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In the second century the Monarchians, believing in only
one divine principle, declared that Christ was only man
endowed with some divine power (Paul of Samosata) or
that Christ was the Father who became incarnate and
suffered (Patripassians). Chief among the
Patripassians were Noetus, who was opposed in the East
by Hippolytus, and Praxeas, whom Tertullian refuted in
the West. Noetus and Praxeas argued that the Father
and the Son were not really distinct but merely different
names for the same person.
In the third century Sabellius proposed his Modalism,
so called because in God he did not admit distinct persons
but only accidental modes. Later the Modalists taught
that in God there was but one person, who manifested
Himself in three modes: as the lawgiver in the Old
Testament (the Father), as the Redeemer in the New
Testament (the Son), and finally as the sanctifier or
Holy Spirit. The Sabellians and Modalists were
opposed by Tertullian, St. Dionysius of Alexandria,
St. Zephyrinus, and Callistus.[50]
In the seventh century Modalism was revived by the
Mohammedans. Mohammed admitted the existence of only
God the Creator, Allah, who alone was to be adored,
excluding the Trinity of persons. The Islamic formula
of prayer, "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed
is His prophet, " was in Mohammed's mind a negation of
the Trinity and contained within it the total apostasy
from the Christian faith, denying at the same time the
dogmas of the incarnation and redemption by Christ, who
was no more than one of the prophets. Those who now write
about the mysticism of Islam, should note this essential
difference between Islam and Christianity.
In the Middle Ages, Modalism was again revived by the
Waldensians and the Socinians, and later by the
Unitarians, who constitute the liberal wing of
Protestantism. It appears again in the theology of
Kant, where God the Father is called the lawgiver, the
Son the ruler, and the Holy Spirit the judge. Modern
theosophists also are Unitarians, teaching that there is
one eternal, infinite being, which manifests itself in
three ways: as the first "logos" or the root of
being, the second "logos" or the primitive
duality, and the third "logos" or the universal
intelligence.[51] Others say in God there is
intelligence, without real distinction from the object and
the union of these two, and that these three may be
called, in the Hegelian sense, the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. All these errors are revivals of the
Modalism of the third century.
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