The Forgotten Trinity (33 page)

13. That is, in the opera ad intra (internal operations) and opera ad extra (external
operations).

14. Or, if one wishes to be very technical, the constituent parts of the rock, the various
minerals, have the "being" of those minerals. A rock is normally a composite item,
made up of different materials.

15. The Athanasian Creed put it well long ago: "We worship one God in Trinity, and
Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance."

16. It is important to note that when we speak of "eternal" in relationship to the nature
of God, we are, in fact, talking about a timeless existence, a type of existence that
knows no succession of moments. It is not merely a "very, very long time," but it
is not time at all.

17. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1952),
149-151.

18. We do not here enter into the controversy between East and West concerning the
procession of the Spirit from the Father only (as in Eastern theology) or from the
Father and the Son (Western theology). See the discussion in Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 246-247.

19. Warfield, 155.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

1. See the listings of works in the "Notes on Books" on the relevant chapters in
J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1978),
108, 137, 162, 251, 279, 309, 343.

2. All citations of the early church Fathers in this section are translated by the author
from the texts as found in the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae D CD ROM (Los Altos,
Calif.: Packard Humanities Institute, 1993), unless otherwise noted. Section numbers follow the standard numbering in most printed editions.

3. The most egregious example of attempting to hide the testimony of this early Father is found in the Watchtower magazine of February 1, 1992, 21. By ignoring all
the genuine epistles of Ignatius, and quoting only from the spurious epistles written by later writers, the Watchtower managed to conclude that Ignatius did not
believe in the deity of Christ. Even a brief examination of his actual writings proves
otherwise.

4. All emphases added.

5. One might consider the common argument used by some that Jesus can be called
a "god" in the sense of "an angel" or a "mighty being" in light of a phrase such as
this. Would someone say "by the will of the Father and of Michael the Archangel"?
Does that make any sense?

6. This translation is based upon the edition of the creed preserved by Eusebius in
his Epistola ad Caesarienses, drawn from the TLG CD-ROM, which differs in only
a few places from that given in G. L. Dossetti's edition, reproduced in J. N. D. Kelly,
Early Christian Creeds, 3rd ed. (New York: Longman, 1972), 215-216.

7. The Greek term is yevvr)9evta, and it speaks of relationship as it is used here.

8. This is the key term, homoousion, 61iooti6tov, or in Latin, consubstantialem.

9. The catch-phrase of the Arians, f v ttotE otE ovx flv.

10. Or, "that he came into existence out of nothing," rendering the Greek phrase
ovx ovtwv eyeveto, from which the nickname "Exukontians" arose.

11. The council may have been the idea of others, most likely Hosius, bishop of Cordova, or Eusebius of Caesarea.

12. In fact, it had been condemned by Eastern writers and councils due to the possibility of its use by modalists, though that was a different context than its use at
Nicaea. Also important is the assertion by some that the emperor was the source
of the term. There is no reason to believe this. As Philip Schaff pointed out in his
History of the Christian Church (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985), 3:628, "The word
... was not an invention of the council of Nice, still less of Constantine, but had
previously arisen in theological language, and occurs even in Origen and among
the Gnostics. . ." The only reason put forward by some comes from the words of
Eusebius, written to his home church, in which he writes of Constantine, "He encouraged the others to sign it and to agree with its teaching, only with the addition
of the word `consubstantial' (i.e., homoousios)." The term translated "encouraged"
could be rendered as strongly as "commanded" or as mildly as "encourage" or
"advise." It seems Eusebius is only referring to the fact that once the Council reached a decision, Constantine put his support behind it-at least at that time.
He would later change his views.

13. This issue is discussed more fully in chapter 12.

14. Athanasius, De Synodis 6.

15. Jerome, Adversus Luciferianos 19, The Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, series II
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980), 11:6:329.