Quotes from chestertonrules
The doctrine of the Trinity has always been part of Christian teaching. It is a key factor that distinguishes Christians from heretics.
I agree that the trinity distinguishes Christians from heretics, but not in the sense you intend.
The beginning of the trinity came into the Church at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. It did not speak of three being equally God, but only two: the Father and Son. And this was forced upon a reluctant Church by the Emperor Constantine who was persuaded by his Advisor, Hosius. The vast majority of Bishops present did not believe that Jesus was equally God. Later, in 381, the Holy Spirit was added to the mix to make a trinity as decreed in another Council presided over by a Roman Emperor.
http://examiningthetrinity.blogspot.co ... ncil.html
John 1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made... 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
NT Greek grammar of John, scriptural usage of God/god, the understanding of Logos at that time, context, and writings of early Christians, all make the rendering and the Word was a god the proper rendering for John 1:1.
http://examiningthetrinity.blogspot.co ... r_21.html
http://examiningthetrinity.blogspot.co ... tudy.html
http://examiningthetrinity.blogspot.co ... word.html
From the letter of St. Ignatius to the Ephesians in approximately 107 AD:
"There is one Physician of flesh and spirit, begotten and unbegotten, God in man, true life in death, son of Mary and son of God, first suffering and then beyond suffering, Jesus Christ our Lord."
First, the relatively late copies in existence of Ignatius letters [seventh or eighth century] and many of the rest of the early Christian writers make it likely that later Trinitarian copyists have had there way with his original writings. The question of the accuracy of the late manuscripts of the early Fathers being corrupted by Trinitarian copyists is admitted by the Trinitarian translators and publishers of The Ante-Nicene Fathers (See Introductory Note to the Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians, for example. Just looking at the short form and the long form of his letter to the Ephesians shows the results of such tampering with the original. Furthermore, since the existing sources for his letters are copies of copies, etc. which have come down to us through TRINITARIAN copyists during a time when those who did not confess the trinity doctrine as essential truth were severely punished, even killed by the Church, we would not expect any of the later copyists to add NON-Trinitarian material. But it is clear that Trinitarian phrases have been added and some non-Trinitarian passages have been changed into Trinitarian statements in the writings of the ante-Nicene Fathers!
Therefore, while any Trinitarian statement carries a healthy degree of doubt, any non-Trinitarian statement would certainly not have been added by the Trinitarian copyists, but is most likely to be original. -
http://examiningthetrinity.blogspot.co ... eeds.html
Second, the part you quoted is found in
Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians, Chapter 7, (Shorter Version). It says in
The Ante-Nicene Fathers (ANF): There is one Physician who is possessed both of flesh and spirit; both made and not made; God existing in flesh; true life in death; both of Mary and of God.
The Longer Version (on the same page) says: But our Physician is the
only true God [see link in my last post],
the unbegotten and unapproachable, the Lord of all,
the Father and Begetter of the only-begotten Son. [Most likely to be original] We have also as a Physician the Lord
our God, Jesus Christ [less likely to be original].
Also, from St. Irenaeus (115-190).
"The Church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: ...one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father to gather all things in one,' and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Savior, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess; to him, and that He should execute just judgment towards all...'" (Against Heresies X.l) [Book 1, Ch. 10, verse 1]
The first part which is in bold print above makes the second part in bold print unlikely (possibly and God added by Trinitarian copyists to the latter).
Or it is certainly possible for Jesus to be called god in the subordinate sense as were angels and human judges in scripture (and men and angels by the early Christian writers themselves - see the link above concerning God and gods).
Ignatius also wrote (obviously not changed by later Trinitarian copyists): It is proper, then, that I should begin with the first and most important head [cf. 1 Cor. 11:3], that is God the Creator, who made the heaven and the earth, and all things that are therein . And to demonstrate that there is nothing either above Him or after Him; nor that, influenced by any one, but of His own free will, He created all things, since
He is the only God, the only Lord, the only Creator, the only Father, alone containing all things, and Himself commanding all things into existence. - Against Heresies, Book 2, chap. 1, verse 1. (ANF)
Also, It is easy to prove from the very words of the Lord, that He acknowledges one Father and Creator of the world, and fashioner of man, who was proclaimed by the Law and the prophets [YHWH, who alone is the Father], while He knows no other, and that this One is really God over all; - Book 2, Ch. 11, verse 1. (ANF)
And, But there is one only God, the Creator - He who is above every Principality, and Power, and Dominion, and Virtue,
He is the Father, He is God, He the Founder, He the Maker, He the Creator, who made those things by Himself, that is
through His Word and Wisdom . - Book 2, Ch. 30, Verse 9.
