THIS CHRIST>>> PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO CHRISTOLOGY/TRINITY
INTRODUCTION :

The matter is put quite clearly in the first chapter of the Gospel of John:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Him, and without him was not anything made that was made.... And-the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. (John bore, witness to him, and cried; "This was he or whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.'" (vss. 1, 2, 14, 15)[1]
In short, how is it to be understood that the Son who in John is called the Logos (i.e., the Word), and who became a human being in Jesus the Messiah, is both with Go& and is God? How can God at the same time be one and mope than one? How is the Son related to the Father? This was the question before the councils of Nicaea in 325 and Constantinople in 381. The controversy to which this question led laid the basis for the Christian doctrine of the Trinity: it is therefore, generally called the Trinitarian Controversy. The church considered various answers to this question before finding a common mind. We shall briefly discuss these answers.

THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS VIEW
The Apostolic Fathers wrote between A.D. 90 and 140. Their discussion of the person of Jesus Christ simply repeated the teaching of the New Testament. None of the Apostolic Fathers presented a definite doctrine on this point. In this respect the New Testament, the Apostolic Fathers, and the Apostles' Creed stand in one line.

With the Apologists, Greek philosophy became associated with Christianity.-The best known of them was Justin Martyr, a man from Samaria whose parents were Roman. He was a - student-and a teacher of philosophy before his conversion. He remained a philosopher, regarding Christianity as the high­est philosophy. He died a martyr for the faith between 163 and 167. Justin taught that before the creation of the world God was alone and that there was ho Son. Within God, however, there was Reason, or Mind (Logos). When God desired to cre­ate the world, he needed an agent to do this for him. This necessity arose out of the Greek view that God cannot con­cern himself with matter. Therefore, he begot another divine being to create the world for him. This divine being was called the" Logos or the Son of God. He was called Son because he was born; he was called Logos because he was taken from the Reason or Mind of God. However, the Father does not lose anything when he gives independent existence to the Logos. The Logos that is taken out of him to become the Son is like a flame taken from a fire to make a new fire. The new fire does not lessen the older fire.[2]

IRENAEUS VIEW
Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons in Gaul from 178 to his death in about 203, had the most biblical approach of the early theo­logians in his discussion of Christ. He was less influenced by Greek thinking and thus more open to a truly biblical view of Christ. He begins his doctrine of Christ with the historical person named Jesus, who was born of the Virgin Mary in the reign of Caesar Augustus. Jesus existed before he was born: he was with God before the creation, and all things were made by him. Irenaeus writes:

If anyone, therefore, says to us, "How then was the Son produced by the Father?" we reply to him, that no man under­stands that production,-or generation, or calling, or revelation, or by whatever name one may describe His generation, which is in fact altogether indescribable.[3](Against Heresies, II, 28:6)
The Son is coeternal with the Father, and it is he who reveals the Father;
But there is only one God, the Creator ... He it is ... whom Christ reveals. ... He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: through His Word, who is His Son, through Him He is revealed. . . . But the Son, eternally co-existing with the Father, from of old ... always reveals the Father to Angels, Archangels, Powers, Virtues, and all to whom He wills that Go4 should be revealed. (II, 30:9)
Beyond this Irenaeus refuses to go. He confesses God the Creator, God the Son — coexisting and coeternal with the Father— and he believed that this Son "was very man, and that He was very God" (IV, 6:7).
The teaching of the Apologists concerning the Son -as a secondary God, arid Irenaeus’ teaching of the Son as coeternal with the Father, led many to ask whether Christianity believed in polytheism. This fear found expression in two very different conceptions.

ADOPTIONISM VIEW
If the Father is one, and the Son another, but the Father is God and Christ is God, then there is not one God but two Gods. If God is one, then by consequence Christ must be a man so that rightly the Father may be one God. Accordingly, in about 195 a certain Theodotus, who came from Greece to Rome, taught that Jesus was born miraculously of a virgin (Mary) and that he was a good and righteous man. At the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit, whom Theod­otus called Christ, came upon him. He progressed in good­ness, was crucified, and arose again from the dead. Jesus could be our Savior because of Christ (the Holy Spirit) who was in him and because his obedience was complete. Therefore, God adopted him as his 'Son. The followers of Theodotus were called Adoptionists.[4] The western church did not accept Adoptionism because it could not believe that sal­vation came by a man, however holy that man may have been. In the East, however, Adoptionism continued for many years. Adoptionism is also called Dynamic Monarchianism, because the one God (monos meaning one, plus arche meaning rule, i.e., government by one) reveals himself as a divine energy or power (dunamis) in Jesus.

