“...it’s own conception of the Trinity was looked upon by the Fathers themselves as a combination of Jewish monotheism and pagan polytheism, except that to them this combination was a good combination; in fact, it was to them an ideal combination of what is best in Jewish monotheism and of what is best in pagan polytheism, and consequently they gloried in it and pointed to it as evidence of the truth of their belief. We have on this the testimony of Gregory of Nyssa - one of the great figures in the history of the philosophic formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity - and his words are repeated by John of Damascus - the last of the Church Fathers.
The Christian conception of God, argues Gregory of Nyssa, is neither the polytheism of the Greeks nor the monotheism of the Jews and consequently it must be true, for ’the truth passes in the mean between these two conceptions, destroying each heresy, and yet, accepting what is useful to it from each. The Jewish dogma is destroyed by the acceptance of the Word and by the belief in the Spirit, while the polytheistic error of the Greek school is made to vanish by the unity of the nature abrogating this imagination of plurality.’”
(Henry Austryn Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Church Fathers, Vol. I, pp. 362-363, Second Edition, Revised)
Gregory! What have you done? Jewish monotheism - the monotheism held by Jesus of Nazareth - is heresy. You destroyed the dogma of the Messiah with your trinitarian conception of God.
What will the Messiah say about that when you meet?
Jewish monotheism - the unitary monotheism held not only by Jesus of Nazareth but also by the apostles and the first Christians. The theology of the church changed as the balance in the church changed from Jewish to Gentile. How do we know that happened? By reading Church history.
I read an article - a trinitarian article - this afternoon titled, “What is apostasy and how can I recognize it?” The article takes us, not by accident, to a particular time and place.
“In A.D. 325, the Council of Nicaea convened primarily to take up the issue of Arius and his teaching. Much to Arius’ dismay, the end result was his excommunication and a statement in the Nicene Creed that affirms Christ’s divinity. ‘We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten of his Father, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance of the Father.’
Arius may have died centuries ago, but his spiritual children are still with us to this day in the form of cults like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and others who deny Christ’s true essence and person. …
It is critical, now more than ever, that every believer pray for discernment, combat apostasy, and contend for the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints.”
What is apostasy and how can I recognize it? Why does apostasy so often go unrecognized? How can an apostate be recognized?
www.gotquestions.org
When was the faith described in this article delivered to the saints? We don’t have to guess, as the article clearly identifies the date and the location.
Look again at the language contained in the Nicene Creed. It’s important that you do. Listen to it carefully. It’s the language of trinitarianism; it’s not the language of primitive Christianity. A shift has occurred; a massive theological shift. The church of the 4th century doesn’t sound like the church of the 1st century. It doesn’t even sound quite like the church of the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
Where did Dr. Harold O.J. Brown want his readers to be in relation to the shift? Not the Jewish unitary monotheism of Jerusalem; the trinitary monotheism of Nicaea, Constantinople and Chalcedon. Dr. Brown sounded an alarm to the church, warning that it is drifting away from historical orthodox trinitarianism - Return to Chalcedon! Return to Nicaea!
If the reader is persuaded that Dr. Brown’s alarm is legit then the reader should give heed to it.
Which came first: Jewish unitary monotheism or trinitary monotheism? Which form of monotheism was in-place at the time when Jude wrote about the faith which was once and for all delivered to the saints? It wasn’t the unitarianism of Arius, neither was it the trinitarianism of the (revised) Nicene Creed; it was the ancient Jewish unitary monotheism of Israel.
“I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be on the alert …” (Acts 20:29-31).
Paul - writing in the middle of the 1st century - sounded the alarm.
Paul’s alarm is the alarm I’m persuaded is legit. It’s his 1st century alarm, not Dr. Brown’s 20th century alarm, that I’m giving heed to.
Please read again the closing sentence of the linked article. It’s important that you do.
