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The Battle for the Trinity: Historical Heresies and Church Defences

...ithin the Godhead: “We do indeed believe that there is only one God, but we believe that under this dispensation… there is the Son, who has issued from the Father, and the Spirit, who has issued from both Father and Son” (Against Praxeas, 2). Nestorianism What It Taught: Nestorius, a 5th-century bishop, suggested that Jesus Christ was two separate persons — one human and one divine — rather than one Person with two natures. Church’s Response: The Council of Ephesus in 431 AD declared that Jesus is one Person with two distinct yet united natures: divine and human. This ensures that Jesus is fully God and fully man, capable of bridging t...

Lent Day 40: Leo the Great: Sermon LXXII: ON THE LORD'S RESURRECTION, II

...f the one Godhead, neither divides the Unity by suggesting degrees of dignity, nor confounds the Trinity by merging the Persons in one. When Jesus emptied himself for our sake and restoration (Philippians 2:5-8), it was not for the loss of power, but for compassion; “the Invisible made His substance visible, the Intemporal temporal, the Impassible passible: not that power might sink into weakness, but that weakness might pass into indestructible power”, for there is no other name under heaven by which we are saved (Acts 4:12)! A new meaning for Passover Quoting John 13:1, Leo reinterprets Passover as now meaning that it was about the time when Jesus sho...

Did the Early Church invent the Trinity?

...ns in one Godhead unity has always been present, and can clearly be seen that this wasn’t some later invention or innovation in doctrine. This is why the Trinity is such a core and essential doctrine, which gets exemplified in the creeds: it is about the very essence and nature of the God who we worship! If we get the very basics wrong, then everything that follows in our theology and beliefs will also be wrong.   Further Reading Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol II: THEOPHILUS: Chapter XV. — Of the Fourth Day. (sacred-texts.com) Philip Schaff: ANF03. Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian — Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org), Aga...

On the Feast of the Nativity, a sermon by Leo the Great

...ass us in Godhead. For unless He were true God, He would not bring us a remedy, unless He were true Man, He would not give us an example. Therefore the exulting angel's song when the Lord was born is this, Glory to God in the Highest, and their message, peace on earth to men of good will (Luke 2:14). For they see that the heavenly Jerusalem is being built up out of all the nations of the world: and over that indescribable work of the Divine love how ought the humbleness of men to rejoice, when the joy of the lofty angels is so great? III. Christians then must live worthily of Christ their Head Let us then, dearly beloved, give thanks to God the Father, through...