We Have the Witness of the Early Church

 The witness of the early Christian church is clear in its support of Christ's deity. The writings of the church fathers and apologists, accessible in translation today, proved their belief in this paramount doctrine. 

The church fathers refer to Christ as being "eternal,'' "God incarnate,'' "creator,'' or possessing some other exclusive divine attribute in their writings.' Representative quotes from several of them follow. 

 * Polycarp (A.D. 69-155), bishop of  Smyrna, was a disciple of the apostle John. He wrote: Now may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal High Priest Himself, the (Son of] God Jesus Christ, build you up in faith . . ."2

 * Ignatius (died c. A.D. 110), head of the church at Antioch, was a contemporary of Polycarp, Clement,  and Barnabas, and was martyred in the Colosseum In his Epistle to the Ephesians, he wrote of Christ as ' 'Our God, Jesus Christ. ' '3

In another letter Ignatius admonished Polycarp to ' 'await Him that is above every season, the Eternal,  The Invisible, who become visible for our soke...  who suffered for our sake.' ' 

 To the above he added in correspondence to the Smyrneans that  "... if they believe not in the blood of Christ, (who is God), judgment awaiteth them also."

The following excerpts are from Kirsopp Lake.' 

Ignatius to the Ephesians i, greeting – "  . Jesus Christ our God

Ignatius to the Ephesians i.1 – ''... by the blood of God

Ignatius to the Ephesians vii.2 – ''... who is God in man... '' 

Ignatius to the Ephesians xvii.2 – ".. received knowledge of God, that is, Jesus Christ' ' 

Ignatius to the Ephesians xviii.2 – For our God,  Jesus the Christ,... "

Ignatius to the Ephesians xix.3 – "... for God was manifest as man

Ignatius to the Magnesians xi.1 – ".. Christ, who was from eternity with the Father... "

Ignatius to the Magnesians xiii.2 – Jesus Christ was subject to the Father.'' 

Ignatius to the Trallians vii.1 –"... from God, from Jesus Christ... " 

Ignatius to the Romans, greeting – ''Jesus Christ,  our God' ' (twice) 

Ignatius to the Romans iii.3 – ° ... Our God, Jesus Christ."

Ignatius to the Romans vi.3 – ''... suffer me to follow the example of the Passion of my God. "

Ignatius to the Smyrneans i.i – Jesus Christ, the God

Ignatius to Polycarp viii.3 – "... our God, Jesus Christ. " 

Epistle of Barnabas vii.2 – "Son of God, though he was the Lord

Researcher and author John Weldon has noted that the ".. fact that Ignatius was not rebuked or branded as heretic by any of the people or churches he sent letters to shows that the early church, long before A.D.  115, universally accepted the deity of Christ. " 

 * Irenaeus (C.A.D.. 125-200), a disciple of Polycarp, explained in Against Heresies (4.10) how Christ was often seen by Moses and that it was Christ who spoke from the burning bush. lrenaeus continued elaborating on Christ's relationship to God the Father:  "For with Him were always present the Word and Wisdom the Son and the Spirit, by whom and in whom freely and spontaneously, He mode all things, to whom also He speaks, saying, 'Let us make man after our image and likeness.''8

 * Justin Martyr (A.D. 110-166), an apologist who defended the faith in a very scholarly manner,  acknowledged, "I have often said, often enough,  that when My God says, 'God went up from Abraham ' or 'the Lord spake unto Moses, ' and 'the Lord came down to see the tower which the sons of men had built, ' or 'God shut Noah within the Ark, '  you must not imagine that the unbegotten God himself went down or went up anywhere. For the ineffable Father and Lord of all neither comes anywhere, nor walks, nor sleeps, nor rises up. ' 

Abraham and Isaac and Jacob saw not the ineffable Lord, but God, His Son, ''who was also fire when He spoke with Moses from the bush'' (Dialogues,  cxxxvii). He continued: "Our Christ conversed with Moses under the appearance of fire from a bush."  It was not the Father of the universe who thus spoke to Moses; but ' 'Jesus the Christ, ' ' ' 'the Angel and Apostle,"  " who is also God," yea the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," and "the I am that I am'' (First Apology, lxii; lxiii). 

 * Clement (died c. A.D. 101), bishop of Rome, in Didache, (chapter 16), applies to our Lord a quotation from Zechariah (14:5), "The Lord shall come and all the saints with Him' ', and in the fourteenth chapter refers to Him two quotations loosely drawn from Malachi 1:11, 14, and likewise referring to Jehovah. I Clement presents "our Lord Jesus Christ, the sceptre of the majesty of God' ' (xvi), as the Lord whom Malachi expected to come suddenly to His temple (xxiii), who had spoken through the Holy Ghost already in the Old Testament. 

 These are just a few of the many writings that could have been quoted from the church fathers. 

Should anyone claim that these documents were forged, then the burden of proof rests on that person to substantiate his charges and produce historically documented writings of the early church saying that Christ was not God. After hundreds of years none has been found and authenticated as written by any .church leader prior to Arius (early fourth century). 

Second, concerning the argument that Scripture may have been tampered with, and significant doctrines added later, all of the New Testament as it is known today, with the exception of about eleven verses, can be found in the writings of the early church fathers before A.D. 325, not counting thousands of whole or partial Greek and Latin manuscripts of the New Testament which we possess. The Bible as it exists today is the most well-documented piece of ancient literature in the world.  To delete all the verses that teach the divinity of Christ would leave the New Testament a tattered sham a lie against all historical evidence. 

