Some sects claim that Jesus Christ is in some ways or in all ways inferior to the Father, not at all his equal. They say there was a time when he didn’t exist, that he was brought into being from nothing. They come to such a conclusion because they are thrown off course by the use of the term “Son.” Doesn’t a son come into existence after his father? There’s a certain sense to that, but it’s a wrong sense, as the early Christians knew. They, at least, didn’t seem to suffer from this still-widespread misconception.
Athenagoras
“If, in your exceedingly great wisdom, it occurs to you to inquire what is meant by `the Son,’ I will tell you briefly. He is the first-begotten of the Father, not as having been produced, for from the beginning God had the Word in himself, God being eternal mind and eternally rational, but as coming forth to be the model and energizing force of all material things, which were like a nature without attributes and inert earth, in which the heavier parts lay mixed up with the lighter” (The Supplication of the Christians 10:3 [A.D. 177]).
Theophilus
“What else is this voice, but the Word of God, which also is his Son, not as poets and writers of myths tell of the sons of gods begotten of intercourse, but, as truth recounts, the Word which always exists eternally in the heart of God? Before anything was created, he has his counselor, being his own mind, and when God wished to create what he had decided upon, he begot this unutterable Word, the first-born of all creation, not emptying himself of the Word, but having begotten the Word and always conversing with the Word” (The Resurrection of the Dead 2:22 [A.D. 177]).
Irenaeus
“The Son, though, always co-existing with the Father, of old and from the beginning, always reveals the Father to the angels and archangels and powers and virtues and to all to whom God wishes to give revelation” (ibid. 2:30:9).
“The various heretical gnostics transform the generation of the uttered word of men to the eternal Word of God, attributing to him a beginning of utterance and a coming into being in a manner like that of their own word. In what manner, then, would the Word of God–indeed, the great God himself, since he is the Word–differ from the word of men, were he to have the same order and process of generation?” (Against Heresies 2:13:8 [A.D. 180]).
Clement of Alexandria
“He that has appeared is in him that is, for the Word that was with God, the Word by whom all things were made, has appeared as our teacher, and he, who bestowed life upon us in the beginning, when, as our Creator, he formed us, now that he has appeared as our teacher, has taught us to live well so that, afterwards, as God, he might furnish us abundantly with eternal life” (Exhortation to the Greeks 1:7:1 [A.D. 200]).
“When John says, ‘What was from the beginning,’ he touches upon the generation without beginning of the Son, who is coeval with the Father. ‘Was,’ therefore, is indicative of an eternity without a beginning, just as the World himself, that is, the Son, being one with the Father in regard to equality of substance, is eternal and uncreated. That the Word always existed is signified by the saying, ‘in the beginning was the Word'” (Commentary on John [A.D. 190]).
Origen
“For we do not hold that which the heretics imagine, that some part of the substance of God was converted into the Son, or that the Son was procreated from the Father from non-existent substance, that is, from a substance outside himself, so that there were a time when he did not exist” (The Fundamental Doctrines 4:4:1 [A.D. 220]).
Gregory Thaumaturgus
“One God, the Father of the living Word, of subsistent wisdom and power, and of the eternal image. Perfect begetter of the perfect, Father of the only-begotten Son. One Lord, only of only, God of God, image and likeness of the Godhead, efficient Word, wisdom comprehending the constitution of the universe, and power shaping all creation. Genuine Son of genuine Father, invisible of invisible, incorruptible of incorruptible, and immortal of immortal, and eternal of eternal” (The Creed [A.D. 260])
Athanasius
“But the Son, being not a creature but proper to the substance of the Father, always is. Since the Father always is, what is proper to his substance must always be, and this is his Word and wisdom” (Discourses Against the Arians 1:29 [A.D. 358]).
“If, as you hold, the Son is made from what did not exist, how then is he in turn able to bring into being things which had no being? But if he, a creature, can fashion another creature, then indeed the same power to fashion others must be conceded to every creature. And if thus you would have it, then what need is there for the Word, since inferior created beings maybe brought into existence by superior created beings? (ibid. 2:21).
Hillary
What madness is it, I ask, to connect the birth of the only-begotten God to a nature inferior to that of God, when birth cannot be except according to the quality of nature, and when there will be no birth if the quality of nature shall not have been in the birth period. The object of all their heat and fury is to prove that, in regard to the Son of God, there is no birth, but a creation, and that he subsists does not preserve for his nature that of his origen, but draws from what did not exist a nature foreign to that of God” (The Trinity 7:14 [A.D. 359]).