The fight against the deniers of the three persons.
The deniers of the three persons are usually grouped under the overall name Monarchians, Unitarians, Antitrinitarians, and so on. They have appeared in different guises. Some said: there is only one divine person, but this one person has revealed himself successively in three different appearances (tres modi apparitionis) as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or played three roles (πρόσωπα). This is the so-called modalistic monarchianism, as whose representative Sabellius is usually cited (excommunicated in 260). Others said: Christ is not a divine person, but a mere man, in whom, however, the one divine person worked in a unique way, so that he can be called God. The Holy Spirit is also not a divine person, but God's power, which became active in Moses and in the prophets and finally in Christ in a very special way. This is the so-called dynamistic monarchianism, as whose main representative Paul of Samosata is considered (deposed in 272). It was and still is discussed how far the modalistic and the dynamistic monarchians differed from each other and how far they merged.1225) In any case, this much stands that both parties denied the three persons in God. Among the deniers of the three persons were the ancient Photinians, the followers of Photinus (Bishop of Sirmium, † c. 366), whose doctrines were renewed in the sixteenth century by the Socinians. In our time, the Unitarians include all Protestant theologians who reject the "two-nature doctrine" or "enhypostasia" and allow the man Christ to form a distinct person. When Seeberg says:1226) "This eternal love energy [of God] filled the human soul of Jesus so that it became its content. This is the deity of Christ," he is to be counted among the dynamistic Monarchians, for instance.1227) Most English, American and German Unitarians represent the denial of the three persons in dynamistic form.
1225) Cf. Buddeus, Institt. Theol. Dogmaticae 1741, § 54, p. 297 sqq. Adolf Harnack, Dogmengesch.4 1905, § 25-26, p. 140 ff.
1226) Basic Truths 5, p. 115.
1227) The further explanations under the section "Unio personalis and Christological Constellations of the Modern Era," vol. II, p. 118 ff.
460 ><w:t xml:space="preserve">The Doctrine of God. [English ed. p. 383-384.]
The Scriptural evidence by which the Christian Church has overcome and is still overcoming Unitarianism is clearly available:
a. In the names Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Everyone who hears these names does not think of three manifestations, effects or wills of one person, but of three persons or three "I".
b. In the predicates that are bound in Scripture with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, such as "know," "will," "teach," "rebuke," "speak," etc. Thus it is said of the Father and Son γινώσκειν (Matt. 11:27), of the Son έξηγεΐσϑαι (John 1:18), ϑέλειν (John. 17:24), from the Holy Spirit διδάσκειν (Jn. 14:26), έλέγχειν (Jn. 16:8), λαλεϊν (Acts 28:25). All these predicates denote personal acts. The axioms apply here: Actiones semper sunt personarum sive suppositorum intelligentium. Opera sunt personis propria. [“The actions are always of intelligent persons or suppositions. Works are peculiar to persons.”]
c. In the scriptural statements that define the relationship between
Father, Son and <w:t xml:space="preserve">Holy Spirit explicitly as άλλος και άλλος και άλλος. Thus in Scripture the Father is expressly called άλλος in relation to the Son1228) and the Holy Spirit άλλος in relation to the Father and the Son.1229) Hence the Athanasian Creed:1230) Alia est persona Patris, alia Filii, alia Spiritus Sancti. [“There is one person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit.”] As for the definition of the word "person," that given in the first article of the Augsburg Confession is fully sufficient: "And by the word persona is understood not a matter, not a quality in another, but that itself exists, as then the Fathers used this word in this matter." Et nomine personae utuntur ea significatione, qua usi sunt in hac causa scriptores ecclesiastici, ut significet non partem aut qualitatem in alio, sed quod proprie subsistit. [Google] The assertions of newer theologians that it was possible in our time to define the term "person" more profoundly than it was possible for the ancient church are based on imagination, as is to be explained in more detail in the section "The church terminology in the service of the Christian knowledge of God".
1228) Jn. 5:32: λλος έατιν δ μαρτύρων περί εμον, v. 37: Ό πέμψας με πατήρ, εκείνος μεμαρτύρηκεν περί εμον.
1229) Jn. 14:16: Έρωτήσω τον πατέρα και άλλον δώσει νμΐν.
1230) M., p. 30. [Trigl. 33 🔗]
461 ><w:t xml:space="preserve">The Doctrine of God. [English ed. p. 384-385.]