The earliest record of a ''Christian'' denying the deity of Christ did not occur until A.D. 190, when a Byzantine leather merchant by the name of Theodotus, referring to his denial of Christ, said, ''I have not denied God but a man... "   Then it was not until A.D. 318-320, when a presbyter from Alexandria by the name of Arius denied the deity of Christ, that the question became a major theological issue within the church. The uproar that issue caused is strong evidence that the church, up to that time,  had never seriously questioned the deity of Christ.  Otherwise, Arius's teaching would have been ignored as commonplace. The beliefs Christians held at the time of the controversy, including their belief that Christ was God had been formulated during two and a half centuries of severe persecution. The Council of Nicea (A.D. 325), was convened to resolve the issue ecclesiastically. After three months of painstaking deliberation. the deity of Christ was affirmed by that council. Arius and his two remaining supporters were expelled as heretics.9

Some argue that Constantine forced the orthodox view on those at the Council of Nicea, that out of fear the Christians succumbed to his wishes. That is not true. If anything, it was Constantine who was swayed by them Historical records tell us that, upon seeing the scars and wounds of the believers who had been tortured for their faith in Christ, Constantine went around kissing those scars. These Christians, many of whom had lost eyes and limbs for their faith, would not have yielded to unholy pressure from Constantine. 

Arius and his followers believed in the preexistence of Christ and that Christ was the creator of the world.  The question of Jesus being "only "  a man was not an issue at the Council of Nicea; rather, the question was "Was Jesus 'God' or a 'god' ?" 

Despite his expulsion, Arius still swayed much of the church off and on for many years after the Council of Nicea. During that period, Athanasius, leader of the orthodox view and later bishop from Alexandria, was exiled five times by Arian leaders. Not until A.D. 381, at the Council of Constantinople, was the opposition permanently silenced. 

 The Nicene Creed, forged in turmoil and controversy, is still a theological cornerstone for the church. 

Mark Noll writes of the Nicene Creed: 

 In A.D. 325 the Roman emperor, Constantine the Great, summoned leaders of the church to a little town across the Sea of Marmara from his new capital Constantinople (modern Istanbul). Constantine was troubled by the religious dissension threatening the unity of his empire. The controversy focused on the teachings of a minor church official in Alexandria,  Egypt. The bishops who met at Nicea to judge the teachings of this priest, Arius, produced a memorable confession of the Christian faith. 

This confession, expanded by later additions, is known today as the Nicene Creed, a creed which was not only the first formal definition of the trinity against heretical teaching, but also the first Christian creed to gain universal acceptance in the church. (It is still used today in the worship services of the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Episcopal churches.) The importance of the creed lies in its forceful and unambiguous testimony of the unique nature of Jesus Christ as the savior of the world. 

The doctrines which Arius taught illustrate the common tendency present throughout all of Christian history to subject the facts of God's revelation of himself in Christ and in Scripture to current conceptions of logic or "the reasonable. ' ' If, Arius argued,  God (the Father) is absolutely perfect, absolutely transcendent, and absolutely without change, and if he is the originator of all things – without himself being derived from anything else – then it is obvious that everything and everyone else in the world is set apart from God. And, added Arius, if everything is set apart from God, then Jesus too must be set apart from God. 

The Nicene Creed is still today a hedge against that type of theological speculation which exalts human wisdom over God's revelation of Jesus Christ. It stands as an unambiguous distillation of Scripture s teaching concerning Christ's divine nature, his incarnation as a human being, and the work of salvation he accomplished for men. Finally, when the creed is used as a guide to Christian devotion or Christian proclamation, it can also become a vehicle through which the Holy Spirit transforms the truths of Christian faith into the realities of Christian life. 

 The Nicene Creed

 I believe in one God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. 

 And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made,  being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who, for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried; and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. 

 And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life; who proceeds from the Father; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets; and in one holy catholic and apostolic church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.  (Last paragraph added in A.D. 381].10 

 An article, Deity of Christ,"  in the Zondervon Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, states: 

 The clearest and fullest expression of the deity of Christ is found in the Nicene Creed which was originally presented at the Council of Nicea, A.D. 325.  In the English Book of Common Prayer the translation appears as follows: ''... one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, Light of Light,  Very God of Very God, Begotten, not made.» Set forth in this statement is every possible effort to make clear that Christ is "Very God of Very God. ' ' Closely allied with the word "deity' ' is the more general word "divinity.'' Deity is the stronger word, the absolute one. it can be argued that there is a ' 'spark of divinity'' in every man; not so with the word ''deity. 

Only one person has ever made such claims for himself – Jesus Christ. His claims embrace the idea that what He teaches God Himself teaches, that what He has done only God could do, and that in His full personality there is an absolute oneness with God.  To assert Himself in any way at all, is to assert God.  Anyone making the claims for himself that Jesus Christ makes for Himself must be either mad and perverted or his claims must be true. Since the former simply cannot stand in the light of other evidence available, one is forced to conclude that the latter is established. Jesus Christ is what He claims to be:  ''Very God of Very God ''

 Later, in 451, the Council of Chalcedon was convened. There the biblical doctrine of Jesus Christ as one divine person with two natures was formally delineated for the church. It is important to realize that those meetings of believers were not convened to sanction theological positions that were just emerging. Rather, they were convened to answer those opposed to the orthodox biblical position that was already held to be true. 

It must also be remembered that, in those early days as the church expanded, there were no electronic media or jet-age transportation systems either to disseminate information or to insure accurate teaching. People depended on the communication of information by men and women of God who could get the word out accurately and effectively.  The church councils served as a foundation for that process, facilitated by the presence of representatives from all of the major concentrations of Christians in the Roman world. 

Thus, not only do the Scriptures bear testimony to Christ's divinity, but church history does that as well.