Trinity: God indwelling Jesus or Was Jesus God-the-Son distinct from God-the-Father?
Did the early church prior to 325 AD believe Jesus was God or instead believe that Jesus was indwelled by the Father (or the Father's Word), the one true God and hence Jesus was DIVINE, not Deity in and of himself apart from the Father?
Clement, 69 AD, Bishop of Rome
The apostles received the gospel for us from Jesus Christ, and Jesus the Christ was sent from God....Finally, may the all-seeing God, the Master of spirits and Lord of all flesh who chose the Lord Jesus Christ and us through him to be his own people grant...faith...endurance through our High Priest and Guardian, Jesus Christ....(The Apostolic Fathers (ed. Jack N. Sparks) (Thomas Nelson, 1978) Topics 42, 64.)
Justin Martyr 151
"We will prove that we worship him reasonably; for we have learned that he is the Son of the true God himself, that he holds a second place, and the Spirit of prophecy a third. For this they accuse us of madness, saying that we attribute to a crucified man a place second to the unchangeable and eternal God, the Creator of all things; but they are ignorant of the mystery which lies therein." (First Apology 13:5–6 [A.D. 151]).
Irenaeus 189 AD
"For the Church, although dispersed throughout the whole world even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and from their disciples the faith in one God, the Father Almighty . . . and in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became flesh for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit." (Against Heresies 1:10:1 [A.D. 189]).
Paul of Samasota 3d Century
By the last document of Mr. Robinson's sentiments on this subject it appears, that they were nearly the same with those of Paul of Samosata, bishop of the church at Antioch, in the third century. Ecclesiastical historians do not perfectly agree in their representation of his sentiments. Mr. Robinson's account is the fairest that can be given on this occasion, as it shews the sense in which he understood them; and is consequently the best explanation of his own Paul [of Samasota] thought Jesus a man, inhabited as it were by the Deity, and therefore to be called God, as a mansion is named from the family resident in it.—He did not offer prayer to Jesus, but to God through him. The opinion of Paul in the third century, was evidently that held by Artemas in the second. Miscellaneous works of Robert Robinson (1807) at cxliv
Isaac Watts
In A Faithful Enquiry after the ancient and original doctrine of the Trinity, he writes:
"That the Father in the strictest sense is the only true God; that Jesus Christ his son, consists of a human body and a pre-existent soul; that in this person, thus constituted, the Deity permanently resides; and that the Holy Spirit, is not as has been generally described, a proper person, but the influence, energy, or power of God." Miscellaneous works of Robert Robinson (Flower, 1807) at cxlv-vi
Luther
Martin Luther says—"The word Trinity sounds oddly, and is a human invention; it were better to call Almighty God, God, than Trinity." Miscellaneous works of Robert Robinson at cli
Jesus
My teaching is not my own, it comes from him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own (John 7:16).
If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching (John 14:23-24).
“This Words you hear are not my own; which Word (Logos, singular) belongs to the Father who sent me." (John 14:24).
“For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it." (John 12:49).
Further Studies
Five Reasons The Trinity Doctrine Does Not Make Sense - You Tube from Christian Monotheism
Www.Christianmonotheism.com
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