Respond to JONATHAN CID:
If those verses are true and signifies JESUS IS GOD, why then based on history, JESUS IS GOD doctrine came out in the early second century? And all the writers of the NT are long long gone?
SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY. Augustus Hopkins String, D.D. Three Volumes in One, Philadelphia. The Judson Press Chicago. Kansas City, Los Angeles, Seattle. Copyright by Augustus Hopkins Strong. 1907
p. 305
“The earliest time known at which Jesus was deified was after the New Testament writers. In The letters of Ignatius, at the beginning of the second century.”
I will address your presented verses later, but for the meantime, I would like to tackle a logic and common sense discussion.
The problem with your argument is those “second” century christian leaders were taught directly by the apostles themselves, therefore any evidence from them is vaild as to what the early church taught.
The Biblical Basis of the
Doctrine of the Trinity:
An Outline Study
spotlightministries.org.uk/bowmanonthetrinity.htm
St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (C. 180 A.D.):
“The
successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient Church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul, that Church which has the tradition and the faith which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the Apostles. For with this the whole world; and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the Apostolic tradition…”
The Martyrdom of St. Polycarp (C. 155 - 157 A.D.):
“…In this way and for all things I do praise you, I do bless you, I do glorify you through the eternal and heavenly High Priest Jesus Christ, your beloved child: through whom be glory to you with Him and with the Holy Spirit, both now and through ages yet to come. Amen.”
St. Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus (181 A.D.):
“The three days before the luminaries were created are **types of the Trinity: God, His Word, and His Wisdom.” **
St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies (C. 180 A.D.):
“If any one, therefore says to us, ‘How then was the Son produced by the Father?’ we reply to him, that no man understands that production, or generation, or calling, or revelation, or by whatever name one may describe His generation, which is in fact altogether indescribable. Neither Valentinus, nor Marcion, nor Saturninus, nor Basilides, nor angels, not archangels, nor principalities, nor powers (possess this knowledge), but the Father only who begat, and the Son who was begotten. Since therefore His generation is unspeakable, those who strive to set forth generations and productions cannot be in their right mind, inasmuch as they undertake to describe things that are indescribable.”
St. Ambrose of Milan, Hexameron (Post 389 A.D.):
“But let us consider the course of our own creation. He says: ‘Let Us make man to our image and to our likeness.’ Who says this? Is it not God, who made you?..To whom does He say it? Certainly not to Himself, for He does not say ‘Let Me make’ but ‘Let Us make.’ Nor to the Angels, for they are ministers; and servants can have no partnership in the operation of the master, nor works with their author. It is the Son to whom He speaks, even if the Jews will not have it and the Arians fight against it…[And it is the Son] who is the image of God the Father, the Son who always is and who was in the beginning.”
St. Augustine of Hippo (+430 A.D.), De Trinitate, Bk. 7, Ch. 4:
“For that which must be understood of persons according to our usage, this is to be understood of substances according to the Greek usage; for they say three substances, one essence, in the same way as we say three persons, one essence or substance.”
St. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Romans (C. 110 A.D.):
“Ignatius, also called Theophorus, to the Church that has found mercy in the greatness of the Most High Father and in Jesus Christ, His only Son: to the Church beloved and enlightened after the love of Jesus Christ, our God, by the will of Him that has willed everything which is: to the Church also which holds the presidency in the place of the country of the Romans…To those who are united in flesh and in spirit by every commandment of His, who are filled with the grace of God without wavering, and who are filtered clear of every foreign stain, I wish an alloyed joy in Jesus Christ, our God.”
Tatian the Syrian, Address to the Greeks (C. 165 - 175 A.D.):
“We are not playing the fool, you Greeks, nor do we talk nonsense, when **we report that God was born in the form of a man.” **
St. Melito of Sardes, Fragment in Anastasius of Sinai (C. 177 A.D.):
“The activities of Christ after His Baptism, and especially His miracles, gave indication and assurance to the world of the **Deity hidden in His flesh. Being God and likewise perfect man, **He gave positive indications of His two natures: of His Deity, by the miracles during the three years following after His Baptism; of His humanity, in the thirty years which came before His Baptism, during which, by reason of His condition according to the flesh, he concealed the signs of His Deity, although He was the true God existing before the ages.”