SABELLIANISM VIEW
A second group held the following, again in the words of Novatian:
If God is one, and Christ is God, then Christ is the Father, since God is one. If Christ be not the Father, because Christ is God the Son, there appear to be two Gods . . . contrary to the Scriptures. Like Adoptionism, Sabellianism tried to protect the unity of God. However, it did so in quite a different manner. It taught that God revealed himself in three ways, or modes. He first revealed himself as the Father who created all things and gave the law to Israel. When God undertook the work of salvation, he ceased to reveal himself as Father and took the form or mode of the Son, when the work of the Son was completed, God took the form of the Holy Spirit. Thus the one God re­vealed himself successively as Father, Son, and Spirit. The Son became incarnate by being born of a virgin, and he died for our-sins. According to Tertullian, the Sabellians taught that the Father was born, suffered, and died. They are there­fore sometimes called Patripassians (the. Father suffers).
Sabellianism was born in-Asia Minor and grew up in Rome. It was first taught in Rome 'about 190 by a certain Praxeas from Asia Minor; he was followed by another Asian, Noetus; and since Sabellius gave the teaching its final form—in Rome about 200—it was named after him. It is also called Modalistic Monarchianism, because the government by one takes place by different modes of revelation of the one God. Sabellianism had longer life than Adoptionism, but it survived in the East rather than in the West.

TERTULIAN VIEW
This view became the soundest and has formed the catholic theological Christology. The most influential answer given in the West was proposed by Tertullian. Indeed, it provided the foundation for the answer that the Catholic Church was to give to the problem at Nicaea in 325 and again at Constantinople in 381. Tertullian taught that there is one divine nature. The Father and the Son have this one nature in common. They are separate and distinct, however, so far as their persons are concerned. Therefore, there is one divine nature, but there are two divine persons. Each of these has a specific function. At the same time, Tertullian gave a distinctly subordinate place to the Son. The Son is not eternal. The eternal God became Father when he begot the Son, just as he became Creator when he made the world. On this point Tertullian is one with the Apolo­gists. Later theology united Tertullian's teaching of one nature and two persons with Origen's teaching of the- eternal generation of the Son (see Chapter VII) to give the Catholic answer to the question of the relationship of the Son to the Father. Finally, Tertullian also related the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son. Three divine persons exist in one divine nature. Thus Tertullian provided the main outlines for the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.[5]

ARIANISM VIEW
Up to this point the Trinitarian debate had taken place entirely in the West. We now move to the East, where the debate became a great controversy. It lasted sixty years, in­volved the entire Eastern Church, the western church in part, and occupied the attention of eleven emperors.
The long discussion began with Arms, a presbyter in the church in Alexandria. He was a disciple of Lucian, who in turn was a student of Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch from 260 to 272, Paul was an Adoptionist (Dynamic Monarchian). He taught that the Logos or Reason of God dwelt in the man Jesus, This Logos had also been in Moses and in the prophets; in Jesus, however, ft was present in much larger measure.[6] As a result, he was united with God in a relationship of love as no other man had been. Therefore, God "adopted" Jesus after his crucifixion and resurrection and gave him a sort of deity. Three synods in Antioch dealt with Paul's teaching, and the third one (in 269) condemned and excommunicated Paul.

THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA
No one followed the situation more closely than Constantine. His political eye saw that the unity of the empire was in danger. Politically, the empire was one; theologically, it was two. Therefore he determined to call a council of the entire church. It would settle the issue, and he would enforce its decision with the power of the state. In calling the council, Constantine was not primarily concerned with establishing a true view of Christ’s relationship to the Father. His aim was to maintain a united empire. It was the task of the council to formulate a Christology that would serve this end. Thus, it was a combination of controversy in the church and the resulting political uncertainty in the empire that brought the first ecumenical council into being. It was held in Nicaea in Asia Minor and met in 325 from May 20 to July 25. Three hundred bishops attended, of whom all but a few were from the East. The Roman bishop sent two delegates. Hosius, the aged bishop of Cordova in Spain, was Constantine’s chief ecclesiastical adviser.

CONCLUSION

In discussing the history of the Apostle’s Creed we noted that its primary concern is with the person and work of Christ. The creedal witness of the church began with the central declaration that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour of men. This confession was later enlarged with a declaration about God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth, and another about the Holy Spirit and his work.

[1] The Revised Standard Of The Holy Bible Copy right 1994.

[2] R.H.Boer, A Short History of the Early Church, Day Star Press, Christian Council of Nigeria 1976, pg. 109.

[3] Ibid

[4] www.oikos.org

[5] Ibid pg. 112

[6] G. Hanks, 70 Great Christians Changing the World; Evangel Publishers Ltd, Kaduna, Nigeria 2001, pg. 240.
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COMPILED BY:
ABASILI JUSTICE GABRIEL