3. The struggle of the church for the Christian knowledge of God (Trinity).
We have seen in the previous section that, according to the Christian knowledge of God drawn from the Holy Scriptures, the one true God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that the salvation of men is based on this knowledge of God. This knowledge of God did not become church faith only through councils, e.g. the Nicene Council or the Council of Constantinople, but the knowledge of the triune God was from the very beginning the faith of the Christians on the basis of the doctrines of the apostles, which were proclaimed orally and set down in writing.1220) Luther proves that everything that the first four main councils decided in the matter of the Christian doctrine of the person of Christ and the Holy Trinity is taught "much more abundantly and powerfully" in the Holy Scriptures.1221) But the fact is, as Luther also constantly points out, that the Christian church has always stood in a hard struggle for the doctrine of the Trinity
1220) Acts 2:42; Eph. 2:20; 2 Thess. 2:15.
1221) Of the Councils and Churches, St. L. XVI, 2248.
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both against enemies from outside and against heretics who rose up in its own midst. Augustine notes:1222) "History acquaints us partly with absolute opponents, partly with manifold attempts at explanation and modification." Heathens, Jews and Mohammedans claimed and still claim that the Christian Church teaches three doctrines. The Quran says:1223) "Believe in God and His Messenger [Jesus], but say nothing of the trinity. Avoid it, and it will stand better for you. There is only one God. Far be it from him that he has a son! … The Creator of heaven and earth, how could he have a son, since he has no wife?" But the Christian church has been especially troubled and disrupted by people who came out of their own midst but behaved very unchurchlike. They dared, even considered it their duty, to present a doctrine of God that was not taken from the Scriptures, but was a product of their own human thoughts. Some thought that in order to hold the unity of God, they had to let go of the three persons in God. Others, however, abandoned the unity of the divine essence and thus the unity of God (the εΐς ϑεός) because they thought that only in this way could three truly distinct persons be held. That modern theology, which explicitly renounces Scripture as the source and norm of theology, does not leave the doctrine of the Holy Trinity intact goes without saying. We occasionally already come across statements that are on the same line with the Koran's derision of "the Trinity" in the Christian religion. This is the case, for example, when the scriptural doctrine of the three persons in the one God is described as the "establishment of a heavenly family." 1224)
Now, because the Christian knowledge of God consists in "honoring one God in three persons and three persons in one Godhead, not mingling the persons nor dissecting the divine essence," the Christian church has stood and continues to stand in battle 1. against the deniers of the three persons, 2. against the deniers of the one God or the one divine essence.
1222) System of Christian Dogmatics, § 120.
1223) Quoted in Baier-Walther 1, 131.
1224) Cf. R. Seeberg, Grundwahrheiten 5, p. 122.
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