In an attempt to support the contention that the (Latin/Creedal)
doctrine of the Trinity was present in early Christianity, Reformed Protestant
Matthew Paulson wrote:
Athenagoras (writings dated AD 175-177) converted Christian
and former Athenian philosopher:
That we are not
atheists, therefore, seeing that we acknowledge one God, uncreated, eternal,
invisible, impassable, incomprehensible, illimitable . . . Who, then, would not
be astonished to hear men who speak of God the Father, and of God the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, and who declare both their power in union and their
distinction in order, called atheists? . . .
We acknowledge a God,
and a Son (His Logos), and a Holy Spirit. These are united in essence the
Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Now; the Son is the Intelligence, Reason, and
Wisdom of the Father. And the Spirit is an emanation, as light from fire . ..
(Athenagoras quotes
from A Plea for the Christians by
Athenagoras the Athenian: Philosopher and Christian). (Matthew A. Paulson, Breaking the Mormon Code: A Critique of
Mormon Scholarship Regarding Classic Christian Theology and the Book of Mormon [Livermore,
Calif.: WingSpan Press, 2006, 2009], 48)
The problem for Paulson is that Athenagoras is not a witness for his theology. As one critic of the Trinity noted
the following about Athenagoras:
He wrote an Apology
for Christians in the time of Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus, and was
also the author of a treatise on the Resurrection, both of which are preserved.
He was equally careful . . .to preserve the supremacy of the Father, and seems
to have entertained [subordinationist] views of the nature and rank of the Son.
“The Son of God,” he says, “is the Logos
(Reason) of the Father in idea and operation.” “Through it all things were
made.” “The Son of God is the understanding and reason of the Father.” “God
from the beginning being eternal reason, and in himself the Logos (Reason),
being always rational” (Legat., c.
10. See also c. 16). The attribute reason, or wisdom, was eternal, but not the
Son as a personal being. Of him it would be said, “The Lord created me the
beginning of his ways to his works.” Athenagoras, with the other Fathers, made
a distinction. The supremacy of the Father, who was invisible, impassible, and
who, himself “unbegotten and eternal,” created all things by his Logos, or Reason,
was not infringed.
The Holy Spirit Athenagoras described as
something flowing out from God, as rays flow from the sun, and are re-absorbed,
that is, not a person, but an influence (το ενεργουν τοις εκφωνουσοι προφητικως αγιον
πνευμα απορροιαν τιναι φαμεν του Θεου, απορρεον και επαναφερομενον ως ακτινα
ηλιου.—Legat., c. 100; comp. c. 24). (Alvan Lamson, The Church of the First Three Centuries: Or,
Notices of the Lives and Opinions of the Early Fathers, With Special Reference
to The Doctrine of the Trinity; Illustrating Its Late Origin and Gradual
Formation [Boston: Horace B. Fuller, 1873], 100-1; comment in square
brackets added for clarification)
In other words, Athenagoras was a subordinationist, as with the other
authors of the first three centuries of Christianity. Interestingly, Paulson
(Ibid., 47) would claim Justin Martyr and Tertullian as witnesses to the
Trinity, notwithstanding there contradicting
core tenets of such a doctrine, even calling Jesus a “Second God” (see A
Triad of Early Christians Against the Trinity Being an Apostolic Belief).
Such is reflective of the poor patristic scholarship in Paulson’s book.
For more responses to Paulson's book, see:
Listing of articles responding to "Breaking the Mormon Code"
