In this post I will cite some of the very early witnesses for the Church’s belief in the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, that God created all things from nothing. All emphasis is mine.

The Shepherd of Hermas (Book II)

Commandment 1

On Faith in God.

First of all, believe that there is one God who created and finished all things, and made all things out of nothing. He alone is able to contain…

In this post I will be referencing two pseudonymous works attributed to St. Clement of Rome. Despite the fact that scholars question the authenticity of these writings, they still serve as an early witness, in fact a 2nd–4th century testimony, to the beliefs of the Christians which composed them. These sources show that the author(s) affirmed the essential Deity of Christ, his Incarnation and…

I continue from where I left off from Book II of Origen’s commentary on John: Origen: Trinity, Creatio Ex Nihilo & the Church as Spiritual Israel.

22. The Word Was in the Beginning, I.e., in Wisdom, Which Contained All Things in Idea, Before They Existed. Christ's Character as Wisdom is Prior to His Other Characters.

So many meanings occur to us at once of the word arche. We have now to ask…

In this post I will be quoting from the Commentary on John (Origen).

The citations that I will be providing will help the readers see that Origen affirms,

The Monarchy (monarchia) of the Father, that he is the unbegotten Source of Divinity.

Christ is the uncreated Wisdom of God, being the timelessly begotten Son of the Father.

Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the…

In this post I will be citing three different English translations of specific letters from St. Ignatius, in which this holy Bishop of Antioch, Syria and Christian martyr, speaks of Christ existing without chronology and without age, stating that the risen Lord is unborn and beyond/ above all time/season. All emphasis will be mine.

Chapter 3. Exhortations

Let not those who seem worthy of…

In this post I will cite from a letter of St. Ignatius, the holy martyr of Christ and the Bishop of Antioch, being an eyewitness and pupil of the holy Apostles, who learned the faith directly from them. Ignatius testifies that Christ was raised in his physical, fleshly body, which he has now made immortal. All emphasis will be mine.

Chapter 1. Thanks to God for your faith

I Glorify God,…

The following extracts are taken from Eusebius’ Church History. All emphasis is mine. 

Book III

Chapter 2. The First Successor to St. Peter in Rome. 

1. After the martyrdom of Paul and of Peter, Linus was the first to obtain the episcopate of the church at Rome. Paul mentions him, when writing to Timothy from Rome, in the salutation at the end of the epistle.

Chapter 3. The Epistles of the…

This excerpt is taken from St. Athanasius who claims that the language adopted by Nicaea to describe the Son’s essential equality with the Father isn’t new but quite ancient, going back to at least 130 years earlier. Athanasius exposed the Arian heretics by appealing to an unbroken chain of Apostolic succession of Bishops to prove that the Church has always taught this truth about the Son.

With…

In this post I will cite the works of three intellectual and spiritual giants of the Faith to show how they interpreted Genesis 1:26-27, particularly verse, where God uses plural pronouns when speaking of making man in the image and likeness of God. The readers will see that these magnificent men of the Church took the plural as proof that the Trinity created mankind in their image and likeness.…

I will be quoting from the Epistle of Barnabas, which is a letter attributed to Paul’s companion that was composed somewhere between the middle and latter part of the first century AD. It contains a lot of allegorical interpretations of the Old Testament commandments and events, which the author connects to Christ, his commandments, and the Church. All emphasis will be mine.

Genesis 1:26 & Jesus…

In this post I will be quoting from the works of Justin Martyr and Tertullian in respect to Old Testament prophecies and typology pointing to Christ. All emphasis will be mine.

One interesting typology that both of them employ is the case of Joshua, whom they not only take to be a picture of Jesus but as also foreshadowing Christ’s actual name. Both Justin and Tertullian argue that Joshua is the…

The excerpts cited here are taken from St. Justin Martyr’s First Apology.

Justin appeals to Old Testament prophecies and to written records by Pilate, which were still in existence, to convince the Roman authorities of the divine origin and historicity of the Christian faith. Justin’s knowledge of Messianic prophecies is truly remarkable since he cites a plethora of OT texts to prove that Jesus…

I continue from where I previously left off: Novatian, Trinity, Modalism, Hypostatic Union.

Chapter 20.

It is Proved from the Scriptures that Christ Was Called an Angel. But Yet It is Shown from Other Parts of Holy Scripture that He is God Also.

But if some heretic, obstinately struggling against the truth, should persist in all these instances either in understanding that Christ was properly…

The quotations which I will cite here are taken from Novatian's Treatise Concerning the Trinity. All emphasis will be mine.

Novatian sets forth biblical texts to refute the modalist lie that Jesus is the Father. He instead proves that the Father, Son and Spirit are personally distinct and yet one and the same Divinity. Novatian also demonstrates that the Son is fully God and fully human, being…