Laying the Claim

At our fingertips is solid historical proof that we own orthodoxy. We, as FIRM Christian Ministries, possess the Church’s original sound doctrine. We own its authors, its history, its creeds, and its vocabulary. We possess all that, and much more.

The Apostle Paul told the Church that everything belonged to them:

All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas [Peter] or the World or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours (1 Corinthians 3:21-22).

If Paul, Peter, and Apollos (three of the greatest apostles in all history) are ours, how much more so the men who followed in their footsteps? How much more of a claim can we lay to the men who led the Church after the Apostles passed? Who is greater, a teacher or their students?

Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp (who knew the Apostle John), Justin, Tertullian, Origen, and Athanasius. These are just seven of the men of whom we speak. Clement may very well be the co-worker Paul names in Philippians 4:3. We call men like them the “Church fathers” because they became not only the pastors of the Church but the stewards of sound doctrine after the Twelve Apostles passed.

Theophilus and Tertullian's Trinity

Theophilus, one of these Church fathers, gave an illustration of the unity between God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. In so doing, he published the first extant use of the word Trinity. It was approximately 180 AD.

In a letter he wrote to a friend, he stated:

... the three days which were before the luminaries are types of the Trinity--of God and his Word and his Wisdom (to Autolycus 2:15).

In the second century some Church fathers, including Theophilus and Irenaeus, identified the Holy Spirit with the Wisdom of God. That is what Theophilus did in his letter. The Word, as you already know, means Jesus, but God's Wisdom was a metaphor for the Holy Spirit.

A new century came, and around 213 AD, the Church father Tertullian used the word Trinity again, likewise to explain the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. However, Tertullian was much more descriptive than Theophilus. He said:

... the Father’s own economy remains intact—the economy by which God distributes his unity into a Trinity and himself establishes the Three in their proper order: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Against Praexis 2.4).

Now, "economy" means interaction or division of labor. So, Tertullian was describing the different roles of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. People liked learning about those roles and the term Trinity came into common use. It always meant "the unity of the Three" but today people don't know what it means. Confusion surrounds the term and nobody can define it according to its original meaning anymore.

Augustine's Version of God

The confusion started in 427 AD when Augustine of Hippo published a book about the Trinity and went off the rails by stating “the Trinity is God.” With that, he departed significantly from the earlier consensus as testified by 33 Church fathers, two councils, and three Christian creeds.

Augustine brazenly redefined a theological term--but not just any term. He redefined the term upon which all orthodoxy stood. Trinity had always meant "unity of Three" not God Himself, but Augustine asserted it meant God Himself. Prior to Augustine, the term Trinity always implied that the Father organized his unity with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. That was what Tertullian called their "economy." All the Church fathers held that the Father established the unity of the Three, in love.

However, by imposing Greek philosophy on top of the Bible, Augustine stated something contrary to the Bible. His new theology became a denial of the greatest of all Christian Truths: that the Father is the One God. That's a serious Truth to contradict! But, because of Augustine's immense influence, his redefinition was not challenged in Rome and he set a heresy in motion. The Church has not recuperated from it to this day.

The biggest reason why Augustine's new definition become so influential and the reason why his book started a trend was timing. The timing of Augustine’s new definition of the term Trinity was right after the single greatest transfer of religious power in Christian history. It was the period when the Western church, based in Rome, was consolidated under imperial structures. The largest and most powerful political body in history, the Roman Empire, took control of the Church.

Power Grab

In 380 AD Emperor Theodosius I made Nicene Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire and began the systematic suppression of both pagan practice and non-Nicene Christian groups. Imperial favor rapidly elevated the wealth, status, and political influence of the clergy. Priests and bishops moved from being a persecuted minority to becoming the religious arm of a Christian empire.

The generation that had entered the fourth century under persecution was succeeded by a generation that ended the century with newfound power and resources. In this new environment, control over the definition of key doctrines—including the meaning of ‘Trinity’—carried real authority.

Augustine of Hippo rose as the leading Latin theologian precisely in this period. He subtly used traditional language about the Father while advancing a formulation in which ‘the Trinity’ itself became the new version of God. That shift, combined with his immense influence, helped establish a new trajectory in Rome. The clergy who embraced and promoted his teaching would gain a specialized position as the guardians of a philosophically-complex version of God. They renounced the simple Bible-based explanations of their predecessors, and led the Imperial Church into the Dark Ages.

Mass Confusion

Augustine's contradiction has led us to the confusion people are in today. People can't answer the basic question "Who is the One God?" People can't define the Trinity. Although the Trinity was the central topic of conversation for 200 years, he made the Trinity impossible for anyone to define.

