Trinity

TRINITY & OTHER DOCTRINES OF GOD:
PROF. M. M. NINAN
• Hippolytus (A.D. 170–236) referred to them - "And some of these assent to the
heresy of the Noetians, and affirm that the Father himself is the Son..."
• Pope Dionysius, Bishop of Rome from A.D. 259–269 wrote -
"Sabellius...blasphemes in saying that the Son Himself is the Father and vice
versa."
• Tertullian states - "He commands them to baptize into the Father and the Son and
the Holy Ghost, not into a unipersonal God. And indeed it is not once only, but
three times, that we are immersed into three persons, at each several mention of
their names.”
• Von Mosheim states: “But while Sabellius maintained that there was but one
divine person, he still believed the distinction of Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
described in the Scriptures, to be a real distinction, and not a mere appellative or
nominal one. That is, he believed the one divine person whom he recognized, to
have three distinct forms, which are really different, and which should not be
confounded.”
Pope Calixtus was at first inclined to be sympathetic to Sabellius’ teaching but later
condemned it and excommunicated Sabellius.
Epiphanius (died 403) says that in his time Sabellians were still numerous in
Mesopotamia and Rome - a fact confirmed by an inscription discovered at Rome in 1742,
evidently erected by Sabellian Christians. Though we have descriptions of the Sabelians
as heretics, they were never officially declared so nor excommunicated from the church
at any time.
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