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T h e F a t h e r s K n o w B e s t
IN THREE PERSONS
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This Rock
Volume 5, Number 1
 January 1994 
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THE heresy known as Modalism, Monarchianism,
Patripassianism, or Sabellianism (after its most famous advocate,
Sabellius, a Libyan heretic who worked in Rome in the early 200s)
claimed that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were simply
three names, offices, or modes of a single divine Person. Modalists
held that there was only one God, but they collapsed the Persons of
the Trinity into one.
The Fathers rejected Modalism, as indicated not only by passages where
they condemn it by name, but also by passages in which they speak
of one Person of the Trinity being with another, being sent
from another, or speaking to another.
Epistle of Barnabas
"And further, my brethren, if the Lord [Jesus]
endured to suffer for our soul, he being the Lord of all the world,
to whom God said at the foundation of the world, `Let us make man
after our image, and after our likeness,' understand how it was that
he endured to suffer at the hand of men" (Epistle of Barnabas
5 [A.D. 75]).
Ignatius
"Jesus Christ . . . was with the Father before
the beginning of time, and in the end was revealed. . . . Jesus Christ
. . . came forth from one Father and is with and has gone to one [Father].
. .. [T]here is one God, who has manifested himself by Jesus Christ
his Son, who is his eternal Word, not proceeding forth from silence,
and who in all things pleased him that sent him" (Epistle
to the Magnesians 6-8 [A.D. 107]).
Hermas
"The Son of God is older than all his creation,
so that he became the Father's adviser in his creation. Therefore
also he is ancient" (The Shepherd 12 [A.D. 148]).
Justin
"God speaks in the creation of man with the very
same design, in the following words: `Let us make man after our image
and likeness' . . . I shall quote again the words narrated by Moses
himself, from which we can indisputably learn that [God] conversed
with someone numerically distinct from himself and also a rational
being. . . . But this Offspring who was truly brought forth from the
Father, was with the Father before all the creatures, and the Father
communed with him" (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew 62 [A.D.
155]).
Polycarp
"I praise you for all things, I bless you, I
glorify you, along with the everlasting and heavenly Jesus Christ,
your beloved Son, with whom, to you and the Holy Spirit, be glory
both now and to all coming ages. Amen" (Martyrdom of Polycarp
14 [A.D. 156]).
Mathetes
"[The Father] sent the Word that he might be
manifested to the world . . . This is he who was from the beginning,
who appeared as if new, and was found old . . . This is he who, being
from everlasting, is today called the Son" (Epistle to Diognetus
11 [A.D. 160]).
Irenaeus
"For with him [the Father] were always present
the Word and Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, by whom and in whom freely
and spontaneously he made all things, to whom also he speaks, saying,
`Let us make man in our image and likeness'" (Against
Heresies 4:20:1 [A.D. 195]).
Tertullian
"While keeping to this demurrer always, there
must, nevertheless, be place for reviewing for the sake of the instruction
and protection of various persons. Otherwise it might seem that each
perverse opinion is not examined but simply pre-judged and condemned.
This is especially so in the case of the present heresy, which considers
itself to have the pure truth when it supposes that one cannot believe
in the one only God in any way other than by saying that Father, Son,
and Spirit are the selfsame person. As if one were not all . . . through
the unity of substance" (Against Praxeas 2:3-4 [A.D.
220]).
Tertullian
"Keep always in mind the rule of faith which
I profess and by which I bear witness that the Father and the Son
and the Spirit are inseparable from each other, and then you will
understand what is meant by it. Observe, now, that I say the Father
is other, and the Son is other, and the Spirit is other. . . . I say
this, however, out of necessity, since they contend that the Father
and the Son and the Spirit are the selfsame person" (ibid. 9:1
[A.D. 220]).
Pope Dionysius
"Next, then, I may properly turn to those who
divide and cut apart and destroy the Monarchy, the most sacred proclamation
of the Church of God, making of it, as it were, three powers, distinct
substances, and three godheads. I have heard that some of your catechists
and teachers of the divine word take the lead in this tenet. They
are, so to speak, diametrically opposed to the opinion of Sabellius.
He, in his blasphemy, says that the Son is the Father and vice versa"
(Letters of Dionysius of Rome to Dionysius of Alexandria 1:1
[A.D. 262]).
Athanasius
"[The Trinity] is a Trinity not merely in name
or in a figurative manner of speaking; rather, it is a Trinity in
truth and in actual existence. Just as the Father is he that is, so
also his Word is one that is and is God over all. And neither is the
Holy Spirit non-existent but actually exists and has true being. Less
than these the Catholic Church does not hold, lest she sink to the
level of the Jews of the present time, imitators of Caiaphas, or to
the level of Sabellius" (Letters to Serapion 1:28 [A.D.
359]).
Athanasius
"They [the Father and the Son] are one, not as
one thing now divided into two, but really constituting only one,
nor as one thing twice named, so that the same becomes at one time
the Father and at another his own Son. This latter is what Sabellius
held, and he was judged a heretic. On the contrary, they are two,
because the Father is Father and is not his own Son, and the Son is
Son and not his own Father" (Discourses against the Arians
3:4 [A.D. 362]).
Gregory of Nazianz
"The Son is not the Father, for the Father is
one, but he is what the Father is. Nor is the Spirit, because he is
of God, the Son, for the only-begotten [Son] is one; yet he is what
the Son is. The three are one in their Godhead, and in particular
properties the one is three. Thus the one is not a Sabellian unity"
(Orations 31:8 [A.D. 380]).
Council of Rome
"We anathematize those also who follow the error
of Sabellius in saying that the same one is both Father and Son"
(Tome of Pope Damasus, can. 2 [A.D. 382]).
Fulgence
"See, in short you have it that the Father is
one, the Son another, and the Holy Spirit another; in person, each
is other, but in nature they are not other. In this regard he [Christ]
says, `The Father and I, we are one' [John 10:30]. He teaches us that
`one' refers to their nature and `we are' to their persons. In like
manner it is said, `There are three who bear witness in heaven, the
Father, the Word, and the Spirit, and these three are one' [1John
5:7]. Let Sabellius hear `we are,' let him hear `three,' and let him
believe that there are three Persons" (The Trinity 4:1
[A.D. 513]).
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