Primary source
Letter to the Ephesians
Early Christian witness to Jesus Christ as God and to pre-Nicene worship.
- Author
- Ignatius of Antioch
- Tradition
- Early Christian writings
Citation
Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians 18.2; 20.2.
Where this source is used
- A great apostasy made restoration necessaryThe New Testament warns of apostasy but promises the gospel will endure, and the apostles' message was preached without a break from the first century on.
- Jesus never claimed to be GodThe earliest records show Jesus claiming God's own authority, and his followers worshiping him within decades, long before the Council of Nicaea.
- The Trinity is paganThe word and formula are later, but pagan triads were three gods, and Christians worshiped Jesus two centuries before the councils that defined the Trinity.
- The Trinity was invented at NicaeaNicaea met to answer Arius about the Son. The threefold name, the worship of Jesus, and the word Trinity were all in Christian use long before 325.
- Jesus is GodThe New Testament places Jesus inside the identity of Israel's one God, the Creator, while still distinguishing him from the Father.