Butters:
What is not sane about this thought process is that you are suggesting that people's minds be influenced by 2nd century thought instead of the opposing 1st century thought that has no trinity or any other philosophy not taught by the canon of the bible.
The 2nd century from the 1st is like comparing the 19th to the 20th. Cell phones werent' around in the 19th century. The trinity wasn't around in the 1st, but became an idea of man in the 2nd sometime during that 100 year period...
But you don`t know that! There are practically no writings about christianity from the first century, other than the letters and gospels that were included in the Bible, and these letters and gospels are ambigous on the matter, and so are the very few writings of the very earliest church fatehrs. I believe that trinitarianism was part of christianity from the very beginning, I can prove that it was part of christianity from the 2nd century, but not the first. You, on the other hand, can`t prove that it was not part of christianity from the 1st century, but believe that it was not, and that it first appeared in the 2nd century. That`s perfectly fine, but neither of us can prove anything about the 1st century.
However: Tertullian lived from 145-185 / 220-240. If he was born as early as 145, that places him pretty close to the first century, and the teachings of the first century, and Tertullian wrote more than 825 pages about christianity. He wrote, in Against Praxeas:
"We define that there are two, the Father and the Son, and three with the Holy Spirit, and this number is made by the pattern of salvation...[which] brings about unity in trinity, interrelating the three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are three, not in dignity, but in degree, not in substance but in form, not in power but in kind. They are of one substance and power, because there is one God from whom these degrees, forms and kinds devolve in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit." (Adv. Prax. 23; PL 2.156-7).
About the very earliest church fathers: They did express themselves in trinitarian terms, although never explicitly saying that the three are one:
Justin Martyr (100?-165?)
"For, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Savior Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water" (First Apol., LXI).
Ignatius of Antioch (died 98/117)
"In Christ Jesus our Lord, by whom and with whom be glory and power to the Father with the Holy Spirit for ever" (n. 7; PG 5.988).
And now, let`s look at Origen:
Origen (185-254). Alexandrian theologian. Defended Christianity and wrote much about Christianity.
"If anyone would say that the Word of God or the Wisdom of God had a beginning, let him beware lest he direct his impiety rather against the unbegotten Father, since he denies that he was always Father, and that he has always begotten the Word, and that he always had wisdom in all previous times or ages or whatever can be imagined in priority...There can be no more ancient title of almighty God than that of Father, and it is through the Son that he is Father" (De Princ. 1.2.; PG 11.132).
"For if [the Holy Spirit were not eternally as He is, and had received knowledge at some time and then became the Holy Spirit] this were the case, the Holy Spirit would never be reckoned in the unity of the Trinity, i.e., along with the unchangeable Father and His Son, unless He had always been the Holy Spirit." (Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975 rpt., Vol. 4, p. 253, de Principiis, 1.111.4)
"Moreover, nothing in the Trinity can be called greater or less, since the fountain of divinity alone contains all things by His word and reason, and by the Spirit of His mouth sanctifies all things which are worthy of sanctification..." (Roberts and Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 255, de Principii., I. iii. 7).
Are you honestly going to say that in just a 100 years, christianity went from non-trinitarianism (according to you, considered the only proper form of christianity the 1st century) to Origens almost completed and perfected trinitarianism, just a 100-150 years later??? Wouldn`t some of the 1st and early 2nd century "correct" christians write and protest with all their might against this horrible heresy, as they saw it developing? Why is it that only Arius, his (few) folowers, and a very few other sects denied the trinity?
