A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

192 A Source Book for Ancient Church Historyname Adoptionist has been so long applied to a heresy of theeighth century, chiefly in Spain, that it leads to confusion to usethe term in connection with Monarchianism. Furthermore, tospeak of them as Dynamistic Monarchians groups them with otherMonarchians, which is desirable. The most important schoolof Modalistic Monarchians was that of Sabellius, in which theModalistic principle was developed so as to include the threepersons of the Trinity.The sources may be found collected and annotated in Hilgenfeld,Ketsergeschichte.(A) Dynamistic Monarchianism(a) Hippolytus, Refut., VII, 35, 36. (MSG, 16:3342.)[173]Ch. 35. A certain Theodotus, a native of Byzantium, introduceda novel heresy, saying some things concerning the origin of theuniverse partly in keeping with the doctrines of the true Church,in so far as he admits that all things were created by God. Forciblyappropriating, however, his idea of Christ from the Gnostics andfrom Cerinthus and Ebion, he alleges that He appeared somewhatas follows: that Jesus was a man, born of a virgin, according tothe counsel of the Father, and that after He had lived in a waycommon to all men, and had become pre-eminently religious, Heafterward at His baptism in Jordan received Christ, who camefrom above and descended upon Him. Therefore miraculouspowers did not operate within Him prior to the manifestation ofthat Spirit which descended and proclaimed Him as the Christ.But some [i.e., among the followers of Theodotus] are disposedto think that this man never was God, even at the descent of theSpirit; whereas others maintain that He was made God after theresurrection from the dead.