When Augustine asserted “The Trinity is God” he undermined all the previous Church fathers, the previous creeds, and the Bible itself. Today, no one can define God as he was defined during the first four centuries. Christians today sound nothing like Jesus, the Apostles, the Church fathers, or the creeds.

The Church originally said that the One God is the Father. It was that simple. But, with minds controlled by Augustine’s version of God, Christians either call him “the Godhead,” the “Triune God,” or the “Trinity”--without even understanding what the Trinity is. Some give up and just say that he is a mystery.

The Fight Continues

FIRM Christian Ministries contends for seven basic Truths we call “the Realities.” Three stand out above the rest: The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. These Three, the Trinity, are listed in the Book of Ephesians as One Spirit, One Lord, and One God—follow the arithmetic: 1 + 1 + 1 = 3, not 1.

Among these Three, you’ll notice that the Father is the One called the “One God.” That means that the Trinity itself is anchored in the One True God, the Father. He is the Source, Origin, and Basis of the unity of the Three—a unity which is a “tri-unity” or Trinity.

The Church fathers fought for this very coherent and logical understanding of the Trinity during the first four centuries. We are taking up we they left off. Like us, they were men who pastored congregations, suffered persecution, and who informed believers through the written word. If you want to get the best summary of what they believed, you can read their letters, which having been written some 1600 to 1900 years ago, can sound confusing. But the creeds of the first four centuries sum up their beliefs with a direct simplicity you'll likely prefer.

The First Four Creeds

You’ll see the most basic summaries of the beliefs of the Church fathers in:

• the Didache (c. 75 AD)

• the Old Roman Creed (c. 225 AD)

• the Nicene Creed (325 AD), and

• the Creed of Constantinople (381 AD)

  
  

The first words of the Nicene and Constantinople creeds are “I believe in One God, the Father.” The Old Roman Creed starts with “I believe in God the Father Almighty.” The Didache begins with “First, you shall love God who made you...”

These ancient creeds have zero confusion about who God is. In fact, they each begin with clear statements about who he is, the Father. None these cast any doubt on the subordination of Jesus and the Holy Spirit to the Father. They each make clear the source of the divine nature in Christ and the Holy Spirit—it’s the Father. They each lay out the hierarchy among the Three and describe the roles each one plays, with no confusion or mystery.

Those pastors wrote the creeds to combat heresies. Let’s stand alongside them. Let's return to their orthodoxy. If we go back to the time prior to the politicization of the Church, prior to its incorporation into the Roman political structure, and prior to its corruption, we'll be good. Let’s stand on the sound theology of the Trinity the Church fathers established.

Our Confession

Just like the Apostles (including the authors of Hebrews and Ephesians), and the men who followed soon after them for the first four centuries, the Church fathers, we are Trinitarians. We denounce the corrupt theology of Augustine, saying that “The Trinity is God.” It started in the fifth century AD, not with the Apostles, and it’s fake. It’s made up.

We are Original Trinitarians. They are not. We confess the Trinity according to the original meaning of the word. We align with at least 33 Church fathers, and with the creeds of the first four centuries. But most of all, we find our support in the Bible. What does it show? That:

1. The Father is the One God.

2. He transmits the divine nature to Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

3. He is the head of the hierarchy.

4. He establishes an order of operation among the Three.

Our Commitment

We oppose any reduction of the Three into what others call a “co-equal” “Triune God” or a “Godhead.” They have replaced the Father with another God. That is not only unacceptable; it’s heretical. It can get a person into Hell.

We reject any efforts to collapse the Three into a single Being. Not only is it illogical, it’s mathematically unimaginable. Most importantly, a God who is Three-in-One is never found in the Bible or in any writing of the Church fathers. Only Augustine, who disqualified himself to be a Church father, dared twist theology to publish the lie that “the Trinity is God” in 427.

Our Claim

Now is the time for us to make God known. No more timidity. No more allowing others to control the narrative. We’ll let the Truth go public.

Ours are the vocabulary, the victories against heresies, and the Church fathers. We are claiming it all back. The holy word “Trinity” only belongs on the lips of those who can define it. And we can define it, by the grace of God. We are the orthodox Christians.

History is on our side. We lay our claim to the theology the Church ironed out during the first four centuries. All things are ours.

We are FIRM and we possess the Church’s original sound doctrine. We own its authors, its history, and its creeds. We own the vocabulary—words like Trinity—and nobody can take it away from us.