that He will send them the promise of His Father; and lastly, He commands them to baptize into the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, not into a unipersonal God. And indeed it is not once only, but three times, that we are immersed into the Three Persons, at each several mention of Their names. Against Praxeas 26
Arius (256-336 AD)Arius went further than any of his predecessors had in Christian history to distance Jesus from God! In fact he went so far that it would destroy the Trinity formulated by Tertullian. Ward, writing about Arius said, "Identifying the eternal Godhead with the Father and regarding the Logos as no more than a power or quality of the Father, he said that before time began the Father had created the Son by the power of the Word to be His agent in creation. The Son was not therefore to be identified with the Godhead, He was only God in a derivative sense, and since there was once when he did not exist He could not be eternal. Arius stressed the subordination of the Logos to such an extent as to affirm His creaturehood, to deny His eternity and to assert His capacity for change and suffering. Ward further wrote that this "drove the distinctions outside the Deity and thus destroyed the Trinity. It meant solving the difficulty of the One and the Many by proposing a theory of one Supreme Being and two inferior deities" (Ward 1955, 41-42).
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Athanasius (296-373 AD)Athanasius, the bishop of Alexandria taught that God and Jesus Christ were one substance, using the Greek word "homoousios" to describe this sameness of Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. At the same time though, he also maintained that each is a different person. Even though this concept of "homoosious" is not Biblical, Athanasius made it the cornerstone of his writings. He believed there are three persons in one God and the three persons were equal, essential and eternal. Athanasius' beliefs were in sharp contrast to Arius as they breathed life into the notion of the Trinity.Of course Athanasius used the Trinitarian formula for baptism, "And the whole faith is summed up, and secured in this, that a Trinity should ever be preserved, as we read in the Gospel, ‘Go ye and baptize all the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost’ (Matt. 28:19). And entire and perfect is the number of the Trinity (On the Councils of Arminum and Seleucia 2:28 [A.D. 361]).
Constantine the Great (280-337Constantine the Great was the first Christian Roman Emperor. In 313 Constantine allowed Christianity to be accepted by removing penalties for professing Christianity. Many believe that Constantine had hoped the church would unify his troubled empire.
Click Here To Return to top of Post Apostolic Christian History In 325 AD Constantine forced Arius, Athanasius and the pagans to the Council of Nicea to formulate one Christian doctrine. The result was the Nicene Creed, the Trinitarian model for Catholicism, a new religion at that time. Approximately one thousand years later the Protestant faith emerged from Catholicism, using the same basic Nicene Creed for its theological basis.
The Nicene CreedThe Council of Nicea set Christian history on an irreversible course. Instead of the Bible being the final word on theology, the Nicene Creed defined a new theology for Christians.The position Arius held was defeated, allowing the basic wording for the full deity of Jesus Christ proposed by Athanasius. This creed was modified at the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD, but is still called the Nicene Creed. It states:
We believe (I believe) in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. Click Here To Return to top of Post Apostolic Christian History
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