Additional Trinity Notes

By Cohen G. Reckart, Pastor

It is interesting in the Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism, Vol. 20, What Is The Trinity, Bernard Piault makes the following comment:

"It is a good thing to examine the revelation that God made to the Jewish people in the Old Testament. We shall not find in it a lesson on the Trinity—there is none.

Even Tertullian disagreed with part of the growing trinitarian doctrine after he coined the word "trinas." For this, the Roman and Eastern Churches have never forgiven him, although they claim his Montanist theology on the trinity godhead now as their very own doctrine. In is indeed amusing to read of them anathematizing Montanist and then adopting his trinitarian views through the pen of Tertullian. Tertullian, when he went among the Montanist did so because he could not agree with the flux of the trinitarians. In his disputes with Praxeas, Tertullian accepted part of the view of Praxeas that the Word was God, not one third of God. In his modifications of Praxaes, Tertullian would not deny that there is an eternal "Word," only that he would not call him "Son" until he had appeared among men in the flesh. God could be called "Father" only from that time forward. This was a direct contradiction to the idea of an eternal God the Father who had become such, by begetting an eternal begotten God the Son before Bethlehem.

Praxaes taught Tertullian that the Word was God the Father from John 1:1.

JOH 1:1
1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Here is how Praxeas must have presented it. God in this verse is God the Father. This is confessed by all trinitarians. By adding the words "the Father" after the word God, the truth was obvious. Here it is:

JOH 1:1
1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God the Father, and the Word was God the Father.

Praxeas taught Tertullian that the Father could only be called the Father in relationship to the Sonship that began in Bethlehem. Tertullian did accept that the Sonship did not begin until Bethlehem. Said Greek and Roman scholars defending the trinity: "He may be forgiven the lines he wrote to Hermogenes, in which he seemed to deny the eternity of the Son. To our own disadvantage, we can not know all of the arguments of Praxeas because the Catholic Church conveniently destroyed all the documents of the Apostolic Monarchians. Nor do we know the exact time periods of Tertullian's writings. If these could be placed in chronological order, it might be evident that Tertullian altered his trinitarian views, swayed by Praxeas, the great Oneness Bishop, whose alleged conversion to trinitarianism, was interpolated into Tertullian's writings, to dissuade Monarchians from their Faith.

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Bibliography

(47) What Is The Trinity, Bernard Piault, Vol. 17, p 103, "Tertullian does not deny that there is an eternal "Word," only he would not call him "Son," as Scripture does, until he had appeared among men. God could be called "Father" only from that time forward."
(48) Bernard Piault, Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism, What Is The Trinity, Vol. 17, Bernard Piault, p 103
(49) Ibid

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The Cabbalist Jewish ConnectionNicaea Where Truth Was Declared Illegal | Constantine Takes The Bait
Constantinople A Rival Religious Papacy | A Religion Of Works For Salvation
Things Greek Orthodoxy Must Admit | The Curse Of Nicaea Upon Constantine And His House
Additional Trinity Notes | Patripassianism | Gnosticism
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