The Early Church Fathers believed and taught that Jesus Christ, as the second
person of the Trinity, was God. He spoke with the authority of God and did
things that only God could do. It is the reason why He was accused of blasphemy.
For our God, Jesus Christ, was
conceived by Mary in accord with God's plan: of the seed of David, it is true,
but also of the Holy Spirit (ibid., 18:2).
To the Church beloved and
enlightened after the love of Jesus Christ, our God, by the will of him that has
willed everything which is (Letter to the Romans 1 [A.D. 110]).
Aristides
[Christians] are they who, above
every people of the earth, have found the truth, for they acknowledge God, the
Creator and maker of all things, in the only-begotten Son and in the Holy Spirit (Apology 16 [A.D.
140]).
Tatian the Syrian
We are not playing the fool, you
Greeks, nor do we talk nonsense, when we report that God was born in the form of
a man (Address to the Greeks 21 [A.D. 170]).
Melito of Sardis
It is no way necessary in dealing
with persons of intelligence to adduce the actions of Christ after his baptism
as proof that his soul and his body, his human nature, were like ours, real and
not phantasmal. The activities of Christ after his baptism, and especially his
miracles, gave indication and assurance to the world of the deity hidden in his
flesh. Being God and likewise perfect man, he gave positive indications of his
two natures: of his deity by the miracles during the three years following after
his baptism, of his humanity in the thirty years which came before his baptism
during which, by reason of his condition according to the flesh, he concealed
the signs of his deity, although he was the true God existing before the ages (Fragment
in Anastasius of Sinai's The Guide 13 [A.D. 177]).
Irenaeus
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, Father Almighty, the
creator of heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them; and in one Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, who became flesh for our
salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who announced through the prophets the
dispensations and the comings, and the birth from a Virgin, and the passion, and
the resurrection from the dead, and the bodily ascension into heaven of the
beloved Christ Jesus our Lord, and his coming from
heaven in the glory of the Father to reestablish all things; and the raising up
again of all flesh of all humanity, in order that to Jesus Christ our Lord and
God and Savior and King, in accord with the approval of the invisible Father,
every knee shall bend of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth (Against
Heresies 1:10:1 [A.D. 189]).
Clement of
Alexandria
The Word, then, the Christ, is the
cause both of our ancient beginning — for he was in God — and of our well-being.
And now this same Word has appeared as man. He alone is both God and man, and
the source of all our good things (Exhortation to the Greeks 1:7:1 [A.D. 190]).
Despised as to appearance but in
reality adored, [Jesus is") the expiator, the Savior, the soother, the divine
Word, he that is quite evidently true God, he that is put on a level with the
Lord of the universe because he was his Son (ibid.,10:110:1).
Tertullian
The origins of both his substances
display him as man and as God: From the one, born, and from the other, not born
(The Flesh of Christ 5:6-7 [A.D. 210]).
That there are two gods and two
Lords, however, is a statement which we will never allow to issue from our
mouth; not as if the Father and the Son were not God, nor the Spirit God, and
each of them God; but formerly two were spoken of as gods and two as Lords, so
that when Christ would come, he might both be acknowledged as God and be called
Lord, because he is the Son of him who is both God and Lord (Against Praxeas
13:6 [A.D. 216]).
Origen
Although he was God, he took flesh;
and having been made man, he remained what he was: God (On First Principles 1:0:4 [A.D. 225]).
Hippolytus
Only [God's] Word is from himself
and is therefore also God, becoming the substance of God (Refutation of All
Heresies 10:33 [A.D. 228]).
For Christ is the God over all, who
has arranged to wash away sin from mankind, rendering the old man new (ibid.
10:34).
Cyprian of Carthage
One who denies that Christ is God
cannot become his temple [of the Holy Spiriti . . . (Letters 73:12 [A.D.
253]).
Arnobius
"Well, then," some raging, angry,
and excited man will say, "is that Christ your God?" "God indeed" we shall
answer, "and God of the hidden powers" (Against the Pagans 1:42 [A.D.
305]).
Lactantius
He was made both Son of God in the
spirit and Son of man in the flesh, that is, both God and man (Divine
Institutes 4:13:5 [A.D. 307]).
Council of Nicea
We believe in one Lord, Jesus
Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, God from God, light from light, true God
from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father. Through Him all
things were made (Creed of Nicea [A.D. 325]).
