Trinity

TRINITY & OTHER DOCTRINES OF GOD:
PROF. M. M. NINAN
APPENDIX I
CLASSIFICATION BASED ON TRINITY RELATIONSHIP
Various views exist regarding the relationships between the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.
• Those who believe that Jesus is not God, nor absolutely equal to God, but
was either God's subordinate Son, a messenger from God, or prophet, or
the perfect created human:
o Adoptionism (2nd century A.D.) holds that Jesus became divine at his
baptism (sometimes associated with the Gospel of Mark) or at his
resurrection (sometimes associated with Saint Paul and Shepherd of
Hermas).
o Arianism – Arius (AD c. 250 or 256–336) believed that the pre-existent
Son of God was directly created by the Father, that he was subordinate to
God the Father. Arius' position was that the Son was brought forth as the
very first of God's creations, and that the Father later created all things
through the Son. Arius taught that in the creation of the universe, the Father
was the ultimate Creator, supplying all the materials, directing the design,
while the Son worked the materials, making all things at the bidding and in
the service of the Father, by which "through [Christ] all things came into
existence". Arianism became the dominant view in some regions in the time
of the Roman Empire, notably the Visigoths until 589.
The third Council of Sirmium in 357 was the high point of Arianism. The
Seventh Arian Confession (Second Sirmium Confession) held that both
homoousios (of one substance) and homoiousios (of similar substance)
were unbiblical and that the Father is greater than the Son (this confession
was later known as the Blasphemy of Sirmium):
"But since many persons are disturbed by questions concerning what is
called in Latin substantia, but in Greek ousia, that is, to make it understood
more exactly, as to 'coessential,' or what is called, 'like-in-essence,' there
ought to be no mention of any of these at all, nor exposition of them in the
Church, for this reason and for this consideration, that in divine Scripture
nothing is written about them, and that they are above men's knowledge
and above men's understanding"
o
o
Psilanthropism - Ebionites (1st to 4th century AD) observed Jewish law,
denied the virgin birth and regarded Jesus as merely a prophet.
Socinianism – Photinus taught that Jesus, though perfect and sinless,
and who was Messiah and Redeemer, was only the perfect human Son of
God, and had no pre-human existence prior to the virgin birth. They take
verses such as John 1:1 as simply God's "plan" existing in the Mind of God,
before Christ's birth.
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